Isaiah 40:6-31 The Comfort of Empowerment
Empowerment is a huge topic in our culture today. In an effort to level the playing field for marginalized or victimized people, we have adopted an almost universal message that "we" support them, encourage them, and will seek to make special allowance for them. That message is blasted across social media, and it is part of marketing messages for everything from little girls shirts to major social movements. The all-inclusive "we" makes it sound like all of society embraces this messaging and goal. Let's see what God has to say about it.
Recap of Isaiah 40:1-5 (click here for link):
God’s intent: Comfort my people!
God’s objectives: End the fighting on two fronts so that Israel can return to Him
The Voice’s Command: Prepare the Way!
The Highway-building Process:
Israel is our case study. She is the victim of all kinds of physical abuse. She is suffering the emotional and psychological backlash of all that. But she is also guilty of bringing her suffering upon herself because of her sin and unfaithfulness to God, and she is wrestling with God, even in her oppression. When God begins to deal with her, He is going to factor the sin issue into it.
That is Israel's case, but this may not be the case in our own personal contexts. We (or the people we are trying to comfort) may not have brought our suffering upon ourselves. Sometimes we are innocent victims. However, sin can enter into the dynamic in how we react to the abuse or oppressive circumstances. That is where the stumbling stones come into play. The oppressor’s sin is never overlooked, but neither is our reaction to it. So, as we study this, we are going to discuss Israel’s specific case first (which addresses the sin issue as the start of everything), and then tailor the principles of God's model to our own context.
Isaiah 40:6-8
God opened Isaiah 40 with the resounding command, "Comfort My people!" The voice crying in the wilderness then forwarded the message to the prophet, saying, "Cry out!" and the prophet responds, "What shall I cry?" The voice in the wilderness replies, "Tell them they are going to die."
Is that comforting, being told you are going to die? No, of course not!
Have you ever been moved to comfort someone, only to find yourself feeling ill-equipped to help them? Let me spin you one scenario for an example. (This is not anyone's particular story, but scraps of experiences I have gleaned from other women.) Let's say I work with a woman who is depressed to the point of despair. I see her crying in the breakroom one day and ask her what is wrong, thinking I might have a word of comfort for her. Then she tells me her story. Her husband is talking about leaving her. They have marriage problems that are being aggravated by huge financial debts that they incurred some years before when the husband lost his previous job due to his anger issues. He is struggling to make ends meet by working two part-time job, and he is taking his stress out on her verbally and physically. She is facing the fear of being cut off from her home and children, and that she will not have the means of supporting herself if he should divorce her. Our current jobs are only part-time positions with few benefits. The woman is hurting physically and emotionally, hopelessly caught in a crooked place, and desperately looking for a way out.
I listen to this, and I am overwhelmed. I think about trying to support myself on my current paycheck if my own husband left me and immediately sympathize with her fear. Clearly the problems between her and her husband need intervention, but I am not a marriage counselor, nor do I have any means of relieving their financial debts or her husband's stress. I cannot promise to support her should her husband leave her. She will need financial help, personal counseling, and long-term physical and emotional support to which I cannot commit because my own resources are limited. (What I don't know is that she has turned to alcohol as a means of coping with her situation and her addiction has added to the strain with her husband.)
As I listen to her story, I quickly come to the realization that I am powerless to do anything to remedy her situation or relieve her despair. I can't tell her everything will be alright, because it won't. Any comfort I can give her will be fleeting at best and sadly insufficient. And yet her plight moves me deeply, and I sympathize with her to the extent that I myself now feel frustrated and hopeless.
That powerless feeling is God telling me that I am grass.
When that feeling of powerlessness hits, it is almost a knee-jerk reaction to immediately seek the next higher power to deal with the oppression.
Let's spin out some what-ifs and consider where we turn for help in these cases.
What if we need physical strength to fight back against an abuser?
Maybe we take lessons from a self-defense expert. Maybe we arm ourselves with a weapon.
What if the problem is in our relationships?
Maybe we seek self-help books, psychologists, doctors, marriage counselors, financial or spiritual advisors to help us with other problems.
What if the problem requires intervention from someone with more legal authority who can demand justice for a victim?
Maybe we appeal to our justice system or social media (social media has become a platform for social justice in this generation).
What if the problem is bigger and local authorities aren't effective enough?
Maybe we expect national leaders to relieve us of oppression and secure victim's rights at a governmental level, and so we elect leadership based on promises they make to marginalized or victimized people groups. (As we move toward socialism, there is an increasing demand on government to support all needs and be the "savior.")
What if we face a national threat?
