Prepare, for God Is Coming to Shepherd His People (40:1-11)

CONTENTS

I. THE ONLY TRUE GOD WILL RESTORE HIS PEOPLE PART ONE (40:1-48:22)

1. Prepare, for God Is Coming to Shepherd His People (40:1-11)

1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her

that herhard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for,

that she has received from the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.

3A voice of one calling:

“In the desert prepare the way for the LORD;

make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.

4Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

5And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

6A voice says, “Cry out.”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All men are like grass,

and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

7The grass withers and the flowers fall,

because the breath of the LORD blows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

8The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

9You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

10See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him.

See, his reward is with him,

and his recompense accompanies him.

11He tends his flock like a shepherd:

He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young.

This message begins a new poetic literary unit that discontinues the historical narrative account of Hezekiah in chap. 39. Nevertheless, many of the themes in this new literary unit are consistent with and might be called elaborations on what the prophet has already communicated in earlier chapters. Even though this commentary does not put chaps. 34-39 with the second half of the book,¹⁰ there are several thematic interconnections between chaps. 34-35 and what follows in chaps. 40-55. The bold call to “comfort, express compassion” for God's people (40:1) repeats the expectation introduced much earlier in chap. 12:1-2 (“you have comforted me.

Surely God is my salvation”), for in both texts God's comfort is

related to experiencing God as the source of the nation's salvation.

Although the term “comfort” is not used frequently in either 1-39 or in 40-55,¹¹ the prophet laid the foundation for understanding 40:1 by repeatedly talking in chaps. 2-35 about the numerous ways in which God's salvific acts will extend his compassion to his people.

God's acts of salvation bring comfort because his people know that he has promised to defeat their enemies (7:4-9; 10:5-34; 14:24-27; 37:21- 29), to establish his glorious holy kingdom (2:1-4; 4:2-6; 30:18-26;

35:1-10), to set his eternal king from the line of David on his throne (9:6-7; 11:1-6; 33:17-24), and to extend his love to his faithful followers who will dwell in their land (11:11-16; 14:1-3; 30:18; 35:1- 10). This new paragraph in chap. 40 is a continuation of Isaiah's core theological beliefs, dressed carefully in new phrases that speak to the hearts of the people in his audience.

GENRE. Some commentators find fragments of a call narrative of a new prophet (often identified as “Deutero-Isaiah”) in the setting of a divine council scene in heaven in 40:1-11. By comparing similar call narratives, such as the commissioning of Isaiah (6:1-8) or Micaiah ben Imlah (1 Kgs 22) with 40:1-11, some have identified the common elements of: (a) angelic heavenly beings calling out in 6:3 and 40:1-6;

(b) the coming of the glory of the Lord in the future in 6:3 and 40:5;

(c) a prophetic response of despair in 6:5 and 40:6; and (d) a call for forgiveness of sins in 6:7 and the accomplishment of forgiveness in 40:2.¹² Although these common themes draw attention to some similarities between 6:1-8 and 40:1-11, a deeper analysis of these points reveals several significant differences in the treatment of each of these themes. For example, there is no clear statement in chap. 40 that those calling out were angelic beings similar to the clearly identified seraphim in 6:3. The praising function of the seraphim, who said “holy, holy, holy” in 6:3, is completely different from the messenger role of the voices calling out in 40:3 and 6. In addition, if

40:5-6 are viewed as a human objection to a calling that is responded to by God in 40:7-8,¹³ this would mean that the call would have to be found in 40:1-5. Yet there is no prophetic call in 40:1-5, so J. L. Koole rightly criticizes this perspective, for this interpretation is seriously weakened by the absence of any explicit “sending” or “calling” of a prophet.¹⁴ Instead, the only explicit sending is the command that

“Zion” is to declare the good news in 40:9. In addition, there is no indication that a prophet accepted a call in these verses (contrast this with 6:8), plus the so-called objections in 40:6-7 are not comparable to Isaiah's objection to God's call in 6:5 or any other call narrative.¹⁵ It is also unknown if the speakers in 40:1-6 are heavenly voices from the divine council.¹⁶ One can hypothesize some verbal or thematic connections with interrelated passages (6:1-8; 52:7-10; 62:1-12) without being pushed into the unlikely suggestion that this passage describes the commissioning of another prophet or the recommissioning of Isaiah to a new role.

