A sermon preached by Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on December 1, 2024.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 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. A voice cries: “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. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isa. 40:1–5).[1]
Of Judah’s kings, there were the good, the bad, and the ugly. Perhaps there was a bit of ugly in all of them, but Hezekiah was one of the good ones. During his reign, he cleansed the temple of idols, restored right and regular worship, including reinstating Passover. He trusted the Lord for victory over the Assyrians and for personal healing of a life-threatening disease. But for the good reign he enjoyed, he personally did not finish well, falling prey to pride in his possessions and an ugly selfishness that characterized his last recorded words.
Less overt, Hezekiah’s sin was veiled in his vocation, revealing itself eventually through an envoy from Babylon. Babylon was the most powerful nation in the world, while Judah was internationally irrelevant. It was then an honor for Hezekiah to receive such noble guests, such an honor that he seemed to showoff, showing his esteemed guests “his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them” (Isa. 39:2). It sounds innocent enough, especially for a king so blessed. But, as Scripture reminds us, “man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).
And so, the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to confront Hezekiah’s sin and through him to pronounce judgment upon the nation. Like king, like country: “Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon” (Isaiah 39:5-7). Isaiah was prophesying what we refer to as the Babylonian exile, which would not come for years after Hezekiah’s reign, but as it was pronounced, I can only imagine the weight of guilt that would have mounted. But it had little effect upon the king’s heart, as he consoled himself with the fact that there would be peace and security in his remaining days.[2] To be comforted with the fact that your ancestors will have it far worse than you surely is the pinnacle of selfishness. “When pride replaces humility,” Alec Motyer observes, “self-satisfaction replaces concern for others, and works replace faith then the die is cast and the kingdom is doomed.”[3] And so it was, and so concludes the thirty-ninth chapter of Isaiah.
The Promise to His People
Yet, when we turn the page to the fortieth chapter, we do not read about God’s immediate judgment upon the kingdom or the details of the exile, but instead the comforting promise of pardon:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
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.
This is not what we expect to read immediately after hearing Judah’s judgment. Who speaks tenderly to a people due impending judgment? Answer: One who “disciplines the one he loves” (Heb. 12:6a). Who speaks comfort to a people characterized more for their apostasy than obedience? Answer: One whose steadfast love never ceases, whose mercies never come to an end.[4]
The “comfort” pronounced (repeated twice for emphasis) does not dismiss the sins of the people but is a God-initiated, God-given comfort to sinners in need of forgiveness. But it’s not comfort for all but specifically God’s people: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” This is a message for his chosen people, those with whom he established his covenant, gave his law, and made his presence known in his tabernacle and holy temple in Jerusalem. Even though they have forsaken him, he has not forsaken them. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and faithful to his covenant. Yes, he will discipline his people, as he promised, but long before Jerusalem’s fall, long before they would ever leave the land for Babylon, God reminds them of his faithfulness to them, his people.
Consider how extraordinary this is! When I’m reading these two chapters back-to-back, I’m still surprised by the word “comfort” right after Hezekiah’s selfish words. It’s too soon; I need a little time to stew on those wretched words. The people haven’t suffered enough, haven’t tried hard enough to win God’s favor back, haven’t proven their worthiness yet. They don’t deserve to be comforted, I might think, until I remember that this is how good the gospel is. God did not wait for us to get better or try harder, which never would have happened, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The gospel is really that good!
The Promise of His Pardon
Using the metaphor of “Jerusalem” to refer to his people, God instructs Isaiah to declare that the war is over, “warfare is ended.” Many were the wars of Judah, but the greatest warfare came from within. Because of their own sin and apostasy, they were at war, as it were, with their holy God, a war no sinner will ever win. The only hope is sovereign pardon, providing not merely a cease fire but immediate and eternal end to the war. And this is precisely what God has done and now declares. The iniquity of his people is pardoned.
