J. Alec Motyer
"Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary" Isaiah 40:28
WHEN Hezekiah appealed to God in his sickness, he was given a direct promise of life for another fifteen years and a gratuitous promise, an added bonus, "... and I will defend this city" (Isaiah 38:6). The Lord then added a sign to seal this double promise. "So the sun returned ten steps on the dial of Ahaz." It was a most remarkable miracle. Nobody knows what this "dial" was, for the translation means "stairs" or "steps" but the interesting thing is that the God who had said to Ahaz: "Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, ask it either in the depth, or in the height above" (7:11) and found that Ahaz refused to comply, now Himself offered a sign from the heaven above which would be registered on the dial of that very king Ahaz. How wonderful are God's ways! It was on the dial of Ahaz that the backward movement of the sun gave the sign which confirmed His double promise to Hezekiah.
The first promise was that the king would get better; the second that God would defend the city. Zion needed no other strength than the strength of the Lord. Hezekiah was given great and precious promises. Then he had to face a challenge concerning them. Chapter 39 tells us how letters and a present were sent to the convalescent king. It was like bringing a bunch of grapes to a sick bed, but who, on receiving such a kindness, would totter off his invalid chair and say, "Please let me show you my bank balance"? Yet in effect that was what Hezekiah did: "He was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominions that Hezekiah showed them not" (39:2). This disparity in his receiving of sick-visitors and immediately showing them the strength of his country can best be explained by what we presume prompted the visit in the first place. When Hezekiah opened the packet with the bunch of grapes, he probably found inside a note from Merodach-baladan asking if he would be interested in a treaty, an alliance. This delighted Hezekiah; he felt that he must justify himself as a possible strong ally, so he took them on their tour of his kingdom.
Merodach-baladan was a conspirator. He planned to establish a kingdom in Babylon in the face of Assyrian opposition. It is now known historically that he built up Babylon so successfully that it provided a balance of power in Mesopotamia. He was an extremely successful rebel and desired to entice Hezekiah into his rebellion so that they might defy the great Assyrian empire, Israel's great enemy.
This overture faced Hezekiah with a challenge; where does the security of his kingdom belong? Should he rely on the way of faith, trusting in those promises given by the Lord (38:6) or should it be based on self-effort by means of collective strength with Chaldea? The Lord had said, "I will defend thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria." but now Merodach-baladan said, "I will defend you; we can link our armaments". The question arose as to whether Hezekiah would trust the promises of God or whether he would rely on his own efforts. He chose the latter, and in doing so he committed the unpardonable sin. [81/82]
Isaiah (who had not been consulted) came into this situation and demanded to know who these visitors were and where they came from. Hezekiah, deceived into the way of pride, replied that they had come all the way from Babylon just to honour him, admitting that he had been glad to receive them. The reply of Isaiah was devastating: "Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thy house, and that which the fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall he carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord". It was as though God said, "You are glad to be associated with Babylon, are you? Very well, you and all that is yours shall go to Babylon. You want Babylon, do you? All right, then you shall have what you want." After all God's mercies to Hezekiah this was a tragic outcome. His attitude and actions brought doom to his people.
So Chapter 39 finishes with a verdict of condemnation. But see what immediately follows in Chapter 40: "Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people, saith the Lord your God". As soon as the word of judgment has been spoken, the word of comfort follows. Here we find that we have an unwearying God. Even when His people commit the unpardonable sin of self-reliance, He does not give them up. At the heels of the message of wrath there comes the message of mercy. This is the truth which bridges Chapter 39 and Chapter 40 and what follows.
Natural logic says that this must be from another man -- Deutero-Isaiah . Commentators argue that since the captivity was a hundred years away in the future, there would be a sense of unreality in calling for a word of comfort which would only find its fulfillment in the release from captivity which took place a hundred and fifty years after Isaiah. They therefore argue that Chapters 40 to 66 cannot come from the same man who wrote the first thirty-nine chapters of the book. But Isaiah was a prophet. He was only doing his job. There is no need for us to pay attention to such commentators.
In any case at this very time Babylon was obviously a current possibility. What is more, Isaiah said nothing about a lapse of time. As we look back, we can observe the long interval between Hezekiah's days and those of the return from Babylon, but that was nothing to God or to His message of comfort which was valid enough at the time. God gave the word of comfort as soon as He had uttered the word of wrath. That is what He is like: He is full of grace. In our case the trial may be fully deserved, as it here was, but God still commands comfort. He never wearies in being merciful.
This same truth applies in the comfort which comes to us all in the promise of the Coming Again of the Lord Jesus. It could be argued that it was futile for the Lord Jesus to offer comfort to His disciples by telling them not to worry for after some two thousand years He would be returning: "Let not your heart be troubled ... if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself" (John 14:13), but we know that this is a false argument for, throughout the centuries, His saints have been greatly comforted by the expectation of His Return. He said nothing about two thousand years; He simply said that He would return -- and He will! What is significant about His words is that He spoke a warning. "I am going away" and with the same breath He spoke the words of comfort, "I will come back again". We can be far too clever in our natural reasoning. The comfort is real, and the guarantee of the promises are found in the Promiser.
Isaiah goes on to describe to us who it is who gives this comfort. He is the Unlimited God.
i. He is the Creator of all (40:12-26)
God operates on a worldwide scale. And there is no other God, so that what He says is bound to happen, for there is no-one to stop Him. From this truth we draw the conclusion (vv.27-31): "He gives power to the faint: and to him that has no might he increases strength". He is not going to forget you. You can never be so far away that He cannot help you. So just wait for Him!
ii. He is the Ruler of all (41:1-4)
Everything is under His control. He calls the stars by name (40:26) and He calls the conqueror [82/83] by name (41:2). Even the greatest conqueror comes on his way only because the Lord has called him to do so.
iii. He is always Sufficient (41:21 - 46:13)
We might have a problem concerning the concern of such a great God for the larger part of the world which He has created. Is He only concerned for Israel? No, the answer is that He meets the world's need as well as meeting Israel's need. "He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles", and "the isles shall wait for his law" (42:1 & 4). Our God is not only the Unwearied God but is also the Unlimited God.
Israel had two areas of need, the circumstantial or political and the spiritual. In both cases God had His agent for providing for these needs, and in both cases they are called His servants.
i. Israel's political need
They were an enslaved people, needing to be released from captivity: "This is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth: for a spoil, and none saith, Restore" (42:22). God had a promise of release for them in their circumstantial need and an agent through whom His resources would be ministered: "For your sakes I have sent to Babylon ..." (43:14).
