Renewing our Confidence in the Promise-Making and Keeping God

Help us from this wonderful passage, this majestic passage from Isaiah 40, to see your greatness, to be reminded that you indeed are the one that we are to trust, that we are to find all of our confidence in you and you alone, and that this passage itself drives us to trust even more in what you have done for us in Christ Jesus. And it's in his name that we ask all these things, amen.

Well, I just want to think of sort of just for a few moments some of the challenging days we live in, right? If you read the, you know, watch the news and look at social media I'm not sure if you read newspapers anymore, if that's the case. But you look around the world, right? I mean, it's a tumultuous time, right?

Ukraine, Russia still going on, rumblings in Iran. We see disagreements with China, UK, Europe seems to have sort of thrown off all of its Christian roots. UK shutting down free speech. I mean, all these things are going on. hear them, and see them, and so on, and it creates alarm for us. In this country, it seems like it's pulling apart at its very fabrics.

Riots in Minnesota, L.A., attacks on churches, assassinations in the last year, and so on, and we begin to think, what's the future of our country? Then we look at the church, and sometimes you look around us, even especially in this country, and we see Churches are pretty weak, right? We hear false doctrine and all of this, and we just begin to sometimes despair, and we begin to think, what's the future hold, right? So some of you raising children, you think, what's going to be there for my children? I now have the great privilege of having nine grandchildren, one on the way, and I'm thinking, what is coming down the pipe for them, right?

Where do I find my rest, confidence, and trust? Well, of course, scripture always reminds us that despite the circumstances, despite what we see, we are to constantly return to find confidence in one place and one place alone, which is in our God, right? Our God Himself, our Triune God, the Creator, the Lord, the Sovereign One, the One who has made promises for us, kept those promises, and uniquely those promises centered in Christ. And that's what we want to focus on today, to renew our confidence in our great God in the day we live, to be faithful in our families, our work, our service, our churches, our gospel work, and so on.

And the text that we're looking at, obviously it's been read to you, is Isaiah 40. Now this is a wonderful passage of scripture. It's a famous passage of scripture. I think even in the past it's been made famous. We think of Christmastime, Handel's Messiah. That's a great place where the opening of Handel's Messiah, comfort, comfort my people, valleys will be made low, mountains raised, lowered and raised and so on. I mean, you have that great opening overture of Handel's Messiah. The passage was also made famous in 1981, now some of you Weren't born then, but 1981 was the famous movie, Chariots of Fire.

So I won't ask who's seen that movie, but that's one of my favorites. It recounts the story of missionary, runner, Eric Liddell from Scotland, and then sort of his rival from England, Harold Abrams, two competing in the 100 meters at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell would not run on Sunday and the 100 meters was on Sunday and so he ran in the 400 meters and the whole movie was built around that. And on the Sunday that he was supposed to run, the movie has him in the Church of Scotland in Paris, standing up in the pulpit and reading from Isaiah 40. It's just a majestic movie and wonderful, I encourage you to see that.

So I mean, this passage is just rich, it's often turned to to give us a presentation of the entire glory of God as creator, the sovereign one, and that is its goal and purpose. But it's also to give us, and to give the nation of Israel in its particular context, hope in God and particularly hope that God will keep his promises. we're going to look at the passage in sort of three steps. So the first step is just simply Most of you are probably familiar with Isaiah, but just to set the context to this chapter, sort of in Isaiah, the Old Testament, just where are we at in Old Testament history? When you study scripture and read scripture, you've got to place the texts in the context of the Bible to understand it correctly. Then we'll turn to Isaiah 40 itself. That's a long chapter. Can't cover it in detail. We'll just move through it. It's got really four major sort of movements through the text, and we'll just unpack that to see something of the big picture of it.

And then thirdly, we want to see how this passage in Isaiah is truly, for us, leading us to Christ, right? And how we are to read this in light of the fulfillment that has now come in him, which gives us greater confidence, greater hope. greater trust as we live our lives as the church. So let's look at the first area here, just sort of the context of this passage in Isaiah and even in the Old Testament. So Isaiah, if you know anything about Isaiah, he lives about 700 years before Christ. So it's a long time. He lives after, and this will become important, he lives after the whole rise of the Davidic house, the Davidic covenant, the Davidic promises.

