We're going to be in Isaiah chapter number 40
this week and again I do ask for your patience
and grace with me and my voice. If I have to
take a break to take a sip of water just pause
your
attention and then pick right up when I when I
start back up and I'll do the the best I can
to
keep on track here. We're in Isaiah chapter 40
and we're going to be looking at the first two
verses
of this chapter the beginning of what is
called the book of comfort in Isaiah excuse me
God's word says comfort oh comfort my people
says your God speak kindly to Jerusalem and
call out to
her that her warfare has ended that her iniqu
ity has been removed that she is received of
the Lord's
hand double for all her sins let's pray
Heavenly Father we do pray that you'd bless
the rest of
our service today bless the preaching of your
word for the grace to your people and for the
glory of
your name bless your message in spite of the
messenger and may we do everything in your
name
today in Christ's name amen all right so I do
have an interesting problem now that that I've
started preaching um the last Sunday of of
every month and I decided that what it would
be a good
idea for us to balance you know Philip goes
through New Testament books and I've started
to go through
Old Testament books and see but the reason
that I decided to do that was is I thought is
I think
it's important for us to see that the Bible is
a whole book that the Old Testament and the
New
Testament um are are a complete uh idea and
they tell a complete story from beginning to
end and
so as we go through the different passages and
in the Old Testament that I go through the
different
divisions the the first five books uh are the
called the Pentateuch and then they have the
historical books like First Kings and Chron
icles and Ezra and Nehemiah they have the
poetic books
like Ecclesiastes Psalms Job and then they
have the prophet so every time I preach I try
to go
through a different one of those books now
what I want you to think about when we we talk
about
this and the reason that I repeat myself
almost every month is is a general rule if you
're a
preacher that seeks to preach God's word and
the whole counsel of God as as Paul calls it
you do
like what Philip does you go to Ephesians and
start in verse number one and you keep going
through
until you get to the end of chapter number six
so um but because of of how it works I do once
a
month and I want to kind of give a broad
overview of Old Testament books I don't have
the opportunity
to do that and you can see why he does that
why Philip does that and why it's a good idea
to
because the books build on themselves Paul has
a message in Ephesians and when you get to Eph
esians
four it's very helpful to have gone through
chapters one through three to see what he's
talking about
in Ephesians four we're not just trying to to
get some idea that we're trying to portray we
're trying
to see what Paul wrote through the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit in his word and get that
message
into our bones and into our marrow and the
amazing thing is that you can do that you can
get into
the nitty gritty of Ephesians and see the
remarkable truths there and those truths as
you go through
other books even in the Old Testament that
were written thousands of years before those
same
truths will be brought up in those books but
in in seed form there's an overarching story
that goes
from the beginning to the end and the reason
that is is because the Bible was the the the
authoring of the Bible was super intended by
God the Holy Spirit and then all those 40
different
authors over 2000 years from kings to cowher
ders like Amos to scholars like Paul to doctors
like
Luke different all kinds of different type of
men over 2000 years and there is this one
coherent story and that that's the the big
deal and that's why the opportunity that I
have here
to go to the Old Testament and I want to show
the the connections between the the beginning
of the story in the Old Testament to the to
what Philip's been teaching in John and in
Acts and
Romans and Ephesians and all those different
books it's really a great privilege for me
to to be able to do that and it really is
amazing to me that I have this opportunity so
I do
appreciate y'all and appreciate God for that
and so they are connected from the beginning
and to the end and so that's why so many times
the beginning of these sermons I have to go
into
history and geography and all these things
because we're just dropping down into the
middle of Isaiah
40 instead of going from verse chapter one to
chapter 39 before we get to it but because
that the story is connected we can still do
that and be accurate because we you know we've
gone
through the Abrahamic covenant and that where
God promised that that God would create a
people
from Abraham and give him a land and that he
would bless all those that bless him and curse
all those
that curse Abraham and in that story of the
covenant God reckoned Abraham's faith as
righteousness so
that the gospel in seed form was there we've
gone through judges and we saw how over and
over again
even though they had all the benefits of of
the leadership of godly men before of Joshua
of Moses
that that the people still in their sin would
keep falling away and we see how they get up
and down and up and down through judges
through the kings and chronicles we've seen