In light of the weakness of the evidence for identifying 40:1-11 as a call narrative, it is better to approach these verses as a joyous eschatological “proclamation of salvation” (notice the similarity between 52:7-10 and 40:9-11). Instead of focusing on the unidentified speakers who are calling out, the interpretation of the passage should primarily be guided by God's message of salvation in 40:1-2,5,9-11.¹⁷ C. Westermann rightly distinguishes this “proclamation of salvation”

from the “oracle of salvation,” for the proclamation “speaks of events which still lie in the future.”¹⁸

SETTING. If the setting is not related to the call or recommissioning of a prophet, what can be said about the setting?

Commentators as diverse as F. Delitzsch to C. Westermann relate the statement that “her hard service has been completed” to the idea that

“Israel's physical hardship in enforced exile” has ended.¹⁹ Later Westermann connects the road that is to be made straight in 40:3 with

the highway that the Babylonian exiles would use to travel back to Jerusalem (11:11—16).²⁰ R. N. Whybray interprets this comfort to refer to the near-future return of the exiles to Jerusalem (40:9-11);

thus his reading creates a discontinuity with the historical setting in chaps. 36-39 and ignores how close these comforting words of God are to chap. 35. In contrast to Whybray, B. Childs reads this passage in continuity with the future eschatological promises already recorded in chap. 35,²¹ which suggests to him that chaps. 35 and 40 were closely connected before chaps. 36-39 were inserted to separate these two chapters. If one lets these earlier prophecies in chap. 35 inform the theological analysis of 40:1-11, it appears that the full level of comfort this passage is describing will not be experienced until sometime in the distant future when the glory of God will be revealed to all flesh (40:5) and God actually establishes his glorious kingdom (40:9-11).

Thus the present setting of the prophet and his audience is unknown. But it is known that the full revelation of God's divine glory among his people was not seen in Isaiah's day, during the exile, or in the time of the return from Babylonian exile. J. Goldingay states that

“in itself, ch 40 contains no explicit pointers to the geographical or chronological setting” of the author,²² which is exactly what one would expect in a proclamation of salvation. Since many of the oracles in this book are not in strict chronological order and this announcement of salvation predicts eschatological events, it is best to admit that it is impossible to date the time or setting when the prophet gave this prophecy. All one can say is that it was spoken before the glory of God appears in Zion.

STRUCTURE. This message of comfort contains repeated linguistic characteristics that divide it into several parts based on who is speaking. Initially, God himself gives instructions for someone to speak words of comfort using four imperative verbs (40:1). This is followed by three “that” clauses (40:2) which give the content of

this message. In 40:3-5 an unidentified voice calls out for people to prepare the way for the appearance of the glory of God, and then in 40:6-8 another unidentified voice calls out about the frailty of humanity and the permanence of God's plans. The paragraph ends with a final instruction for Zion to proclaim God's good news to other people in Judah (40:9-11). The structure of the paragraph is divided into four parts based on the four instructions (the imperative verbs) found in this text.²³

Proclaim comfort to Jerusalem 40:1-2 Announce the glorious coming of God 40:3-5 Be assured, people fade, but God is dependable 40:6-8 Shout, God will rule over his sheep in Zion 40:9-11

This outline simply follows the development of the different speech acts, which originate with the imperative “comfort” in v. 1, the

“a voice calling” in v. 3, “a voice says” in v. 6, and the new command to those who are bringing good tidings in v. 9.

40:1-2 This new literary unit begins with two imperative verbs in which God exhorts someone to give words of divine

“comfort/compassion” ²⁴ to God's people. The repetition of the same imperative verb (“comfort, comfort”) emphasizes this idea and may imply some urgency in following God's instructions. In other passages in Isaiah (12:1; 30:18; 49:13; 51:3,12; 52:9; 61:2; 66:13) God's comfort is closely associated with a time of great joy, the restoration of the land, and the redemption of his people. These are events that mark the eschatological establishment of his kingdom on earth. This audience will receive God's comfort because “your God”