In fact, Isaiah speaks to Judah, right? So the nation of Israel is divided. You have at this time the 10 northern tribes, the two southern tribes, what we identify as Judah and Benjamin, and Isaiah primarily ministers to the south. And he is speaking to, there in the south is the Davidic house, right?

And he ministers in the time where there's a number of kings, Uzziah, you see that in Isaiah 6. He dies, you meet Ahaz in Isaiah 7 or so on, he meets him, a Davidic king. And then particularly in our context of Isaiah 40, Hezekiah, right? So he ministers over a period of time with some of these kings. The nation of Israel is surrounded at this point in time when Isaiah ministers with the superpower of the day. Israel's not doing much, but Assyria is the superpower of the day, and eventually down the road, about 130 years or so, it'll be Babylon. And eventually we have the Babylonian exile that takes place, and Isaiah announces that exile, but obviously doesn't live to see that.

In the book of Isaiah, you have two kings particularly. Uzziah dies. So Isaiah 6, in the year that Uzziah died, Isaiah goes into the temple and sees the Lord. But then he has conflict with Ahaz. And these Davidic kings, he's constantly, the word of the Lord has to come to them and straighten them out because they are constantly tempted to trust the nations around them to solve their problems and not the Lord. And of course, Ahaz initially in Isaiah 7 is trying to make alliances with the north, the northern tribes and Syria against ultimately Assyria and Isaiah indicts him for that. And then Hezekiah tries to do the same thing as well later on. And so Isaiah is always saying, don't align with the nations.

Trust the Lord. He will protect you. He will deliver you, and so on. Throughout the book, if you read Isaiah, the nation, both north and south, are in terrible, terrible trouble. So if you read the first five chapters of Isaiah, you just have chapter after chapter where the Lord is indicting the nation.

They have sinned. They have violated the covenant. They have rulers over them that fail to rule. And passage, text after text, chapter after chapter, the nation is seen under judgment. Isaiah 5, Isaiah describes Israel as a vineyard, a vineyard that doesn't produce good fruit, but also lousy fruit. And God will bring judgment upon the nation.

So all you have in the first five chapters, there's a couple of glimmers of hope, not much. But there's basically judgment upon the nation. And that's why Isaiah 6 is so important. The hope for Israel, even before we get to Isaiah 40, is already given to us in Isaiah 6. The nation is under judgment. What's the hope for the nation?

Isaiah goes into the temple. and sees the Lord, right? It's the Lord high and lifted up. He is the one that Israel's to look to. He is the one that will keep his promises and so on. Now in this period of time, I said that Isaiah writes post or after the establishment of the entire Davidic covenant. Now this will be important, right? The Davidic house in scripture is no, just another kingship. Go through the Old Testament if we are now to connect Isaiah to the entire Old Testament, all the way in some sense back to Genesis.

We have all the way from Genesis 3.15, we have a promise of a coming Redeemer. And as you work through the Old Testament, you won't spend time to do that, but ultimately that promise of a Redeemer takes on definition, it takes on terms of content, And that Redeemer ultimately will come from David. It'll come through the Davidic house. The hope of Israel is that God will redeem his people, he will reverse the effects of sin that occurred all the way back with Adam, and he will do so through the provision of a savior, a messiah, a king, and so on.

And all of that will come not just through Abraham's line and through the nation of Israel, but specifically through David, through Judah, through the line. And all of that's context to understand something of Isaiah, right? So unless you sort of know that, then the episodes here and his interaction with Hezekiah and the Lord's indictment of the Davidic house doesn't make sense. What's the big deal? Ultimately, by this point in time in the Old Testament history, all of God's promises will be from the Lord through the Davidic house. That's important to see.

Now, that brings us now to Isaiah 40. Now, obviously, 40 is embedded in an entire book, isn't it? And as you think of Isaiah 40, it's important just to set it in the context of Isaiah. Often, we think that Isaiah is divided in terms of three sort of sections, and pretty common. Many people divide it in terms of the first 39 chapters, then chapters 40 through 55, and then 56 through 66.

That's helpful. But I do think that, of course, we know that all of these chapter divisions are what we've added. When the Bible's originally written, it's just one scroll, right? And you have to sort of figure out the breaks of the book by reading it and see how the author sort of organizes the book and sets it up and the literary features of the book.

