1 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” Isaiah 40:1-5.
The passage begins with an insistent double imperative: Comfort! O Comfort!
The intimacy and compassion that are to infuse this comfort are underscored in the parallel command: Speak tenderly! (literally:”speak to the heart”). This poignant command not only names a deep human desire and need, it summons to mind multiple biblical examples of such tenderness.
I think of Job’s friends who offer comfort through a week of silent accompaniment
(Job 2:11-13). Job’s extended family and neighbors give him gifts as an expression of their sympathy and comfort (Job 42:11).
I remember the foreign widow Ruth who is comforted by the protection and access to water that the landowner Boaz provides (Ruth 2:13). And can any of us forget Jacob’s sons and daughters attempt to be of comfort to Jacob during his many days of mourning for his son Joseph (Genesis 37:35). And never forget that a rod and a staff provide protective comfort to one walking through the darkest valley (Psalm 23:4).
Consolation and care for the victims of calamity, for parents whose children have died, for persons without the means to sustain themselves and for persons vulnerable to physical threat and bodily harm are praiseworthy and beyond question. In the Bible, “oppressors” and “enemies” are typically those who fail to extend comfort or pity (See Ecclesiastes 4:1; Psalm 69:20).
What strikes me at the start of Isaiah 40 is not that there are persons in need of comfort; it is that God commands that they be comforted. It is Jerusalem whom God says is to receive comfort. In the context of the Book of Isaiah, Jerusalem is hardly a sympathetic character. Chapter after chapter describes how the people of Jerusalem prospered through wickedness, oppression, lies and injustice, refusing to heed the prophets’ calls to repent, reform and be reconciled to God.
In 587 BC Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Babylonian Empire. The leaders and a significant part of the population were marched off to Babylon. The Jerusalem prophets made it unmistakably clear that the destruction of the city and the exile to Babylon were not due to Babylonian strength; they were a well-deserved punishment from God.
Isaiah 40:1 declares now the time of punishment is at an end. Jerusalem’s “term” is completed and “her penalty is paid.” But why should she receive comfort? Persons who serve time for a crime do not typically receive comfort on the day of their release. They have been judged deserving of their penalty and now must prove their worthiness.
So as we begin our 2nd week of Advent please bring thi to prayer, and today, bring comfort to someone else. And do the same tomorrow…and the day after…and the day after that!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
“Encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing”
1 Thessalonians 5:11.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world”John 16:33.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4.
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