(not a friend, a neighbor, or some other god) has positive plans to act in compassionate ways toward those within his family (“my people”).²⁵ This terminology connects “your God” to “my people,”

employing covenantal language that reflects God's relationship to his Hebrew people. One can infer from this information that something negative has happened to God's people at some earlier point because they are in need of comfort. Since no present historical event is identified in this verse, it is inappropriate to impose any specific setting on this general announcement of comfort and salvation. The means of bringing news of comfort to the people in “Jerusalem”

(40:2,9, not those living in exile)²⁶ was through the process of sending some unidentified speakers (the command to comfort is a pl verb) who proclaim good news (40:2). Although the Targum thought some

“prophets” would declare these words to Jerusalem, the Old Greek translation hypothesizes that God was instructing “priests” to speak this good news, while the Latin Vulgate suggests “my people”

(consistent with 40:9) would declare these encouraging words. Since these speakers who call out are not specifically identified in the text, it is not profitable to speculate about who they are (Isaiah's disciples, or members of the divine council²⁷). What is of utmost importance is that the prophet is now to communicate to his Hebrew audience that God instructed someone to speak words of comfort about Zion.²⁸

The content of this message of compassion is found in three parallel subordinate clauses, each beginning with “that” (kî). In the NIV the first phrase announces, “that her hard service has been completed.” The perfect verb usually describes completed action, but in a context of a proclamation of salvation where future events are predicted (40:5, 9-11), a past translation does not fit the context. Since God has not yet appeared in power to care for his sheep (40:9-11), this verb should be understood as a prophetic perfect that refers to things that will be fulfilled in the future;²⁹ thus, an English future verb would be a more fitting translation. The first clause refers to “warfare” , not “hard service.” The verb form of the root usually means, “to go to war” (2:6; Num 31:7) or in just a few instances, “to do temple work, spiritual warfare” (Num 4:23). The noun form was used in the

divine title “the LORD of Hosts,” meaning the Lord of the “armies”

of heaven. When this term is used of people, it usually describes

“military service.” Some commentators prefer a more general meaning related to the activity of “compulsory labor” based on Job 7:1; 14:14, but even in those cases N. C. Habel is convinced that military service is the compulsory work that this word is describing.³⁰ It is difficult to accept C. Westermann's interpretation that this clause announces the end of “Israel's physical hardship in enforced exile”³¹ in Babylon. There are no other examples in Isaiah where has the meaning of forced suffering in exile (contrast 29:7,8; 31:4; 34:2), plus there is no evidence that the Israelites suffered physical hardship or hard labor in exile in the writings of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, or Ezra (although admittedly this is an argument from silence). K.

Baltzer is closer to the correct meaning when he suggests that God was announcing the end of Jerusalem's years of warfare (cf. 2:4).³² This understanding of the future points beyond the immediate context of the prophet and the Assyrian warfare in chaps. 36-37. But this passage does not make a “universal” statement about the absolute end of all war, as in 2:4.³³ Nevertheless, the later context of God's eschatological rule over his people in 40:9-11 would lend support to this idea. When God comes to set up his kingdom and to shepherd his sheep, his powerful arm will rule all people and there will be no warfare anymore (cf. 2:4). Indeed, this is comforting news.

The second clause assures the audience that her guilt/iniquity

“will be pardoned/paid for,”³⁴ but this clause does not say who will pay for these sins. C. Westermann suggests that Israel discharged the guilt for her sins through severe suffering in Babylonian exile,³⁵ but 43:25 (53:6-12; 55:7) makes it abundantly clear that God is the one who blots out the guilt of the transgressor when people repent of their sins. God sweeps away their sins because he is the one who redeems them (44:22) through the servant of Isaiah 52-53. Isa 1:18-20 as well

as Isaiah's experience of having his own sins forgiven (6:5-7) demonstrate that only God's grace brings forgiveness of sins. Human suffering is sometimes a punishment for sin, but no salvation or merit is gained just because people justly suffer for their own iniquity.

God's compassionate forgiveness of Jerusalem will be an act of divine grace that will bring comfort to his people.

The third clause must be read in the light of the contextual picture of God's compassion in the first two clauses. This raises problems with the typical approach that views God giving his people double punishment for their sins (cf. Jer 16:18; 17:18). This interpretation almost pictures God as vindictive and prone to require an excessively long or severe punishment.³⁶ This interpretation of these words does not sound very compassionate and would not be a message of comfort to the prophet's audience. This approach also raises questions about the justice of God's punishment (is it just to give them double punishment?), so G. von Rad proposed a more general meaning for kiplayim by suggesting that God will give them an “equivalent” punishment.³⁷ A completely different way to understand this phrase suggests that it must refer to something positive that is comforting news, just like the rest of vv. 2,5 and 9-11.

