LHC Midday Word: The Book of ISAIAH

ISAIAH Chapter 40 - 66

- Overview

The Bible Project

Comfort for God’s people

Comfort, comfort my people,

says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her

that her hard service has been completed,

that her sin has been paid for,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling:

‘In the wilderness prepare

the way for the Lord;

make straight in the desert

a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be raised up,

every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

the rugged places a plain.

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

and all people will see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

A voice says, ‘Cry out.’

And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’

‘All people are like grass,

and all their faithfulness is like

the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God endures for ever.’

You who bring good news to Zion,

go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem,

lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

say to the towns of Judah,

‘Here is your God!’

See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,

and he rules with a mighty arm.

See, his reward is with him,

and his recompense accompanies him.

He tends his flock like a shepherd:

he gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young.

Who has measured the waters

in the hollow of his hand,

or with the breadth of his hand

marked off the heavens?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

or weighed the mountains on the scales

and the hills in a balance?

Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,

or instruct the Lord as his counsellor?

Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,

and who taught him the right way?

Who was it that taught him knowledge,

or showed him the path of understanding?

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales;

he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,

nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.

Before him all the nations are as nothing;

they are regarded by him as worthless

and less than nothing.

With whom, then, will you compare God?

To what image will you liken him?

As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and fashions silver chains for it.

A person too poor to present such an offering

selects wood that will not rot;

they look for a skilled worker

to set up an idol that will not topple.

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has 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,

and its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,

and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught

and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

No sooner are they planted,

no sooner are they sown,

no sooner do they take root in the ground,

than he blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

‘To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:

who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one

and calls forth each of them by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

Why do you complain, Jacob?

Why do you say, Israel,

‘My way is hidden from the Lord;

my cause is disregarded by my God’?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

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Word by Word Meditations

by Fred Ursell

Isaiah 40: “tenderly” (v.2)

These latter chapters of Isaiah take us into the earthly ministry of Jesus. His prediction about the preaching of John the Baptist (see Matthew 3 v.3) appears here, “a voice of one calling: in the desert prepare the way for the LORD” (v.3). It’s a proclamation of God’s love “comfort, comfort my people ... speak tenderly to Jerusalem ... her hard service has been completed ... her sin has been paid for” (vv.1-2). Ever heard the gospel song “softly and tenderly Jesus is calling”?

More importantly, ever heard the Saviour’s tender voice? And responded?

The Book of ISAIAH- Chapter 40

- Read by David Suchet -