how how David
the god made a covenant with David that um
that he would maintain his throne forever that
someone
would sit on David's throne forever and we saw
how that looked past the the temporary kingdom
of Israel and how what God was talking about
was a Messiah that would sit on a son of David
that would
be uh the the sit on the throne of God in God
's kingdom forever and so all that we've gone
through
from from the covenant of Abraham that we
talked about in Psalm 32 by the covenant of
David we've
gone through judges and then Joshua and and H
osea and all that is is all part of this one
coherent
story of redemption that goes through the Old
and New Testament from from the first book of
Genesis
to the last book of Revelation and so now as
we're parachuting into Isaiah 40 I have to
show
how that connects to the rest of it and and
how um the the first testament is connected to
the
second testament as one grand story of God
getting a people for himself to bring glory to
himself over
all of eternity so with all that being said
and you know next month when we get to a
another
part I may go to the rest of Isaiah 40 I might
say the same thing again I think it's so very
important for us to really get into our bones
that this is one great story of redemption
so let's look at these two verses begin Isaiah
chapter 40 in in context of how it fits into
that story and how it fits into the lives of
the Jewish people at the time so Isaiah was a
prophet prophets were were men and women who
who were chosen by God to to speak his word
to to to tell of judgment and justice to come
and tell of of the future but also to to call
the
people of God to account for what they were
doing and he lived during that part of of
Israel's history
where they were were divided we talked about
that in Sunday school that there was a
northern kingdom
of the 10 tribes and then the southern kingdom
of Judah where he prophesied mainly to the
kingdom
of Judah through the reigns of Uzziah Jotham
Ahaz and Hezekiah and so by the time we get to
chapter
40 we're in the reign of the last king that he
prophesied to Hezekiah and so at this point
the northern kingdom had already been captured
and exiled into Assyria. Assyria was a big
empire
at the time and they were taking over the
world and soon after Hezekiah a couple
generations later
the Babylonian empire would usurp the Assyrian
empire and and take Judah with them but we're
not
to that that point yet and then what's
important to note is these are all historical
events and
there's names in here in the in the book of
Isaiah of real kings and emperors of the time
of Sennacherib
and Nebuchadnezzar and all these men we can
point to them in history as real people and we
're finding
more and more truths matched in archaeology
with what we know from the the telling of
history from
the Old Testament and so if you've ever read
the the books of kings or chronicles you know
that there's always stories they they go
through the lives of these different kings and
then you
know he did right in the sight of the Lord or
or he followed after the sin of Jeroboam as we
learned
in in Sunday school you'll read that a lot
about the the northern kings and Hezekiah was
was one
of the more positive kings he had had he had
destroyed the idols of the king that was
before him
and and tried to to do what was right but in
in Isaiah chapter 38 Hezekiah fell under a
mortal
sickness he got sick unto death and in in
Isaiah 38 one through six it tells the story
of what
had happened in those days Hezekiah became
mortally ill and Isaiah the prophet the son of
Amos
came to him and said to him thus says the Lord
set your house in order for you shall die and
not live then Hezekiah turned his face to the
wall and prayed to the Lord and said remember
now Lord
I beseech you how I have walked before you in
truth and with a whole heart and have done
what
is good in your sight and Hezekiah wept bitter
ly then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah
saying
go and say to Hezekiah thus says the Lord the
God of your father David I have heard your
prayer
I have seen your tears behold I will add 15
years to your life I will deliver you and in
this city
from the hand of the king of Assyria and I
will defend this city so God said that he
would spare
his life that he would live 15 years longer
and that Judah would not fall to Assyria but
as we
spoke before the Babylonian empire was coming
into into play and they were starting to
ascend and
power in the world and while the Assyrians
were still the king of the most of the empire
the
Babylonians were starting to to get power and
so after Hezekiah received the word that God
would
heal him and that he would live for another 15
years the king of Babylon sent an envoy
to Hezekiah to tell him you know that they
wished him well they sent him a present says
we're glad
you got better a little diplomatic mention
mission if you would but there was alternate
alternate uh mind frame that they had they
were we're sending spies to to see how big
the forces of of Judah were for for their
later military campaign so this envoy comes
and in Hezekiah's pride he shows them
everything he opens the temple and shows him
the wealth of
of Judah he opens the armory and shows him how
many chariots they have and how many
horses they have and how many weapons they
have and and just shows them everything
because he was
