Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
When I read the first verse of Isaiah 40, my body involuntarily breathes a long sigh of relief. After 39 chapters of judgment, wrath, and punishment, the words comfort, o comfort my people bring a welcome feeling of hope and reassurance. God is there and will be there regardless of the poor choices I may make in my life. God further speaks tenderly to his people, and to us, by sending his son to earth as a baby—the baby that will grow up to pay the ultimate price for our sins.
George Frederic Handel started his first chorus in Messiah with these first verses in Isaiah 40. His majestic oratorio is a beautiful telling about the promise of Christ’s coming and the fulfillment of Christ’s promised work, the saving of sinners to the glory of God. I hope you will listen during this Advent season.
I learned a really interesting interpretation about the last phrase in verse 2—double for all her sins—that I want to share. In one Eastern custom, if a man owed a debt he could not pay, his creditor would write the amount of the debt on a paper and nail it to the front door of the man’s house so that everyone passing would see that here was a man who had not paid his debts. But if someone paid the debt for him, then the creditor would double the paper over and nail it to the door as a testimony that the debt had been fully paid.
Was Isaiah giving his hearers a concrete, easily understood picture of their debt being paid through the mercy and grace of God? Completely undeserved and unearned? What a beautiful announcement to Israel as a nation that God was bringing restoration and reconciliation to his people. This wonderful announcement of undeserved pardon is for us as well. If we are burdened by wrongs we have done or the hurt we have caused, we have assurance that we are able to receive from the Lord “the doubling” of all of our sins.
Contributed by Pam Gilbreath