Chapter 40

The first eleven verses of Isaiah 40 deal with the future evangelism which will be conducted by Israel. God is not through with Israel. Today, Israel as a nation is under dispersion. During the entire Church Age and the Tribulation the Jews are dispersed throughout the earth, and their discipline is turned to blessing when individual Jews believe in Jesus Christ. They then become members of the body of Christ and are no longer Jews, they are Church even as Gentiles are no longer Gentiles when they receive Christ as saviour.

The four unconditional covenants

These covenants have never been fulfilled, and they will be literally fulfilled to a literal born-again Israel for in these covenants we constantly have the word “forever.” And to be in one of these covenants you must have forever life. We are aware from Romans 9:6 that all Israel is not Israel and the individuals to whom these covenants will be fulfilled are those who are born-again in the nation of Israel, from Abraham down to the time of the cross and during the Tribulation. These are the people who will be the literal recipients of these four unconditional covenants.

The first covenant is the Abrahamic covenant — Genesis 12:1-3; 13:15,16; 22 :15,16. And God promised Abraham that he would have a seed forever, a progeny forever. Abraham’s progeny is made up of those who are born-again, except for the Church Age. The born-again Jews in the Church Age are a part of the body of Christ.

The second is the Palestinian covenant which has to do with a piece of real estate which the Jews have never occupied even under Solomon’s day, because that piece of real estate includes most of the Arabic peninsular and all of the land west until the Euphrates river. And this covenant will not be fulfilled until the second advent of Christ. This covenant is found in Joshua 1:3,4 which gives us the boundaries; Genesis 15:18 — “a land forever.” Any movement of Zionism today is not the fulfilment of that covenant.

The third covenant is the Davidic covenant — 2 Samuel 7:8-16. Verse 16 is amplified in Psalm 89:20-37. This says, in effect, that David’s line will reign forever. This covenant is fulfilled at the second advent of Jesus Christ. Remember, in Romans 1:3,4, Jesus Christ is called the Son of David and this is why every genealogy in the Bible is important and this is why the two genealogies, one in Matthew and one in Luke, are very important. One is Mary’s genealogy and one is Solomon’s genealogy. Solomon’s line was cut off because of Coniah when it reached Joseph; with Nathan’s line we eventually come to Mary — virgin birth. The line of Coniah is cut off because David is not the real father of the Lord Jesus. He is the legal father and, therefore, you have one legal genealogy — Matthew; Luke gives the true genealogy. And Jesus Christ, both from the legal standpoint and from the birth standpoint is descended from David, and Jesus Christ is David’s greater Son. And, again, Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant as well as the Abrahamic, as well as the Palestinian, and as well as …

The fourth, the new covenant to Israel which is given in Jeremiah 31 and in Hebrews 8:8-13. The new covenant to Israel is much more clearly stated in its doctrinal implications in Hebrews 8 than Jeremiah 31 which has other implications.

Background for Isaiah 40:1-11

There are four voices from the past with eschatological repercussions in these eleven verses:

1. The voice of the prophet Isaiah, verses 1-2;

2. The voice of John the Baptist, verses 3-5;

3. The voice of the Word of God, verses 6-8;

4. The voice of the people of the Tribulation, verse 9-11.

This outline tells us that in every generation there are those Jews who will respond to the grace of God and through that will see cursing turned to blessing by their own salvation.

The voice of Isaiah — it happened in Isaiah’s day, thousands of Jews were born again and they come under these covenants.

The voice of John the Baptist — in John’s day there was a tremendous revival and thousands upon thousands of people found Christ as saviour and, again, the cursing was turned to blessing.

And then we have the Word of God, and the principle is, when the Rapture takes place there are at least 144,000 Jews scattered throughout the earth who are going to find Christ through the Word when there is no one to witness to them, there is no preaching, and the 144,000 thousand Jewish evangelists of the Tribulation are all saved through reading the Word.

Finally, we have the voice of the people in the Tribulation, specifically the two witnesses in Jerusalem, and again we have the principle of evangelism — Israel fulfills its purpose. Israel has a future in God’s plan; Israel will fulfill its purpose in the future.

Verse 1 — The voice of Isaiah. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”

Verse 2 — “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” This is a command to Isaiah. The command is repeated, “Comfort ye, comfort ye.” The word “comfort” is in the hiphil stem and, therefore, should be translated, “Cause to comfort.” And the mood in the Hebrew is the imperative mood. It is an order from God to Isaiah, and He repeats it. Whenever God repeats it amounts to a modus operandi. And this is to be the modus operandi of Isaiah; he is to cause to comfort the people of God, the born-again of Israel, not all the Jews. If Isaiah is going to comfort the born-again of his day he is going to do it through preaching the Word.

