Isaiah with Training Wheels: ch. 40-41:20

After a lengthy delay, we return with more Isaiah!

As I mentioned in the previous post, chapters 40 & 41:1-20 are the gospel proclaimed, to Israel. In the next post, this will be extended to the Gentiles. But this has more depth than you might guess at first glance. The central part of this chiasmus askes the question, Do you really understand, or believe the Doctrine of the Creation? Then we look at future events (it would have been future events for the people of Isaiah’s time) and ask, Do you still believe God is in control? Let’s look at this in more detail.

Three Voices of Comfort (40:1-11)
* The Voice of him that crieth in the wilderness  (40:3-5)
* What shall I cry? All flesh is grass (40:6-8)
* O Zion that bringeth good tidings… say unto the cities of Judah, Behold! Your God!  (40:9-11)

The Lord is a Creator, who rules his Creation (40:12-31)
The Lord is the Ruler of history and of the world  (41:1-7)

Three Examples of Comfort (41:8-20)
* I will help thee (41:8-13)
* From worm to harvesting mountains (41:14-16)
* Needy sustained in the desert (41:17-20)

 

40:1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her [time of hardship is over], that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

• 3 ¶ The 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.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the [uneven ground shall become level], and the [rugged places a plain] :

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

• 6 The 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:

7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

• 9 ¶ O 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!

10 Behold, 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.

11 He 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.

12 ¶ Who 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?

13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him?

14 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 understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust [on the scales]: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

18 ¶ To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

20 He 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.

21 Have 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?

22 It 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:

23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

24 Yea, 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.

25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

26 Lift 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.

27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

28 ¶ Hast 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.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31 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 walk, and not faint.

41:1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.

2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.

3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.

5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.

6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.

7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.

9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

• 10 ¶ Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.

12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.

13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

• 14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.

• 17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:

20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

 

Notes:

Three Voices of Comfort

40:1-2 This sets the topic for the three voices, and the three examples that follow. The topic is the comfort of God’s grace and love. We will look at each of these individually.

40:3,6  I am not a big fan of Gileadi attributing everything to the Davidic Servant, but he is right that Isaiah is talking about concrete things and specific people.  Verse 3 is clearly John the Baptist. But who is verse 6? I genuinely don’t know.  Grass is characteristic of transiency. What about verse 9? Is that a specific person?

40:5 This ends with an emphasis that it really is the Lord that is declaring this.

 

Do you understand the Creation? (40:12-31)

Spiritual	Temporal	Synthesis
Who is the Creator? (40:12)	Have you understood the Creation? (40:21)	Have you understood the Creation? (40:28)
Incomparable Wisdom (40:13-14)	Incomparable Rule (40:22-23)	God’s Understanding (40:28b)
Incomparable with his Creation (40:15-17)	Incomparable Power (40:24)	God’s Power (40:29-30)
Will you compare Him with an idol? (40:18-20)	What will you compare to God? Lack of Trust in God (40:25-27)	Wait on the Lord, Incomparable blessings (40:31)

The end of this chapter (v. 28-31) are some of my favorite verses. So I was delighted to realize that this was merely part of the whole. The entire section 40-41:20 is making and reinforcing these points. Thus, totality is expressed by opposites, Spiritual and Temporal.

How well do you think you understand the Doctrine of Creation? I thought I understood it better until I studied this section.

 

We start in verse 12 (Spiritual) asking, Do you understand the Creation? You should, you have known about it from the Beginning, since you were a child in Primary!
His Wisdom is not comparable with His Creation. He is not comparable with His Creation. What will you compare him with? An Idol?

Starting in verse 21 (Temporal), Have you understood all this? Do you honestly understand the doctrine of the Creation? You should.
His power and rule are incomparable.
So, when things are going wrong in your life, why do you think God has abandoned you?
Notice, this is parallel of the section asking if you will compare God with an idol. Are both equally suggesting a lack of trust in God? That is sobering. I have never thought of myself as an idolator, but I have been prone to ask at times, why God was giving me such trials in life. This is interesting to compare with First Nephi, where the sin most commonly mentioned is murmuring.  Cf. 1 Ne 17:18 where murmuring is compared to unbelief.

Now, in verses 28-31, we have the synthesis of these two lines of thought, again asking if we have understood. Notice the frequent repetition of ‘faint’ and ‘weary’. Notice also the repeated themes from the first two sections (v. 12-20 & v. 21-27).
Again, his wisdom and power are beyond our understanding.
If we will trust in God, and in his timing, He has immeasurable blessings for us. But do we believe the Creator is in charge?

 

Do you understand the Present and the Future? (41:1-7)

Next, 41:1-7 begins with a court scene. The question to be settled, who rules in History and Current Events? Isaiah’s frequent use of court scenes suggests to me, he had worked as a judge, which is plausible considering that according to legend, he was part of the royal court.

Just an aside, it appears (if medieval genealogies are accurate), I am a descendant of Isaiah and Hezekiah, through Tamar Tea Tephi, daughter of Zedekiah, who married an Irish king… if the medieval legends are accurate, that is. Similar genealogies tell me I am a descendant of Odin and Thor, twice over. Who am I to argue?

Back to the topic at hand, here we see mention of a notable hero. He is not named here, but we learn later that this is Cyrus, the Persian.

Previously, Isaiah discussed how the Lord rules the Past. The question the court is convened to settle, is who rules the Future. Remember, of course, that for them the prophecy of Cyrus was roughly a hundred years in the Future.

41:5-7  The Gentile reaction to this, is more idolatry.

 

Three examples as Testimony

41:8  In contrast, Israel is called to be God’s Servant. This is a significant topic, because the Servant songs are associated with Christ, and yet, the prophet is identifying them with Israel. This is a deep topic we will discuss later. But it appears we are to be Christ-like and Christ is to taken on him our burdens and divine calls.

These three examples are testimonies of God’s transformative power

41:8-13    Interpersonal conflict — servant vanquishes enemies.
41:14-16  Personal weakness — the “worm” becomes a powerful threshing sledge, a metaphor for transformative power.
41:17-20  Adverse circumstances — the promise of divine provision even in desolate conditions.

Further, we see a simple chiasmus expressing the Lord’s tender care:

41:8-9 Intro – Servant called, chosen and reassured

41:10 The Lord’s Hand Holding

41:11-12 Total Destruction of their enemies

41:13-14 The Lord’s Hand Holding