(Isa
40:1 KJV) Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Read
the whole chapter. It puts things in perspective, and may be used to edify the
forgetful and to strengthen the weary.
Isaiah
is to speak comfortably (Isa 40.2) regarding two Jerusalems, the heavenly
Jerusalem of the Assembly (Gal 4.26); and the millennial Jerusalem of Israel.
In
each case, her warfare is accomplished through the death and resurrection of
the Redeemer. And the victory of the inhabitants is theirs through faith (John
5.4-5).
Matthew
uses Isa 40.3 to introduce the ministry of John the Baptist who begins the good
news of a new covenant and imminence of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 3.2-3).
(Isa
40:22-24 KJV) It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a
curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:1 23 That bringeth the
princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. 24 Yea,
they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall
not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall
wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
For
those who worry overmuch about the egregious malfeasance, misfeasance, and
nonfeasance of our president and the future impeachable actions of his judicial
appointments, there is comfort in these verses.
And
there is comfort for those who will not hear the word of God but perhaps may
listen to the words of an English author whom is regarded by many as a Solomon
without a crown.
King
Richard II: […] for within the hollow crown
That
rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps
Death [[or end of term]] his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing
his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing
him a breath, a little scene,
To
monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing
him with self and vain conceit,
-
Richard II, Act III, Scene 2, Lines 1570-1576
http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=richard2&Act=3&Scene=2&Scope=scene
or http://bit.ly/M4aSL1 | N.B. O resembles
a hollow crown and is close to 0.
Interestingly,
the same author warned about lean and hungry looks.
Caesar:
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed
men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond
Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He
thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
-
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, Lines 284-287
http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=juliuscaesar&Act=1&Scene=2&Scope=scene&LineHighlight=282#282
or http://bit.ly/1hSvS1N | N.B, Check out the next few lines at
link.
And
Isaiah 40 ends with a valuable instruction for the begotten again of all
dispensations. An instruction that might well serve as a useful outline to the
Epistle to the Hebrews.
(Isa
40:29-31 KJV) He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he
increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young
men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD (Heb 4.9-13)
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles (Heb 10.19-25);
they shall run, and not be weary (Heb 12.1-2, 28-29); and they shall
walk, and not faint (Heb 13.10-16).
I2C
140124a Isa 40 O will be 0 / I2C / 140123 1251 / Isa 40 O will be 0 / "Comfort
ye my people"
