Isaiah 40:1

Comfort ye my people. This chapter begins the third and last section of the book of Isaiah. For consideration of the so-called Deutero-Isaiah problem, see pp. 84-86. In many ways chs. 40-66 constitute the most important part of Isaiah’s prophecy. Chapters 1-35 consist largely of a series of denunciations against transgression and pronouncements of judgments to follow. In chs. 36-39 there is a recital of incidents connected with Sennacherib’s invasion, Hezekiah’s illness and recovery, and the visit of the Babylonian envoys. In the chapters that follow, the message of the prophet is entirely different in tone and theme. Pronouncements of judgment and doom are largely in the past, and the remainder of the book deals with promises of the outpouring of God’s grace upon the righteous. It is largely chs. 40-66 that have earned for Isaiah the name of “gospel prophet.” Here, in the most sublime language ever to grace the lips of an inspired orator, Isaiah sets forth the glorious future of Israel as God’s faithful “servant,” her deliverance from every foe, the coming of Messiah, and the establishment of the Messianic kingdom.

The prophet’s mind goes forward to a time when God will be gracious to His people and will grant them the blessings of righteousness and peace.

There are many predictions regarding the coming Messiah, His character and offices, His life, and His self-sacrificing service and death. There are views of the enlargement of the church and of the ingathering of the Gentiles. Also, there are thrilling pictures of the earth restored to Edenic peace and beauty. Throughout this section Israel (that is, the people of Judah, as the northern kingdom no longer existed) appears as the chosen people of God, His “servant,” His “elect,” in whom He “delighteth” (ch. 42:1; etc.).

Danger from Assyria, the chief enemy of Judah in chs. 1-39, was now, for the most part at least, in the past, and through the prophet Isaiah God prepares His people for an even greater calamity — the Babylonian captivity a century later. In the new section beginning with ch. 40 God finds Israel discouraged because of the seeming failure of His purpose for them as a nation, and bids them look forward in faith to the glorious prospect that awaited them upon their return from captivity (see pp. 31, 32).

In the earlier part of the book, Isaiah proclaims a message of rebuke; now he sets before them one of comfort and hope. The previous section deals largely with the unrighteousness of the people; this, with the righteousness of God. Chapters 1-39 are concerned largely with the success of the enemy in drawing God’s people away from their high ideals; chs. 40-66, with the Lord’s success in drawing Israel back to its ideal position as the light and hope of the world. Here is a striking picture of Messiah as God’s Servant, and of men walking in His footsteps and being His witnesses. Here are sublime pictures of God as the hope of His people, and of His people returning to Him and occupying their appointed position as His representatives on earth. Here, they are delivered from the power of Babylon, they reoccupy the Land of Promise, and the waste places of earth become “like the garden of the Lord” (ch. 51:3).