Isaiah 40

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Wesley: ye prophets and ministers. The doubled verb is consolation, not a feint. After the book’s judgments, God still calls them my people and your God.

The God who comforts is the God who will order wilderness and word in the verses that follow. Wesleyan Arminians hear sincere comfort offered to the chastened people, meant to humble and reform (v. 2), not a God who cannot keep a promise. The comfort is from God, doubled, spoken.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Calvin: he turns to posterity, that the humbled under the cross may not faint. The future tense points past a melancholy silence to prophets God will raise. To believers only is this discourse strictly directed; he silently permits unbelievers to be wasted.

My people is the covenant people God has not forgotten, comforted as those who hope in Him. Agreed: doubled comfort is not in doubt. The fork is whether “my people” here is Jerusalem as such, or, with Calvin, strictly the godly remnant while the rest languish.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem: warfare ended, iniquity pardoned, double received of the LORD’s hand. Wesley: warfare is the time of captivity and misery. Double is not twice what her sins deserved, but abundantly enough to humble and reform them and to warn others.

Pardon comes with the end of the war. God designed the chastisement; He also ends it. Comfort is not denial of sin; it is iniquity lifted after enough discipline. Jerusalem is addressed by name, in the heart, with a cry.

Speak to the heart of Jerusalem: her warfare accomplished, iniquity pardoned, double received. Calvin: to speak to the heart is to speak according to the wish of the mind; nothing more agreeable than reconciliation blotting out offenses. Double is large and abundant; God is unwilling to exact more, through fatherly kindness—not that punishment equaled or exceeded the sin.

Reformed: pardon is why the warfare ends; God is appeased and will not impute. Wesley agrees: double is mercy’s measure of enough, not cruelty. The cry is public, that grace may be heard.

The voice of one who calls out, Prepare the LORD’s way, a highway for our God. Wesley: abrupt speech—methinks I hear a voice. It relates immediately to the Jews’ passage from Babylon through a wilderness, but principally to redemption by the Messiah, ushered in by John the Baptist. God shall by His Spirit so dispose men’s hearts, and by His providence so order the world’s affairs, as to make way for the promise. Eminently fulfilled when Christ, who was and is God, came visibly.

Prepare is God’s work in hearts and history, not a hint that He does not know the road. On this both agree: the voice is for our God. The highway is for Him, which is comfort for the people.

A voice cries in the wilderness: make ready the way of the LORD. Calvin: the wilderness shall not hinder consolation. The voice is addressed even to Cyrus, Persians, Medes—alienated men constrained to deliver the people. A highway for our God: He applies to Himself what relates to His people’s salvation; we are so united to Him that what is done on our account He reckons done to Himself.

God cleaves a path through impassable tracts and employs irreligious men as hired servants. Wilderness is no match for the LORD. Evangelists justly hear John here as herald of the greater redemption.

Valleys up, mountains down, crooked straight, rough places a plain. The geography of the wilderness becomes a road because God said so.

Wesley’s prepare-the-way still governs: Spirit and providence level what blocks the promise. Neither side disputes this: no obstacle is final when the LORD comes. This is omnipotence serving comfort, not a puzzle God is solving as He goes.

Every valley exalted, every mountain laid low. Calvin: no difficulties can prevent the Lord from delivering His Church. Mountains and hills are obstructions of every kind—Satan’s hindrances, lusts, confidence, impatience—and the Lord will break them all down.

Reformed: when He stretches out His hand, nothing restrains Him. The road is made because He makes it. Sovereignty here is the reason comfort is not a wish.

The LORD’s glory shall be revealed; all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. The certainty is the spoken mouth, matching v. 8’s standing word.

All flesh seeing together is the publicness of the comfort: not a private rumor. Shared christology waits in the gospel use of this voice; here the point is that God has spoken, so the glory will be seen.

Glory revealed; all flesh shall see together, because the mouth of Jehovah has spoken. Calvin: this work of redemption will be splendid; He will display His majesty in protecting His Church. All flesh: no nations that do not see the return as a heavenly work.

He joins doctrine with experience—the word first, then the accomplishment as seal. Both hear: the mouth of the LORD is why sight will happen. Unbelief is censured until the fact constrains it.

A voice says, Cry; the prophet asks, What shall I cry? All flesh is like grass; its beauty like the flower of the field. Wesley: God speaks to His ministers. Having foretold glorious things, he confirms them by the difference between men and God. All that men are or have, their highest accomplishments, are grass—weak, vanishing, soon nipped.

Human goodliness is not a rival to the promise. Common to both: flesh is grass. That is why the comfort must be God’s word, not Judah’s stamina.

