Isaiah 40:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the charge and direction given not only to this prophet, but, with him, to all the Lord’s prophets and even to all Christ’s ministers, to announce comfort to God’s people. First, this did not just permit Isaiah to encourage the faithful people living in his own time. They could not help feeling deeply troubled when they saw Judah and Jerusalem rushing toward ruin through bold sin, and God, in his providence, bringing that ruin closer. Even then, they were to know that God still had mercy stored up for them. Second, this was especially a word for the prophets who would live during the captivity, when Jerusalem lay in ruins. They were to encourage the captives to hope for release in God’s time. Third, gospel ministers, whom the Holy Spirit uses as comforters and helpers of Christian joy, are reminded here of their calling.

Comfortable words are directed to God’s people in general (Isaiah 40:1). The prophets receive their orders from God, who is the Lord God of the holy prophets (Revelation 22:6), to comfort his people. The command is repeated, “Comfort, comfort.” This is not because the prophets are unwilling, for this is one of the most pleasant parts of their work. It is because God’s people often do not easily accept comfort, and their comforters must say the same things again and again before anything sinks in.

Notice four things here. There is a people in the world who belong to God. It is God’s will that his people should be comforted people, even in the worst times. It is the work of ministers to do what they can for the comfort of God’s people. And words of warning, like those in the earlier part of this book, must be followed by words of comfort. The God who wounds is the same one who heals.

Comfortable words are also directed to Jerusalem in particular: “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem” (Isaiah 40:2). Speak in a way that will revive her heart and give comfort to her, and to all who belong to her and care for her welfare. Do not whisper this message, but cry it out clearly. Let saints hear their comforts as plainly as sinners hear their sins. Make her hear it.

Tell her that the days of her trouble are counted and nearly over. Her warfare is ended, the fixed time of her hard service is finished. The campaign is over, and she will now go into a season of rest. Human life is a battle (Job 7:1), and the Christian life even more so. But the struggle will not last forever. The warfare will end, and then the good soldiers will not only enter rest, but also receive their reward.

Tell her also that the cause of her trouble is removed, and once that is gone, the trouble itself will end. Her sin is pardoned, God is reconciled to her, and she will no longer be treated as guilty before him. Nothing can be more comforting than this: “Take heart, your sins are forgiven” (compare Matthew 9:2). Troubles are truly taken away in love when sin is forgiven.

Tell her, too, that the purpose of her trouble has been met. She has received from the Lord “double” for all her sins, meaning enough and more than enough to break her attachment to her idols. Idolatry was the great sin for which God had a dispute with them, and captivity in Babylon was meant to turn them from it. And it did. It gave them a deep hatred of idolatry, like strong medicine that fully cleanses out a disease.

Or this may be understood as the language of God’s compassion. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel (Judges 10:16), and like a tender father, after speaking against them, he still remembered them with deep feeling (Jeremiah 31:20). He was ready to say that he had corrected them too severely. Penitent people admit that God punished them less than their sins deserved. Yet God, in his great kindness, speaks as though he had given them more punishment than they deserved. In Christ and his sufferings, true penitents have indeed received from the Lord double for all their sins, because the payment Christ made by his death was of such infinite worth that it was more than enough for sin’s guilt. God did not spare his own Son.