First light on a faint track running west across the stony desert toward far low hills, a few acacias beside it, the ground still in shadow.

Comfort My people

Isaiah 40

When did you last hear a word that was pure comfort?

31 verses≈ 6 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the ServantChapter 40
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Prepare the Way for the LORD

God

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

First light on one stretch of Jerusalem’s broken wall: tumbled cut stones with grass and small white flowers growing between them, the sun just touching the top stones.

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her

that her forced labor has been completed;

her iniquity has been pardoned.

For she has received from the hand of the LORD

double for all her sins.”

Isaiah

A voice of one calling:

“Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness;

make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill made low;

the uneven ground will become smooth,

and the rugged land a plain.

And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,

and all humanity together will see it.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The Enduring Word

Isaiah

A voice says, “Cry out!”

And I asked, “What should I cry out?”

“All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like the flowers of the field.

Isaiah

Isaiah

The grass withers and the flowers fall

when the breath of the LORD blows on them;

indeed, the people are grass.

Isaiah

Question

Quick question

All four Gospels quote verse 3 when they tell how Jesus’ ministry began.

Whose voice do the Gospels say was calling in the wilderness?

Here Is Your God!

Isaiah

A herald seen from behind on a high bare summit, cloak blowing, one arm raised, calling out over terraced hills and small walled towns far below in the morning.

Go up on a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good news.

Raise your voice loudly,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news.

Lift it up,

do not be afraid!

Say to the cities of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

Isaiah

Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,

and His arm establishes His rule.

His reward is with Him,

and His recompense accompanies Him.

Isaiah

Isaiah

He tends His flock like a shepherd;

He gathers the lambs in His arms

and carries them close to His heart.

He gently leads the nursing ewes.

Isaiah

A hand-held beam balance with stone weights set down on a cloth on a high rock ledge, beside a small woven basket of dust, above a vast view of mountain ranges and a far sea in late light.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?

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

or weighed the mountains on a scale

and the hills with a balance?

Isaiah

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,

or informed Him as His counselor?

Whom did He consult to enlighten Him,

and who taught Him the paths of justice?

Who imparted knowledge to Him

and showed Him the way of understanding?

Isaiah

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are considered a speck of dust on the scales;

He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

Isaiah

Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel,

nor its animals enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before Him;

He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.

Isaiah

To whom will you liken God?

To what image will you compare Him?

Isaiah

Isaiah

To an idol that a craftsman casts

and a metalworker overlays with gold

and fits with silver chains?

One lacking such an offering

chooses wood that will not rot.

He seeks a skilled craftsman

to set up an idol that will not topple.

Isaiah

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth?

Isaiah

From the edge of a very high mountain, looking down to a valley floor where a small walled town, fields and roads lie tiny as a map under a wide sky.

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth;

its dwellers are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

Isaiah

He brings the princes to nothing

and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless.

No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown,

no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground,

than He blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.

God

“To whom will you liken Me,

or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.

Isaiah

A clear moonless winter night over the desert, the Pleiades a small tight cluster high up, Orion's belt three stars in a row, one small black tent on a thin line of hills.

Lift up your eyes on high:

Who created all these?

He leads forth the starry host by number;

He calls each one by name.

Because of His great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

Isaiah

Why do you say, O Jacob,

and why do you assert, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my claim is ignored by my God”?

Isaiah

A long empty wilderness road at noon running into heat haze; in the shade of a boulder beside it, a plain staff and a limp leather waterskin set down.

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;

His understanding is beyond searching out.

0:12

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Isaiah

He gives power to the faint

and increases the strength of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall.

Isaiah

But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength;

they will mount up with wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not faint.

Pray

Lord, speak comfort to me when the weight of my sin presses down, and tell me again that it is pardoned. When everything I lean on withers, hold me to Your word that stands. I am tired; teach me to wait on You, and renew my strength. Amen.

The comfort, step by step

Whiteboard

Comfort begins with sin forgiven and ends with strength for the weak, and between them stands a God no idol can be compared with.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 40

0 of 66 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

or swipe left