Will you please turn to Isaiah Chapter 40? We will read from verses 1 through 5.
Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned;
that she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord;
make level in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain:
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.
And verse 31:
But they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
they shall walk, and not faint.
We know that the book of Isaiah can be very roughly divided into two parts. From Chapter 1 through Chapter 39 is the first part, and there you will find the prophet is more concerned with history.
The second part begins from Chapter 40 through Chapter 66. In this very distinct part, the prophet is not so much concerned with history, but rather with prophecy.
The theme of this part of Isaiah actually agrees with the name of the prophet. We know Isaiah means, “The salvation of the Lord.” So here you will find, in this second part, that it deals mainly with the salvation of the Lord.
It tells us of the work of redemption of our Lord. It tells us of our Redeemer. It tells us of those that are redeemed. So in this second part of Isaiah, you will find it is altogether concerned with this matter of salvation, of redemption, of deliverance that comes from the Lord.
And this part begins with a cry. It is the cry of the Lord, through the prophet, to His people. And the cry is, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.”
Because of the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel, they were chastened of the Lord. And the chastening was of such a nature that they were even taken into captivity.
But here you will find the Lord returned to them in mercy and in grace. And the word of the Lord to His afflicted people was, “Comfort ye, My people.”
God considered their punishment as enough. God had forgiven their iniquities, and God was now returning to His people. God said, “Be ye comforted.”
Now, dear brothers and sisters, I believe we all need to be comforted.
The word comfort, in the original, simply means calling to one’s side—calling to one’s side. That is to say, to come to your aid, to exhort you, to encourage you, to comfort you, and to strengthen you. And that is the meaning of the word comfort in Greek.
And, of course, when it refers to a person, it is the Comforter, Parakletos: One who is called to your side, to take up your cause, to plead for you, to help you, to render you every help that you need. And that is the meaning of the words comfort and Comforter.
Now, brothers and sisters, our God is the God of all comfort. You remember in 2 Corinthians Chapter 1, verse 3, Paul said:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.
Now, the word comfort in some versions is translated encouragement. It is the same word. Our God is the Father of mercies. He is full of compassion—the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
He comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any tribulation whatever, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God. Our God is the God of all comfort.
And our Lord Jesus is the consolation of Israel. You remember in Luke Chapter 2, Simeon was looking for the consolation of Israel, and this referred to our Lord Jesus.
And, of course, the Holy Spirit is another Comforter. Why? Because our Lord Jesus was a Comforter to His disciples when He was with them. And now He was going away, but He promised to send another Comforter—another of the same kind, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit would be with them and in them, and would never leave nor forsake them. He would be with the disciples forever, to be their Comforter.
So, dear brothers and sisters, remember that our God is the God of all comfort. This is His very name. This speaks of, this reveals, His very nature. It is His wish to comfort us, to strengthen us.
Sometimes He may have to discipline us, and yet do not misunderstand Him: He has no desire just to punish us. Instead, He is our consolation. He is our comfort. He is the Comforter.
We all need to be comforted. Sometimes, because of our failures, because of our unbelief, God has to chasten us, to discipline us.
And during the time of chastening, it is not a pleasant and joyful time. But even so, you will find His rod comforts.
You remember in Psalm 23:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
Sometimes we enter into the valley of the shadow of death. Sometimes we may enter into His discipline. Yes, His staff comforts. You know, the staff is to help, to rescue, to lead, and certainly His staff comforts us. But do not forget: His rod comforts us too.
Even though sometimes He may have to smite us, He may have to apply the rod upon us and make us feel it, yet you will find, “Thy rod comforts.” Why? Because He is the God of all comfort.
The reason why He disciplines us is because He loves us. In the very act of His discipline, there is the expression of His love. If He does not care, if He does not love us, He will not even chasten us. It is the rod of love, the rod of comfort.
I remember I read somewhere in a book: once a youngster said his parents did not love him. Why? Because his parents never disciplined him. The rod was never applied to him.
“Thy rod comforts me.” And sometimes it may not be because we have sinned or failed that we fall into discipline.
Sometimes, like Paul and Timothy in 2 Corinthians, you will find Paul mentions how God is the God of all comfort, how He encourages him, how He comforts him in all his tribulation.
Now certainly Paul ran into tribulation not because he was unfaithful, but because he was too faithful. You know, sometimes because you are faithful to the Lord, you will get into problems. You will get into trouble. You will be persecuted, or you may have tribulation.
