Advent Through the Lens of Four Christmas Songs

Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

Part 4

Isaiah 40.1-8

The voice of one crying in the wilderness (Isa 40.3).

The one bringing the message of comfort is a voice, a nameless one, whose name is unimportant compared to the message. He is crying in the wilderness, the desert, a place of death. Every Gospel identifies this voice as John the Baptist, and he claimed the identity for himself (Mat 3.3; Mark 1.3; Luke 3.4-6; John 1.23). What is the message of comfort he brings?

(1) Prepare the way of the LORD (Isa 40.3-4).

Integral to the message of comfort is a call to repentance. All the hills and holes, all the bumps and crooked places refer to the sins of God’s people, and the only way to smooth and straighten them out is repentance:

And [John the Baptist] went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,  as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth;  And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ “ (Luke 3.3-6.)

It is not the people who traverse the desert, the place of death; it is the LORD. But those who wait for him must prepare their hearts through repentance.

(2) The glory of the LORD shall be revealed (Isa 40.5).

God’s salvation shall not be accomplished in a corner, but center stage. Nor is it intended for a few, but for Israel and the world. And the way to glory is humility; the portal to salvation is repentance (Prov 3.34-35; James 4.6-10).

The voice said, “Cry out!”  And he said, “What shall I cry?” (Isa 40.6-8.)

For the third time, we learn about the message of comfort. Last time, we learned the message of comfort is a message of repentance. No repentance, no comfort. This time we learn that the message of comfort (and of repentance) requires one to look away from oneself, from the very best part of oneself, and to trust not at all in oneself, but instead to look to and trust in the Word of God. The word of comfort means understanding an uncomfortable fact — nothing about us can endure, the seed of life within us is a dying seed, and everything about us is fading and fleeting. The seed of the Word, on the other hand, is an eternally living seed. It is able to save us (Acts 20.32; James 1.21).

Application to God’s people today.

The apostle Peter quotes our text and applies it to Christians on a perpetual basis. He quotes it in the midst and as the foundation of two admonitions for Christians of every place and time:

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (1Pet 1.22-2.3.)

Both applications boil down to continue as you have begun. Live as you were born. You were born again by the word of God. How could you live in any other way? Desire the pure milk of the Word that you may continue to grow thereby. There are some things consistent and others inconsistent with health and hunger for the Word. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking, these all hurt our health and kill our appetite. These are contrary to the Truth and the Spirit, and they eat away at one’s soul. On the other hand, loving one another fervently from the heart is in keeping with the Truth and the Spirit. It strengthens our souls and those of our brethren. This is how we began. This is how we must go on. This is how we were born. This is how we must live.