The big picture
Comfort now speaks to Jerusalem, the city of God's people, after hard service and guilt. The message from Isaiah, God's prophet, announces a prepared road for the Lord and glory made visible to all. Israel, his chosen people also called Jacob after its ancestor, wonders whether God has overlooked its case. The answer sets human frailty beside the lasting word of the Creator. Nations, rulers, and idols cannot compare with him. Yet his greatness does not keep him distant from weakness. He carries the vulnerable and renews the strength of those who wait.
In this chapter
- Comfort Announces a Road for the Lord Isaiah 40:1-5
God tells his messengers to comfort his people and speak tenderly to the city.
- Flowers Fade but God Keeps His Word Isaiah 40:6-8
A voice commands a cry, and the reply asks what should be announced.
- The Strong Ruler Carries the Small Lambs Isaiah 40:9-11
The bearer of good news is told to climb high and speak without fear.
- No Adviser or Nation Measures the Creator Isaiah 40:12-17
Questions picture God holding waters, measuring sky, and weighing mountains.
- Handmade Gods Cannot Sustain the Stars Isaiah 40:18-26
What likeness can represent God?
- The Weary Are Not Hidden from God Isaiah 40:27-31
God's people complain that their way is hidden and their claim ignored.
Central truth
The lasting word of the unmatched Creator brings comfort to his people because his unwearied strength also sustains those who have none.
Scripture beside the summary
Isaiah · King James Version · 31Isaiah 40:1-5
Comfort Announces a Road for the Lord
God tells his messengers to comfort his people and speak tenderly to the city. Her hard service has ended and her guilt is pardoned. The language of double payment stresses that her painful term is complete. A voice calls for a highway through the desert for God. Valleys rise, hills sink, and rough ground becomes level. His glory will be revealed before all humanity. The road image gives the promised coming an unobstructed path. Comfort rests on what God has spoken, not merely on a wish for the sorrow to end.
In everyday life
A road-clearance foreman opens the last blocked section leading to an isolated village after residents receive news that help is coming. He levels the broken surface so the arriving convoy can reach them. The clear way makes the promise visible. No road crew can forgive a city's guilt or reveal God's glory.
Notice
Isaiah 40:2 Comfort includes both an ended term of hardship and pardoned guilt. The message addresses the city's relationship with God as well as the pain it has endured.
Isaiah 40:1-5
King James Version1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and 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.
3The 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.
4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah 40:6-8
Flowers Fade but God Keeps His Word
A voice commands a cry, and the reply asks what should be announced. All human life is compared with grass, and its beauty with a field's flower. The Lord's breath passes over it, and it withers. The image includes people in their admired condition, not only those already weak. Against that fading stands God's word, which lasts forever. The contrast gives the promised comfort a firm basis. It does not depend on the endurance of the hearers, their rulers, or the things that currently make them seem impressive.
In everyday life
A cemetery florist replaces flowers that looked fresh only days earlier and reads the unchanged promise engraved beside them. The petals' short life makes the lasting words stand out. She sets the new stems gently in the vase. Isaiah's contrast concerns God's enduring word, not the durability of an inscription made by people.
Notice
Isaiah 40:8 The word remains after both grass and flower fade. Human strength and human beauty share a limit that does not apply to the promise God has spoken.
Isaiah 40:6-8
King James Version6The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Isaiah 40:9-11
The Strong Ruler Carries the Small Lambs
The bearer of good news is told to climb high and speak without fear. The cities of Judah, the southern land of God's people, must hear that their God is coming. He arrives with ruling strength and the reward of his work. Yet the next image is a shepherd caring for a flock. He gathers lambs into his arms, carries them close, and gently leads sheep that are carrying young. Strength and tenderness belong to the same rescuer. The one able to rule does not demand the same pace from the weakest as from the strong.
In everyday life
A shepherdess carries a newborn lamb inside her coat while guiding its mother slowly down the hill. Her strong grip on the gate and gentle pace serve the same flock. She reaches safety without leaving the smallest animal behind. The Lord comes to rule as well as to gather those in need.
Notice
Isaiah 40:11 Sheep carrying young are led gently, rather than forced to keep a fast pace. God's strength includes care for those whose condition makes swift travel hard.
Isaiah 40:9-11
King James Version9O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
Isaiah 40:12-17
No Adviser or Nation Measures the Creator
Questions picture God holding waters, measuring sky, and weighing mountains. No one supplied him with wisdom or taught him how to judge. Nations are as small as a drop on a bucket or dust on scales. Lebanon, the great wooded northern region, would not provide enough fuel or animals for an offering equal to his worth. Before him, even whole nations amount to nothing as rivals. The point is not a claim that human lives lack care. The Maker cannot be measured as one more power within the world he made.
In everyday life
An observatory guide shows a visitor the tiny mark representing a familiar mountain on a map of the wider earth. What seemed vast at the foot of the slope now occupies almost no space. Scale changes the visitor's sense of importance. God is not merely larger than creation; he is its untaught Maker.
Notice
Isaiah 40:14 The questions ask who ever taught God wisdom or right judgement. His understanding is not borrowed from an older adviser whose knowledge would stand above his own.
Isaiah 40:12-17
King James Version12Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
14With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
16And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
Isaiah 40:18-26
Handmade Gods Cannot Sustain the Stars
What likeness can represent God? The question exposes how little a made object can show of its Maker. A wealthy maker coats an image in gold; a poorer worshipper chooses sound wood and hires skill to keep it upright. God, by contrast, stretches out the heavens and brings rulers to nothing. Their roots barely take hold before his breath withers them. He asks again who can equal him. The stars offer another answer: he brings them out, counts and names them, and loses none. The things people must stabilise cannot rival the one who sustains the skies.
In everyday life
A display installer braces a gilded statue with hidden bolts before opening the gallery. Without his work, the impressive figure will topple under its own weight. A visitor watching the repair sees how dependent the object is. Isaiah contrasts such handmade gods with the Creator who sustains every star.
Notice
Isaiah 40:20 The maker's concern is that the image will not fall. The image needs help to stand. It cannot match the strength of the God who made all things.
Isaiah 40:18-26
King James Version18To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
19The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
20He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
21Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
23That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
Isaiah 40:27-31
The Weary Are Not Hidden from God
God's people complain that their way is hidden and their claim ignored. The answer points to the everlasting Creator, who never grows tired and whose understanding cannot be exhausted. He gives strength to those without it. Even vigorous young people stumble and fail, so natural stamina is no final answer. Those who wait for the Lord receive renewed strength. Eagles rising, runners continuing, and walkers not fainting picture his support. The great God described throughout the chapter is not too occupied with nations and stars to notice tired people.
In everyday life
A long-distance walker reaches the aid station too tired to lift his pack. An attendant takes its weight, brings water, and stays while he regains enough strength for the next stretch. Continuing depends on help he receives. Human attendants grow tired too; the Creator never runs out of strength.
Notice
Isaiah 40:29 Strength is given to those who lack it. The promise does not require the weary to prove that they already possess the resource they are asking to receive.
Isaiah 40:27-31
King James Version27Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Isaiah 40:1 begins with “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”
Where the chapter turns
Isaiah 40:14 forms a natural hinge: “With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of…”
The final note
Isaiah 40:31 leaves the reader with “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, earth, grass, faint, flower, hand help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- goodliness
- The visible beauty or attractiveness of something.
- span
- The distance across a stretched hand, roughly nine inches or twenty-three centimetres.
- cunning
- Skilled in a craft, rather than deceitful in this use.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