Nations turn to nations for help with wars. Israel has historically sought allies like the United States for help, but the current generation of leaders have been ambivalent toward her. Allies didn't help her much with Babylon, either.
It is not a bad thing to look to these sources for help. But you have to understand that, ultimately, they are all grass. They may help in one instance but not another. Their help may be fleeting and insufficient to deal with the problem. They may not be able to help at all.
What if these earthly power sources are still too weak or unreliable? What other power sources are out there? In Israel's day, the world's power source lay in the imagined power of its idols, and Israel joined in that idolatry. They took God's creation, recreated it into what they wanted God to be, and then invested their created image with imagined power.
Isaiah 40:9-11
After spending three, appropriately short verses on the mortality and fleetingness of man, the message then continues for twenty-six verses on the eternality and incomparable power of God. Israel is commanded to get up to the mountains and lift up her voice to proclaim the good tidings, beginning with the roar, "Behold your God!"
Isaiah 40:12-17
God now makes a series of rhetorical "who" questions.
Having established who He is, God then begins to tear down all the power sources that Israel has set up for herself apart from Him. (These go back to our what-ifs above.) He says, behold the nations. Your allies are powerless. Your government and justice system are worthless. Your leaders are powerless. They are all grass. (Lebanon is known for its mighty cedars which are used figuratively in Scripture as a metaphor for mighty leaders. In God's eyes, these are grass.)
Stop for a moment and picture in your mind’s eye our world today. All the nations that are raging and battling one another. All the resources being diverted from one country to another in support of alliances. All the protests raging on college campuses and in our communities over claims of injustice. Fighting, fighting, fighting, everywhere—and all in pursuit of power. Now look at them from God's eyes.
Isaiah 40:18-26
God then asks, "To whom then will you liken Me?" and begins to address the power that Israel has sought from a spiritual realm. He tells Israel that her idols are grass, the same as her princes and judges. He blows on them and, poof, they are gone.
Isaiah 40:27-31
And what is Israel's response in verse 27 to this glorious picture of her incomparable God? She appeals to an unknown audience in her social media channels, "God doesn't see my plight. I have been victimized! I have a just claim, but He has passed over it." Perhaps that is her rationale for seeking other power sources besides Him.
These people become the target for the world's "empowerment" messaging. God fires back with His own empowerment message in His rhetorical questions. Have you not known? Have you not heard? How can you say this, knowing what you know about Me? Notice that He is challenging her to step away from the emotional response and take a rational view.
When you feel powerless because you have a just claim that the greater authority isn't addressing, there is the desire to seek another means of empowerment. We are comparing God and the world in this chapter. Even the secular world will agree that to end oppression, you need power. It is all about the power. Empowerment has become a catch word in our modern culture.
The fact is that they really don't have to do anything to get that power except believe that He has the power to save them, and then wait for Him. But do they believe He has the power? That is the crux of the problem, initially. Consider your own children. When they come running to you in tears because of a bully on the playground or they have fallen and skinned their knee, the fact that they run to you first and not someone else is an acknowledgement of their belief that you have the power and authority to fix the problem. God's children aren't running to Him. He has to fight just to get them to acknowledge that He has the ability to save them. For then next eight chapters, He will build a case for His power and His superior ability to save them.
Main Theme: God's Highway Project
God's sovereignty and power are the focus for the first part of Isaiah's consolation which is Isaiah 40-48. We will see how He makes the case for His ability to save His people in the next seven chapters.
Recap of Isaiah 40:1-5 (click here for link):
God’s intent: Comfort my people!
God’s objectives: End the fighting on two fronts so that Israel can return to Him
- End the physical fight—remove Israel from her immediate circumstances and deal with her physical oppressor
- End the spiritual fight—warfare between Israel and God Himself
The Voice’s Command: Prepare the Way!
The Highway-building Process:
- Lift up the lowly (console, encourage)
- Tear down the high places (rebuke, exhort)
- Straighten the crooked places (realigning with God’s vision and values)
- Smooth the rough going (removing the stumbling blocks)
Israel is our case study. She is the victim of all kinds of physical abuse. She is suffering the emotional and psychological backlash of all that. But she is also guilty of bringing her suffering upon herself because of her sin and unfaithfulness to God, and she is wrestling with God, even in her oppression. When God begins to deal with her, He is going to factor the sin issue into it.
That is Israel's case, but this may not be the case in our own personal contexts. We (or the people we are trying to comfort) may not have brought our suffering upon ourselves. Sometimes we are innocent victims. However, sin can enter into the dynamic in how we react to the abuse or oppressive circumstances. That is where the stumbling stones come into play. The oppressor’s sin is never overlooked, but neither is our reaction to it. So, as we study this, we are going to discuss Israel’s specific case first (which addresses the sin issue as the start of everything), and then tailor the principles of God's model to our own context.