bragging he's like man this king of Babylon
this thinks so much of me he sent an envoy
over here
with a present and sees how I was doing so he
was showing off how good he was as king and
and how much
they were prospering so Isaiah came to him and
said who who was that who just came he said
what was the
envoy the Babylonians what did you show them I
showed him everything so in chapter 39 so 38
he
gets sick he prays he cries and God hears him
it says you won't be taken over by Assyria and
this
happens in chapter 39 and in Isaiah 39 5
through 7 it says then Isaiah said to Hezekiah
hear the
word of the lord of hosts behold the days are
coming when all that is in your house and all
that your fathers have laid up in store to
this day will be carried to Babylon everything
that they
just saw is going to be their booty nothing
will be left says the Lord and some of your
sons who
will issue from you whom you will be get will
be taken away and they will become officials
in the
palace of the king of Babylon now put
yourselves into the shoes of the people that
are involved
here Hezekiah thought he had it going on and
now Isaiah has to come and tell him the the
bad news
and I just how deflated that he must be well
it turns out when he heard that he wouldn't
see that it was his kids he said oh it's all
good but but being the prophet of God can you
imagine
being Isaiah and having to be the one to
always tell the bad news to tell him hey you
know Judah
is going to fall there's going to be thousands
killed and they're going to be taken into
exile
and slavery to another nation and and they're
going to fall and and over and over again he
did
this for four kings for years told them of God
's judgment on Israel if if you look at
Jeremiah
he had even harder ministry with harder news
and and he was punished and thrown into the
Myrie pits for his prophecies of doom and
judgment that he brought to the kings and if
you read the
book of Lamentations you just see how how hard
he took it how how hard a time he had
emotionally
having to do that but he kept going and kept
preaching because that's what God told him to
do
and so now Isaiah has to again go to King He
zekiah and say doom and judgment and pain and
death
and slavery are coming on to you so with that
that is the background of our passage today
those were the last verses of chapter 39 and
now we come right into Isaiah 40 verses one
and two
and Isaiah had the pain of teaching and
telling of just judgment but he also gets the
glory for
several chapters after this of telling of how
God is is going to give comfort and grace and
mercy Isaiah 41 through 2 we'll read it again
comfort of comfort my people says your God
speak
kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that
her warfare has ended that her iniquity has
been removed
that sin has received the Lord's hand double
for all or excuse me that she has received the
Lord's
hand double for all her sins and so we see a
division here we see chapter 39 I believe
verse
number eight and then it's chapter 40 and we
go into verse one so chapters and verses were
put
there to make it easy for us to to find places
when we're going I could tell you to go to
Isaiah
chapter 40 verse one and we don't have to keep
searching in our Bibles with no markers but
the
problem with chapters and verses is that they
weren't there originally originally you
stopped
reading at the end of his prophecy of doom in
chapter 39 and it goes right in to comfort
comfort me my people says God so there's no
division there and so God prophesies judgment
and with no separation right after that he
prophesies grace and mercy and peace and so
this is
this is the benefit that we have as we get to
zoom over all of of world history and all of
the
story and of scripture and we can see the
judgment and then we can see the comfort
that God has provided for his people and so
all of us everywhere have to every one of us
every
man and woman have to rest in the comfort that
God provides through his promises the first
way
we can see that in verse number one is by
trusting in his word verse number one is very
short comfort
oh comfort my people says your God and so 39
chapters like we said of judgment and pain and
and Isaiah calling out the the sins of Israel
and Judah and and look it starts right at the
beginning if you go to Isaiah chapter one we
'll read a couple verses there and this is this
is
chapter one verse one it says this is Isaiah
the prophet son of Emmaus and then verse two
says listen
oh heavens and hero earth for lord speaks sons
I have reared and brought up but they have
revolted
against me an ox knows its owner and a donkey
its master's manger but Israel does not know
my
people do not understand all alas sinful
nation people weighed down with iniquity
offspring of
evildoers sons who act corruptly they have
abandoned the lord they have despised the holy
one of
Israel they have turned away from him where
will you be stricken again as you continue in
your
rebellion the whole head is sick and the whole
heart is faint from the sole of the foot even
to
the head there is nothing sound in it only bru
ises and welts and raw wounds not pressed out
or bandaged
nor softened with oil your land is desolate
your cities are burned with fire your fields
strangers
are devouring them in your presence in his des
olation as overthrown by strangers the daughter
of Zion
is left like a shelter and a vineyard like a
