COMFORT IN TURBULENT TIMES
Isaiah
40:1-11
Introduction:
There is this story about Muhammad Ali on
an airplane. The flight attendant came and asked him to buckle his seat belt. He
replied, “Superman don’t need no seat belt.” She responded, “Superman don’t need
no plane.” Billy Graham told the following story: “Once while flying between
cities on the African continent, I began to share my faith in Christ with some
reporters who accompanied me. None seemed interested in hearing the Gospel. Suddenly
the plane entered a very turbulent storm. The plane shook and began to bounce
up and down. After we successfully came through the storm, one of the reporters
approached me and said, ‘What were you saying about life after death?’
As you turn on the TV or read the
newspaper what do you see and read? There is famine, hunger, waves of mass
migration of people creating an unprecedented refugee crisis worldwide. Nuclear
threat from North Korea, not to mention, all the sex scandals that are coming
out in our country, making a lot of people scared and frightened. As Leonard Sweet, Church historian, author
and futurist, says in his book “Aqua Church” that we are in a very “unstable,
unsteady and turbulent postmodern world.” Sweet goes on to offer that “what we
face can be seen as a threat, but also as an opportunity of perhaps
unprecedented proportions.”
Without a doubt we are going through
turbulent times in the world today. Most people when they face uncertainty,
look for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems, but they
look to politicians or activists to get them through tough times. We will look
into an ancient prophetic text to see how a prophet guided the frightened and
troubled nation of his time to where they can find peace, hope, comfort and security.
Comfort in Turbulent Times. Isaiah
40:1-11
A
bit of background to the passage in Isaiah. The prophet began his ministry during a time
of relative peace and prosperity under Judah’s kings. He served under several
kings. Under Jotham and Uzziah the conditions deteriorated. During Ahaz’s reign
Assyria became a superpower and deported Judah’s sister kingdom Israel in 722
B.C King Ahaz saw, Syria and Israel as greater threats. Isaiah tried to
reassure Ahaz, asking he only have faith in God, but Ahaz refused and later on
in 701 BC, during Hezekiah’s reign Assyria ravaged the Judean country side, and
Jerusalem itself almost fell.
Isaiah
chapter 40, begins a major section that looks ahead to Judah’s return from
Babylonian exile in the sixth century BC. The later parts of the book look even
beyond Isaiah’s time, and contain several prophecies regarding the coming of
the Messiah. This ancient prophecy of Isaiah is as relevant to our times today
as it was then to Judah. Let’s look at
the prophecy.
I COMFORT
IN TURBULENT TIMES: Vs 1-5
Not only was the Judean society
wreaked by injustices and immorality, but their very existence as a nation was
threatened by exile. Many felt God was nowhere to be found or simply didn’t
care for their condition. The kingdom of Judah was facing turbulent times. Into
this context, Isaiah speaks the most powerful words of comfort. Vs 1-2“Comfort,
O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her
that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received
from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
This
was a prophecy given by God to His people who were captive in a foreign land
many miles away from their home city of Jerusalem. The prophet was crying out
saying, “Comfort, comfort my people.” Those words must have sounded refreshing
and reassuring to the captives, that God was not going to punish them any
longer for their sins. He was not going to cast them away forever, but was
going to restore them back to their home city Jerusalem.
The
Hebrew word, Macham here means, to comfort or to be comforted. This
word appears about 65 times in various contexts. For example, II Samuel 12:24,
“David comforted Bathsheba over the loss of their child.” Genesis 37:35,
Jacob’s sons and daughters rose up to comfort him, with the possible loss of Joseph
the son whom he loved dearly. Generally speaking, it comes naturally for
mothers to comfort their children. When my daughters were, sick and hurting
they would call for their mother to comfort them, not me.
Isaiah
uses a similar sentiment when it comes to God comforting his people. Isaiah,
66:13, As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be
comforted in Jerusalem.” This scripture shows us that God’s compassion for
Israel was warm and tender. He comforts his people as a mother would comfort
her hurting children. Are you going
through a turbulent time? Are you physically and emotionally in pain and
hurting?
In
Vs 3-4, we read, about another prophecy “A voice cries out: “In the wilderness
prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the
uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” This prophecy
was fulfilled in John the Baptist. We read about it in the first three gospels
(Mt 3:3, Mk1:3; Lk 3:4). John himself declared, “I am the voice of one crying
out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord, “as the prophet
Isaiah said.” John 1:23.