Principle: If you are going to have the opportunity to comfort people from time to time then just remember to give them the Word. It is the Word that comforts people. It is what God says that makes the difference. Only those who have a relationship with God can administer comfort.

“speak ye comfortably.” “Speak ye” is now a piel stem, and this is the intensive stem. Speaking in the piel stem means to preach with conviction and courage. And the same verb in the same stem is going to occur four more times in the passage and every time it has been translated, “cry.” Isaiah is a preacher and he is not told to stand up and cry in front of the people. He is told to preach with conviction. “Comfortably” doesn’t occur at all.

“to Jerusalem” — the area of Isaiah’s ministry. “Cry” — preach. The threefold message: “Her warfare is accomplished” — they would be delivered from the Assyrians; “her iniquity is pardoned” — there was a great revival from the king on down resulting in forgiveness of sin, of course; “she hath received double for her sins” — when those who have responsibility before God get out of line they get double discipline, and that is the principle here.

There is a prophetic concept behind all of these. When Christ returns to the earth the warfare of Israel is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, the unconditional covenants will be set up, and she will have by that time received double for her sins — the double dispersion, the Babylonian and the present one.

Verse 3 — The voice of John the Baptist. “The voice of him.” Notice that John the Baptist was one of the greatest preachers who ever lived and John the Baptist was a voice. Hundreds and thousands of people left the beautiful temple area and they went out into the desert to hear a man clothed in camel’s hair. He wore the roughest type of clothing so obviously they didn’t come out to see the latest suit! They went out there to hear a voice.

“that crieth” — he didn’t cry, he preached. Principle: It isn’t the man but the message. We don’t know too much about John the Baptist but we do know that he understood the principle that he wasn’t important, it was the message, God’s Word, that was important.

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord” — this is a technical phrase uttered by heralds. Heralds went ahead of a king as he came to a city and always called: “Prepare ye the way of the king.” It meant that the king was going to spend the night there and the people had better turn out and give him the best place to stay in town! The King in this case is Jesus Christ, first advent. “Prepare ye” means prepare the best room.

“make straight in the desert a high way for our God” — in other words, “Clear the path that the King may come.” And this is a way of declaring salvation. This is the way that John the Baptist declared salvation. And stay out of His way. This is the principle of grace, no works involved.

Verse 4 — “Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low: the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:” This will be fulfilled at the second advent of Jesus Christ. Israel has a future, and Isaiah, in his message to the people always had this to say.

Every person who is born-again has a future. There is no future apart from regeneration, apart from relationship to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Israel has a future; unconditional covenants are fulfilled to them. We understand that in the Church Age the baptism of the Holy Spirit enters every believer into union with Christ at the moment of faith in Christ. We are in Christ; this is our position. But that wasn’t the position of the past generation. Israel had a position — the unconditional covenants — and when a Jew accepted Christ as his saviour he entered into these unconditional covenants. The Jew had a future tied into the unconditional covenants; we have a future in Christ.

What is the difference? When the earth is destroyed there will be new heavens, new earth, and new Jerusalem. The new heavens will be the place of the Church — we are said to be a heavenly people. The new earth will be divided between the Jews in the Palestine on the new earth [Holy land], and the Old testament saints who will live on the rest of the new earth. And the new Jerusalem will be the headquarters for the eternal universe. So you never have in the Old Testament, the baptism of the Spirit. All of the believers, apart from the Church Age, are connected with the new earth in eternity.

Verse 6 — The voice of the Word. “The voice said, Cry [preach]. And he said, What shall I preach?” Answer: “All flesh [all of the activities of man] are like grass.” This is true, not only here but, in other passages. For example, in Psalm 37 the grass is cut down — judgment. Grass is used for the unbeliever, the person who has no future except judgment. “All flesh [analogous to grass].” The word “is” is in italics in the KJV, there is no verb here. The absence of the verb emphasises the analogy — grass. Grass is temporary, it may be green and beautiful for a moment but it dries up and disappears.

“all of the goodness [not goodliness]” — all of the good deeds that man ever did are like grass. We are not talking about sins, we are talking about “good” things.