And so this is why I think that Isaiah 39, particularly, And really, 38 and 39 really are those chapters that should go with 40 through 55. And I could give all kinds of reasons for that, and there's good reasons for that. But ultimately, these narrative here is dealing with King Hezekiah. And in chapter 36 and 37, we have a narrative of Hezekiah where God delivers Judah from Assyria, Sennacherib, by an angel that comes in and brings death to the Assyrian army. And then in chapter 38 and 39, we have another narrative about Hezekiah that deals with, he becomes ill. and he is ready to die and he pleads for God to give him longer life and the Lord gives him 15 more years. It's important to see that that story of God giving him more life actually occurred prior to chapters 36 and 37.

It's put later, right? It's almost like they're inverted. And I think that's deliberate by Isaiah because he wants the chapters on Assyria's synachorim to be read with the earlier chapters. And he wants this episode of Hezekiah's life to be read with 38 through 55. And this will make sense of why 40 begins sort of abruptly. Comfort, comfort my people. And you have to ask, why? Why comfort? Well, if you go back to 39, you'll realize why the comfort is necessary. And at 39, this is the episode, as we've said, where Hezekiah has been given 15 more years of life, but he does something in 39 which the Lord indicts him for, which sends Isaiah the prophet to him and rebukes him.

What Hezekiah does is he opens up his entire kingdom, we see this in 39.1, to Merdok, Baladan, son of the king of Babylon. And he opens his treasury and says, come on in to Judah. Look at all of that I have. And it's not just sort of an innocent show and tell here. He's actually making alliances. He's actually trying to side with the king of Babylon who's on the rise. Assyria, as I said, is the superpower. But ultimately, he's trying to make alliances. He's not trusting the Lord. And in opening up all of his palace, The Lord sees this as you're not trusting me, but you're trusting the nations around you. And so this is why Isaiah is sent to him and you have sort of him asking, what have you done?

And you have that in verse three, Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and says, what did those men say? Where did they come from? Well, they came from a distant land. Hezekiah replied, they came from Babylon. The prophet said, what did they see in your palace? They saw everything in my palace, Hezekiah said. There's nothing about my treasures that I did not show them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, verse 5, hear the word of the Lord Almighty. Because you've done this, right, the time will surely come when everything in your palace, and of course Hezekiah is the Davidic king, everything in the Davidic house, all of your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Now here's the prediction of what will occur over a hundred years later.

But because you've done this, God is going to destroy your house. He is going to destroy the Davidic house. He's going to then take all of this to Babylon. He's going to remove them from exile. Here is what he says here. And some, verse 7, he says here, nothing will be left, says the Lord. Verse 7, and some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, who will be born to you, will be taken away. They'll become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Now you sort of read that and you say, OK, well, it's a big deal. As I said, it's a huge deal.

Go back in the Old Testament, all of God's promises are centered in the Lord giving provision of a coming Davidic king. But if there's no Davidic king, if the Davidic house is destroyed, it's as if God's promises have failed. It's as if judgment has the final word. It's as if God has so given up on his people and his plan that ultimately destruction awaits and there's no hope. That's similar in the Old Testament to what happens with Abraham. Abraham is promised a seed. Through Abraham, blessing will come. And then you have that episode in Genesis 22. Abraham sacrificed Isaac.

And you think, I sacrifice him, what's gonna happen to the promises if he's dead? Life must come through him. And the same kind of dilemma is going on here. God promises the destruction of the Davidic house, then what will happen to all of those covenant promises? What will happen to all of God's promises to overturn sin, to bring a new heavens, a new earth, and to bring righteousness and so on? It's almost as if It's all for naught.

Now, Hezekiah, verse eight, he hears this, and this, when you read the Bible, it just rings so true to life, doesn't it? My son, my oldest son, works in D.C., and we together have said this is called the Hezekiah syndrome. And this is what Hezekiah says, the word of the Lord you have spoken is good. For he thought, well, at least there's peace in my life.

What a witless leader, right? He knows that the Davidic house is going to be destroyed. But what's not going to happen to me, we'll just pass it on to the kids, right? Well, nothing's changed, right? This is the Hezekiah syndrome, leader after leader, Hezekiah, faithless, witless, and so on. But the challenge here, and this is the context, The challenge is, what about God's promises?

