Double Hardship; Double Comfort

Isaiah 40:1-2 “Double hardship; double comfort”

Tonight we are beginning Isaiah 40. Lord willing this study will take us through the summer. I want to use Isaiah 40 as a window into the rest of Isaiah. I will read Isaiah 40, then give 4 reasons why we need this chapter.

Read Isaiah 40

1. We need comfort, vs 1
2. We need strength, vs 29
3. We need a big God, vs 28
4. We need to see God as he is, not as the world sees him, vs 25

We will learn about the book of Isaiah as we go along. Here are some quick facts to get us started:

1. Isaiah prophesied about 700 years before Christ to the southern kingdom of Judah
2. The book has 3 main parts:
-1-39- Message of judgment to Judah and the capital, Jerusalem
-40-55- The message to those who were carried away in exile in Babylon
-56-66- The message to those who returned from exile
The first part is mainly of message of judgment against sin; the second 2 parts are mainly a message of hope. But through the book, there are cycles of judgment against sin and future hope for God’s people.

Our focus tonight is verses 1-2. (read)

1. The reason for comfort
2. The description of comfort
3. The God of comfort

1. The reason for comfort- Why do God’s people need to be comforted?

A. A broken covenant
We need to put our understanding of God’s judgment on Israel in the context of His covenant with Israel. When God brought his people out of Egypt, he made a covenant…an agreement with them. “If you as a nation obey my laws, I will bless you and allow to live in your land. If you as a nation disobey my laws, I will curse you and take you away from the land I gave you.”

Look at Isaiah 1:2-4

It’s like a mortgage. You agree with the bank that if they lend you money to buy a house, you will pay it back. You can live in your house (which they own!) if you pay back their money. If you don’t pay back the money, they take your house away.
Israel had not kept their side of the covenant: they disobeyed God’s law. So God kept his side, he removed them from their land, just as he had promised. In Isaiah 40, the people of Judah find themselves in Babylon as God’s judgment for their disobedience.

B. The threat of judgment
In the first part of Isaiah, there are many warnings of coming judgment. God’s people had hundreds of years to repent, but as a nation they did not follow God. God has much patience with them. But had God kept his promise with them, so the Babylonians came, destroyed their cities and took the people away to Babylon.

C. Judgment in exile
The people of Judah were now in exile. Now God is giving comfort to his people. When God’s people were removed from their land under God’s judgment, they might think that God had forgotten them. But he had not.

2. The description of comfort

A. God gives double comfort
If you’ve shopped at Aldi, you know they have a double back money guarantee. If you are dissatisfied with a product, they will replace the product and give you your money back. Or think of some TV commercials: order in the next 30 minutes and we’ll throw in a second thing for free.

Here in our text, we have double hardship and double comfort. “Comfort, comfort” God proclaims to his people. Why? They have received double for all their sins. What is this double judgment that requires double comfort? This is not 2 judgments. In the OT, doubling something is like saying: very, very. God’s people get lots of comfort because they had received lots of judgment for their sin. They get as much comfort as they get affliction.

God will give you as much comfort as you have affliction. Psalm 90:15- “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.” If God brings severe physical or emotional pain into your life, he is able to comfort you to the same extent of your pain. And he will.

B. God is your God
God claims these people as his people. They can call them “our God” (vs 9). This comfort is only given to Gods people. Because of Jesus Christ, we can be God’s people. We are connected to him as our God. Only through a relationship with God can we receive his comfort.

C. God will win her back
Vs 2 begins with this: “speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem.” The ESV has “speak tenderly.” The literal transition is “speak unto the heart of Jerusalem.” This expression is only used here in Isaiah, and only a few more times in the OT.
The other occurrences are helpful to understand what this means. You can look up Genesis 34:3 and Judges 19:3 for 2. The other 2 are actually use the word “comfort” as well.

Genesis 50
Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers. He had risen to power in Egypt and saved the nation of Egypt and his family by storing away food for a 7 year famine. His family came to Egypt to live. After their father died, Joseph’s brothers were worried that he would try to get even.

19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Joseph has not only speaking kindly to his brothers, but he was winning them back.

The same expression is used in the book of Ruth. Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi had returned from Moab to Bethlehem, having lost both of their husbands. In need of food, Ruth went to pick up grain during the grain harvest. She happens upon the field of Boaz. Boaz is kind to her and provides for her. She says to him:

Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

Boaz was not only speaking kindly to her, it seems like he is trying to win her heart. When God says: speak kindly to Jerusalem, he is winning back his people. They have been afflicted and judged. They need to know that God is their God…that he loves them…and that he wants to comfort them.

This is kind of like when we husbands do something to hurt or upset our wives, so we go out a get flowers or do the dishes to win back our wives. Or like a child you does something wrong, and hides under the bed or in the closet. Their parents have to convince them to come out…that it will be OK. God is saying: I want you back as my people.

D. The punishment is done

One of Zachariah’s favorite phrases is “all done.” He will sign in or say it. All done with a meal or sitting still or whatever. Sometimes he wants other people to be all done. No- you can’t make THEM stop! When they cleaned the streets around here from all the sand, a dump truck parked right where the old Maple Ave splits off from the new Maple Ave. Zachariah was very stressed out about the truck sitting out there and kept on saying, “all done. Unfortunately for mommy, the truck was out front all morning.

God says: you are all done with your punishment. Cry unto her (to Jerusalem)—proclaim loudly to all. What is to be shouted? Like any good Baptist pastor, Isaiah has 3 points.

1. Her warfare (or hardship) is ended
2. Her iniquity is pardoned
3. She has received of the Lord’s hands double for all her sins

It is finished.

3. The God of comfort

A. We have a God of all comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction…” Isaiah 40 proclaims a God of all comfort.

The following chapters are chock full of comfort for God’s people.

-49:13-16
-51:3, 12
-66:13

B. We get comfort through Jesus Christ
Chapter 61, verses 1 and 2 are read by Jesus one day when he went into a synagogue. These verses are a prophecy about Jesus, God’s servant, read by Jesus. (Read)

We can only be ultimately comforted by the person and work of Jesus Christ. Isaiah points forward to the servant who will bear the punishment of his people, comfort them, and restore them. He will bring the good news of Gods comfort.

Isaiah 53 speaks of God’s servant bearing the sin of his people. The only way we can have everlasting comfort in through the cross of Christ. When God says to Israel: your iniquity is paid for: he is looking back to the judgment that the nation suffered, but also looking forward to the judgment that Christ would take for our sin.

If you belong to Christ, your punishment has been taken. The God of all comfort is your God. He promises everlasting comfort.