Isaiah 40:6-8
God opened Isaiah 40 with the resounding command, "Comfort My people!" The voice crying in the wilderness then forwarded the message to the prophet, saying, "Cry out!" and the prophet responds, "What shall I cry?" The voice in the wilderness replies, "Tell them they are going to die."
". . . All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8 NKJV)
Q: What does it mean to be like grass?
Q: To what does He contrast their condition?
Q: This is supposed to be comforting, but there is little comfort in being told that you are frail and going to die. Why would it be necessary for God to establish this contrast between “all flesh” and Himself as a first step?
Q: When we comfort someone, why is it important to remember that we, too, are grass?
Have you ever been moved to comfort someone, only to find yourself feeling ill-equipped to help them? Let me spin you one scenario for an example. (This is not anyone's particular story, but scraps of experiences I have gleaned from other women.) Let's say I work with a woman who is depressed to the point of despair. I see her crying in the breakroom one day and ask her what is wrong, thinking I might have a word of comfort for her. Then she tells me her story. Her husband is talking about leaving her. They have marriage problems that are being aggravated by huge financial debts that they incurred some years before when the husband lost his previous job due to his anger issues. He is struggling to make ends meet by working two part-time job, and he is taking his stress out on her verbally and physically. She is facing the fear of being cut off from her home and children, and that she will not have the means of supporting herself if he should divorce her. Our current jobs are only part-time positions with few benefits. The woman is hurting physically and emotionally, hopelessly caught in a crooked place, and desperately looking for a way out.
I listen to this, and I am overwhelmed. I think about trying to support myself on my current paycheck if my own husband left me and immediately sympathize with her fear. Clearly the problems between her and her husband need intervention, but I am not a marriage counselor, nor do I have any means of relieving their financial debts or her husband's stress. I cannot promise to support her should her husband leave her. She will need financial help, personal counseling, and long-term physical and emotional support to which I cannot commit because my own resources are limited. (What I don't know is that she has turned to alcohol as a means of coping with her situation and her addiction has added to the strain with her husband.)
As I listen to her story, I quickly come to the realization that I am powerless to do anything to remedy her situation or relieve her despair. I can't tell her everything will be alright, because it won't. Any comfort I can give her will be fleeting at best and sadly insufficient. And yet her plight moves me deeply, and I sympathize with her to the extent that I myself now feel frustrated and hopeless.
That powerless feeling is God telling me that I am grass.
Q: We have all felt powerless at some point in life. We may even feel it now with all the chaos besetting our country, our communities, or our families. Before we can even begin to minister to others who are feeling powerless, we should assess how we ourselves respond to powerlessness. So, how do you personally respond to feeling powerless?
Q: Where do you seek support and comfort?
When that feeling of powerlessness hits, it is almost a knee-jerk reaction to immediately seek the next higher power to deal with the oppression.
Q: What higher power do we seek to help us or our struggling person escape the oppression?
Let's spin out some what-ifs and consider where we turn for help in these cases.
What if we need physical strength to fight back against an abuser?
Maybe we take lessons from a self-defense expert. Maybe we arm ourselves with a weapon.
What if the problem is in our relationships?
Maybe we seek self-help books, psychologists, doctors, marriage counselors, financial or spiritual advisors to help us with other problems.
What if the problem requires intervention from someone with more legal authority who can demand justice for a victim?
Maybe we appeal to our justice system or social media (social media has become a platform for social justice in this generation).
What if the problem is bigger and local authorities aren't effective enough?
Maybe we expect national leaders to relieve us of oppression and secure victim's rights at a governmental level, and so we elect leadership based on promises they make to marginalized or victimized people groups. (As we move toward socialism, there is an increasing demand on government to support all needs and be the "savior.")
Q: Is government the solution to oppression, or does it create more oppression?
What if we face a national threat?
Nations turn to nations for help with wars. Israel has historically sought allies like the United States for help, but the current generation of leaders have been ambivalent toward her. Allies didn't help her much with Babylon, either.
It is not a bad thing to look to these sources for help. But you have to understand that, ultimately, they are all grass. They may help in one instance but not another. Their help may be fleeting and insufficient to deal with the problem. They may not be able to help at all.
What if these earthly power sources are still too weak or unreliable? What other power sources are out there? In Israel's day, the world's power source lay in the imagined power of its idols, and Israel joined in that idolatry. They took God's creation, recreated it into what they wanted God to be, and then invested their created image with imagined power.