We should connect this with Revelation 20:12-15. At the last judgment no unbeliever will be judged for his sins. Sins are not mentioned. Christ removed sin as an issue. Christ died for the sins of the entire world — unlimited atonement — and the thing that will be mentioned at the last judgment are the unbeliever’s good deeds. So when a person rejects Christ he rejects the work of one person, the efficacious work of Christ, and uses his own works instead. Therefore every unbeliever will be faced with his own good works [not bad] and his good works will demonstrate that he is not good enough, -R cannot have fellowship with +R. The principle is: all of the good deeds of the unbeliever are like grass and they wither and they dry up, they cannot accomplish salvation. So man is analogous to grass. All his good deeds are “as the flower of the field” .

Verse 7 — The futility of works. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.” The breath of the Lord means that it is hit with the heat and , there it goes. It is all over.

We are not condemned because of our personal sins. Our condemnation under the wages of sin is based upon having a sin nature. How do we get a sin nature? We were born with a sin nature, and a sin nature means a predisposition to sin. Sin is merely the expression of the sin nature but God’s placing us under death is not based upon our personal sins, it is based upon our sin nature.

Verse 8 — We are connected with an eternal plan. This eternal plan is based upon God’s Word. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.” Application: You and I are constantly challenged by Satan to depart from the Word of God, to depend upon the flowers of our day and on our emotions, how we feel. How we feel has nothing to do with it. It is what the Word says. If there is a conflict between what you see and hear and the Word of God, then what you see and hear is wrong!

Note: Everything that emanates from the energy of the flesh is no good. And the only way that you can distinguish between energy of the flesh and the energy of the Spirit is to know the Word of God — and stick with the Word.

Verse 9 — The voice of the remnant. In verse 9 we have two kinds of Jewish remnant in the Tribulation: those who fled in the middle of the Tribulation when the abomination of desolation was set up in the temple — Matthew 24:15-22 — and then the Jews who are in Jerusalem at the siege of Jerusalem at the end of the Tribulation.

“O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain” — a command to the Jews to get out. This is the crowd who flee in the middle of the Tribulation. “O Jerusalem” — those who are locked up in Jerusalem at the end of the Tribulation — “that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” There will be a great invading force and they are to have courage in that day of the great invasion.

Verse 10 — We have the reason for this. Christ returns to deliver them. “Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand” — Jesus Christ, who in the Old Testament is called Jehovah and Elohim — “and his arm” — His delivering power — “shall rule for him: behold his reward is with him, and his work before him.” His work being before Him is the cross. In other words, His work occurred before, He provided the basis of deliverance for these people by His death on the cross, and his reward is with Him, He now comes to deliver and to reward these believers who have been faithful.

Verse 11 — A quick picture of the Millennium: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” In other words, He will regather Israel; He will fulfill the covenants to them; He is their great shepherd; He will provide these things.

We saw in verse nine that the Jewish remnant will announce the second coming of Jesus Christ. Zion refers to those Jews who flee in the middle of the Tribulation when the abomination of desolation is set up. The story of their flight is found in Matthew 24:15-22. “O Jerusalem”, the second vocative in this verse refer to the Jewish believers besieged in Jerusalem at the close of the Tribulation. Their story is found in Zechariah 14: 1-4.

“that bringest good tidings” — Jews are witnesses for Christ in the Tribulation. They witness for three and a half years and then they are commanded: “get thee into the high mountain.” They go to three different mountain ranges — Edom, Moab and Ammon [Daniel 11:41]. “O Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings” — in the last half of the Tribulation those who witness for Christ in Jerusalem are those who are born-again at that time. Their command is different: “life up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid.” What will they have to be afraid of? They will be besieged in the siege of Jerusalem which takes place at the close of the Tribulation.

“say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God.” So the principle of verse nine: the remnant of Israel will be operative during the Tribulation.

Verse 10 — The Person and the work of the returning Christ. “Lord God” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. “will come” — second advent; “with a strong hand” — the Hebrew says literally: “He will come as a mighty one.” This is in contrast to the first advent where He came as a meek one. Then we have the threefold work of the returning Christ: Rulership — “his arm shall rule.” The word “arm” is a messianic title for Christ in His first advent — Isaiah 53:1. The arm of the Lord is Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins. Now the arm of the Lord shall rule forever. The first 1000 years of His rule are simply to demonstrate that man does not have the solution to his problems. Perfect environment will not improve man’s problems, only regeneration. Secondly, the Lord Jesus Christ when He returns has a reward. Reward is for believers only. And thirdly, He has judgment for the unbeliever. His “work before him” is to separate the believer from the unbeliever.

