Isaiah 40:1-5

Needed Comfort

Isa 40:1-5

It sounds as if God had said it. There is something in voice, The music seems to come a long way, and to have lost nothing in its descent. We know music when we hear it. The heart knows what music it wants, what it needs, and where it can have it; and when it comes a glow of tender love testifies that God has spoken with the soul as man might speak with man, face to face. "Saith your God." It was well to put in that word, though almost needless. We knew where the judgments came from which we have studied from time to time. They were not noises of the earth, winds that were born in the dust, but great tempests from heaven, solemn judgments upon men, and upon cities, and upon nations, and it was time that something was said in another tone. The uproar has been infinite. The still small voice is the more precious. Yet we should not have valued the still small voice but for the tearing wind and the fire and all the artillery. It is because these things were so terrible in their mightiness, and so near in their crushing weight, that we listened to the still small voice with such eager interest and thankful appreciation. We know this in our own little life. We know how blue the sky is when the great frowning clouds have been driven away. It would not do to live always under summer skies, for even they would become commonplaces. Miracles may degenerate into platitudes. It is well to have change, variety, shock, trial; then when the morning breaks in silver, and all the hills are crowned with light, and all the birds say, It is Sabbath, let us sing to the praise of God, the heart knows that this is the very gift of divine love, and is its own witness, despising critic and scorning sceptic. This is none other than the visitation of the Father, God.

Yet having said all this, it is that we may make room for this instructive and limiting, yet enlarging, observation namely, that comfort does not mean only soothing, caressing, embracing. A very singular word is the word "comfort" all through the Bible. It is a kind of double word. We speak of a man being "a son of consolation," and then we suppose him to be so quiet, to have only the eloquence of whispering, only the touch of soothing. He had all that, and more. The son of consolation is a man who can stimulate, awaken, rouse the sleeper; make a man conscious of his latent energy, and stir up the man that is within the man, so that he shall have boldness, distinctiveness of personality, consciousness of strength. So there be many sons of consolation who have not the name. You are consoled when you are strengthened; you are comforted when any spirit comes to you and finds for you the piece which you had lost, the energy which had fallen into desuetude, the faith that had lapsed, and bringing this lost piece to you says, Use it, and in the use of it recover your manhood. What comfort is there in soothing, caressing, embracing, quieting, mesmerising? That is really not comfort of an enduring or substantial kind. It was precious at the time, but it did not terminate in itself; if it put us to sleep it was that in sleep we might revive our energy, recruit our nerves, and bring up out of the forgetfulness of the night power and hope to serve the living God. Be thankful, therefore, to those men whom you have looked upon as being rather energetic than comforting, stimulating than soothing, and remember that Barnabas never would have been what he was if he could not prick, goad, stimulate, blister you into a larger consciousness. We shall find that we need all this view presently.

For here we have a comfort which is based on logic; and no other comfort is worth having. Let us not cry Peace, peace, when there is no peace; let us have no untempered mortar in building God's wall that wall of security and protection, that sanctuary wall, every inch of which is written over with "Holiness unto the Lord." This poet becomes logical. Believe no word that is not rooted or founded upon a rock. You cannot live upon foam. You cannot dine healthily upon perfume. The flower is a decoration, not a substitution for what you need, and of what you really enjoy.

"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem." ( Isa 40:2 )

Literally, speak to her heart. And having so spoken what shall the speech be?

"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." ( Isa 40:2 )

To whom does God speak? To "my people." In another part of the prophecies we read of a people who were not his people; they once were, but afterwards they were not; now they are again "my people." That indicates a process. A whole history is involved in that one word "my:" it means, recovery, adoption, recognition, assurance, almost coronation; it indicates a new and tender relation, or the renewal of a relation ineffably tender and precious. It is not enough to be people, individuals, societies, nations, mere arithmetical hosts; we want the connecting word which binds us to the Great Heart. Not only am I a man, I am thy child, thou living God, take care of me, night and day, evermore. I could have the form and image of a man without that prayer, but not the joy of manhood, not the sense of dignity derived from him, who is the Son of man. Until we become religious we cannot be truly and deeply comforted; being religious we can never be truly and deeply discomforted: the wind plays upon the surface, but away down deep, and deeper still, is the spirit of joy and peace. Great peace have they that love thy law. So then this comfort is not a sentiment, it is the expression of a pardon, and it is the acknowledgment of a properly received and utilised punishment: "She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins," and she has acknowledged it to be the Lord's hand. Then the punishment ceased. The moment we see God, and say, "It is the Lord," and kiss the hand and the rod that is in it, the punishment is over. Punishment never goes beyond submission or acceptance in the right spirit. It goes beyond questioning, and difficulty, and scepticism, and obstinacy; it keeps on, blow after blow, scourge upon scourge; but no sooner does the sufferer say, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth good in his sight; I deserve it all; if thou canst pity me thou wilt," than punishment has ceased, and heaven has descended into the heart.

