Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Isaiah 40:1-5 (NIV)
Comfort for God’s People
40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Again, we see ancient prophecies fulfilled in the coming of Christ. Again, we see God’s faithfulness to his chosen people of Israel, and through these people, to you and I today. These words of God were originally delivered by the prophet Isaiah, to a people in exile in Babylon. These prophecies were an encouragement for them to return to the faith and land of their ancestors. As Jesus begins his ministry, God uses these same words to call his people back to a heartfelt following of God. This day, as we hear these ancient words of comfort yet again, may we heed the call to turn our hearts back to God. May we find comfort in the presence of our Savior who speaks so tenderly to us. A God who comes to us, for us.