Q: What do we want God to be in our circumstances?
Q: As a woman speaking to women, when we see "Girl Power!" written on little girl's clothes in sparkly letters, what is the goal of that kind of messaging?
Q: What would happen if it said "God Power!" instead?
Isaiah 40:9-11
After spending three, appropriately short verses on the mortality and fleetingness of man, the message then continues for twenty-six verses on the eternality and incomparable power of God. Israel is commanded to get up to the mountains and lift up her voice to proclaim the good tidings, beginning with the roar, "Behold your God!"
Q: In verses 10-11, what comfort is in the grand picture that God paints of Himself?
God now makes a series of rhetorical "who" questions.
Q: What qualities of Himself is God highlighting with these questions?
Q: What value do “the nations” possess that God matches against Himself?
Q: What is God challenging with these questions?
Having established who He is, God then begins to tear down all the power sources that Israel has set up for herself apart from Him. (These go back to our what-ifs above.) He says, behold the nations. Your allies are powerless. Your government and justice system are worthless. Your leaders are powerless. They are all grass. (Lebanon is known for its mighty cedars which are used figuratively in Scripture as a metaphor for mighty leaders. In God's eyes, these are grass.)
Stop for a moment and picture in your mind’s eye our world today. All the nations that are raging and battling one another. All the resources being diverted from one country to another in support of alliances. All the protests raging on college campuses and in our communities over claims of injustice. Fighting, fighting, fighting, everywhere—and all in pursuit of power. Now look at them from God's eyes.
Isaiah 40:18-26
God then asks, "To whom then will you liken Me?" and begins to address the power that Israel has sought from a spiritual realm. He tells Israel that her idols are grass, the same as her princes and judges. He blows on them and, poof, they are gone.
Q: If idols, as defined here in Isaiah, refer to sources of power on which people rely for strength, what things does our current culture "idolize," that is, rely on as source(s) of power?
Isaiah 40:27-31
And what is Israel's response in verse 27 to this glorious picture of her incomparable God? She appeals to an unknown audience in her social media channels, "God doesn't see my plight. I have been victimized! I have a just claim, but He has passed over it." Perhaps that is her rationale for seeking other power sources besides Him.
Q: Do we feel like this in the midst of struggles, that the LORD doesn't see us? That He isn't doing anything on our behalf?
Q: Who are some of the "unheard" victims in our culture today?
These people become the target for the world's "empowerment" messaging. God fires back with His own empowerment message in His rhetorical questions. Have you not known? Have you not heard? How can you say this, knowing what you know about Me? Notice that He is challenging her to step away from the emotional response and take a rational view.
Q: From what is He expecting Israel (and us) to draw comfort and hope?
When you feel powerless because you have a just claim that the greater authority isn't addressing, there is the desire to seek another means of empowerment. We are comparing God and the world in this chapter. Even the secular world will agree that to end oppression, you need power. It is all about the power. Empowerment has become a catch word in our modern culture.
Q: How does He empower His people?
The fact is that they really don't have to do anything to get that power except believe that He has the power to save them, and then wait for Him. But do they believe He has the power? That is the crux of the problem, initially. Consider your own children. When they come running to you in tears because of a bully on the playground or they have fallen and skinned their knee, the fact that they run to you first and not someone else is an acknowledgement of their belief that you have the power and authority to fix the problem. God's children aren't running to Him. He has to fight just to get them to acknowledge that He has the ability to save them. For then next eight chapters, He will build a case for His power and His superior ability to save them.
Main Theme: God's Highway Project
Q: Which aspects of the Highway Project are highlighted in this passage:
- Building up low places: What does He offer as consolation or encouragement?
- Tearing down high places: What does He offer as a rebuke or exhortation?
- Making crooked places straight: What is He trying to realign in Israel's thinking?
- Removing stumbling blocks: What is keeping Israel from moving forward?
Q: God opens with a declaration of His omnipotence (power) and omniscience (wisdom, far-sightedness), but mostly His power. Why His power and not His love? Wouldn't love be more comforting?
Q: Does the fact that God doesn't lead with love when comforting people challenge a perception we have of Him? What do we want Him to be first: a God of power or a God of love?
Q: What is the world's response when we present Him as a God of power?
Q: In verse 9, God commands His people to get up to the mountains and lift their voice with strength to declare the good news. Knowing that we are grass and only God can truly effect change, when we begin to minister to a person who is suffering or caught in a crooked place in life, what is the "empowering" message we need to communicate to them first?
God's sovereignty and power are the focus for the first part of Isaiah's consolation which is Isaiah 40-48. We will see how He makes the case for His ability to save His people in the next seven chapters.
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