But what about tomorrow’s iniquity? Pardon today is good, but not great for a people prone to sin. While it is true that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), it is also true that yesterday, as well as today, as well as tomorrow, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Rom. 3:10). What comfort is pardon for past sins and even for present sins but not for future sins? But Isaiah declares that the iniquity of God’s people is not only pardoned, but they have received (past tense) from the Lord “double” for all their sins. The Hebrew word translated “double” connotes not twice but abundance. The people of God are not only pardoned but abundantly pardoned, not only for their past sins but for their present and future sins. Such is the abundance of God’s pardon for the sins of his people, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
How does God do this? Given God’s judgment upon Judah, we may be tempted to think that pardon for iniquity is achieved through suffering: If his people suffer long enough for their sin, then they will earn their forgiveness. But what Isaiah describes is not purgatory but a preparation for and fulfillment of the presence of God. As strange as it sounds, forgiveness comes from the in-person revelation of the glory of God.
The Promise of His Presence
When God’s judgment was finally realized with Judah’s fall and Jerusalem’s devastation, the temple was destroyed, the last remaining symbol of God’s presence among his Old Covenant people. I would imagine it felt as if the Lord had abandoned them. As they were carried away from their land and into captivity in Babylon surely they felt as if all hope was lost. But though God had promised exile for their unfaithfulness, he had also promised hundreds of years earlier,
when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD (Lev. 26:44-45).
God never forsakes his own, and they had only return to his Word to remember, as do we.
Such promise helps us better understand Isaiah’s prophecy, not as an incongruent insertion into God’s judgment but a restatement faithful to his promises. He who said, “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Gen. 17:7) also said, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Ex. 6:7). Though there would be an exile, God would make a provision for their forgiveness, and he would do it himself, in-person.
Isaiah introduces this in-person coming of the Lord through “a voice of one crying.”[5] Where is this voice? In “the wilderness.” What is this voice doing? Making preparation for the presence of the Lord. How will he do this? By raising valleys and lowering mountains, making the way, paving a highway straight to the Lord. Such cataclysmic language may lead us to think of an unprecedented earthquake, but what Scripture reveals is something of greater force: a solitary preacher in the desert, declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). If you are wondering what is more powerful than the force of nature, it is the preaching of the Word of God. And so, God sent a voice to preach in preparation for the in-person presence of the Lord. Who is this voice? All four of the Gospels explicitly state that John the Baptist is the unknown voice of Isaiah’s prophecy, and John himself told the Pharisees, “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).
God sent John the Baptist to prepare for his coming, the fulfillment of the promise of presence in the person of Jesus Christ. There is no greater valley to fill than the vacuous cavern of the human heart, no greater mountain to level than the pride of self-righteousness. There is no greater human need than to be reconciled to God, no greater hope than to be pardoned from all our sins. There is no greater comfort than eternal salvation through faith in the Son of God.
The days that followed Hezekiah’s death included highs, such as Josiah’s short reign, but many lows, including the end of Israel’s theocracy forever. What had been the glory of the nation of Israel was gone and only darkness remained. But the Apostle John says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Why? Because “In [Christ] was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). I am reminded of the Reformation expression post tenebras lux, “after darkness light.” The days of the Babylonian exile were dark days indeed, but they preceded the light of the world, the coming of Christ, and the fulfillment of all the promises of God. What felt like hopelessness in the moment was followed by the hope of the world.
The Apostle John writes, “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). The eternal Son of God who took humanity upon himself that the glory of the Lord would be revealed in the presence of his people, just as Isaiah prophesied. And in his coming, warfare with God ended, iniquity was pardoned, past, present, and future, through his righteous life and substitutionary death upon the cross. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). In this, God is glorified, a glory for the world to see, that sinners like Hezekiah, and you and me, may be saved through faith in the promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And one day, when the Lord returns to judge the living and the dead, his sovereign glory will be revealed and “all flesh shall see it together,” and we will be in the presence of the Lord forever.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Isa. 39:8
[3] J.Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 297.
[4] Lam. 3:22
[5] Alternate ESV translation of 40:3a.
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