Why? Not because there is something negative in your life, but because God is working something positive into your life.
In tribulation, you will be comforted that you may comfort those who are in tribulation. In order that the Lord may use you to minister to those who are in need, He allows you to go through tribulation and be encouraged, strengthened, and comforted, that you may encourage and comfort those who are in need. That is positive.
So, dear brothers and sisters, our life is full of problems. Our life is full of all kinds of circumstances. Sometimes because of our failure we are disciplined, and other times because God wants to work something positive in us, that we may be used in His hand.
And when we are under all kinds of circumstances, do we need to be comforted? Is there anyone who does not have the need of comfort?
Look at Paul. Why, surely Paul—he is a spiritual giant. He is strong. But does he need to be comforted?
You read 2 Corinthians, and you will find eleven times the word comfort. I hope you will go through it and find all the places where the words comfort, encourage, or encouragement are used. Even Paul needed comfort.
How he was concerned with the condition of the Corinthians. He sent Titus to them, and he made an agreement with Titus to meet him in Troas. But when Paul came to Troas and Titus did not come back, Paul was so concerned that he could not work.
The Lord opened a door for him in Troas, and yet he could not work. He went to Macedonia, and then when he met Titus—when Titus came and Paul was comforted by the very presence of Titus, and also by the glad tidings that Titus brought back.
Paul needed to be comforted. There is no one who does not need, at one time or another, to be comforted. Now, some people probably need it more than other people, but how we all need to be comforted. And thank God, He is the God of all comfort.
It is His word to His afflicted people: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people.” It is the desire of the Lord to comfort us. And the word comfort, of course, we know, is more than just consolation. It means strengthening—to strengthen us.
As Paul says in Philippians 4:13:
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
This is our God.
Now, how did God comfort His people? The nation of Israel was in captivity. And how was God going to comfort them? By what would God comfort His afflicted people?
Was it just by bringing them back to Jerusalem? Was it just by turning the captivity? Remember, these were outward circumstances. But the real comfort with which God comforted His afflicted people was by the promise of the coming of the Messiah.
In other words, the comfort of the Lord is His presence with His people. When He promised to come back, when He promised to be with His people: “Behold, thy King cometh. Behold, the Lord is now with you.”
Now, when the Lord came back to His people, then His afflicted people were comforted. In other words, comfort is not just trying to change your circumstances. Comfort is not just trying to bring you into a better position.
Now, all these things will happen, but remember: the real comfort with which God comforts His people is Himself. He comforts us with His coming to us. Is there any comfort better than that?
You know, sometimes in our feelings, especially when we are surrounded with problems and troubles, especially when we are under tribulation or discipline, our feeling is, “The Lord has left us. He has forsaken us.”
And oftentimes you will find the psalmist crying out, “Why? Why do You leave us? Where are You? Why do You not speak? Why do You keep silent? Where can I find You?”
And oftentimes you will find this agitation, this turmoil, springing up in our soul because we feel the Lord has left us. He has forsaken us. He has turned His back to us. He remains silent to us. We cry, and He does not answer.
Now, brothers and sisters, it is true so far as our feelings are concerned. Oftentimes we find we are under such kinds of circumstances, and we will not be comforted. No matter what people say, no matter how people say it, we just refuse to be comforted.
Why? Because we feel the Lord has left us. The Lord has forsaken us. He has shut His ears toward us. He turns His back to us. That is our feeling.
Oh, if only He will return to us, then all these tribulations do not matter anymore.
No, the greatest problem is this: What is the greatest hardship to a believer? Not the difficult situation. It is the feeling of being forsaken.
If the Lord is present with you, no matter how hard things are, you are comforted; there is strength. But when you feel the Lord has left you, forsaken you, then you are finished.
Think of our Lord Jesus. Throughout His life, the sense of the presence of His Father was ever with Him. No matter what happened to Him, there was that comfort.
And even when He was crucified on the cross, He was surrounded by His enemies. Oh, how the people ridiculed Him. How Satan tried to use everything to hurt Him and to harm Him.
And yet, when He was on the cross, He could pray, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” His Father was with Him. There was strength.
But when He came to the twelfth hour, at noontime, and the sun was darkened, there you find our Lord Jesus began to cry:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Here you find the very presence of His Father left Him. He was all alone as a sin offering for the whole world, and He could not stand it. He cried out in desperation.