Have we been punished for our sins? If not, there can be no comfort We cannot have any half work in this matter; the great negative work must first be done before the positive and constructive can be initiated. Believe this, and do not attempt to reverse divine processes, and to walk backwards into the kingdom of heaven. Why should we attempt impossibilities, when God comes to us in all sweetness and grace and tenderness and tells us the way of life, and offers us the blessing of his love? It is instructive and comforting to know that every consolation which God really gives comes after a process of discipline, a process of pardon, a process of punishment rightly received. We are all punished, we are all tried; the difference is in the way in which we receive the divine punishment. If we receive it as for sins it shall be well with us; then might God take away all we have. We have sinned against him with every finger; as for our feet they have been swift in the way of evil; our eyes have hunted creation for objects on which to feast their evil desires; our whole heart has been turned into a living lie; and now all other prayers must stand back until we use the only availing prayer God be merciful to me a sinner! That prayer having cleansed the heart and cleansed the mouth, all other prayers may come, and they shall be uttered in the prevailing name with infinite success. You cannot begin your prayer at the other end; you cannot begin with the benediction; that comes last, it is the purple eventide of the religious day; you must begin with the cry for mercy, the acknowledgment of transgression and unworthiness, and, God's word for it, after that there will come ineffable peace, abounding, yea, with eternal joy.

Was the whole tragedy over, then? Is this a full stop to which we have come? No. God is loth to use the period. Has God any full stop in the literature of his reign and purpose and administration? The full stop is a human invention. There is no full stop with thee, thou Eternal One. The grave is not a full stop, it is an intermediate point, black enough, but quite momentary in its significance. So then, we have scarcely received the comfort, so rational and so profound, than there is a sound of trumpets, the cry as of a herald, the blast as of an instrument held and used by one who has news to tell.

"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God" ( Isa 40:3 ).

Yes, truth lives in the future, as well as in the past. It is the coming eternity, as well as the eternity gone if we may so use words for purposes of accommodation that should be filled and glorified by the spirit of truth. There is always a better day to dawn. We have seen nothing yet, except that which is symbolic and initial, prophetic and assuring. Jesus Christ himself used the word "hereafter" more than once "Hereafter ye shall see." We may, therefore, expect the Lord every day, not in some literal and measurable sense (in which we could not receive him), but in the deep, profound, universal, spiritual sense, which says: Thus thy kingdom come, thus thy will be done! In some lower mood, quite cold and straitened in itself, I want to see Christ in the flesh, but it is soon felt to be a vain hope and a foolish expectation. Christ must come in truth, in spirit, in salvation, in that sense of nearness which is the true association, in that consciousness of blessing which is better than mere proximity. What a wonderful word is this "Prepare"! It is a word that involves labour, and labour of a most difficult kind. What is to be done? The programme is set down here in plain figures make straight the highway, work in the desert, fill up the valleys, bring down the mountains, make the crooked straight, and the rough places plain. Have we to be engaged in this kind of work? Yes. It is hard very. It is negative undoubtedly. What will happen when it is done? This: Hear it, and be comforted in the sense of being inspired:

"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" ( Isa 40:5 ).

Prayer

Almighty God, we bless thee that thou hast spoken well of the days that are to come, for the days that are gone are full of weariness and sadness. We bless thee for gospel times, for millennial sunshine, for descending heaven. We thank thee for that word of thy Son, our Saviour, Hereafter shall ye see. Thou hast promised a great feast to the eyes of men; they are to behold new heavens, and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness, and as for the ears of men they shall be filled with music. We thank thee that we have these prophecies in Christ Jesus, sealed by his name, glorified by his Amen, and made possible to us by the immediate peace which those who trust in him enjoy. Thou hast given us an earnest of the things that are to come; we do not live wholly in the future, but now what joy we have! Occasionally it is ecstasy, great passion of soul, infinite rapture of delight, so that we know not whether we are in the body or out of it, or In what heaven of thine, third or seventh, our souls are singing. Preserve us in the love of truth, and in the comfort of peace; and whilst we are filled with the spirit of anticipation may we be blessed with the grace of usefulness, so that even now we may turn our delight into service, our anticipation into sacrifice, and be found as faithful servants, honest stewards of God, each doing his duty faithfully, calmly, resolutely, independent of all fear or favour, giving himself wholly and lovingly to Christ. Comfort us in all our distresses, dry the tears which no hand but thine may touch, and when we have suffered awhile, and been perfected through suffering, bring us by right of the Cross, through the mystery of blood, to the land where there is no winter, where there is no night. Amen.