Comfort & Strength in the Waiting: Part 3 (Isaiah 40:6-8)

 

            I can’t tell you much about my surroundings at the time other than that I was out in the front yard of my childhood home.  Ever contemplative even as a young child, my mind was given to frequent wanderings that led me so deep in thought that I was completely oblivious to the outside world.  I once looked up from reading a book to find myself alone in a dark classroom – everyone had gone to the cafeteria for lunch without me.  On this particular occasion, I was studying our clean-cut lawn.  Somehow, a question had arisen in my mind – probably extending out of a question I had been asked before: if I could be any animal, what animal would I be?  Out of inquisitiveness more than fear, my mind took it a step further and was searching for the answer as to whether there was anything I could be that would be completely free from danger.

            An ant is so small it can hide and go unnoticed, but it can also be stepped on.  Birds can fly but can also be shot out of the sky.  Every animal I could think of was prey to some sort of predator.  I could be one of the kitchen utensils, but they can all break, bend, or melt.  Surely tall buildings, mighty fortresses, would be immune – but even they fall to the destruction of fire, erosion, battering, and time.  A blade of grass, its rich color being the very representation of life, seemed safe enough.  Yet, even the grass can be cut.

            The truth I had unknowingly stumbled upon was that of the second law of thermodynamics.  Everything breaks down.  Everyone dies.  Flowers wither, mountains crumble, empires fall, and bodies decay.  No exceptions exist within the created world.  Everything we work for, long for, and wait for in this life is transient in the end.  All that we gain apart from Christ, we will one day lose in some way or another.  Still, somehow we are surprised by pain, suffering, and loss.        

            “A voice says, ‘Call out.’

            Then he answered, ‘What shall I call out?’

            All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 

            The grass withers, the flower fades,

            When the breath of the LORD blows upon it;

            Surely the people are grass. 

            The grass withers, the flower fades,

            But…” (Isaiah 40:6-8a).   

 

            But: how often I have sighed in grateful relief for this three letter word in Scripture. 

 

            “But the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8b). 

            God is not subjected to the ever-increasing entropy of this world because He is the holy Creator – the set apart source and origin of all life and energy.  He is a category all His own, and His Word stands firm – unshakeable and unchangeable.  His promises are sure, and His character is unchanging.  As the source, He is the only one who can provide and offer eternal life.  His power is the only power that can bring about resurrection and new life. 

            In his letter, Peter directly applies this passage in Isaiah to the good news that God did in fact provide and offer eternal life and resurrection to us through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus (see the first chapter of 1 Peter).  This good news, this message, this word of God is the only thing that will endure forever, and by trusting in Jesus (who is Himself called the Word of God – John 1:1), we also will live forever with Him.  When we trust in Him, we are “born again not of a seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).  This truth is what lasts and what matters above all else.  We will all die physically (unless Jesus comes for us sooner) because we were all born physically and conceived by perishable seed of parents who are perishing day by day.  Those of us who have been “born again” by trusting in Jesus Christ “will live even if [we die]” (John 11:25) because we have been spiritually re-born through the imperishable Word of God.  God has provided the way for us to know more than decay, destruction, and loss.  This is why Paul can say, “…I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…” (Philipians 3:8). 

            From time to time, we need to remember the brevity of life and the temporary nature of all that we know and hold dear in this world alongside the steadfast eternity of God’s Word.  Doing so changes our perspective in a way that allows us to endure suffering, to wait with peace and hope, and to experience joy in a world that is quite literally crashing down around us as a result of sin.  It won’t always be this way.  We have a hope that is sure and steadfast.  Our faith is not wishful thinking, but it is a confident assurance of what we know to be true.  We have a rock and anchor to cling to not in our faith itself, but in the object of our faith: Jesus, the eternal, unchanging, unfading Word of God.  Knowing Him is worth far more than anything. 

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Comfort & Strength in the Waiting: Part 2 (Isaiah 40:3-5)

           I am currently preparing for my upcoming surgery, which involves a lot of phone calls, e-mails, scheduling, re-scheduling, arranging, and organizing. I’ve put together my 4th home file for working with my clinic, complete with dividers inside and a schedule attached to the front. I’ve secured a place to stay in the town where I’ll be having surgery and requested the appropriate amount of time off of work. I’ve read through my pre-op packet so that I know which medications and supplements to stop and when. I’ve reviewed the notes from the communication logs from my past surgeries to figure out the quickest, most efficient way to get financial estimates with the fewest phone calls.

[Free tip: keep a call log involving communication about anything medical – write down the date, the name of the person you talked to, the department that person was from, the direct phone number for that person (if possible), and the gist of the conversation.  If they don’t offer this information automatically, or if you forget it as you are talking to them, ask them for it at the end of the conversation.  It is so helpful to have later, trust me!]

