“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:2)
Imagine living in war time. Every night you go to bed with the sound of explosions in the distance. You never really know when you lay your head down at night, if you will wake up in the morning. Your stomach is always in knots, with a constant, restless tension.
This is war.
But one morning you awake to the sound of shouting. And what you hear is, “The war is over! The war is over!”
Out in the streets, you see crowds of people gathering, coming out of their houses as if they’ve never seen the sun before. They are cheering, hugging, weeping—a jubilation fills the streets, “The war is over!”
And all at once, it feels like waking up from a nightmare. Tears fill your eyes and relief washes over you.
The war is finally over.
***
This is something like what the Lord says in Isaiah 40,
“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended…”
(40:2, emphasis added)
First, he speaks tenderly, which means he speaks to her heart. Imagine a bloodied and battled soldier come home from war to his sleeping wife. Gently waking her with the news, speaking softly, whispering, “The war is over.”
What the Lord actually says is, “Her warfare is ended” (40:2). But what does that mean?
It’s not the language we use today, but it means her hard service has been completed. Her period of duress has served its purpose. Her time of affliction has been accomplished.
In other words: It’s over.
It is finished.
For Isaiah’s first audience, this would have likely referred to God’s people held captive in Babylon (43:14).
However, for Isaiah’s greater audience, (which includes all God’s people), this speaks not only of deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, but from a greater captivity–our captivity to sin and death.
This is big. Big news.
And likely why Alec Motyer titled this section of Isaiah, “The Consolation of the World.”
The consolation of the world.
Because here in the wilderness of Isaiah–comes a voice not only crying of deliverance from Babylon, but of a Greater Deliverance, and a greater Deliverer.
One who will himself go to battle and win the war.
But who is this Deliverer? And from where will he come?
The answer continues to unfold in Isaiah 40,
He says,
“Cry to her…that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”
(Isaiah 40:2)
God is pronouncing that her (and our) iniquity is pardoned. And not only that, but we have been given “double” for all our sins. Not double punishment, as we’d expect, but double pardon.
That means we’ve been given an over-abundant pardon. It is like what the New Testament calls “grace upon grace” (John 1:16). The kind of shocking and unexpected love of the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. Who not only spares wrath, but lavishes love. Who runs down the road to greet his lost son, and not only forgives him, but kisses him, clothes him in his robe, slides his ring on his finger and throws a huge party over his return (Luke 15). This is the undeserved, overwhelming, mercy of God. And this is what it means to be given double, or, double pardon for all our sins.
But how does he do it? From where has this divine provision been made?
The answer is: from the Lord’s own hand.
He says, “…she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa. 40:2).
In Isaiah, when we see the Lord’s “hand,” or his “arm,” it means his own personal agency. It is the way in which he comes himself to do the job no one else could. And he does this through his own hand, the one who comes on his behalf, or whom he calls, “My servant.”
He says,
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
He shall be high and lifted up,
And shall be exalted.” (Isa. 52:13)
And this Servant is the living, breathing Son of God–Jesus Christ. He is the hand, or arm of the Lord. The One who will “act wisely,” the One who will save as he is “high and lifted up” on the cross, so that “whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:15).
Jesus will come to do the job no one else could do, to fight the battle no one else could fight. For, the LORD,
“…saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation,
and his righteousness upheld him.” (Isa. 59:16)
Here enters our Warrior King, Jesus,
“He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. (Isa. 59:17)
This is our King. The only One who could save us. The only One who can end our constant warfare and pardon our iniquities, by shedding his own precious blood on the cross.
It is because of him we can sing,
“The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain,
His blood-red banner streams afar
Who follows in his train?”
This is our Savior, and this is our King. He is the One who paid the price for our pardon. Who paid the price for our peace–making him the Prince of Peace.
He is the promise made at the beginning of Isaiah 40, he is the fulfillment of the Lord’s comfort to his people. The tender cry we hear of, “Comfort, comfort my people,” is fulfilled by the anguished cries of the Son of God as he wept in the garden, crying, “Father…not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). The Lord’s tender cry that her ‘warfare is ended’ is fulfilled as Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
This, this is your Saviour. This is your King. For the Son of God has gone forth to war to fight for you, to win you back, and to spill his blood to redeem you forever from sin and death. And that’s why this is literally the consolation of the world. The greatest comfort in life and death. And forever after.
For, in Christ your warfare is ended.
In Christ your iniquity is pardoned.
And in Christ you have received double for all your sins.
He is your Husband who has gone to war, and has come back bloodied and battled, but triumphant and victorious (Col. 2:15). And his word in Isaiah 40 is gently waking you to say, “The war is over.”
Indeed, “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
