The prophets occupy a large chunk of our Bibles. If the message were only for the rebels of their day, in need of warning, they would not have been preserved for us. I believe God saved so many messages of warning and of comfort because He knew that like Israel, we would often find ourselves in the worst of messes, having walked away from, rejected, and replaced the God of gods in our hearts as they did. The message of the prophets is for us today. Rebels then are the same as rebels now. Our hearts still incline themselves to wandering. We still believe the lies Satan whispers and we repeat them until our hearts believe them so well that we don’t need his voice tempting us into sin. We can just get there ourselves.
The theme verse in Isaiah is not found at the beginning or at the end, as is so often the case in other portions of Scripture. Rather, I believe it is found in Isaiah 40:1.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”
In the midst of the “Book of Woes,” God wants to make sure we see the why’s. He wants to show us purpose in the midst of the pain our sin has caused. He wants us to find His comfort and see that there is an end to the hurt.
Yes, the pain will come—but we have the assurance that even our sin cannot change God. He is constant. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is forgiving. He will walk through our pain with us and is already planning a good future for us. It is striking to me that the prophets are the books of judgment, yet contain some of the most oft-repeated and most comforting verses in all of Scripture.
We must understand that God is so good and so wise as to have no limit to His kindness. His heart is for us. He wants us to repent so that we can be in fellowship and at peace. He wants only good for us. When correction comes, it is to help us. When judgment comes, it is the Law of the Harvest, as certain as the Laws of Physics, at work. Even in that time, God will walk us through the reaping and help us sow a better crop for the next season.
God does not abandon us to walk through anything, even judgment, on our own. He will carry us through our consequences if we will let Him. Even through the deep waters and the fire, He longs to carry our wounded souls to healing.
I often think in pictures. I love the image of a lost, wayward, stubborn sheep and her Good Shepherd. She has willfully or carelessly wandered, going farther and farther away. She is now in danger, thoroughly lost, filthy, wounded, and trapped. She is unable to help herself at all, so she finally stands still and bleats helplessly for her Shepherd. As soon as she calls, as soon as she is willing, He comes running. He was always pursuing her. He was always nearer than she believed. He will come and rescue her. They will still have a long walk back, often through tough terrain, but this time, they’ll be together. She will have difficulty, but will be protected from the worst of it by the Shepherd. He will fight the wolves and He will carry her on His shoulders through the most treacherous parts—even though this mess is entirely of her own making. He will make sure the worst of it falls on Him.
He’s already done that. We know, you and I, what Jesus did for us. If He didn’t abandon us then, if He could conquer Hell for us, how do we so easily believe that He would leave us now? If He looked at everything we are, were, and will be and said, “Yes, she is worth leaving Heaven for. She is worth saving,” how can we possibly lift up a moment in time and say, “He will not redeem this part of me. This moment, this season, has made me unable to be rescued. My sins that He paid for on the cross excluded this one. He conquered sin, and death, and Hell, but cannot help me here. The God who parted the Red Sea cannot make a path forward for me.”
We are all stray sheep. We are all turned aside to our own way. But God has laid on Him all the iniquities of us all. Even mine. Even yours.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”