Isaiah Comforts an Afflicted People

Isaiah 40:1-11

GOLDEN TEXT: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”—Psalms 46:1

IN this lesson we have a prophecy of a number of events to transpire at this end of the age, during the transition period from the old world to the new. In verses 1 and 2 there is given a divine commission to speak comfortably to natural Israel. The specific message to be given is stated thus: “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity be pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

In verse 9 those who are commissioned to give the message of comfort to “Jerusalem,” that is, natural Israel, are identified as Zion and the statement concerning them is, “Oh Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.” The expression, “get thee up into the high mountain,” is evidently intended to convey the thought of the glorification of the Zion class in the first resurrection, when she is caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

In the same verse Jerusalem is also said to bring good tidings, and is commissioned to lift up its voice with strength, and to say unto the cities of Judah, “Behold your God.” This, evidently, is descriptive of events that are to take place following the glorification of the Zion class. Then the ancient prophets of God will be resurrected, and will become the nucleus of the new Kingdom, here designated as Jerusalem. This class also will have the glorious opportunity of proclaiming good tidings to the cities of Judah by saying unto them, “Behold your God.”

The Zion class that has the opportunity now of bringing a message of comfort to the distressed people of natural Israel, are limited in what they can proclaim. They can explain, as indicated in the prophecy, that the double period of punishment upon Israel is accomplished. But in connection with this message, they also find it necessary to explain that the experiences incidental to the return of natural Israel to the promised land, and the re-establishment of themselves as a nation in Palestine, are to be accompanied by additional persecution and trials. These special persecutions at the end of the age are those which are brought about as a result of the Lord’s sending hunters and fishers to rouse and bring them back to their own land and to Him.

But after the Zion class is united with the Lord in the heavenly phase of the Kingdom, the natural house of Israel will still need a message of comfort. It will be then that the earthly representatives of the Kingdom will have the privilege of bringing good tidings to the Jews. It will be then, and not until then, that the message will be given “Behold your God!” As a result of this message, and because of the miraculous display of divine power on their behalf in the final phases of Jacob’s trouble, the eyes of Israel will be opened, so that when the ancient worthies say to them “Behold your God,” they will, indeed, be able to see and to appreciate Him and to realize who their Messiah really is.

Then it will be, as the prophet indicates, that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. According to the new Testament record this glory of the Lord is to be revealed to the world through Christ. And not only so, but the apostle explains that when Christ who is our Life, shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory. It is for this, according to the apostle, that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, waiting, as he explains, for the manifestation of the sons of God.

This One through whom the glory of the Lord is said to be revealed, is designated in our lesson as the Arm of the Lord. In Isaiah 52:10 we read that the Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.

Evidently the Lord would have us: understand, through these various prophecies, that His glory is to be revealed to the people, and recognized by them, as a result of the salvation that will be given through His Son. Because of sin, sickness and death, with all of its concomitant evils, not very much real glory is given to the Lord by the people of this world. Some have concluded that there is no God at all, while others have decided that if there is a God, He certainly cannot have very much interest in the affairs of His human creatures.

But how different it will be when His Kingdom is established, and His glory is revealed through the wonderful blessings of life and happiness that will be dispensed to mankind at the hands of the Christ.

Of natural Israel, it is explained in Ezekiel 37, that when the Lord opens their graves and brings them up out of their graves and restores them to their own land, that they then shall know and recognize Him as their benefactor and God. The same principle doubtless will hold true with respect to all the nations of the earth. When God manifests His power toward men, and dispenses the blessings of His love to them through Christ, they all will recognize Him as the true God and give glory to His great and Holy name. Concerning that final and glorious triumph of the divine cause in the earth, the Revelator says that every creature in Heaven and in earth and everywhere will be heard saying, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”—Rev. 5:13

QUESTIONS:

Who are commissioned to “speak comfortably” to Jerusalem at this time; and how are they designated in this lesson?

When the Messianic Kingdom is fully established, who will be used as the channels of blessing to natural Israel, and how are they designated in this lesson?

How is the “glory of the Lord” to be revealed to the world?

What is one of the experiences mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel by which Israel will be caused to know the Lord?

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