What will happen if God doesn't keep the Davidic house and provide a Davidic king? Now that is where chapter 40 opens. And this is why in chapter 40 you constantly have the word of the Lord will be kept. The word of the Lord will be kept. It won't come through Hezekiah and it won't come through these Davidic kings, but it will ultimately come by God. God himself who will provide a king. God himself who will keep his promises.

You can find hope in him. And of course, that's where Isaiah 40 opens. Comfort, comfort my people. Why do they need comfort? Because of what has been just stated in chapter 39. Now let's now turn to Isaiah 40. There's four steps in Isaiah 40. In light of this announcement of judgment, right?

Verses one and two. there is a command for heralds to give comfort. In light of judgment, God says and commands these three voices, give comfort, give comfort to my people. So the heralds are called in verse one and two. The message of comfort comes in verses three through 11. They're commanded to give comfort and then three voices come and you hear something of the comfort they give.

And then, The glory of God is presented as the one who will keep what the message of these comfort is, right? He will keep his promises, and this is why in verses 12 through 24, we can say, here's behold your God, and the glory of God is presented. And then in verse 25 through 31, we have questions, questions that are challenging the people. Trust God, trust God, trust God, look to Him, renew your confidence in Him. So there's the breakdown really of the main passage, right?

Heralds of comfort, comfort my people in light of the judgment that's coming. Message of comfort, verses 3 to 11. The great presentation of the God of comfort, that God will keep his promises 12 through 24, and then questions that spur us on to renew our confidence in verse 25 and 31. Well, we begin with these heralds of comfort, verses 1 and 2.

Comfort, comfort my people. says, speak tenderly to Jerusalem in light of the judgment that's coming, in light of the destruction of the Davidic house, speak a word of encouragement to them. Proclaim to her, proclaim to Jerusalem, proclaim to Israel that her duress, her exile, her service, her hard service, and the idea here is the judgment that's coming. This exile, this duress has been completed.

God will not leave and abandon them forever. He will eventually restore them. He reminds them of this. And of course, the nation of Israel, when they read this way down the road, when they're sitting in Babylon, Think of how this would be an encouragement to them.

Oh, yes, God told us ahead of time this was going to happen. He reminded us that he will not leave us here. He's told us that we'll be here 70 years. All of that will be comfort. And that's what's being said here. Speak to them that their exile has been completed. Their sin has been paid for.

And of course, at the heart of Israel's problem is not only their unbelief and so on, but it's their heart of sin. Deuteronomy 10. Great passage that we read earlier in the service, the need for Israel to circumcise their hearts, right? Well, the same issue is here, but the Lord says, I will bring you back. I will forgive your sins. You will receive from the Lord's hand double for all your sins.

Now, in the context here, this is really an anticipation that we see in the prophets of a new covenant. As you read all the prophets, as they look to the future, when God says he will bring them back, and he'll restore them, and he will forgive them, here's already the new covenant promise. You see that in Isaiah. You see it in Jeremiah. You see it in Ezekiel. You see it all over, where God says, I'll do something new.

I will bring ultimately the forgiveness of sins, the circumcision of heart, the transformation of these people, and so on. And that's the comfort. God will not forget his people. They are under judgment, but God will act. God will save despite them. And that's these opening. Now, this command to comfort my people now, these shows up here secondly in terms of these voices. We have three voices. Verse three, a voice of one in the desert is calling, right? And here's what this voice says. So they're following the command of the Lord, give comfort. Well, what's the first comfort they give?

In the desert prepare or in the wilderness prepare a way for Yahweh, a way for the Lord, right? Make straight in the desert, straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up. And here's the imagery of a kind of highway. The valleys will be raised, and ultimately the mountains made low, right? So now there's a clear path that's going through the wilderness, right?

