“Comfort, Comfort, My People”

The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
Rev. Cameron S. Smith
The Lord's Day, October 16, 2005
Isaiah 40:1-8
Matthew 3:1-3
Mark 1:1-5

One of my teachers at Reformed Seminary, Dr. Steve Brown, had a way with words. One of his oft-repeated lines was, "Don't doubt in the dark what God has taught you in the light." What he meant was, don't doubt the promise of the Gospel that you know by heart when tough times come. And they will come! There's not one single person sitting in here this morning who doesn't realize that life isn't always sweet. It's those times when life isn't going so well that you're tempted to doubt God's goodness. When things start to fall apart in your life, you start to doubt the promises of God. It's been my observation that, more often than not, times of crisis cause "good, Christian people" to run away from God, rather than to Him. The promises that you've heard rehearsed over and over in Sunday school and sermon just don't seem to be very meaningful or helpful compared to present problems.

The words that I just read from Isaiah 40 were words of promise. They were words of promise earmarked for God's people in exile in Babylon. Now I want you to understand, that those who were languishing in exile in Babylon had every good reason to blow off these words from the prophet Isaiah! Their situation seemed to be hopeless. Those divine promises probably meant as much to them as they do to you when you're really up against it. Not very meaningful.

Let me tell you about another kind of promise; a human promise. The kind that we would call tangible, not pie in the sky, sweet bye and bye like the promises from the Bible! Perhaps you can identify with this kind of promise a little better: The glittering, bustling city of Rhyolite, Nevada. The city was founded in 1904 when gold was discovered in the surrounding Bonanza Mountains. The two crusty miners who hit the mother lode promised that this was the big one! And indeed, their promises were soon realized. Rhyolite was destined to become an important city southern Nevada.

On the edge of Death Valley, it was unique for its time and desert environment; built mostly of concrete and stone. There were substantial three story office buildings, banks, churches and even an opera house. Good restaurants dotted the landscape along with forty-five saloons with an accompanying red-light district. The city was big enough for three daily newspapers. There were two railroads with the finest passenger station in the state. And unusual for its time, it had electric power and light; a telephone exchange and three complex water systems. Within a year, the city's population had swelled to over 10,000 residents. A tremendous promise realized in the middle of a desert!

But, bear with me as I ask you to turn your attention back to the divine promise in Isaiah 40. Let's see how God's Word stacks up against human potential and promise!

However, in order to understand what God wants to show you in this passage, we need to back up and park at Isaiah 39 for a minute.

In that chapter, there's the sad account of King Hezekiah's unfaithfulness in seeking a political alliance with the Babylonians. Hezekiah apparently didn't believe that God could preserve Judah from the mighty hand of Babylonian aggression. Take a look at Isaiah 39:1-4 (ESV):

"At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, 'What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?' Hezekiah said, 'They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.' He said, 'What have they seen in your house?' Hezekiah answered, 'They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.'".

This particular letdown is such a strange turn of events from Hezekiah's earlier strong, public faith when the King of Assyria was ready to invade Jerusalem. Take a look at that prayer recorded in Isaiah 37:15-20:

"And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: 'O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.'"

What a prayer! What faithfulness! And so, in light of the king's sad dealings with the Babylonian envoys, Isaiah responds to Hezekiah's faithless actions with a word from the Lord:

"Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, 'The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.' For he thought, 'There will be peace and security in my days.'" (Isaiah 39:5-8).

Oh, there was peace in Hezekiah's lifetime, but little more than a hundred years after his death, Judah was carried away to Babylon and the Jerusalem Temple reduced to rubble. God's promise through Isaiah was certain.

And now in chapter 40, finally back to chapter 40! Isaiah is speaking from the vantage point of Hezekiah's time, and speaking words of comfort down the corridors of time to captive Judah in Babylon. Just as God's promise of exile was certain, his promise of deliverance from that exile was every bit as sure.

And now, read with me the opening words of Isaiah 40.1-2: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. The first thing to be noticed about God's promise is that your sin and rebellion can't cancel it out! Coming on the heels of the bad news of exile, God shows that He will never ultimately forsake his people. "Comfort, comfort my people…." Surely, Judah got what she deserved with exile. Her rebellion had guaranteed that bondage. But yet, God was promising to take it upon himself to "fix" the situation: He would forgive their sins and restore them to a right relationship with Himself.

The last part of verse 2 in particular, is unbelievably gracious: Judah's "iniquity [has been] pardoned…[and she will] receive from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." It means that God will not hold your sins against you anymore - He granted a double pardon to His people!

Let's move on to Isaiah 40.3-5,"A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become 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 has spoken.'" Think back now to our readings from Matthew and Mark where this very passage is quoted. (Incidentally, both Luke and John use the same passage, with John putting the words directly on the Baptist's lips, cf. John 1:23!) John the Baptist is the voice crying in the desert, and the deliverance is from the bondage of sin rather than political exile in Babylon. To New Testament ears, this powerful passage finds ultimate fulfillment in the salvation ushered in through Jesus Christ. Isaiah's words speak not only to the Babylonian exiles back then, but he's speaking to you as well. Your rebellion can't defeat the promise of God. In Jesus, you have received a double pardon for all your sins.

