Comfort Ye My People — Isaiah 40–44
Chapter 39 ends with Babylon. Chapter 40 speaks to Jerusalem’s heart, then argues the case: who God is, who formed whom, and who alone saves.
Speak to the Heart of Jerusalem
Isaiah 39 closes with everything in Hezekiah’s house bound for Babylon: “nothing shall be left” (39:6). Turn the page. The next word is comfort, twice.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
“Speak ye comfortably” is, in Hebrew, dabberu ‘al-lev — “speak upon the heart.” The words meet once before, at the end of Genesis, where Joseph stands over the brothers who sold him: “he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them” (Genesis 50:21). Same verbs, nacham and dabber ‘al-lev, same order. The one who was wronged speaks tenderly to the ones who wronged him, and the verbs are past tense: the warfare IS accomplished, spoken before the exile began.
Then a second voice: “Prepare ye the way of the LORD” (40:3). The voice is John the Baptist’s, by his own testimony (John 1:23); Lehi foretold him in the same words (1 Nephi 10:7–8). And whose way did John prepare? LORD in capitals is the divine name, Jehovah, and John prepared the way for Jesus, so every reader of Matthew 3 already accepts that Jesus is the LORD of Isaiah 40. The restored scriptures add that the voice cries twice: in 1830 new missionaries went out saying “prepare ye the way of the Lord” (D&C 33:10). One herald before each coming.
The Grass Withereth, the Word Stands
A voice says “Cry,” and the prophet asks what to cry. The answer is a refrain that breaks on its last line. The repeated words show it:
Isaiah 40:6–8 — a refrain broken by one word
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
The refrain runs twice, word for word; the second time “but” cuts it off.
Why is that comfort? Because Babylon was grass too, and the empire would wither while the word that promised the way home would stand. Peter names the word: “this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:24–25).
Then a herald climbs a mountain and cries, “Behold your God!” “His arm shall rule for him,” and the next verse, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom” (40:10–11). The arm that rules is the arm that carries lambs — one Hebrew word, zeroa‘. Jesus took the title: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).
“To Whom Then Will Ye Liken God?”
Isaiah argues the way a teacher argues, by asking. “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand …?” Who counselled Him? Nobody. Then the question the chapter turns on: “To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?” (40:12–18).
He answers with a joke, told straight. The rich man pays a goldsmith; the poor man “chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved” (40:19–20). A chapter later the craftsmen cheer each other on and nail the finished god down, “that it should not be moved” (41:7), a god that has to be fastened so it will not tip over.
Verses 18–27 show the Premortal Christ as Creator. Who says, “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things”? The One who “calleth them all by names … not one faileth” (40:26). John names Him: “All things were made by him” (John 1:3).
Then Jacob complains, “My way is hid from the LORD” (40:27). Isaiah’s answer is the stars: the God who names every star and loses none has not lost Jacob.
Mount Up, Run, and Walk, and Not Faint
Three Hebrew words carry the last promise — ya‘eph (faint), yaga‘ (weary), koach (strength) — and all three return in chapter 44:
Isaiah 40:28–31 and 44:12 — who faints?
God “the everlasting God … fainteth not, neither is weary” (40:28)
Men “Even the youths shall faint and be weary” (40:30)
“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.” (40:31)
Idol-maker “his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint” (44:12)
God’s own “fainteth not” is given to those who wait on Him. The man who makes a god ends up faint.
Most readers notice the eagles. Fewer notice that the order runs backwards: we would build from walk to run to fly, and Isaiah descends. Why? Because the soaring days are few, and most of discipleship is walking, the long ordinary miles no one sees. To keep walking for forty years and not faint is the hardest miracle of the three, so Isaiah puts it last, where the weight falls.
The Lord gave the last two lines again as the promise of the Word of Wisdom (D&C 89:20). The smith of 44:12 shows the other road: he swings the hammer “with the strength of his arms,” drinks no water, and faints — worn out making a god that will never carry him.
“I Have Called Thee by Thy Name”
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God … I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (41:10). “Uphold” is tamak, to take hold of. In the next chapter the same verb introduces someone else: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold … A bruised reed shall he not break” (42:1–4). Matthew says the Servant is Jesus (Matthew 12:17–21). The Father takes hold of the Servant; the Servant takes hold of the bruised. More on the Servant in Isaiah 49.
Then: “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (43:1–3). He called the stars by name in 40:26, and now He calls Jacob. The waters and the fire stay: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” Through, not around.
“Who Hath Formed a God?” — Isaiah 43:10 in Its Chapter
Many Christians read Isaiah 43:10 as the plainest statement of monotheism in the Bible: no divine being besides the one God has ever existed, in any sense. It is a serious reading of a serious verse. But what does the chapter mean by “formed”?
The Hebrew is yatsar, the potter’s and craftsman’s word. Isaiah uses it of two makers:
Isaiah 43–44 — who forms whom
“he that formed thee, O Israel” (43:1)
“before me there was no God formed” (43:10)
“Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image” (44:10)
“I have formed thee; thou art my servant” (44:21)
Yatsar in every line. God forms His people; people form their gods. 43:10 and 44:10 use the same two Hebrew words, yatsar ’el.
So what is 43:10 saying? No god was ever shaped at a workbench before Jehovah, and none will be after. He is not a statue. Isaiah is speaking to an Israel that said “to the molten images, Ye are our gods” (42:17). Even the strongest line, “Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any” (44:8), runs straight into “They that make a graven image are all of them vanity.”
Isaiah 43 is a declaration to Israel that Jehovah is the only God with whom they should concern themselves; it is a charge about worship, not a census of heaven. The Psalm says God “judgeth among the gods” (Psalm 82:1). Latter-day Saints read 43:10 as its first hearers had to: one God to worship, and no rival made with hands.
Then the carpenter burns half a tree to bake his bread, “and the residue thereof he maketh a god … and saith, Deliver me” (44:15–20). He cannot ask, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” What is in ours? Whatever we shape with our own effort and then ask to save us.
“Beside Me There Is No Saviour”
“Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
Who is speaking? “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour” (43:11). The Saviour is Jehovah. The vision of the degrees of glory opens the same way, “beside him there is no Savior” (D&C 76:1), then shows the Son (76:20–23).
“I am the first, and I am the last” settles it. On Patmos the risen Lord said, “Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead” (Revelation 1:17–18). The One who speaks Isaiah 44:6 says He died. Only the Son died. In Kirtland: “I am the first and the last … I am he who was slain” (D&C 110:4). The voice of these chapters is the premortal Christ, and readers who already hear Jesus in Revelation 1 can hear Him in Isaiah 44, where He said it first.
And to an idol-making people? “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions … return unto me; for I have redeemed thee” (44:22). Blotted out first, return second — the order of 40:2 again. The naming of Cyrus (44:28) is why many scholars assign these chapters to a later hand; see How to Read Isaiah.
Key References
- 1 Nephi 22:25 — “he shall feed his sheep.”
- Isaiah 45:5 — “there is no God beside me” — the same argument, a chapter on.
Comfort with Doctrine Underneath
Sentiment says things will turn out fine. Isaiah says why you can be comforted: the grass withers and the word does not; the God who names the stars has not lost you; nothing formed at a workbench can deliver you; beside Him there is no Saviour, and He has already blotted out the cloud.
That comfort holds weight. You will not always mount up with wings. Some seasons you will only walk. The promise was made for those seasons.
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