The rough shall be made level, the rugged place is plain, and The Lord of glory, that's the best way to translate this, the glory of the Lord, but the Lord and all of his glory will be revealed and all mankind together will see it. And what grounds this? The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Despite judgment, right, the first voice says, the first comfort is God will bring you back and God will bring And the imagery here is a kind of new Exodus. When you think of deliverance in the Old Testament, this is Exodus imagery. When you think of the wilderness and desert, I mean, you go back to the book of Exodus, where God delivers from Egypt, takes them into covenant relationship through the wilderness, God's provision of them. Well, here is an anticipation. And this is all seen through the prophets. Here's the anticipation. greater exodus, a greater deliverance, that through the wilderness, and often the wilderness, God meets with his people. He will provide so that in the end, the glory of the Lord will be seen throughout all the earth. That's the first comfort they give. Now, automatically, if you're thinking of the New Testament, This is where Matthew begins in chapter three. This is where Mark begins in the ministry, right? This voice calling in the wilderness, here's the glory of the Lord coming.

This is applied to John the Baptist in the New Testament, isn't it? So eventually here, they don't know it, speaking of John and so on, but in this point here, what they're hearing is God will not abandon you. He will act again as he has done before. He will keep his new covenant promises, and you will see the glory of God, right? All of that already is fulfilled in Christ, but we'll come to that. Then it says in verse six, the second voice, Okay, the first voice says, God is gonna make a highway, he's gonna bring a new deliverance. The second voice, cry out, what shall I cry? And of course, notice how all of it is centered on God's promises, isn't it?

All men are like grass. Hezekiah is like grass, the people are like grass, all of these people that fail to believe the word of the Lord, that fade in terms of their lives. All men are like grass, all their glory is like the flowers of the field. Grass withers, flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass, right? You think of the nation of Israel, yeah, they're grass, right? Bellious, hard-hearted people, they come and they go, the kings come and go. They never believe the word of the Lord, but what does last? The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the only sure thing that lasts is God's word, right? Because he stands behind it and his promises are good. That's the context here. The word of our God stands forever. And of course, in the context of chapter 39, This is bound up with the promise of the Davidic house. The Davidic house will be destroyed, but the hope of the world is found through the provision of a Davidic king.

How is this going to happen? Well, God will keep his promise. God will provide one. And of course, later on in the book of Isaiah, you move very quickly to the servant songs and so on, right? The servant of the Lord will come, and ultimately that is fulfilled in Christ. But that's what they're being reminded of. Despite what you see around you, despite the failure of the kings and the nation and so on, God will never fail. He will keep his word. The word of our God stands forever, specifically words tied to his covenant promises. That's what the context here.

And then the third voice in verses 9 through 11, you who bring good tidings to Zion, to Jerusalem. Go up on the high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice. So here's the third voice. Each voice is giving comfort. This third voice says, lift it up, do not be afraid. And what's it say? Here is God. That's what it says, right? It's reminding them. Look to him. Here's the voice of comfort. Don't look to Hezekiah. Don't look to these other kings. Don't look to the nations around you. As he will develop later in 40, they just come and go.

Here is God. Behold your God. See, verse 10, the sovereign Lord comes. His arm rules for him. See his reward is with him. His recompense accompanies him. He tends them. like his flock, like a shepherd. He gathers them as lambs in his arms. He carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those who have young. What's he reminding them of?

He's gonna go on and unpack even more the glory of God, but he's reminding them that this God who brings judgment is also the God who keeps his promises. What kind of God is he? Well, he's the God of covenant, isn't he? He's the God who's a shepherd.

Can't read this without Psalm 23. You can't read this. Now, Ezekiel comes a little bit later than Isaiah, but eventually, as the nation of Israel reads this, they're going to read Ezekiel, Ezekiel 34. And in Ezekiel 34, Israel's leaders are described as shepherds, but they all fail. God is the true shepherd of Israel. And so what this voice is reminding them is, remember God, remember the one who is the Lord, who is our shepherd, the one who chose Israel. Through them, God's plan will come.

He will not fail to guide you and to lead you and to provide for you. That is what he is reminding them of. And so these three voices are bringing them back to who God is, right? Reminding them of his word, reminding them that they may fail, but he does not. And that moves then to this sort of third section of the passage, where in verses 12 through 24, just in a number of ways, they're beholding their God.