watchman's hut in a cucumber field like a bes
ieged
city lest the lord of hosts had left us a few
survivors we would be like Sodom we would be
like Gomorrah and over and over again for 39
chapters God calls out their wickedness and
calls out doom and judgment on them and then
we get to chapter 40 which is called the the
book of
comfort so he he prophesies judgment but at
the same time he prophesies a future comfort
to both
of those things judgment and comfort our
future when Isaiah prophesies that and so I I
like to
think about these these old testament prophe
cies like you're standing in a valley and and
you're
looking up at mountains and and you see one
mountain but behind that there's an even
bigger
mountain kind of covered by the the first
mountain but you can see the peaks over it so
once you get
to that first mountain and get over it that
next mountain right behind it and so many
times it's a
helpful way to look at the prophecies in the
old testament you can't see the whole picture
the whole
story you just have to live through it and go
through it and that's what they do they would
go
through the future judgment the right behind
the mountain of future judgment there was an
even greater
future comfort that would come so look let's
look closely at what he's saying in verse one
comfort oh comfort my people says your god now
comfort here is used as a verb god is is
commanding
that those that are speaking his prophecy to
to not just speak judgment but to speak
comfort he
there he's commanding them to bring comfort to
his people he is looking forward to god's
people
being exiled in Babylon under the weight of
his just judgment but he's looking through
that into
a future of great comfort and peace knowing
that that god won't leave them there in that
judgment
that they will be tempted to think that god
has abandoned them to this great doom in
Babylon
but all through that time they are to be
looking forward to a future coming of peace
and rest
and comfort just as sure as the judgment will
happen that the comfort will happen so if god
fulfills his word of their judgment by taking
them into Babylon they can know for sure as
well
that god will give them peace in the future
after that and the history of his people as
they return
from their exile and the the great history of
the story of redemption that god has given us
through
the old testament we see that the future proph
esied comfort was given in his son
jesus christ and truly the rest of this
chapter is a prophecy that isaia gives of john
the
baptist who would come before that final
comfort would come in jesus but isaia just
again put
yourself in his shoes he's hearing these words
from the the holy spirit to prophesy to these
people
but he doesn't even know the full story he
doesn't even know exactly what he means or
when this is
going to happen or how this is going to happen
and peter brings this out in in first peter
chapter one
he says as to the salvation as to this
salvation the prophets who prophesied of the
grace that would
come to you made careful searches and inqu
iries seeking to know what person or time the
spirit of
christ within them was indicating as he
predicted the sufferings of christ and the gl
ories to follow
it was revealed to them that they were not
serving themselves but you in these things
which now have
been announced to you through those who preach
the gospel to you by the holy spirit sent from
heaven
things into which angels long to look so we
have the privilege of being on this side
looking back
at how it all worked out we can see how
history played out with the with the jews in
their exile
into Babylon and and and then as they came
back into Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple in
the city
and that laid and paid the foundation for how
the fullness of time would come and christ
would come
the messiah into his people and and give him
that grace we have the benefit of looking back
and having
2020 vision but isaia himself didn't even
understand all of the things that he was
writing and how
they would work out peter says that they would
write it down and then would go back and read
it
over and over again trying to figure out how
this is all going to work out they didn't have
the the
same privileges that we do here on the corner
of hooper and love it in 2025 we have the
whole
revealed word of god to see how god works
everything out and what what a comfort that is
he didn't leave them there in the pain of that
judgment but he gave them true hope the same
true hope that we have as we look through the
judgment to come and we can see that no matter
what we go through in this life we have true
comfort on the other side of it the end of
chapter 40 explains this concept to us verse
27 says why do you say oh jakeb and assert oh
israel
my way is hidden from the lord and the justice
do me escapes the notice of my god do you not
know
have you not heard the everlasting god the
lord the creator of the ends of the earth
does not become weary or tired his
understanding is inscrutable he gives strength
to the weary
and to him who lacks might he increases power
through though youths grow weary and tired and
vigorous young men stumble badly yet those who
wait for the lord will gain new strength they
will mount up with wings like eels they will
run and not get tired they will walk and not
become weary because god has showed in the
