Isaiah 40:1-11 | Comfort in Exile
The Second Sunday in Advent | December 10, 2023
Today’s sermon is text is our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 40. But before we talk about Isaiah chapter 40, we need to talk about the first 39 chapters.
The first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written to the people of Israel just before the exile. They’re mostly warnings about the coming exile. The people around Isaiah were rejecting God, they were disobeying his commandments, breaking his covenant, and so God warned them through these first 39 chapters of Isaiah: If you don’t repent, judgment is coming. If you reject God, he’s going to destroy you. And that’s exactly what happened. He sent the nation of Babylon. They destroyed the temple and all of Jerusalem, and they took the people away into exile.
The exile was traumatic for Israel because God seemed silent. The Babylonians took the people away from the land. They destroyed the temple. The glory cloud, where God used to dwell with his people – it was gone. Where was God in the middle of this? He was silent.
Do you ever feel like God is silent? You hear about tragedies out in the world and in our town. You watch our own families break apart. You hear that people are diagnosed with cancer. You watch people you love battle depression. Where is God in the middle of what you’re going through? He seems silent.
The reality is that we’re a lot like the Israelites in exile. We know that because we belong to Jesus, this world is not our home. We belong in the promised land of heaven. But like the Israelites, we’re in a kind of exile here on earth. And like the Israelites, our exile is because of our own sin. We were born apart from God because of the sin we inherited from our parents. Every sin we’ve committed since keeps us away from God. God is far away.
Out of the silence (out of nowhere!) God speaks.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins.3 A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 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.
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”6 A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.9 Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
When I say these verses come out of nowhere, I mean it. You might think to yourself, “there has to be some context before this in the book of Isaiah” – no, there isn’t. The break is so startling when you’re reading the book of Isaiah that some people will say that Isaiah didn’t write this part. But the reality is that now Isaiah has just shifted gears. Now, Isaiah isn’t writing to people who need to repent before the exile, he’s writing to those who are living it – especially those who still cling to God’s promises.
But what I want you to notice especially in here are all the times you see God speaking. Voices, a herald, the word of God, God saying things – these verses are saturated with God’s voice. In the middle of their exile, the God of all comfort [2 Corinthians 1:3] breaks in, and he speaks.
God says two things to the Israelites in exile that I think are helpful for us in our exile.
First, it’s simply the same word repeated: “Comfort, Comfort.” Now, the way he says it might throw you off, because we don’t usually repeat our words in English. But in Hebrew, if they wanted to emphasize a word or give it a sense of urgency, they would repeat it. This is common in the Bible, maybe you’ve heard some of these other verses: Fallen, Fallen is Babylon [Isaiah 21:9], Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion [Isaiah 52:1] or build up, build up the highway [Isaiah 62:10].1
This is huge. God is saying that he has forgiven their sin. No longer would God punish Israel with the sword of the Babylonians. No longer would his wrath for their sins be on them. And this comfort is not based on what Israel did. God simply promises to forgive them solely by his grace.
He says that Israel will receive double for all her sins. This means that even though God punished Israel for their sin, when he returns, he would give them back double.
It’s like the story of Job. You remember Job lost everything he had, but at the end, he received back twice as much as he had before. This is God’s way of saying that his grace doesn’t just barely cover our sins, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more [Romans 5:20].
These are amazing words. Israel is still in exile, but they know that they are not suffering for their sins. They will be there only until God can bring them back.
In the same way, these words apply to us in our exile. The first thing God wants us to know in our exile is that in Jesus, he has forgiven our sins. He has pardoned our iniquity. As you see tragedies unfold around you and even to you, that is where you must begin. God is not at war with you.
The second thing God says to the Israelites is that he will return and be with them again. They will see his glory again. He’s going to come to them through the desert on a highway.
This is a wonderful promise, but it requires some preparation. After all, the reason Israel is apart from God in the first place is because of their sin. And in order to prepare for God to come to them, they must repent. To repent simply means to turn away from sin to God. Their sin is like mountains and hills that keep God away from them. When they repent, the mountains are made low, and God will come to them again. If they do not repent, God will still come – he can move mountains after all – but it will not be in peace.