They're reminded that the God who has created them, who's redeemed them, who's entered into covenant with them, who's made promises with them, is able to keep it. He's not a finite God. He's not a weak God. He's the God who rules even over the nations of this world. His promises will never fail. And that's what's driving this entire section here. So he begins in verses 12 through 14, sort of breaking down this presentation of, behold your God.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, the breadth of his hand? Fine-tuned is the word here, the heavens, right? Obviously, God. God has fine-tuned them, created them. This is creator. Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on a scales, the hills in a balance? And obviously, these questions are to say only God. Only God is the creator. Only he is the one who has made all things. Obviously, in scripture, the doctrine of God and creation is what governs all of his greatness and glory and so on, and that's what's being reminded here. And then it moves quickly to his understanding. Who, in verse 13, has understood the mind of the Lord? Who has instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him?

He didn't consult Assyria. Hezekiah consults Babylon. He doesn't consult the nations. He doesn't consult humans. He doesn't consult the intelligentsia. He himself knows all things. And of course, why this is being given here, the point of this, who has taught him knowledge, who showed him the path of understanding, ultimately, it's driving Israel to say, God knows what he's doing.

Now, they're going to need to be reminded of that. They're going to see the northern tribes fall, and they're going to say, where's God? They're going to see 100 and something years later, the southern tribe fall. Where's God? Where is promise? And what this is reminding them is God is on his own timetable. God will keep his own promises.

You don't instruct him. You don't say, hey, I don't think you're doing things well in the universe here. Let me help you out a little bit. No one consults. He doesn't consult us. We ultimately have to trust him. And that's why this is presented here. Who did the Lord consult? No one. So what are you to do?

And then he moves in verses 15, behold, the nations are a drop in the bucket. Of course, he's reminding that all the way through this book, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings are always trusting and making alliances with the nations. Why do that, he says. Ultimately, the nations are nothing. He says, they are regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they are fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. He says here, before him all the nations are nothing. They're regarded as his worthless, less than nothing. What's emphasized here is the God who doesn't need the nations. The God who is independent, God who is self-sufficient.

You can't offer him enough. You can't bribe him enough. He must act on your behalf. He must be the one that you trust in. You can't wrap him around your little finger and get him to do what he wants. He's the one who knows exactly what he's doing. He's the one that will be on his own timetable. That's what's being emphasized.

And of course, verses 18 through 20 is a kind of main section of this, where simply it says, who are you going to compare him to? Are you going to compare him to the gods of the nations? Are you going to compare him to the nations themselves, the rulers? What image will you compare him to?

Idols are just simply crafted. They fall down. This God that you're dealing with is creator and Lord, alone God, the eternal one, who is perfect in himself. And then, of course, in verse 21, These rhetorical questions come that eventually challenge the Hezekiahs of the world and the Ahaz of the world and so on, where even the nations, Assyria, Babylon, eventually as you work through Old Testament ancient history, Greece, Rome. Empire after empire, nation after nation, all of that is in the sovereign hand of God. And that's what he says here. Do you not know? Have you not heard, verse 21, have it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. He's not just a petty king who's ruling here. He's the one who rules over all, right? All people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy. He spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught.

And the nation of Israel is going to have to hear that, right? Assyria seems mighty strong. Everyone's trying to make alliances to fight them, but the Lord just simply has to send an angel in and Sennacherib's army's gone. He just has to simply remove those leaders. Nebuchadnezzar will rise. But eventually, he turns him into insanity in Daniel 4. Persians come, and he eventually wipes them out. Alexander the Great, powerful man, eventually just off the face of the earth, right?

And nation after nation, this is what he's reminding them of. Princes brings naught. He reduces the rulers of the world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, No sooner do they take root in the ground, yet he just simply, on them, and they wither, right?

And the whirlwind sweeps like chaff, right? You know what chaff is, right? Yes. Combines take wheat and corn and so on as just the remains that just blow in the wind, right? Well, this is in contrast to eventually maybe earlier on where he said in verse 5 that, God in all of his glory will be seen. Well, the opposite of glory is chaff.

And ultimately, he's reminding the nation of Israel here, the comfort that he gives, is that the nations that you think are so great, the nations that will eventually rule you, the nations that come and go, ultimately they're under the sovereign hand of God.

And you are gonna have to trust his wisdom. You're gonna have to trust his leading. Now, you think of this in terms of a time period, though. I mean, hundreds of years from Assyria's destruction to Babylon's rise to 70 years in exile and so on. I mean, the nation of Israel has to say, you know what? We can't figure it out. Around us looks topsy-turvy.