I can tell you that this promise of an undeserved and unearned double pardon is a hard pill to swallow for conscientious people. I read an op-ed piece that opined on the popularity of former boxer, Muhammad Ali. The "greatest" is quoted in the article saying, "Service to others is the rent you pay for a room in heaven." Well, based on the experience of Israel and your own daily experience, you know that heaven would be hopelessly out of reach if the promise depended on human ability to pay the "rent." But Isaiah says that the promise in Christ is accessible because it doesn't depend on your good works and efforts to receive it.

Perhaps your experience is the same as mine. I don't really have a problem believing the promise that my sins have been forgiven. But, I struggle with the promise of being delivered from the bondage of sin. I think the reason I find it so difficult is that I'm confronted with my own sinfulness every single day.

To give you an example, during Shannon's pregnancy with Matthew. We were both overjoyed at the prospect of being parents. We experienced two miscarriages and despaired of ever being able to have a child. But, then this Matthew came along. But, as sin would have it, we both started to worry excessively about things that we had no control over. What would happen if she weren't able to work right up through her delivery date? We wouldn't have enough money saved up for maternity leave, to pay bills, etc. We could talk about God's deliverance and protection on a theoretical basis, but when we were faced with possible financial disaster, propositional truth just didn't seem to alleviate our anxiety or warm our hearts.

As we were at the height of our concern, we found out that Shannon's employer had recently purchased both short term and long-term disability insurance for her. 100% coverage! He was completely unaware of our worries, but just decided on his own that he wanted to do something nice for her. We knew differently. We had a vertical perspective. We felt so embarrassed that we had distrusted God so much.

When we talk about God's promise of deliverance, Romans 8:28 comes immediately to mind: "all things work together for the good to those who love God." It doesn't mean that we're going to have a stress-free life, or freedom from suffering. But it does mean, as 1 Peter 1:7 says, that when suffering is our lot, it is still our deliverance because these fires refine our faith so that it results in praise, glory and honor to Jesus Christ.

Since I've shared with you a little bit about our family's struggle with unbelief at that time in our lives; let me give you the sequel:
As the pregnancy was nearing its end, I was sitting in my seminary class one day, and the Registrar, Lanny Conley walked into class with a panicky look on his face. He gave me an emergency message, "Your wife is at Arnold Palmer Hospital. No need to call, just come." No other explanation. I was immediately awash in worry and fear. It was too early for the delivery, so something had to be wrong! Was Shannon okay? Were we losing Matthew? I didn't know. It's kind of ironic that the class I was in that day was Psychopathology, and we just happened to be discussing anxiety disorders at the time!

Let me tell you, It's a long drive to Arnold Palmer from Oviedo. But as I was driving to the hospital on that hot Florida spring day, I started meditating on God's goodness. I thought about his promise of deliverance. In the driver seat of my car, with tears running down my cheeks, I decided that I wasn't going to distrust God's care in this situation. And so, somewhere on Alafaya Trail, I started singing the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul." Whatever was going to happen, my God was going to deliver us. Come what may, we'll be fine.

Turns out that Shannon and the Matthew were fine. She had gotten dehydrated and contractions had begun, but her doctor was able to easily stop them. The phone operator at the seminary had written the message down wrong. The actual phone message was, "Your wife is at Arnold Palmer Hospital. No need to come, just call." In hindsight, it was okay that the operator made that mistake - I had a lesson that I needed to learn the hard way!

Finally, take a look at the closing words from Isaiah 40.6-8,"A voice says, 'Cry!' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.. How encouraging to have God close up this section with an exclamation mark. God says you can rely on my Word because it is certain. What God says will come to pass, and he has made a glorious promise to you that gives you strength to walk in confidence each and every day.

A little while ago, I told you about the city of Rhyolite. What I didn't tell you was what became of Rhyolite. The promise of two bold miners who discovered the gold turned out to be a bust. The mines of Rhyolite didn't produce near enough gold to sustain the town. As a result, by 1920, 16 years after the first strike, the town was completely abandoned. Rhyolite is now a ghost town, sitting alone in the middle of the desert, a monument to man's promise. Only a few concrete shells of some of the more prominent buildings remain today. Sagebrush has reclaimed most of the town and the mines are all boarded up. It is silent in Rhyolite, Nevada.

Perhaps you've noticed an unusual picture in my Study here at church? Directly in front of me, I have a picture of an old torn down bank building, with sagebrush scattered all around the perimeter. That was the prestigious First Bank of Rhyolite! It is no more. I hang it in front of me as a gentle reminder of human promise!

As you leave today, if you take nothing else with you from this message but this little aphorism, then we've connected:
Don't doubt in the dark what God has taught you in the light.
The promises of men are surely grass that withers. But the word of our Lord stands forever.