truth and as they trust in the the truth of
the future
prophecy of comfort they have strength to go
through whatever happens next god knows what
he's doing
and every single one of us who trust him will
see what he is doing and and turn that into
praise
and glory to him you know simian in the the
gospel of of luke um was a man who who knew
what this meant
and it's such a great story luke said of sim
ian and luke 225 he said and there was a man in
jerusalem whose name was simian and this man
was righteous and devout looking for the
consolation
of israel and the holy spirit was upon him
that phrase the consolation of israel
is actually coming from the prophecy that we
read this morning in 40 verse one comfort
comfort yi mai people the word consolation is
just kind of how the the new testament
translated this passage so simian was looking
to this prophecy of comfort for god's people
and looking for the messiah to come that would
bring the consolation of israel and so one day
joseph and mary um had baby jesus and eight
days after baby jesus was born it would go to
the temple
and the the baby would be circumcised and
there were certain offerings that you had to
give for
the first born male of the family and and as
they they they came out they came across this
man's
simian now god had told simian in a prophecy
that he wouldn't die before he saw the consol
ation of
israel and messiah of the christ and so when
that when when joseph and mary came out of the
temple
with baby jesus simian said this in chapter
two verse 29 now lord you are releasing your
bond
servant to depart in peace according to your
word for my eyes have seen your salvation
which you
have prepared in the presence of all peoples a
light of revelation to the Gentiles and the
glory
of your people israel his he saw the consol
ation of israel this comfort that isaia wrote
about
simian saw face to face and baby jesus and and
the lord was able to take him and he went in
peace
after that and so that's the same comfort that
we look to today but instead of looking
forward
as the old testament saints had to we get to
look back and see how god worked it all out
for his glory and his great plan of salvation
that's how we find true comfort by trusting in
god's word
just like isaia did and just like simian did
we also find true comfort in god by trusting
in what he has done look at verse number two
to speak kindly to jesus and call out to her
that her warfare has ended that her iniquity
has been removed that she has received the
lord's hand
double for all her sins when isaia through the
inspiration of the holy spirit wrote these
words down it seems like he used the wrong
tense look at the the verbs with me again in
verse two
speak kindly to jesus and call out to her that
her warfare has ended that her iniquity has
been
removed that she has received the lord's hand
double for all her sins so the grammar here is
wrong he's writing of a future judgment and
then following that a future comfort but he's
writing
these in a past perfect tense has been has
ended has been removed has received and this
is a special
tense that the the hebrew has that we call the
the prophetic future so he's writing these
like
they have already happened because it's a
prophecy from almighty god who in his prov
idence makes all
things work out towards his will and so if he
says it it's as if it already happened it just
hasn't worked out in time yet and and we we we
can see that all throughout the the old
testament
this called the prophetic future tent if you
're a grammar nerd but but it's so sure that
they will
happen they're written like they already have
god has spoken through his prophet and it's as
sure
as if it already happened that their warfare
has ended that their iniquity has been removed
that that that they've paid double for that
they've been double for their
iniquity his word is sure and his promises are
good forever because he spoke it and he cannot
lie so he tells isa to comfort his people by
speaking to them kindly as it says here and
that
that speaking kindly means to speak to the
heart so if you if you look at that it that's
what it
it literally means in the hebrew speak to the
heart boas spoke to to ruth this way as she
said in
ruth 2 13 i have found favor in your sight my
lord for you have comforted me and indeed have
spoken
kindly or spoken to the heart of your maid
servant though i am not like one of your maid
servants
and hosea spoke to his his wayward wife um go
mer uh after she had wandered from him and went
back
to her prostitution hosea 2 14 says therefore
behold i will allure her bring her into the
wilderness
and speak kindly or or speak to her heart so
so christ when the the weight of the the truth
of
of his holiness comes upon us and then the
weight of the truth of our unholiness and our
our sin and
the deserving judgment and justice that that
we deserve christ doesn't speak to us as a
judge
he speaks to his people as a a one who speaks
tenderly he speaks to our hearts he he calls
unto us to come and says hey i've paid for
your sin come to me matthew 11 shows exactly
this christ
was was prophesying to chorisen and to side on
to to beth side and says woe to you chorisen
woe
to you beth side i've done all these miracles
in you and you still don't have faith uh he
compares
them to sodom and gemora i mean he looks
around at the people with him and says look if
you believe