God is the Lord of it all, and he will eventually keep his promise. We don't know how, and of course we see this obviously in hindsight in terms of the coming of Christ, but here, right, that's what this passage is doing, and it's opening up a whole section in Isaiah to say God will never fail.

That's why these The last section here, verse 25 and following, are just three questions. Three questions that challenge these people with their unbelief, encourage them to trust God, encourage them to wait, even though they may not in their own day see God act. God will, though, right?

And so that's why we have in verse 25, to whom will you compare me? Who is my equal, says the Holy One. And that comes from Isaiah 6. Lift up your eyes, look to the heavens who created all of these, who brings out the starry host, and so on. But whom will you compare me? This whole questions here are saying you don't think big enough about God. Your thoughts are so puny. You don't even trust him. Who are you going to compare me to? Who is going to keep promises? Not the peoples of this earth, not you. You're like grass. You fade. I will.

So he's challenging, remove your puny thoughts about God. Verse 27, don't think wrongly about yourself, is here. Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, my cause is disregarded by my God? Right, this is what Israel would say is, God's abandoned us. But here he says, remember who you are.

You are the covenant people. God set his love upon you. Through you, I will bring blessing. I will bring promises. I will not let you fail. You need to trust who you are. And of course, this is to Israel. They're to trust that they are the people that God will keep his promises through, right? And so he says, think rightly about yourself as the covenant people. I'm the covenant God and I never abandon my people, right? And so he's to remind them of that. And they need to hear that, especially when they're sitting in Babylon.

And then he says in verse 28, rebukes, really challenges them, don't have slowness of heart. Believe, trust, even if you have to wait. He says, do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. You're not, but he is. The creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary. His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, increases the power of the weak.

Even youth, you think of youth as strong and virile and so on, but they grow weary, right? Even youth's tired and weary. And they become then old, and they become the grass of the field. The young men stumble and fall, but, and this is now reminding them you need a long-term look here.

But you who hope, those who hope in the Lord. And again, the context here is hope in what? Hope that God's promises will never fail, right? That it may look bad. It may look for a hundred years or so, and 70 years in Babylon, and 400 years between the return from exile to the coming of Christ, it may look, what? Where's God? What's he doing?

But those who trust in God, the everlasting one, the God whose wisdom you cannot fathom, the God who knows exactly what he's doing even though you don't know what he's doing, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. And the hope here ultimately is tied to Christ, isn't it? The hope here long-term is tied to the promise of the new covenant. Those who hope in the Lord, hope in the provision of God, hope in ultimately the coming of the Redeemer who comes, will renew their strength.

They will soar like wings, like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. This doesn't make you a super runner. You can be an Iron Man person or something like that. Ultimately, it's my confidence is in God. I will look to Him. I will trust in Him. He will never fail. I mean, this is, in some sense, in this context here, this is what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 11, right?

Old Testament saints who, as they lived their lives, they trusted God. They were people of faith. Some saw God do mighty things, and others of them were cut in two, right? Yet, they kept looking to God to keep his promise. They kept looking to the coming of Christ. And as they did, ultimately God kept his promise.

And there's where we then, of course, as we think of sort of this last area here of fulfillment in Christ, this passage here needs to be read not just as comfort for Israel and anticipation of the Babylonian exile and so on, but the long haul of it is this is fulfilled in Christ, right?

This is what we already saw. I mentioned that the passage of the voice crying in the wilderness and so on is applied to John the Baptist and the new. What this passage is forcing the nation of Israel to look forward to is God eventually will keep his promise through the provision of a king, a Davidic house in the person of his son, right? And that's why Matthew opens the gospel with the genealogy, a Davidic genealogy. The Davidic king has come. The promises are here. This virgin conceived one who now lived his life and died his death and was raised for our justification.

This is how this passage is looking forward to what we now know has happened. Now, that has great application for us, doesn't it? This passage, just by itself in Isaiah 40 and so on, is a great reminder. We need to renew our confidence in God. We need to look to him who makes promises and so on. But there's a sense in which, I mentioned Hebrews 11, and this is how the author of Hebrews works. There's a sense in which we are encouraged and even rebuked, possibly, of not trusting God's promises in a far greater way than Israel. because they were encouraged to look to what God would do, and he eventually did that in the coming of Christ. We now live in light of all those promises. We can see, oh, we see how Isaiah 40 is filled. We see how the servant of the Lord has come.

