The immediate, the historical purpose of these words is undoubtedly to reassure the Jews of the captivity. It was to men whose eyes were resting on the magnificence and power of Bablyon that Isaiah spoke, but of another land and out of an earlier age, the solemn words: "All flesh is grass, and all the beauty thereof is as the flower of the field." In contrast with the perishing life of the great empire city and its vast populations, Isaiah points to the "word of our God." That word, he says, "will stand for ever."
I. By the word of our God of Jehovah, the God of His people Isaiah means, beyond doubt, in the first instance, the word of promise uttered in the desert by the inspired voice. The promise of the return from Babylon, the promise of the after-presence of Israel's great Redeemer, would be verified. St. Peter detaches this text for us Christians from its immediate historical setting. He widens it; he gives it a strictly universal application.
II. Isaiah refers to the grass as an emblem of the perishable and the perishing. In looking at it, we look at that which is at best a vanishing form, ready almost ere it is matured to be resolved into its elements, to sink back into the earth from which it sprang. As soon as we are born, says the wise man, we begin to draw to our end. That is true of the highest and of the lowest forms of natural life. Whatever else human life is, whatever else it may imply, it is soon over. It fades away suddenly like the grass. The frontiers of life do not change with the generations of men, as do its attendant circumstances.
III. The word of the Lord endureth for ever. How do we know that? Certainly not in the same way as we know and are sure of the universality of death. We know it to be true if we believe two things: first, that God the perfect moral being exists; secondly, that He has spoken to man. If He is eternal then that which He proclaims as His truth and will, will bear on it the mark of His eternity. The word of God, speaking in conscience, speaking in revelation, is like God Himself above the waterfloods of change; it lasts. While men differ from each other about His word, it remains what it was, hidden, it may be, like our December sun, hidden behind the clouds of speculation, or behind the clouds of controversy, but in itself unchanged, unchangeable. "Thy word, O Lord, endureth for ever in heaven."
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 706.
"Hast thou not known?" This is not a new revelation. It is an appeal to memory, and that is a strong point in all the Divine pleading. Our memory is to be as the prophet of the Lord in our life. Recollection is to be inspiration; the forty years gone are a pledge of the forty years to come. Let a man be faithful to his own recollections, and it is impossible he can long be despondent, weary and slow of heart, to lay hold of the great work and discipline of life.
I. Is God almighty? (1) Then do not fear for the stability of His works. (2) Have no fear about the realisation of His promises. (3) Do not imagine you can escape His judgments. (4) Be assured that the throne of right shall stand upon the ruins of all wrong.
II. God is not only powerful, but all wise.There is no searching of His understanding. Infinite strength would terrify us, but infinite strength under the dominion of infinite mind recovers us from the tremendous shock which comes of. abstract, immeasurable, unwasting strength. Is God all-wise? (1) Then the darkest providences have meaning. (2) His plan of salvation is complete and final, and we shall waste our strength and show how great is our folly by all attempts to improve the method of redemption and recovery of the world. (3) Our individual life is all understood by Him. That life is but dimly known to ourselves. We catch glimpses of it here and there, but its scope and meaning are still unrevealed to us. It is enough that God knows our life, and that His wisdom is pledged as our defence. (4) We have a guarantee of endless variety in our future studies and services. God is ever extending our knowledge of His works, in reward of the endeavours we are making to acquaint ourselves with the wonders by which we are enclosed.
III. The subject forces upon us the solemn enquiry: What is our relation to this dread Being, whose power is infinite, and whose wisdom is past finding out? We must sustain some relation to Him. We are the loyal subjects of His crown, or rebels in His empire. Pause and determine the answer. Everything depends upon our relation to the cross of Jesus Christ.
Parker, City Temple,1870, p. 349.
References: Isaiah 40:8. G. G. Bradley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 17; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 73.Isaiah 40:9. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xii., p. 275; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 362; J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons,vol. ii., p. 101; W. Young, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 330; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 330. Isaiah 40:11. Ibid., Sermons,vol. xi., No. 652, vol. xiv., No. 794, vol. ix., No. 540, vol. xxiii., No. 1381; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 177; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,3rd series, p. 44; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,pp. 135, 293.Isaiah 40:20. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 244.