भाष्य सध्या फक्त इंग्रजीत उपलब्ध आहे. मराठी भाषांतर प्रगतीपथावर आहे.
Isaiah 40 — Comfort Ye, My People
After 39 chapters of warning, Isaiah turns to comfort. The valleys exalted, the mountains brought low, the glory of the Lord revealed — and the people who wait on Him renewing their strength. This chapter announces both John the Baptist and the great message of the New Testament.
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
— Isaiah 40:31
- v.1-2 The double comfort spoken to Jerusalem
- v.3-5 The voice in the wilderness — prepare the way
- v.6-8 All flesh is grass; the word abides
- v.9-11 Behold your God — the Shepherd
- v.12-26 The incomparable greatness of God
- v.27-31 Those who wait shall renew their strength
Quoted by all four Gospels of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23). Isaiah, seven hundred years before, identified the herald.
Preparing the way is what every revival movement does — making the path clear for the King who follows. The forerunner does not glorify himself; he points beyond himself.
Every empire, every fashion, every philosophy fades. Only what God has spoken endures. The Bible has outlived every persecution and will outlive every cultural shift that boasts of its disappearance.
Quoted in 1 Peter 1:24-25 to confirm that the gospel preached to us is this enduring word.
The God who measures the heavens with a span (v.12) carries lambs in His arms. Power and tenderness in one Person. Both are essential to know Him rightly.
Jesus fulfilled this perfectly: "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11). Isaiah 40:11 met John 10:11 in a Galilean carpenter's son.
A descending order of activity: mounting, running, walking. The hardest is last. To soar in a great moment is easier than to walk steadily over years without fainting. The waiting brings strength for all three.
The Hebrew word translated wait (qavah) means to bind together — like the strands of a rope. Waiting on God is not passivity. It is the tight binding of one's soul to His being and timing.
The strength you lack today is given to those who wait. Not those who hustle harder, not those who optimize their day better — those who lift their eyes from their own striving and bind their soul to the strength of God. Wait. Then walk.
Isaiah 40 begins with the herald who announces Christ and ends with the strength He gives to those who trust Him. The voice that cried in the wilderness was John's; the Lord he announced was Jesus; the strength promised at the chapter's end is the very Spirit Christ poured out.
The command is doubled for emphasis. God is not slow to comfort. After judgment, mercy. After exile, return.
"My people... your God." The covenant relationship is named. He has not forgotten who they are, even in their failure.