he says in verse 11 28 he says come to me all
who are weary and heavy laden i will give you
rest he he speaks tenderly to them even with
the deserving judgment that they're seeing in
front
of them he he speaks to their hearts he calls
us with his tender words and tells us the
truth
about his future comfort so let's see how how
he does that in the last part of this verse
he says call out to her in verse two that her
warfare has ended that her iniquity has been
removed that she has received of the lord's
hand double for all her sins he says that her
warfare
has ended and if you're looking at your your
nasb bible um there's a little number two
superscripted
by warfare and if you look at that annotation
look for number two on the bottom of the page
it'll say or hard service that means they had
to make a decision in translating this and
they
translated it warfare but it could also mean
hard service so before christ our life could
be described
as warfare as hard service as as as a slave to
to sin we worked hard at it job use the the
same word
here um to describe the pain of life on earth
in verse one of chapter seven is not man
forced to
labor that's the same word forced to labor on
earth and are not his days like the days of a
hired
man and don't you feel like that even even now
after christ you feel like man the day in and
the day
out that's why we have that future comfort to
look forward to that's exactly how paul
describes
life of all of us before christ whether you
were into major sin or whether you were into
just
doing religion your own way and following a
bunch of rules and you look good on the
outside before
christ we are all like this ephesians two one
through three and you were dead in your tresp
asses
and sins and once you formally walked
according to the course of this world
according to the prince
of the power of the air of the spirit that is
now working in the sons of disobedience among
them we
too all formally lived in the lusts of our
flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and
of the mind
and whereby nature children of wrath even as
the rest there's no difference in us we were
all under
that hard service that all the all under the
warfare of a life outside of christ but in the
the future the prophetic future tense i say it
says that that warfare has ended the hard
service
is over phesians two four five but god being
rich in mercy because of his great love with
which he
loved us even when we were dead in our trans
gressions made us alive together with christ by
grace you
have been saved that warfare has ended in
christ then the second part the second thing
that has been
finished isaia tells them that their iniquity
has been removed man named alec moatier writes
this
about this part of the verse he said here's
the element of justice that lies behind the
word of
comfort how can the god of judgment in chapter
39 become the god of pardon and comfort not
just by
saying so for that would be to treat his
holiness as negotiable and sin as negligible
the verb paid
for is used the lord's pleasure and
particularly of the acceptance of the lord
according to to
excuse me particularly of the acceptance the
lord according to atoning sacrifices it
stresses
therefore not so much that the sacrifice
offered is sufficient to cover the sin
committed though
that has to be true also but that it satisfies
the requirements of the holy god there's that
that
word propitiation that word satisfaction our
iniquity has been removed removed because the
judgment and wrath of god has been satisfied
he takes pleasure in the the sacrifice of his
son
jesus christ and then this this problem where
god is holy and just and we are are sinful so
how
can he let us into his presence is what's
called the the great dilemma and paul explains
exactly
this in romans 3 21 he says but now apart from
the law the righteousness of god has been
manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets
even the righteousness of god through faith
in jesus christ for all those who believe for
there is no distinction for all have sinned
and
fall short of the glory of god being justified
as a gift by his grace through the redemption
which
is in christ jesus whom god displayed publicly
as a propitiation in his blood through faith
this was to demonstrate his righteousness
because in the in the forbearance of god
he passed over the sins previously committed
for the demonstration i say of his
righteousness at
the present time so that he would be just and
the justifier of the one who has faith in j
esus
in other words god was was right and just and
passing over the sins of those
those who came before christ by waiting on the
perfect and righteous sacrifice
that jesus christ would make that brought prop
itiation or sat or a satisfaction to god
for his holiness in spite of our sin and so
that's how god can remain just and at the same
time
justify us as sinners he is so very good that
our iniquities were ended and cleared and
removed
through the perfect sacrifice of jesus christ
and all the way back in the old testament
we have the same story here our iniquities are
ended or over or done with or cleared or
cleaned
and then if you go a couple chapters forward
to isaia 53 it describes the sacrifice and
propitiation that christ did for us all the
way in the old testament this very last part
of this
verse very interesting says that she has
received the lord's hand double for all her