Now, brothers and sisters, that is the hardest thing to a believer. Oh, sometimes you may feel, you may think, that God has left you. You may think you are alone, and you will find yourself completely collapsed.
You do not know what to do. You need to be comforted. And how are you to be comforted? By the return of the Lord.
If only He will come back to you, you do not mind what circumstances you may be in. That is not a problem. You will have the strength to bear it. His coming to you is your comfort.
But has He ever left you or forsaken you? So far as your feelings are concerned, it may be true. But, dear brothers and sisters, you know that He has never left you nor forsaken you.
He is waiting to appear to you. And the reason why it seems there is a veil, there is a covering, is because He wants to teach you some lessons.
Oh, how the Lord Himself is our comfort. There is no one who can comfort us but our Lord Jesus. He is our consolation, and His being with us is our strength.
God spoke to the children of Israel, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people.” But how did the comfort come to them? You find there was a process.
Immediately after the cry of comfort, there was a cry in the wilderness:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Of course, historically we know that this prophecy was fulfilled with the coming of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a voice in the wilderness. John the Baptist was sent before the coming of Christ to prepare the way for the Lord—a highway for the Lord.
You know, sometimes God cannot reach you. God wants to reach you, but there is no way. Sometimes we are all desert. Sometimes there are valleys and mountains, crookedness and roughness, in our lives, and the Lord cannot reach us. There is no highway for God to come to us.
And because of that, certain preparation is necessary. Before Christ should come to the nation of Israel, John the Baptist had to be sent first as a forerunner to prepare the way of the Lord.
And, of course, we know the way he prepared was by calling the people to repent:
Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The nation needed to repent before they were ready to receive the Messiah, Christ.
And, dear brothers and sisters, in principle this is true with us too. God is the God of all comfort. It is His wish to comfort us and to strengthen us, but sometimes He has no way to reach us.
It is not that He does not want to come to us. We think that we need comfort and He delays. Not so. It is because there is no preparation of heart.
There are valleys in our lives—hidden, secret sins, weaknesses in our lives. There are valleys there.
Sometimes there are mountains and hills in our lives: unbelief, vanity, pride, like mountains standing in the way. Sometimes there is crookedness; other times there is roughness.
Crooked and rough—it reminds me of two brothers, Esau and Jacob. Jacob is crooked and Esau is rough. And you know, we have both Esau and Jacob within us. There is that crooked Jacob within us, and there is a rough Esau in us.
The valleys need to be raised and filled. The mountains need to be leveled. The crooked needs to be made straight, and the rough needs to be smoothed. Brothers and sisters, preparation.
How often we desire to be comforted. We long to be comforted. We are waiting to be comforted. And all the while, the Spirit of God is working in us with the ministry of John the Baptist.
In other words, the Spirit of God is convicting us; He is bringing us into repentance. He is dealing with the crookedness and the roughness of our lives. He is dealing with the hills and mountains and the valleys of our lives.
And unless our hidden valleys are raised and exposed, our mountains are removed, our crookedness is made straight, and our roughness is smoothed, He has no highway to reach us.
Thank God, He is faithful. He is coming to us. But there must be repentance. We must accept the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting us and convincing us. We must allow Him to deal with us until we are ready for the King.
We are ready to receive Him as our King, as our Shepherd, and truly as our consolation. He will come as a Shepherd to us. He will take us in His arms. He will carry us. That is the comfort.
The comfort will come, brothers and sisters, but it has to come by way of the ministry of John the Baptist. Because unless it comes that way, we are not ready for it.
But, dear brothers and sisters, you know, when we are discouraged, we are discouraged. We want to be comforted, and yet we do not want to be comforted.
So here you find God said:
Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel,
My way is hid from the Lord,
and the justice due to me is passed away from my God?
Even though God spoke the word of comfort to His people, His people did not believe it. His people said, “My way is hid from the Lord. My right is passed away from my God. God just does not care.”
And if He does not care, what can He do? They forget that our God measures the waters in the hollow of His hand, metes out the heavens with His span, comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.
Beautiful, wonderful. If you think of that, He measures the waters in the hollow of His hand. There is just the right amount of water in this world. If there were too much water, the earth would be overwhelmed.
