Build Your Life on God’s Unchanging Word-Isaiah 40:1-11

“For the mouth of the Lord has spoken”

• In the darkest, most difficult moments of life:

1. God speaks his word of comfort (Isa 40:1).
2. Despite your ugly sin, God is tender (Isa 40:2).
3. Prepare the way, a highway, for your God (Isa 40:3-5).
4. Though you wither, God’s word stands (Isa 40:6-8).
5. God cares for you with his mighty, gentle arm (Isa 40:9-11).

Questions:

1. Who is being spoken to (Isa 40:1)? What was their situation (Isa 39:6, 7)? Is there a sense that all people in the world are in some form of exile?
2. What are three specific reasons given for Jerusalem’s comfort (Isa 40:2)? What does each one mean?
   1. Explain: “The comfort of God is not a sedative; it’s a restorative. It doesn’t just make you feel numb to the pain; it gives you strength to face it and overcome it. It’s the comfort of a finished warfare and a pardoned sin.” Tim Keller.
3. What is the “voice” instructed to do (Isa 40:3-4)? What is the ultimate purpose of this preparation (Isa 40:5)? How might Isa 40:3-5 apply to John the Baptist (Mt 3:3; Mk 1:3; Lk 3:4)? How does he fulfill these promises (Mk 1:4; Lk 3:7, 8, 9)?
   1. Explain: “The voice cries in the wilderness, in the desolate, barren, hopeless places of our lives and our world… It is the voice that calls us to prepare the way for the Lord, to make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And that means repentance. It means clearing out the rubble of our pride, our self-sufficiency, and our sin to make room for the King.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
4. What stark contrast is made in Isa 40:6-8? What is the one thing that stands in permanent contrast to human frailty? Compare the final clause of Isa 40:5 with the final clause of Isa 40:8. What is the point of this repetition (Isa 45:23; 46:11b; 55:10-11)?
   1. Explain: “The contrast between man and God’s word is the contrast between the temporary and the permanent, the frail and the solid, the seeming and the real. Our lives are brief and brittle, but the word of the Lord, the promise of the gospel, stands sure forever.” J. I. Packer.
5. What two seemingly contrasting images are used to describe the coming of the Lord (Isa 40:9-11)? What are the two different uses of “arm” (Isa 40:10, 11)? How is this good news? What are the implications of God being “like a shepherd” (Isa 40:11; Ps 23:1; 78:52; Jer 23:2, 3; Mic 2:12; Eze 34). How does Jesus exemplify this (Phil 2:5-11; Jn 10:11)?
   1. Explain: “The same God who strides with power and rules with his strong arm also gathers lambs and gently leads. The gospel is not a compromise between power and gentleness; it is the perfect, simultaneous expression of both.” Eugene Peterson.
   2. Explain: “A Christian is an impregnable person. He is a person that never can be conquered.” Richard Sibbes. The Bruised Reed.