sins so let's
look at the last part of that first double for
all her sins and when we hear double we think
of
twice as much we think of a double portion
like my son gets at dinner we think of of of
getting
more than what was there originally but the
word here is actually as it means to fold or
to double
over like in pain or in laughter to to to to
fold over a piece of paper so that it's it's
doubled
that the same word is used in in uh joe 11 6
he said and show you the secrets of wisdom for
sound
wisdom has two sides and literally that's for
sound wisdom is is doubled it's folded over
so there's different ways that this could be
interpreted and it's interesting to look at
all those but what i think because he uses the
word for for folded over that this alludes to
an ancient business practice that when you had
a debt that uh that you you paid off and you
made
the monthly payments for you paid all the
interest the the one who lent you the money
would take the
contract of that debt and he would double it
over and he would attach it to your door with
a nail
marked paid so everyone could see that you no
longer were under debt for that that money or
that
thing that you owed i think that's exactly
what he's talking about here that the picture
that he
is is trying to show this talks about that
that the debt of iniquity that we owe the lord
has
has doubled over the lord has showed that has
been paid off in jesus christ and this exact
same
picture is shown in collagens chapter two
verse 13 says when you were dead in your trans
gressions
and the uncircumcision of your flesh he made
you alive together with him having forgiven us
all our transgressions having cancelled out
the certificate of debt consisting of decrees
against
us which was hostile to us and he has taken it
out of the way having nailed it to the cross i
think
that's the same picture that isaia is trying
to go here this was a standard practice in in
those
days and then what he says they they received
it from the lord's hand double and this is
very
clear it was nothing because of the jews were
good people they obviously weren't they
deserve
judgment after judgment after wrath after
wrath they didn't just clean up their act and
and start
following the ten commandments all of a sudden
no they received this double payment this
doubled
payment this this cancelled contract debt paid
in full from the lord's hand and so we
find true comfort in the true god by trusting
in what god has done and then what was foresh
adowed
here in our passage today what he's done
through jesus christ so there's not a mean god
in the
old testament as you might have heard there's
this idea that there there's just a god of
judgment
and a god of wrath and the old testament and
then you get this lovey-dovey jesus of the the
new
testament there's not a separation wall
between the two two separate gods of two
separate
personalities or way acts towards people from
the very beginning of genesis to the last
first
of the revelation of john god has shown grace
and mercy and has taught the story of
redemption and
worked it out through so many ways and through
his own people in jerusalem and the things
that
happened to them isaiah was speaking of the
the forthcoming judgment of the jews and the
forthcoming
comfort of them when they would return from
exile but but through this which is obvious by
the next
part of this passage that we'll get into next
month he was speaking directly to us and all
those
who believe that we can look to christ for our
true and final comfort the messiah that at
that
point he would send and at this point we can
look back that he has already come so today if
you are
a believer if you bowed the knee to this mess
iah that has come there's this great comfort
that god has
sent us rest fully in that through whatever
happens what what comes in our lives and look
it's crazy every week there's something uh
that happens there's something that happens in
our
nation uh tim was telling me in canada there's
another uh mass murder with a with a vehicle
and you never know what's going to happen
today but i know what's going to happen
tomorrow
because of my comfort that i have in christ
and if you're not a believer if you haven't
fully rested
in the person and who christ is and what he
has done for his people know that there is a
judgment
promised but there will be a wrath to come and
there is no other true comfort outside of j
esus
christ the son of god paul said it to the idol
worshipers in act 1730 says therefore having
overlooked the times of ignorance god is now
declaring to men that all people everywhere
should repent because he has fixed a day in
which he will judge the world in righteousness
through
a man whom he has appointed having furnished
proof to all men by raising him from the dead
come to christ and find true consolation the
same consolation that simian found we can find
the day in christ and may all of us who
believe find that true comfort in christ alone
let's go to the
lord in prayer praise say father we do love
you and thank you for your great mercy on us
that you
show through christ and lord we all deserve
your judgment we are all sinners with stained
hands before
you lord you've come and sent your son to wash
us white as snow to be our comfort and our
consolation
i pray we'd all look to that in our lives for
your glory and your honor in christ's name
amen