Verse 11 — the returning Lord treating the believers like a shepherd: “he shall gather the lambs in his arm” indicates that there will be children in the Millennium.

Verses 12-17, the character of the returning Christ.

What is the essence of the one who returns? Verse 12 — “Who [the Lord Jesus Christ] hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand” — all of the water on the earth today is said to be measured out of the palm or the hollow of His hand. In other words, we have a description of is great power. Omnipotence is the concept; “and measured out heaven with a span.” The word “span” is simply the Hebrew word for the little finger; “and comprehended the dust of the earth.” The word for “dust” is also the Hebrew word for atom. To comprehend means that He devised it; “and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” The fact that we have any kind of stability on the top of the earth is because the Lord has measured it.

Verse 13 — “Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord [Holy Spirit].” Here is the interim between the first and the second advent. The first advent: Christ came, meek. He died for our sins and so on. In the interim He departs from the earth. Then we have the second advent. And in between He sends the Spirit. The answer to the question is found in John 16:7 where Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit. He is omnipotent and has the ability to send power for the age when the Son is missing from the earth; “or being his counsellor hath taught him” refers to the fact that the Holy Spirit sustained Christ during His earthly ministry.

Verse 14 — We have the principle that you can never have power apart from knowledge. “With whom took he counsel” — a reference to Christ. And the answer, of course, is No one. Christ is omniscient and didn’t have to take counsel from any source; “who instructed him” — no one; “and taught him the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” No one. He is omniscient.

Verse 15 — We have His sovereignty. “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket” — this is not castigating the nations. The nations are recognised by God. Nationalism is divine institution number four and God recognises the principle of nationalism. It is internationalism which is evil and a part of the Satanic pattern, but nationalism is a part of God’s pattern for the protection of the human race. All members of the human race have to be broken down into various entities and groups. Members of the human race do not thrive when there are no organisational breakdowns, no slots for them to move in. “and are counted as the small dust [or grains of sand] of the balance: behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” In other words, God has periodically made changes in national entities and it is no problem for Him at all. Ruling the nations is as a drop in the bucket for Him. By the way, Satan has, since his fall, been trying to prove that he could do it too.

Verses 16-17, there is no one who can compare with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 16 goes back to Old Testament worship. Lebanon is the greatest forest in Palestine, and “Lebanon is not sufficient to burn.” In other words, if you could cut down all of the wood in Lebanon and burnt it in burnt offerings you still would not be able to express how wonderful the Lord is. There is no facility of man which can perfectly express the incomparable person of Jesus Christ. There is nothing to compare with Him; “nor the beasts thereof.” In other words, the animal sacrifices.

Verse 17 — “All the nations before him are as nothing” — there is nothing to compare with the Lord; “they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity [emptiness].” All of the nations in the world with all of their manoeuvering, with all of their attempts to gain power, with all of their activities, with every type of pressure that they can exercise, all of this together is nothing compared to the Lord.

All of this is stating that there is nothing in the world to compare to the Lord. Isaiah starts out in verse 12 to try to make a comparison. In verses 12-14 we have three attempts to state comparisons. An attempt to describe His tremendous power, omnipotence, His mind and plan in sending the Spirit, and then His great omniscience. And then he stops and says we can’t express it. If we had everything in the world it wouldn’t be adequate.

Verses 18-24, there is nothing in the world which will compare or will bring out all the wonders and the glories of Jesus Christ as the God-Man. And we have the first of a series of questions of comparison.

Verse 18 — “To whom then will ye liken God? [God the Son, the revealed member of the Godhead] or what likeness [or image] will ye compare unto him?” Of course the answer is there is no image. And then Isaiah hits one of the great evils of his day. The Jews were glutted with idolatry. Idolatry is one of the many expressions of religion and it is never a bona fide form of worship. Remember that even in the Old Testament, when there were many things used to represent Christ — the Tabernacle, the temple, the ark of the covenant — there never was at any time an idol in all of the expressions of worship in the Old Testament, no statues of people, no glorified people. Principle: Under the true concept of worship man cannot be glorified and God be glorified at the same time. Under the concept of grace man cannot do anything for himself or by his own talents or works, it must be 100 per cent the works of God.

Verse 19 — “A workman smelted a graven image.” In other words, they set up some kind of a cast and poured the metal into the cast. After the metal has cooled, then the goldsmith takes over and spreads it over with gold. Then someone else makes silver chains for the idol. What are the silver chains? Every time they stood the idol up it would fall over! How could you worship something that couldn’t even stand up? So it had to be propped up! The chains were to chain them to the walls. But only a rich man could have this kind of an idol and in verse 20 we have a cheap kind of an idol.