And so not only does God tell the Israelites that he is coming back to them, he tells them to repent. But he does not only do it through Isaiah.
The voice in verse 3 – “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God” – that’s not Isaiah’s voice. That’s the voice of John the Baptist. John prepared the people with baptism. The Bible says that John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins [Mark 1:4]. That means that like your baptism, it delivered the forgiveness of sins to whoever got it. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins [Mark 1:5]. The people were ready for God to return.
In the same way, John’s message of preparation applies to us as well. God comes to us every week here at church. He promises also that Jesus will come again on the last day. We must be prepared as well. We must repent.
For us, this includes being baptized. Just like John’s baptism, our baptism is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins [Mark 1:4]. But our baptism is greater than John’s baptism, for it is in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and it gives us the Holy Spirit in a greater way than John’s baptism. When God washed you in the waters of baptism, he broke into your exile and marked you as his own. He prepared you to meet Jesus.
But there was one more thing John was needed for. And that was to point out God when he returned to Israel. He was that herald on the top of the mountain in Jerusalem. When he saw God returning to Israel, he yelled it out to everyone when from the mountaintop: “God is coming! He’s coming with might, and his arm rules for him.”
You might think, “Why did John need to do this? Wouldn’t everyone notice?” After all, God’s arm brought his people through their trials throughout the Old Testament. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm [Deuteronomy 26:8]. God caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them [Isaiah 63:12]. And so you might picture the arm of the Lord as a legion of angels slaying all the demons around you. But that is not what the arm of the Lord is.
The arm of the Lord is a baby boy. It is a helpless infant born of a lowly virgin. It is so hard to believe that the strength and power of the Lord – his very arm – was found as a baby boy, in a stable and laid in a manger. But it is true. God came to Israel in their exile as a simple man. He was a shepherd who cared for the lost sheep… of Israel [Matthew 15:24].
God, the same God that spoke to the exiles through Isaiah, that voice of the Lord became flesh. He is not silent. The Bible says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth [John 1:14].
In Jesus, the glory of the Lord is revealed. This time, you wouldn’t have to go to the temple behind a curtain to see it. No, this time, all flesh shall see it together. Because Jesus was lifted high on a cross as a payment for our sins. The glory of the Lord is to suffer for the sin of the world on a cross.
Jesus did not look like someone who would conquer. Yet with the life and death of Jesus, the Lord went into battle. And he conquered the devil. God’s arm made many to be accounted righteous, because he bore our iniquities [Isaiah 53:11]. He forgave all your sins. He’s the reason God can say to us, “Comfort, Comfort.” [W]hen Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross, he drew all people to himself [John 12:32].
John’s testimony is still important for us today. There’s a reason it’s included in all four Gospels. You need to know who Jesus is so that you can see that God has come to us in our exile. He is not silent. Jesus stepped into your world. He comes to you today in his word. He comes to you in the forgiveness given in baptism. He comes to you in the Lord’s Supper. He will come again to end your exile.
LSB 347 – “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People”
“Comfort, comfort ye My people,
Speak ye peace,” thus saith our God;
“Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ’neath their sorrows’ load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover
And her warfare now is over.”
Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved His anger
He no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many_a day,
Now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever-springing gladness.
Hark, the herald’s voice is crying
In the desert far and near,
Calling sinners to repentance,
Since the Kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet Him
And the hills bow down to greet Him.
Make ye straight what long was crooked;
Make the rougher places plain.
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o’er earth is shed abroad,
And all flesh shall see the token
That His Word is never broken.
Even if you haven’t heard those, I know you’ve heard “Holy, Holy, Holy.” God is so important he gets three! And of course, you know that the three holies also reflect who he is in the Trinity. These examples are from Reed Lessing’s sermon available here: https://concordiatheology.org/lalp/#/7456/509/2-0-2/2023-12-10