We now look to his second coming, yes, but we should have, in some sense, greater assurance, greater confidence, greater trust that even if our days look like what on earth is going around in the world, what's going on in this country and so on, that Christ will come, that he's still the same God who sits above the heavens, who is working out his purposes. We have greater confidence that's the case now in the coming of Christ and that he will come again and he will wrap things up and that our lives even today are to be lived in trust, hope, faith, obedience, not despair. Ultimately being busy about carrying out gospel work, carrying out the preaching of his word, raising families, raising another generation. You say, what's going to happen to my children and grandchildren?

We entrust them to the Lord. We raise them. The Lord will then keep his promises. Christ will return. He'll protect his church. The gates of hell won't prevail. That's how this gets now applied to us. And what grounds it is the God of creation, is the God of providence, is the God of redemption, is the sovereign one who never, ever fails.

Now, he's on a different timetable than us. We like him to say, well, I'd like you to do that a little faster. Whatever his time tale is, how long the Lord tarries, I do not know. But I do know, as this passage reminded this nation, as they had to wait 700 years before the coming of Christ, we then know God's knowledge is perfect. He doesn't consult us. His plan will take place.

And we then are to live in joyful obedience, renewing. There's how we apply this passage to us, hoping in the Lord now that Christ has come, longing for his second coming, renewing our strength, Soaring, right, in some sense, even though we are weak in ourselves, we're strong in him, not ourselves, right? We can soar like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint, right?

Now, for the church, this is great encouragement, right? Encouragement, it's a kind of sometimes kick in the pants, right? I mean, just as these questions here are challenging the nation of Israel to say, don't have small thoughts of God. Don't be slow to believe. Well, that challenges us today as his church, right? To believe in his promises, to believe in what Christ is doing, to believe that what we're doing now is for good and right, and that all of God's promises will be realized.

But for those outside the church, We're reminded, those outside of Christ, these promises aren't for us. We're not renewing anything. We're not renewing strength. Ultimately, we will be standing against the God who is governing all things, who is bringing his purposes to an end, who is bringing all things to not just salvation for his people, but ultimately judgment for this world. And we want to be those who are found not outside of God's promises in Christ.

But we want to be those who are found in Him, so that we can say, and this is where Romans 8 would go, isn't it? That no matter what happens in life, whatever the circumstances are, difficulties and trial, we know for God's people, all things, everything works together for good, right? That is what we want, that's the assurance we want, but that comes by being found in Christ, right? That to which this text actually is driving us to. come to Him, rest in Him, trust in Him, and the covenant God can be our God, right? And then we are to be those who walk with Him, know Him, renew our confidence in Him.

So my prayer is that this day that what this passage finishes this with will be true of us. Even this day, this week. Our hope in the Lord, even in a far greater way than's even given here, will be renewed in the Lord Jesus, right? That we will renew ourselves in God's word and his promises, trust him and trust him alone. That we will be strengthened, that we will run the race before us, and that we will not grow weary, but we will continue to look to Christ all the days of our life.

Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this passage. Thank you for this ancient prophet, Isaiah, who so clearly encourages people in his day, the nation of Israel, the tribes of Judah, and so on, as they look to the future, but also in some sense in a far greater way is teaching us, encouraging us, challenging us, rebuking us, helping us to renew our confidence in you who has fulfilled all of your promises, who's kept all of your promises, not just made them, but you've kept them in Jesus Christ our Lord. Help us to be people even this week who look at all that's going around us Take it seriously, yet we know that you are on the throne, that we will look to you, that we will carry out the business that you've called us to do, raising families, carrying out our work, praising Christ, proclaiming Christ to our unsaved friends, and so on, and doing all that you've called us to do in faithfulness and trust, knowing that there's coming a day when the Lord Jesus will come and make everything new. And we long for that day, but in the meantime, keep us faithful, keep us walking, running, the race before us, looking unto Jesus, the author, perfecter of our faith. And it's in his name we ask these things. Amen.