The ministry of Isaiah the Prophet was during a time of great pressure and chaos for the people of God. The kingdom was divided. Israel to the north was being decimated by the fierce Assyrians. Meanwhile, to the south, Judah, the home of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, was being threatened by the Babylonians. Isaiah came to warn Judah that the Lord was going to judge her for her many years of sin and idolatry. As part of that judgment, the people would be taken captive by foreign enemies much as they had been nearly a thousand years earlier by Egypt. The Lord spoke through Isaiah, not only to pronounce judgment but also to announce the coming salvation through a Servant who would atone for the sins of God’s people by his own suffering.

The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are largely comprised of the prophet’s pronouncements against Judah for her sins and warnings of the judgment to come. But through it all we learn of both the holiness of God and the gravity of sin. And then chapter 40 opens with a message of comfort made all the more extraordinary because of what precedes it. In God’s dealings with his people throughout the ages, grace will have the final word.

In this section of chapter 40 we hear promises that will be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. The comfort of God will be a Person. The consolation of Zion will be the virgin born descendent of David. He will be a Shepherd who will gather his people to himself and take them to his heart. It is a prophesy of a Messiah who will be both the Sovereign Lord and the Good Shepherd. In Jesus “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh will see it together…The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (vv. 5, 8).