Isaiah 40--Comfort my people

“I told you so!”

Nobody likes to hear that phrase. Yet, we have heard it and we have said it. Why does know one like to hear it? The reason is, that it simply adds insult to injury. If somebody is using that phrase, it is because we have done something that we regret and are currently feeling the hurt. Then the insult comes.

That is not how God responds to his people. In our advent series, we are looking at Isaiah 40 as a standalone. However, if we had been reading it we would know that chapters 1-39 were warnings to Israel and the surrounding nations of impending judgment. Isaiah 40—66 are addressed to the people of Israel who have experienced that judgment. The words aren’t “I told you so,” but rather, “comfort my people, comfort my people.”

Isaiah the prophet was sent to bring words to comfort the people of Israel and point them to the compassion of their God. Yet, Isaiah as the prophet only foreshadowed Jesus, the greater prophet and priest, who would not just bring words, but would be the very word—God himself. H e would be the ultimate comfort for God’s people.

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16

When we pray to Jesus, we can know that he understands our pain and our experience—because he too experienced the loss, grief and temptations we do. Because we have the same Holy Spirit that dwelled in Jesus, that Holy Spirit will enable us to commune with Christ and will fill us with the same power, hope and courage that Jesus was filled with. That same Holy Spirit will comfort us, not tell us “I told you so."