Verse 20 — “He that is too impoverished that he hath no oblation [he can’t afford the money] chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved [that shall not fall down].” Now why does he need a cunning workman? Because when he carves this idol out of wood it has to be carved with a wide base so it won’t fall. He can’t afford silver chains and it just wouldn’t do to have “god” fall on his face! Sarcasm.

We begin to see that if all of the animal sacrifices which are bona fide worship, and all of the burnt offerings in the world could not express the glories of Christ, an idol that has to be anchored to the wall doesn’t express anything except man’s vanity. So idolatry is always an expression of man’s ego but never a bona fide expression of worship.

Verse 21 — Brings us around to the heathen. Wherever idolatry is found there is also heathenism. “Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not known from the foundations of the earth?” The answer is, Yes. There is no one in this world, and there never will be, who does not have the chance to be saved [cf the five points of heathenism]. These are Jews. They have not only reached God consciousness but they have also heard the gospel. The Jews have the gospel in written form.

Verse 22 — God cannot be compared with man. “He that sitteth on the vault of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; he that stretched out the heavens like a piece of gauze [the milky way], and spreadeth them out like a tent to dwell in:” How can you compare man with God?

Verse 23 — “That bringeth the princes to nothing [no great ruler has been able to survive God’s sovereignty. If God says he is through, he is through]; he maketh the judges of the earth as emptiness”.

Verse 24 — “Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they have not been sown; yea, their stock hath not taken root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.” All of these images will be destroyed; all of their economy will be destroyed, the sowing and the planting, He will stop that; none of these things can survive His will.

Verse 25 — The second question of comparison. “To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal? saith the Holy One [Jesus Christ].”

verse 26 — Jesus Christ invites the Jews to look up. “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, he that bringeth out their host [the galaxies of stars] by number: he called them all by name; by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one of them is missing.” All of this universe is there; the stars move with unbelievable speed in their orbits; there are no collisions.

Verse 27 — Israel’s rationalization. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob [unbeliever], and speakest, O Israel [believer in Israel], My way is hid from the Lord [the Lord doesn’t care about me], and my judgment is passed over from my God?” There are two statements here. The first is made by the unbeliever. They think they can fool God. In other words, I’ll hide my idol in a closet and God won’t see it. So the unbeliever always thinks he can fool God. But the believer says: “My judgment [my cause] is passed over from my God” .In other words, God doesn’t care about me.

Verse 28 — God reveals Himself; He never changes. “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? the everlasting God, the Lord of creation of the ends of the earth, fainteth not [He can’t change and become unfaithful], neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding.” There is no examination or judging His omniscience. You cannot judge God’s attitude toward you by comparing it with the attitude of people toward you. Verse 29 — God sustains us. “He giveth power to the faint” — we faint any time; “and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.” This verse says that God helps the helpless.

Verse 30 — “Even the youths shall faint.” A youth is literally the Hebrew word for athlete. It is used for a man of great power, a man of great athletic strength. Even he faints and becomes weary; “and the young men [soldiers who have gone through a very difficult basic training course] shall utterly fall.”

But, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you latch on to the grace of God you will never be a casualty and you will not fall.

Verse 31 — “But [conjunction of contrast] they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” The word “wait” is one of five Hebrew words for faith. The first is amen which is a word for faith which means to use God as a prop. The second one is batach which was originally used for two men wrestling, and one of them slams the other to the ground. Eventually the word meant to take your troubles and slam them on the Lord. The third one simply means to be facing something bigger and greater than you and to fit into a “crack in the rock” where the fox can’t fit. The point is that the weak and helpless get into a crack where they are protected and God is the Rock. And it means to use God as the Rock. A fourth one jachal means to be in extreme pain and to find relief in that extreme pain. So this is a word for trusting the Lord under great pressure. None of these words are used for the word “wait” .The word “wait” should be translated “but they that believe” or “they that trust the Lord shall renew their strength.” The word speaks of a small thread that can easily be broken or snapped. Then you take many other strands and wrap them together. If this thread is taken and weaved with hundreds and hundreds of other threads, or weaved it into a great rope, then you can’t break it. This word means to trust in the sense of depending upon that which is unbreakable. In other words, depend upon the strong one. The strong One is verse 28, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word “renew” means to exchange something old for something new. We exchange human strength and human ability for divine power and divine strength. In other words we have the faith-rest technique.