God’s Word Stands Forever

Isaiah 40:6-8 “God’s Word Stands Forever”

God’s Word will stand forever whatever humans throw at it. What God has spoken will come true.

Our mighty God, through the prophet Isaiah, continues to offer comfort to God’s people. They are in exile. They think that God has forgotten them. God says: “NO! You are mine, and I’m coming to get you. Even though you are dry, desolate, and despised, I will refresh, restore, and treasure you.” He will do it through His Word.

Last week we saw that God’s salvation is coming to his people. Throughout this chapter, God is responding to the charge: can God actually do this? Will his Word actually come true? Yes, the powerful God will accomplish his will through his Word despite human weakness.

My 2 main points for these verses are:
1. The frailty of humans
2. The stability of the Word

1. The frailty of humans

A. Humans are weak
The message is clear: all flesh (all humanity) is grass. Humans are weak, they die off quickly. They last only a second. The text says twice: all humans are like grass. Then twice: the grass withers. Don’t miss this! The grass grows up for the summer then withers in the fall. The flowers bloom for a few weeks, then they are gone.

B. Humans are short-lived
Vs 6 says that all the goodliness or all the beauty of humanity is like the flower of the field. The word used here for goodliness or beauty is the word khesed, which the word commonly used for the loving kindness or faithfulness of God. It could be translated here: faithfulness or longevity. Humans are weak and only live a short time. If you are not aware of the shortness of your life, God says: you are grass. It grows up in the morning, then chopped off by the mower in the evening.

C. Humans in their pride are opposed by God
The picture of grass is clear until we get to vs 7. The “spirit” or “breath” of the Lord blows on the grass and it withers. Is the picture just of the hot wind withering the grass? It could be. But the fact that the wind is from God is not necessary for the picture of grass to make sense. There’s more. Whether you translate this wind, breath, or spirit, God is actively withering humanity. This is not against his suffering people specifically, but against humanity in general: “all flesh” and “the people.”
God will take down humans in their pride—by his word—the breath of his mouth. Where do I find pride in these verses? If calling people grass is not humbling, I’m not sure what is! God will take down those who are proud. We saw that in the previous verses (leveling out the mountains). Also see:

Isaiah 5:15-16-
And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: 16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

James 1:9-11-
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

D. The Bible’s picture of humans
The Bible is very clear in its assessment of humanity. We are insignificant compared to God. We are broken, frail, weak, and perishing. God opposes our efforts to assert ourselves as humans. The Bible a number of pictures to describe us:

-Dust (dirt blown around by the wind) Gen 3:19
-Clay pots (common, breakable, replaceable) 2 Cor 4:7
-A breath (breathe out) Ps 39:5
-A passing shadow (it’s gone when the sun goes down) Ps 144:4
-Maggots and worms (after a bad experience with my trash can, we’ll leave that one) Job 25:6
-Beasts that perish (road kill) Ps 49:12

Are you depressed yet? This description of humanity is pretty much heresy in our culture, which exalts humans. Ever since the fall, we have always thought too much of ourselves. We don’t truly know the majesty of God. Isaiah 40 is here to help us on the journey of realizing our insignificance and seeing the majesty of God. God is in the business of taking humans down a million notches.

When I turned 20, I thought I was big stuff. Then I cut myself shaving. It’s amazing how the little things can remind you of your weakness.

That same summer after I turned 20, I was working security on our college campus. One day I was hanging out with a few of my friends in the gym. In the middle of the gym, there was curtain to divide the gym for different occasions. At the bottom there was about 4 feet of canvas, then the rest was mesh. At one point in the seam between the mesh and canvas, there was a whole about 4 feet off the ground. One of my friends was brave, and jumped feet first through the hole.
That night, my coworker and I were securing and locking the gym. My route took me past the curtain. In my wisdom I thought “I can jump through that hole in the curtain just like my friend did earlier.” Keep in mind, I was in uniform, carrying a flashlight, keys, walkie-talkie, cell phone, and several knives.

I ran and jumped feet first. About a minute later I awoke, hearing my walkie-talkie go off: “Colby, where are you?” My feet had stuck in the curtain, and I had landed on my back and conked by head. Thankfully, there was no serious damage. Mostly wounded pride.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that were aren’t big stuff. God will take you down as many notches as needed for you to acknowledge your weakness and his greatness.

2. The Stability of the Word

A. The clarity of the Word (perspicuity)
We see that God’s Word is to be cried or shouted (vs 2, 3, 6). God’s word is clear and public. It is not indistinct. God is very clear with his people about who He is, who they are, and his comfort for them.

B. The power of the Word
God’s Word has power. What God says will happen. We don’t have that power. Try getting a dog to do what you command it to do. In the rest of Isaiah, God takes great care to remind his people that his word will come true. Read 46:8-11

God’s word realizes, actualizes, brings to pass, His will. Here are some pictures of God’s Word that speak to its power.

Isaiah 55:10-11
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Jeremiah 5:14 (God says to Jeremiah)
Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.

Jeremiah 23:29
Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God’s word is power.

C. Permanence
God’s word will last forever. When people pass away, God’s Word is still there. When the idols of the nations topple, God’s Word stands. Year by year, decade by decade, century by century, God’s Word will continue to work. No one can stop it. No one can outlast it. No one can outsmart it. It’s forever. God’s Word in the gospel will reach the ends of the earth and save people for his glory. Our unstoppable God will use his unstoppable gospel.

I Peter quotes our passage. Look at I Peter 1:22-25. God’s Word that lasts forever is seen best in the gospel, the message about Jesus Christ. God’s Word always accomplishes his purpose, and we get to experience that in the new birth. The gospel gives us new life. It gives our fellow Christians new life. And since it last forever, the new birth sticks.

Application
How can humbling humanity bring comfort?

Saying that all people are like grass doesn’t seem that comforting. “Come over here, and let me comfort you. You’re nothing.”

The implicit question in this chapter is: Can God really bring his salvation? Will it really happen? We already talked about God humbling the proud. But what about those who know they’re weak? What about those who are hurting and need comfort? “You’re grass” doesn’t seem to cut it.

We say: “I am weak, but God is strong. I am small, but God is big.” Yes, that is true. That is the message of Isaiah 40. The problem is that we still think we have some strength. We think we still have a little bit of energy left to help out God. For true comfort, we must acknowledge that we have absolutely nothing to contribute to God’s plan and purpose. We are nothing; God is everything.

The way to true comfort is not up but down. The whole esteem movement that began in the last decades of the last century needs to stay there. The way for lasting comfort, encouragement, and meaning is not acknowledge that compared to God we are nothing. We have nothing to contribute to our salvation, and to God’s unfolding plan in the world. We need to see less of ourselves and more of God. By seeing ourselves as nothing, God grows bigger. And a big God brings big comfort. If we see in ourselves that we have nothing, we will see in God that we have everything and more.

Let me close with a quote:

“for we are nothing but in God, and, in order that we may begin to be something in him, we must first be convinced, and made thoroughly to know, that we are vanity.”