II
GOD’S ENDURING WORD: (Vs 6-9)
Down through the ages Christians
have understood this prophecy was not only talking about forgiveness, and comfort
for the covenanted people but also for the world through the one who was going
to come to fulfill all the prophecies foretold in the Old Testament. After
giving these two prophecies about the redeemer and his forbearer John the
Baptist, the prophet goes on to explain the brevity of life and the longevity
of God’s word.
By
doing so he was directing their focus from their temporary trails and struggles
to be trusting on the enduring God’s word.
He compared all human life to the grass and the flower of the field, no
matter how powerful, beautiful and successful a woman or a man can be, one day
we all will dry up like the grass and fade away like a flower. But what remains throughout eternity? It is
the word of God. The Apostle Peter quoted these verses in I Peter 1:24-25, ““All
flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass
withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” That
word is the good news that was announced to you.” What was the word preached as
the good news to Peter’s audience?
It
was the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. All those who have believed in the
gospel, put their hope and trust in Jesus will endure forever with him in
heaven. But all those who reject Jesus in this life will perish in hell. The
prophet Isaiah, encouraged the remnant of Judah to look forward to the one who
was going to come and completely redeem them from their struggles. In Vs 9, he
appeals to the city of Jerusalem to proclaim the good news of the Lord’s first
coming loudly, like a messenger on a mountain to be seen and heard, to the rest
of the cities in Judah. He calls out all the people to behold their God, and he
goes on to describe how the Lord God will reveal himself.
III
THE COMFORTING SHEPHERED: 10-11
Vs
10-11 “See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his
reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He
will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and
carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” The prophet
here uses two powerful and most vivid images that all the people of Judah have
seen to convey the power, strength, the authority and the nature of God. First,
the “Arm of God.”
The
Israelites and the nations surrounding Israel have had a firsthand experience
of what the hand and the arm of God can do. “the great trials that your eyes
saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which
the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all
the peoples of whom you are afraid.” Deuteronomy 7:19 When Isaiah mentioned, “the arm of the Lord,” people Judah
knew what God was up to. He was going to deliver them from the hands of their
enemy and restore them back to their home city Jerusalem. It was a good thing,
but it was a temporary deliverance.
Isaiah’s prophecy goes beyond a temporary deliverance, it also aimed at
the final deliverance of mankind from the evils of the society, and everything
that seems to be frightening us. We can only be free from all our fears and
feel secured when Jesus finally defeats and destroys Satan and his armies, and
establishes his eternal Kingdom on earth. That is something we all can look
forward to.
In
the meanwhile, what brings comfort to us is the second imagery of Isaiah, “the
comforting Shepherd.” In the OT both rulers and deities were described as
shepherds of their people in a rich and extensively used metaphor. The shepherd
boy David described God as his personal shepherd in the all familiar Psalm
23. The prophet Ezekiel declared God as
the shepherd of his people. “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will
search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks…so
I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they
have been scattered… I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them
from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed
them on the mountains of Israel…” Ezekiel 34:11-16
In
our passage, Isaiah highlights the tenderness and the comforting nature of
God’s shepherd’s heart. The hand and the arm that performed great wonders and
brought terror to the enemies, is also capable to heal, comfort and lead his
people gently.
Look
at the tender side of the shepherd of hearts, Vs 11 “He will feed his flock
like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his
bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” This scripture greatly motivated me
to be kind and tender to my wife Wilma, when she was nursing our girls. As a
father, it taught me to gently lead my girls, pick them up and carry them on my
shoulders each time they fell and hurt themselves.
My
response to my family as a husband and a father was only a poor imitation of
what Jesus the good shepherd would do to each one of us. Isaiah’s prophecy was
fulfilled in Jesus. In his very own
words Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came
that they may have life, and have it abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The
good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd
and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs
away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. I am the good shepherd. I
know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the
Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:10-15
During
this first Sunday of the advent, let’s pause and look at ourselves. Are we like
the sheep that have gone astray from the fold of God? Have we become wounded, and hurting due to
our independence, self-reliance and a proud heart that says, I can do and live
without God? Some of us here perhaps are hurting both emotionally and
physically and are in need of comfort. My
prayer is that you would return to the shepherd of your soul. You would let,
the comforting shepherd gently pick you up, heal you, comfort you and lead you
on a pathway to wholeness. As recipients of that comfort, hope and forgiveness,
we can proclaim to a chaotic world, that there is Hope in Jesus, and he is the
one who can comfort us in our turbulent times. Amen!