J. L. Koole argues that v. 2b forms a positive climax of God's comfort by announcing that the people will receive a double³⁸ portion of God's grace (not a double punishment), consistent with the “double portion”

of eschatological blessing that the nation will receive in 61:7. With this interpretation all three statements bring great comfort to God's people in Jerusalem.

40:3 A second unidentified voice relates a second word from the

“mouth of the Lord” (40:5). Since this is the word of the Lord, it is not really that important to identify whom this anonymous speaker was, for the one speaking is only a messenger who conveys God's good news.

Since God is holy, all who meet him must be holy or they will be judged (6:1-5). Therefore, 40:3 encourages God's people to make appropriate preparation for the time when all flesh will meet God (40:5; a similar theme is in 62:10-11). The process of preparation is described using the analogy of a royaledict to repair the roads because a great emperor will soon approach. The audience is exhorted to

“prepare the way” and “make straight” (both are imperative verbs)³⁹ a highway for God by leveling out the high and low sections of the road and by smoothing out the rough spots. This exhortation should not be understood literally because no one would have thought God's way could be hindered by physical obstacles.

This royal road is not the highway that was built in the city of Babylon for the religious festival when the Babylonian gods were carried in a great processional march to their temples.⁴⁰ Neither should this highway be confused with the highway that people will use to travel back to Jerusalem in an eschatological exodus experience that is mentioned in 11:11-16; 49:11-12; 62:10.⁴¹ J. Blenkinsopp is right in declaring that “there is no mention here of preparing a route for those returning from exile in Babylon”;⁴² this is a highway for God. Thus there are two or more different and distinct returns to Zion.

In some contexts God prepares the highway for his people to use when they return to Zion, but in other contexts (such as 40:3) the people are to make appropriate spiritual preparations⁴³ for God's arrival (Pss 24:3-10; 50:23; 68:1-4; Isa 42:16; 48:17-18; 55:6-9).

40:5 The announcement that people will see the glory of God does not seem to refer to people seeing the glory of God in some general way; for example, by observing his glorious deeds in history (24:15; 25:3; 41:16; 42:12) or by seeing his glory in nature (Ps 19:1- 2). Instead, the good news is that all flesh will actually view with their physical eyes the majestic glory of God himself (40:5; 60:1-3). This

announcement seems to require a great theophany appearance that will be universally visible, if all flesh will see it. In Exod 24:9-18 God's glory appeared before Moses and the elders and in Isa 6:1-8 the prophet Isaiah had a brief private glimpse of the glory of God, the King on his throne. The seraphim sang of this future day when they said “the whole earth will be full of his glory” (6:3); and later prophecies celebrate how people from all over the world will fear God because of his glory, be drawn by his glorious light, and repent and come to Zion (59:19-60:3). In earlier prophecies Isaiah announced that at the end of time God's glory would be visible as a shelter around all his holy people in Zion (4:4-6). In chap. 35, the most transcendent holy power in the world will openly display his real presence to people in a marvelous way. Isaiah 40:5 develops the ideas found in 35:2,4 that “they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.” This is the day that will bring divine comfort to all people; it is a day all believers look forward to (cf. Matt 16:27; 24:30; Mark 8:38;

John 17:22-24).

Since “all flesh” will see⁴⁴ God's glory at this time, the prophet must be referring to the eschatological event explained in 40:9-11.

The overwhelming presence of God's “glory”⁴⁵ will be at center stage as he fulfills his promise to come to earth to reign (4:2-6). There may be many other mysterious factors about these eschatological events that people then and today do not fully understand, but one thing every person can be absolutely certain about is that “the mouth of the LORD” has promised that God's glory will appear on earth some day.

This theme is picked up later at the end of chaps. 40-55 when the prophet assures the reader that God's word will accomplish its purpose (55:10-11).

40:6-8 At the start of the third subparagraph, another (or the same one) unidentified voice instructs someone to call out, but the one hearing this command does not know what words to communicate.⁴⁶