            Something like surgery obviously requires some amount of preparation.  What may be less obvious is that accessing the comfort and strength God promises also requires some prep work.  We want the comfort, and we want the strength, but if our hearts have been neglected and cluttered up with sin, untended wounds, and distrust, we will have an impossibly hard time receiving those things.  It would be like trying to apply a registration sticker to a dirty license plate – the sticker will likely just fall off, if you can even get it to stick in the first place. 

            Isaiah 40:3-5 is used in all four gospels (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in reference to John the Baptist.  John’s job was to prepare the way for Jesus.  His message was one of repentance and of dealing with sin.  When we repent, we change our mind to fully agree with what God says about sin.  This change of mind naturally directs us to change our behaviors (Romans 12:2 tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds). With this message, John helped prepare the hearts of the people – to smooth out the rough edges and clear out the debris – so that they were ready to receive and believe in Jesus when He came.

            John’s message didn’t leave his listeners despondent or defensive like we might assume (though I’m sure he probably had a few who responded that way).  Luke 3:15 records that the people who heard John speak were left in a state of waiting expectantly.  Some even wondered if John himself was the Messiah, though He quickly corrected them and pointed them to the One who would come after him.  The point of dealing with sin through repentance isn’t to leave us trapped in shame, crushed under the weight of our guilt, or restricted to a robotic and boring cookie cutter life.  On the contrary, dealing with sin is the path toward restoration, healing, freedom, and hope. 

We must be diligent to keep our hearts clear of all that doesn’t fit with the way God designed us to live.  As we do that, we ensure that our hearts are prepared to see God’s glory when it is revealed, to accept the love and comfort He offers, and to rely on His strength in an act of trust.  If we are not careful to tend to our hearts, particularly during seasons of waiting, we will find ourselves much more often and much more quickly falling into despondence, desperation, and weariness. We rob ourselves of the richness of God’s fellowship and presence when we focus so much on preparing outwardly for whatever it is we are waiting for that we fail to do the work inwardly. 

It’s an easy mistake to make.  Particularly with waiting for a pregnancy, I have neglected my heart several times in my determination to do “all the things” to try and make the physical outcome happen.  You’ve read it before in my posts, so I don’t need to repeat all the things I’ve been doing to try to get pregnant.  Most of it is outward and physical, and it is easy to get so busy and wrapped up in it all that I don’t realize how messy my heart has become.  Just like the laundry that is never done, our hearts need constant maintenance.  They don’t automatically stay clean once we know Jesus. One day, we will be free from the very presence of sin, but for today, it still lives and wars inside us.  It often sneaks in undetected while we are distracted, like mold does.  Coasting is not an option – we have to be diligent and intentional in keeping our hearts clean and prepared. 

Thankfully, those of us who trust in Jesus have the Holy Spirit – another subject John spoke of frequently with great anticipation in conjunction with his message of repentance.  The Holy Spirit helps us to understand God’s Word so that we can know how we are to live.  He also guides and leads us as we remain sensitive to Him and walk with Him throughout every step of our day.  However, we can also stifle Him and drown out His voice by refusing to act on His prompts and by harboring sin in our hearts and refusing to give it up.  He helps us prepare our hearts to receive the blessings God has to offer, but we still have to do our part or we will silence His voice in our lives until we finally decide to cooperate in dealing with the mess.

            When we are hurting and waiting, we want instant comfort and strength without much effort.  God gives it to us every day in various ways, but if our hearts aren’t prepared to receive it, we will miss it.  We cannot afford to wait passively and “let ourselves go” spiritually.  Nearness to our God is so important in times of waiting, and we have to do the work to make sure our hearts are always ready to hear from Him, to believe Him, and to accept whatever He deems good.  If we refuse to take care of our hearts, we are really choosing to rely on our own drained strength.  God has provided a better way.  We just have to take it.  

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Comfort & Strength in the Waiting: Part 1 (Isaiah 40:1, 2)

            Of all the different types of tests I’ve endured, my least favorite was my hormone panel.  When I first found out that I was going to have to get blood drawn every other day (and also a couple days in a row) for about a month, my stomach dropped to my toes.  My small veins had already proven to be uncooperative several times through thyroid blood tests.  Most of my previous phlebotomists had to stick me at least twice and do a lot of digging to get the job done.  Some had to go get a co-worker with more experience.  I dreaded the whole process ahead of me, but I found comfort by looking forward to the other side. 

