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.

It’s here that Isaiah speaks of an everlasting comfort that comes from the everlasting Word of God, and results in an everlasting strength. Now the book of Isaiah is divided into two parts. The first 39 chapters deal with impending judgment while the second part deals with forgiveness and deliverance. The first 39 chapters deal with sin where the last 27 chapters deal with the Savior, that is 66 chapters in all. Some view Isaiah as a small Bible, for there are 39 chapters in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, a total of 66 books in all. Just like the book of Isaiah the Old Testament often deals with the sins of God’s people while the New Testament deals with the Savior who came to die for those sins. Beginning in chapter 40 there is a distinctly different tone and message. The first 39 chapters warned of the destruction of the nation and the deportation of its people to invading nations because the people had turned away from God. When the people abandoned God they became orphans. The first part of the book deals with their hard hearts where the second deals with hope. As Isaiah penned the first part of this book, disaster had not yet fallen on God’s people. The people had grown tired of Isaiah’s warnings and their need to repent and return to God. But Isaiah wrote the second half of the book to a people who would go into exile and slavery. He was prophesying about a time that was yet to come when the nation would be destroyed. Jerusalem with its beautiful temple would be left laying in ruins, and God’s people would experience the agony of their apathy. It’s here that Isaiah shares three things with the people, first, he spoke to them about an everlasting comfort. Something they would need as captive slaves in Babylon. You see they did not need Isaiah to shake his fist at them or point his finger and say, “I told you so.” No, what they needed to hear was that God still cared for them and that there was hope. Which is exactly the word that came from God to Isaiah, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” Isaiah 40:1-2. Now, something that is very interesting is the Hebrew word that Isaiah uses for comfort because it can also be translated “repent.” The word and its root have the idea of breathing deeply. It can, therefore, mean to breathe deeply with sorrow for your sin or to breathe deeply as you comfort and console someone. It reminds us that God’s comfort comes as we repentance and return to Him. Because they have breathed deeply in repentance, God has breathed deeply as he consoled and comforted them. Isaiah had spoken these words to them, “in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,” only now they were finally ready to receive it. Their sins had been paid for and deliverance was in the air. But this was not the result of what the people had done, no this was the result of the work of God. This is God’s grace and mercy, undeserved, unmerited favor. God was coming to deliver them, but first, the way had to be prepared. In his vision, Isaiah heard a voice calling and saying, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken’” Isaiah 40:3-5. God was coming to them, and the call was going out to prepare his way. Now in ancient times before our modern superhighways, history tells us that months before a king’s entourage would set out on a journey, the call would go before him: “Prepare the way for the king. Make a straight way in the wilderness and a highway for the King.” The people would run before the king to remove any obstacles and fill in the rough places in his path. They would build a road and fill in small valleys and dig through the hills so the king’s progress would be smooth and unhindered. Their reward was simply to see the king coming in his entire royal splendor. In this passage, God is on his way to his people who are now in slavery to a foreign nation. Coming to comfort and deliver them from captivity by bringing them home on the highway which has been prepared. The picture is one of God coming in glory to bring his people back to himself, this was the great comfort the people had longed for. Only God has the strength and power to rescue and redeem you, to come and bring you comfort. Are you looking to Him and leaning on His power or are you trying to find comfort in something other than Christ?

Philippians 4:13– “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”

It’s here in Philippians that we come across several famous little words that many have been quick to claim but few have ever stopped to really consider. We are quick to claim these verses because we want the power that they speak of but what is interesting is that they don’t start with power but with a personal pronouncement:

• “I” – Personal

This passage is personal, it’s not about they or we but I. So many people today fail to realize that God wants to have a personal relationship with them; Paul says  I. God sent His Son to die for you so that you could have a relationship with Him. Sin has separated us from God but when we come to Christ and confess our sin and call on Him to save we step into a life of faith and freedom. Instead of being at war with God we get to walk with Him. It’s here that Paul reminds us that it is personal and it’s about people. God wants to work in and through you to reach people. Sometimes God uses angels, on occasion, he used an animal. But almost always God calls people, He invites I to influence the world. What about you where are you at, for Paul it was personal and he responded to God’s call I, not somebody else. Second Paul says:

• “Can do” – Productive

“Can do” So often we look around and we see what others can do and we say I could never or I can’t. So many of us focus on the problems and fail to see the possibilities. When you go to a scrap yard and look around at first all you see is junk, the scrap, and the left overs. But what we may see as a problem to get rid of someone else sees as a profit. Hidden in the trash is the treasure. You see the productivity of “can do” is more than just positive thinking it is a promise. God has moved mountains, toppled kingdoms, and turned the world upside down through ordinary people who believe in the “possibilities and the promises. What about you do you have an I can, or an I could if mentality? Third Paul points the potential as he says:

• “All things” – Potential

This is the potential of faith “all things.” Do you see the scope of our Savior, He includes all things, not something’s. You see with God nothing is impossible even using a lowly servant girl named Mary to be the vessel to bring His Son into the world to die for our sins. All things is a massive promise made by a mighty God, but it’s not the only all things promise in the Bible. Look at these “alls”?

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Do you see the potential that when we give our lives to God the limits are removed for the redeemed. When we live for the Lord we don’t have to live in the limits. Fourth Paul reminds us of the power as he says:

• “Through Christ” – Power

This last phrase is the key. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” This final phrase reveals the true power of faith. Again it’s not the power of positive thinking, this is not some kind of pull yourself up by your bootstraps slogan. It isn’t a promise that you can do anything if you dream big dreams and reach for the stars. The power and the secret is that it’s not about you but the One who is in you. The power is in Christ. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Unless Jesus Christ is in you, unless he is the Lord of your life, you have no promise of God’s power. There is no guarantee of personal or spiritual success. Even if you do get ahead in this world, it won’t matter in a hundred years. As Jesus warned his disciples, “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?” The truth is “all things through Christ” or a few things through me. The real power and strength are seen not in life but in death. Because Jesus Christ conquered death on the cross, the I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength includes rising from the dead. Now there have been many who have memorized Philippians 4:13 but have forgotten the context and the circumstances surrounding it. Paul penned these words from personal experience, he knew what he was talking about. He knew Christ was the Lord of all circumstances, not just the good ones. Listen to the context, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” Philippians 4:11-12. Then he adds, “I can do all things through Christ.” Paul is reminding us that we can do ALL THINGS, not just the easy things, not just the things that everyone else is doing, not just the things you have always done but the things Christ has planned for you. These seven little words are packed with promise. Remember them, believe them, but most of all live them.