Monday
Isaiah 40.1-2 “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.”
To people who had been through long years of exile, the loss of home, the daily friction of living in an alien culture, and unable to change things for the better, the Word of God comes, “Comfort.” There are things we can’t change, times when only God can help. Comfort means consolation and strengthening, an inner change of mind-set, and starting to believe again that newness can happen. Whatever is going on in your life, look at it and say, ignoring the poor grammar, “God has got this.”
Tuesday
Isaiah 40.3 “A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
Isaiah announces the coming of God into lives crying out for hope. In the wilderness, when the way is hard and we thirst for hope, we wander and stumble, unsure where we are going. Then the command goes out - “Straight roads! A new way! God is coming.” At times like these we are living through, when familiar landmarks seem to have disappeared, God comes - and the world will always look different with God on the horizon. Any wilderness is transformed when God is there, when God is here.
Wednesday
Isaiah 40.4 “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.”
Civil engineering works are taking place in the wilderness world of broken dreams, failed hopes, and lost purpose in life. Comfort is more than consolation. It is long promised help, when God comes to transform, to make new things happen, to change the landscape and show us a new way forward. Martin Luther King spoke these words in one of the great sermons of the 20th Century – they are liberation words, hope infused words; they are about God building a highway into human life.
Thursday
Isaiah 40.5 “And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all humanity will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
God’s glory is revealed in His coming, in the blessing of his people, in mercy and judgement, in grace and faithfulness to all God’s promises. As Christians, reading these ancient words to God’s people Israel, we see God’s glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ. We have beheld that glory, full of grace and truth. God’s way of deliverance is the veiled glory of the incarnation, the hidden glory of the cross, and the dazzling glory of the resurrection. Into a wilderness world came Jesus Christ, Son of God, through whom God is revealed in judgement, grace and reconciling love.
Thursday
Isaiah 40.6-7 “A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.”
God’s glory is eternal, human life for all its glory, is transient. Again and again the Bible warns and reminds us, human life is time limited. To live wisely and well is to live towards God, to trust in God as Creator and Redeemer. Our glory is a borrowed splendour, it is entire gift. The true glory of our lives shines out of our faith in Christ, our hope in Him, and our love for the Lord of Glory, who died and rose again for us.
Friday
Isaiah 40.7 “The grass withers, and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass.”
Isaiah is reminding the people of God that life is God’s gift. For all of us life has its seasons, and there’s no road back to Spring from Autumn. But as Paul said, “If we die, we die to the Lord, and if we live, we live to the Lord. Whether we live or die we are the Lord’s.” All through Isaiah that message reverberates – we live in, and for, and to the Lord, because “Our life is hid with Christ in God.”
Saturday
Isaiah 40.8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands for ever.”
So, life is short, transient, time limited. But the Creator who first breathed life into every one of us is eternal, and it is God’s Word that finally matters. That Word is spoken finally and forever in Jesus Christ. These sombre verses about us being like a flower that fades, and grass that withers, are to be read alongside the sure Gospel promises, the Word of our God which stands forever: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ…” That’s pure Isaiah!
Sunday
Isaiah 40.9 “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!’”
The coming of God is to be shouted, a chain reaction of praise from mountain to Temple. To the desperate question “Where is God in this wilderness?” the answer comes, loud and clear, “Here is your God.” Praise is the music of defiance, when God’s people envision mountains made low, but enough high hills are left for the heralds of God’s coming to use as platforms for God’s praise!
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