            The first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah are largely characterized by prophesies of judgment and condemnation.  Israel and Judah received far worse news than a mere month of poking and prodding.  They had turned their back on God.  They had broken their covenant with God by their disobedience and idolatry, and they continually refused to turn back to Him (not for lack of opportunity).  Isaiah prophesied of the warfare and captivity that were to come as a result if they did not choose to repent.  Though the times were already trying, they were going to get much darker and far more difficult. 

            God is just and holy, true to His word, and firm in His discipline.  He is also the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3).  He warned His people of the fiery trials that were to come and almost in the same breath offered them undeserved comfort.  The final 27 chapters of Isaiah, beginning with chapter 40, are filled with the promise, comfort, and hope of future deliverance and restoration.  Judah still had over 100 years of difficulty and 70 years of Babylonian captivity ahead of her before she would see that deliverance and restoration (Martin, 1091), but God gave her what she needed to find strength and comfort in the midst of the suffering as she waited for Him to come through on His promises.  As you probably already know from the prologue, I want to focus primarily on chapter 40 in this series. 

            In the first two verses of Isaiah 40, I see three reminders that help bring comfort and strength while waiting on God.  First, these verses remind us of the compassionate heart of our God.  Verse one doesn’t use the word “comfort” just once, but twice.  This repetition emphasizes that God does not delight in the suffering and distress of His people.  He desires to comfort them even in the times when their suffering is a direct result of their sin and disobedience (I want to clarify here that not all hardship is a direct result of sin – see John9:1-3 for one example.  However, the fact that God wants to comfort His people even when they are sitting in a mess of their own making is a testament to the depths and the great expanse of His mercy and compassion).  In verse two, God tells Isaiah to “speak kindly to Jerusalem.”  God wanted Isaiah to speak to the hearts of His people with all the gentle tenderness of a mother toward her child.  While we all will experience seasons of hardship, we can take comfort in knowing that God cares about our pain and that He will be gentle with us even on the days when we mess up.  Even though He doesn’t always take the painful circumstance away when we think He should, He feels for us, and He will never abandon us.  Jesus wept when Lazarus died even though He knew that He would bring him back to life; He weeps with us too.   

            The second reminder that I see in this passage is that suffering is only for a time.  Verse two continues on: “And call out to her [Jerusalem], that her warfare has ended.”  My hormone panel that stirred up so much fear and dread inside was two years ago now.  I have no desire to repeat the experience, but it truly was “over before I knew it.”  It rarely even crosses my mind anymore; when it does, I now see it as evidence that in Christ I have access to the strength and resolve I need to get through whatever God places in my path.  I need this reminder for the days that my wait seems endless – when the days have stretched into months and years of aching and longing.  It may not be 40 years of wandering in the wilderness or 70 years of Babylonian captivity, but I still sometimes lose sight of the fact that someday I will be on the other side (though I do not know exactly what the other side will look like).  There will be healing, and there will be an end to this season.  I had to drive to another town this morning to run some errands, and another country song came on the radio that fit perfectly with this point.  The chorus of Gary Allan’s “Every Storm” says:

                       

“Every storm runs, runs out of rain

Just like every dark night turns into day

Every heartache will fade away

Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain.”

            Verse two closes out with our third reminder: our sin debt has been paid.  No matter how devastating our circumstances are, we can rest in the fact that our biggest and most dangerous problem has been solved if we have trusted in Jesus for salvation.  This particular verse refers to the fact that Israel’s time of warfare and captivity would satisfy the terms of Israel’s covenant with God so that they could start fresh as a nation.  Their discipline would be complete.  We have even more reason to find comfort since we are on the other side of the cross.  When we trust in Jesus and His death and resurrection, all of our sins (past, present, and future) are put onto His account, and He transfers His righteousness to our account.  It’s a done deal.  God already came through for us in the matter of our greatest need.  He already demonstrated his perfect, unconditional love by sending His Son to die for us even while we still stood opposed to Him.  He already showed us His goodness, His power, His wisdom, and His grace, and He is worthy of our trust and complete devotion.  How comforting it is to know that the Son of God who conquered death itself and saved me from eternal separation from God is the same One who holds my days in His hands.

            God is for you.  He sees you.  He cares deeply about your heartaches, your anxieties, and your fears, and He offers you what no one else can.  He offers Himself:

• the compassionate Father who longs to wrap you up in the security and peace of His strong arms.
• the all-knowing and wise God who sees the end from the beginning as clearly as if it has already happened.
• the suffering Savior who knows our weaknesses and our pain and who gave His own life to save ours.

He longs to give you His comfort and His strength in overwhelming abundance, and we’ve just barely scratched the surface.

Martin, John A.  "Isaiah," The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Old Testament), ed., John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck.  Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries, 2004.

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