You know, God measures the water in the hollow of His hand. He metes out the heavens with His span. How wide? How big is heaven? We are lost with astronomical figures, and God measures the heavens with His span. Everything is measured.
He comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure. He weighs the mountains in a balance. Everything is balanced. There is no limit to His power and His love.
And yet, brothers and sisters, sometimes we can get so discouraged. All we see is our problem. We want to be comforted, and yet we refuse to be comforted. And we say, “No, it will not do. God does not care. He cannot do anything for me. This is just finished.”
Isaiah said, “Why? Why do you say that?”
Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?
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.
Have you forgotten Who God is? Do you not remember that His understanding is so great? He knows everything.
And because of that, the exhortation of the Lord to those who are so discouraged is:
They that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
they shall walk, and not faint.
If you are in need of comfort, and yet you are not comforted; if you are discouraged to the point of despair, remember this: God says, “You wait upon Me.”
He is waiting there for you, but He exhorts you to wait upon Him. He is coming to you if you just wait—just wait upon Him.
And by the word wait, we know that waiting in the Scripture does not mean you sit back passively. No, that is not waiting. Waiting is an active, patient waiting.
It is true: by waiting, you do not struggle or strive. And yet, by waiting, you wait with expectancy. You are still before the Lord, and yet you are waiting upon Him with expectancy, with belief, with faith.
And if you wait upon the Lord, what will be the result? You will mount up with wings as eagles.
Some people who know eagles tell us the way an eagle flies. An eagle does not need to flap his wings so often to make it fly. Eagles will be on the heights, waiting for the currents of the air.
When the current comes, he just mounts up with wings as eagles. He spreads his wings, and there he mounts. That is the way eagles fly.
And, brothers and sisters, if you wait upon the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord comes like a jet stream, you just spread your wings of faith and you mount up as eagles.
All the mountains will be under you. All the difficulties and the problems will be beneath you. There you soar—soar toward the sun.
And another translation of this very verse is, “They shall be renewed as the eagle.”
According to Jewish medical tradition—they say this is not science; this is tradition—an eagle, every ten years, will fly toward the sun until it is exhausted. Then it will fall into the sea, and as it reaches the sea, it will be renewed and will have new feathers and rise again.
And this will happen ten times, they say; and the tenth time, when an eagle is a hundred years old, then he will fall into the sea and appear no more. Now, that is tradition.
But we know that eagles age. Some people say an eagle’s age is renewed, and that is to say, the feathers of an eagle will be molted. It will shed off the old feathers and take new feathers. Therefore, it is like a new eagle. His strength is ever new, like an eagle.
Brothers and sisters, if we wait upon the Lord, He is the God of all comfort. As we wait upon Him, we will be comforted. We will be revived. We will be transformed. We will be renewed.
There will be no oldness, no agedness. We shall always be young and fresh in the Lord.
“Mount up with wings as eagles,” renewed as eagles’ wings. “And we shall run, and not be weary.” So far as Godward, we shall mount up with wings as eagles; we will fly toward Him.
So far as usward, we shall run and not be weary. Oh, brothers and sisters, often we run the race of life, and we get tired. There is a course before us. God has put us in the course. We have to finish our race.
And yet, in running, we find ourselves getting tired. If you wait upon the Lord, you shall run and not be weary until you reach there.
And you shall walk and not faint. This speaks of our walk toward the world. So far as our life in the world is concerned, we are walking through the world, and we shall walk on in righteousness and faith.
So, dear brothers and sisters, here you find our God is the God of comfort. Oh, how He desires to comfort us. Do not give up. Wait upon Him, and you will be comforted.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee for Thy word. Thou dost speak the words of comfort to us. Thou art the God of all comfort. Thou art the consolation of Israel. Thou art the other Comforter. O Lord, how we praise and thank Thee.
Oftentimes we feel we need to be comforted, and it seems as if Thou dost not comfort us. But Lord, we praise and thank Thee: Thou art waiting for us. Thou art preparing a highway, that Thou mayest come to us and be our Comforter.
We pray that Thou wilt comfort those who need to be comforted, encourage those who need to be encouraged. Lord, we pray that we may wait upon Thee and mount up with wings as eagles. We may run and not be weary, walk and not faint.
We praise and thank Thee for Thy word, because Thy words are true. They are living. Make them true and living to us by the working of Thy Holy Spirit in our lives. We praise Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.