Cry—What shall I cry? All flesh is like grass, all its grace as the flower. Calvin: not merely the frailty of life, but all the excellence men think they possess—prudence, courage, judgment—reduced to a flower. Man with his faculties is wholly compared to a flower.

Reformed: this is how hearers are prepared for consolation—convinced they are nothing, that they may fly to the word. Common ground with Wesley: the contrast is man versus God’s speech, not a denial of the coming glory.

Grass withers, flower fades, because the LORD’s breath blows; Surely the people are like grass. The same LORD whose mouth has spoken (v. 5) blows, and people wither.

Omnipotence is not cruelty here; it is why Babylon and Judah alike cannot be the ground of hope. Common to both: the people—even this people—are grass. Comfort will have to come from what does not fade.

The Spirit of Jehovah blows; the people is grass. Calvin: as soon as the Spirit of God blows, men feel they are nothing. He addresses this people expressly, that they may not claim anything above others.

Reformed: hardness must be softened, haughtiness laid low, before consolation can be received with advantage. The breath that withers is the LORD’s. That is sovereignty serving the next verse’s forever-word.

Grass withers; the word of our God stands forever. Wesley: God’s word is like Himself, immutable and irresistible; as the mouth of the LORD has spoken these things, doubt not they shall be fulfilled.

The passage builds toward the eternity of the word. Both see: forever is like God. The comfort of vv. 1–2 stands because this word stands.

The word of our God shall stand forever. Calvin: after casting down His people He immediately raises them; the whole gospel in few words—misery acknowledged, then the eternal word. The word is eternal not merely in itself but in us; life is prepared for the dead who come thirsting to the fountain.

Reformed: nothing firm on earth; consolation only from the God who is eternal. Common ground with Wesley: immutable word, therefore the promise of comfort and highway and shepherd will be done. 1 Peter 1 will preach this verse as the gospel seed.

Zion, herald of good news, up the high mountain; Jerusalem, lift the voice, fear not; say to Judah’s cities, Behold your God. Wesley: Zion or Jerusalem is the publisher, the cities of Judah the hearers. Afraid—lest thou shouldest be found a false prophet. Behold—take notice of this wonderful work and glorious appearance of your God.

The good news is God Himself appearing. Fear not is because the word stands (v. 8). Herald is the church’s office: say Behold your God, not behold your grass.

Ascend the high mountain, herald Zion; lift the voice, herald Jerusalem; fear not; say, Behold your God. Calvin: consolation more widely spread; the Church must not keep knowledge hidden. An assembly without heavenly doctrine does not deserve the name Church. Behold your God includes the sum of our happiness, which consists solely in His presence.

Reformed: nothing is more opposite to faith than to estimate by present appearances what God declares by prophets. The herald’s sentence is God, not Judah’s odds. Boldness because the Author cannot lie.

The Lord GOD comes with might; His arm will rule for him; reward with Him, recompense before Him. Wesley: His arm—He shall need no succours; His own power is sufficient to govern His people and destroy adversaries. Reward—recompences of blessing for friends and vengeance for enemies. Work before Him—He carries on His work effectually.

Omnipotence and rule: God is not an idol who must be carried. Undisputed: He comes. Comfort is this coming, strong enough for enemies, enough for the flock of v. 11.

The Lord Jehovah will come with strength; His arm powerful to Him. Calvin: God is sufficient for Himself and does not need anyone’s assistance. Reward is not merit but the justice by which He testifies He is a rewarder of those who call on Him; He will not come unemployed.

He comes to display power and make us feel it. Wesley agrees: the arm is His, the work is before His face. Sovereignty here is the arriving God of v. 9, not a distant clockmaker.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd: gather lambs in His arm, carry them in His bosom, gently lead those with young. The same arm that rules (v. 10) now gathers.

Comfort is this tenderness. God is shepherd, not idol. Arminian interpreters hear a flock being gathered and led—lambs and the weak included. The might of v. 10 is not the opposite of gentleness; it is why the lambs can be carried. No extra fight: both camps glory in the shepherd.

He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; gather lambs with His arm, carry them in His bosom, gently lead those with young. Calvin: He has determined to protect His Church; He ascribes a more amiable character that believers may sweetly repose. He will be a shepherd to none but those who, in modesty and gentleness, shall imitate the sheep and lambs. Lay aside fierceness if you wish to be gathered into the fold.

Reformed: wonderful condescension—He watches, handles, and leads according to weakness. Wesley agrees: the flock is fed, lambs gathered, the weak led. The light fork, if any, is Calvin’s insistence that the flock is the Church of the meek, not every fierce soul claiming the comfort of v. 1.