Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant? 22 God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. 23 He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. 24 They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and they wither. The wind carries them off like chaff. 25 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. 27 O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? 28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God,     the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

It’s here that we come to Isaiah’s second point. Not only did Isaiah speak of an everlasting comfort but he also spoke of the everlasting Word of God. When all other claims to truth have had their say, only the Word of God will stand. Everything else changes because everything else is based on relative truth, not absolute truth. Philosophies come and go, but only God’s Word remains. The lie of the Nazi’s came and died along with the lie of godless communism. All man made philosophy come to and end because they are not built on God’s truth. 50 years ago many philosophers and theologians were proclaiming that God was dead and also predicting the death of the church. Today almost no one can remember the names of those who made those predictions, let alone the titles of their books, but the church of Jesus Christ is thriving and God is still very much alive. The truth is the church has survived a lot worse persecution. In fact, the light of God’s truth burns brightest when things are darkest. Darkness does not diminish truth, in fact, the opposite happens, darkness actually serves to turn up the truth, making it more visible. A young musician once went to see his old music teacher. During the visit, his elderly mentor took a tuning fork and struck it on the end of the table. He said. “That is ‘A.’” From the floor above them they could hear the voice of a singer rehearsing. “She sings sharp,” the old teacher said with a smile. He struck the tuning fork again and paused as he lifted it and said, “She is sharp, but this ‘A’ — always has been, always will be — 440 vibrations per second. It will still be ‘A’ 5,000 years from now.” The same is true of God’s Word. It was God’s Word yesterday; it is God’s Word today, and it will be God’s Word 5000 years from now. Kingdoms will rise and fall, ideas will come and go. Morality will ebb and flow, the values of the world will change, but God’s Word will remain the one constant in a world of confusing change. Emperor Diocletian tried to revive the old pagan religions of Rome by persecuting and killing Christians. He set up a stone pillar in his honor, inscribed with the words that he wanted to describe his legacy: “For Having Exterminated The Name Christian From the Earth.” If only he knew how far short of his goal he really fell. In truth, his monument was more of a tribute to the endurance of Christianity than it was to him. You see his feeble attempts to destroy Christianity failed miserably just as all attempts throughout the centuries have. Atheists have scoffed at it, critics have attacked it, and unbelievers have rejected it. Another Roman leader made a coffin, symbolizing his intention “to bury the Galilean” by killing Christ’s followers. He eventually admitted that he could not put the Master in his coffin. When the French monarch proposed the persecution of Christians in his dominion, an old statesman and warrior said to him, ‘Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.’ So the hammers of infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures. If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives.” No other book has been so sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy, religion or psychology has been subject to such mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism, with such thoroughness and erudition, upon every chapter, line, and tenet? Yet the Bible still endures and is not only loved by millions but lived out by millions. The Waldensians represented the history of the church with a picture of an anvil with many worn-out hammers lying all around it. At the bottom of the picture, these words are inscribed: “One Anvil — Many Hammers.” Are you looking to the scriptures as your source of strength and guidance or to society? What about you are you trusting in God’s absolute truth or some teaching that will ultimately fail?

Isaiah 40:1-11

“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over for all her sins.” 3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! 4 Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. 5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,     and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!” 6 A voice said, “Shout!” I asked, “What should I shout?” “Shout that people are like the grass. Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.” 9 O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!” 10 Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.”

The idea of comfort here is not what we usually think of when we talk about comfort. When we think of comfort, we typically picture a change of circumstances or a feeling of being soothed. Like sitting on a warm beach watching the waves, and not having a care in the world. Or if it is winter sitting in a comfortable Lazy Boy recliner in front of a roaring fire with a comforter spread over us while we sip hot cocoa and read a good book, or watch our favorite movie. But the idea of comfort actually comes from two Latin words, com fortis which when translated literally means “with strength.” It carries the idea of being strengthened, you see God’s way of giving comfort is to give us the strength to do what needs to be done. When we think of comfort we think of removing the challenge, but God’s comfort means having the strength to overcome the challenge. That is why I believe many times we don’t see or experience God’s comfort because we are looking to be coddled, where He is looking to make us conquerors. As God’s strength comes, we have the power to face the problems. The situation may not have changed, but we have a new ability to face it and deal with it. Many times we pray for our circumstances to change and only then will we feel comforted, but what if instead of a change in circumstances we had the strength of Christ? The people to whom Isaiah was speaking didn’t need coddled, they needed strength to face the journey home, and once there they had the huge task of rebuilding the temple and the city. They were also going to face an enemy that would oppose the rebuilding of Jerusalem and God’s holy temple. What they really needed was God’s conquering comfort, His strength, and encouragement. The word encouragement has much the same idea, it means to be in courage. If you are encouraged you have the courage to do what needs to be done. God was comforting and encouraging the people so they would be able to carry out His Will. Sometimes God’s comfort comes by forcing us to change and grow. Again we often don’t like this because we would rather have our circumstances change than us having to change. But we serve a God who is willing to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. There is a story told about a paratrooper who was once asked how hard it was when he made his first jump out of the plane, to which he said oh I didn’t jump, “What do you mean, you didn’t jump I thought you said were a paratrooper?” they responded. To which he said, “I was, but I didn’t jump, the first few times I was pushed, I didn’t jump.” That is what the military likes to call encouragement. Sometimes what we need is a little shove. But along with the shove, God gives us the strength to do what he is calling us to do. The other way that God comforted the people was by letting them know he would take care of their enemies. The kingdom of Babylon was the powerhouse of its day, it looked so formidable that it was hard to believe that anybody would be able to get through their walls or defeat their army. The splendor of Babylon was breathtaking with its magnificent buildings and beautiful hanging gardens. Nobody could imagine the possibility of Babylon being destroyed, but God is not just anybody He is the Almighty. God assured them, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” Isaiah 40:6-8. God was saying that no matter how powerful the Babylonians appeared, they were but grass. As the creator and the one who is ultimately in control, He determines the nation’s time and place. When He blew upon them it would be like the hot desert wind blowing on the desert flowers. They would wither and waste away, but he would remain. No matter what battle you face it is no match for the breath of God, even the mighty Babylonian army would falter when faced with the power of God. And that is exactly what happened, the Babylonians who seemed so powerful were actually defeated without much of a fight. They thought nothing could happen to them, they were so sure they were safe that they did not even post a guard on the wall. But Daniel chapter 5 reveals their tragic fall. While their rulers drank themselves into oblivion, the Persian army simply diverted the flow of the Euphrates River, which flowed under the walls and through the great city. Then they marched right into Babylon on the empty riverbed.  The great kingdom of Babylon collapsed in a night, revealing that God was right, we are like the grass that remains for a moment but soon withers and fades. What about you, are you resting in God’s promises or are you trusting in your power? Whose strength are you standing in yours or His?