O Zion, that bringest glad tidings, get thee up into a high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest glad tidings, lift up thy voice with strength lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Isaiah 40 opens with comfort for God's people, and this verse hands that comfort to a herald: climb high ground and shout to the towns of Judah. The message is three words — Behold your God — and everything turns on who this God is, when He comes, and why the herald must not be afraid.
Seeing the glory of God shows man exactly what he is. The comfort comes with that exposure, not instead of it.
The revelation of the glory of the Lord brings to light, as nothing else does, the sinfulness and frailty of man. Yet "good tidings" are also brought, and this is what supplies the "comfort" for "My people." Zion and Jerusalem are pictured as lifting up the voice and saying to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
Zion is named for a reason. So is the One she is told to point out.
Here we turn to the special earthly object of God's affection — Zion. It is the symbol of the grace of God working in Israel, and also the centre of the royal glory that is about to be revealed here below… The person who came of old, and who will come in the future, is Christ. In a word, the same Jesus is not only Christ but Jehovah. He is spoken of here as the God of Israel, Jehovah, whose reward is with Him and His work before Him.
Some treat the promise as already fulfilled by the small return of Jews to their land. Kelly holds that return up against the words.
Is it really so that they regard that little and feeble return as fulfilling, "Behold, your God!" and all that follows? It was the king of Persia who took the initiative… Ezra, an inspired man, saw no such way prepared through the wilderness as matched the bright promise.
The promise looks on to the kingdom. Yet the good tidings once came in Person, and started in Galilee.
This prophecy, it is true, includes the coming of the King of Israel in power, for deliverance and blessing. It includes the setting up of the kingdom in glory. But even so, Jehovah Jesus was there. He brought to Zion, in His own person, the good tidings of His presence, and He began to announce them in Galilee of the Gentiles.
The next two verses say what the herald's shout contains. Power and tenderness stand together in it.
Faith looks on to the time when the good tidings will go out from Zion, God's earthly centre. The cry to the cities of Judah will be "Behold your God." And when He comes it will be with a "strong hand" to put down the mighty from their seats. With "His arm" He will make the crooked straight, by His "rule" in righteousness. Then He will reward the meek. Every hard circumstance of life will be met, for "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom."
One writer sets this cry beside three others, one for each of the four Gospels.
In Matthew we are reminded of the word, Behold your King (Zech. 9:9); in Mark, Behold My Servant (Isa. 42:1); in Luke, Behold the Man; but with John it is, Behold your God (Isa. 40:9).
Jerusalem has already heard a man point to this Person — and it answered him.
About the sixth hour on the day of the crucifixion Pilate brought Jesus out and said to the crowd in Jerusalem, "Behold your King!" (John 19:14). This provoked the violent cry, "Away with Him, crucify Him." In our Scripture the prophet sees the same wonderful Person, but coming in the splendour of Deity with a "strong hand." This will be good tidings indeed, after the painful display of sin and utter weakness on the part of men.
- Behold, after frailty. The message lands on people shown their own sinfulness and frailty. The comfort is not in them but in the God they must look at.
- Behold, from height. The herald climbs high and shouts without fear, because the good tidings themselves are the comfort God sends.
- Behold your God. The One who comes is Christ and Jehovah at once — the same Jesus is both.
- Behold the Shepherd. The strong hand that puts down the mighty is the arm that gathers lambs and carries them.
- Behold, and be answered. Jerusalem once heard "Behold your King!" and cried out for His death. The day comes when that same city lifts the cry to the towns of Judah.
Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with might, and his arm shall rule for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him.
The herald of this chapter has just received his message for the cities of Judah: "Behold your God!" This verse answers the question that follows — what is this God like when He comes?
One writer reads verses 9 to 11 together, names the God who is coming, then marks the two sides of His arrival:
There can be no doubt about it: the person who came long ago and will come again is Christ. In a word, the same Jesus is not only Christ but Jehovah. Here He is called the God of Israel, Jehovah, whose reward is with Him and His work before Him. First comes His coming in power. Next comes His tenderness of heart, as One who has compassion on them because they are defenceless and exposed.
Isaiah comes back to "His arm" again and again. One writer sets that title beside another title Isaiah gives the same person:
It is the Lord Jehovah who is coming with might, but it is "His Arm" who will rule for Him. Isaiah's later chapters present the Lord Jesus as the Arm of Jehovah some ten or twelve times. Under this title He is the One who carries out in power all the will and purpose of Jehovah. Isaiah also presents Him as the "Servant," who does the even more wonderful work of bearing sin and suffering. The passages that call Him the Servant look ahead to His first coming in grace. The passages that call Him the "Arm" carry our thoughts on to His second coming in glory.
One reference work starts from what an arm does in an ordinary body:
The arm is the part of the body that can lift burdens and defend the person. It stands as a symbol for the power and strength of God on behalf of His saints… The Old Testament speaks often of the arm of Jehovah. It redeemed, Exodus 6:6; gathers His own, Isaiah 40:11; and rules for Him, Isaiah 40:10, as in the kingdom.
The arm rules for Him, not for itself. One writer holds that up against the way people reach for power today:
The Arm is going to rule for Jehovah rather than suffer for Him. He will give reward and recompense to others in the day of His glory… As we look around the earth today, we see how badly a strong hand is needed to rule, and men want to grasp that power so they can rule in their own interests. The Arm of Jehovah will rule "for Him." What a day that will be, when the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven!
The second half of the verse says what that rule brings. One writer reads it as the answer to crooked circumstances:
When He comes it will be with a "strong hand" to pull the mighty down from their seats. With "His arm" He will make the crooked straight, by His "rule" in righteousness. Then He will reward the meek, and He will deal with all the hard circumstances of life.
Yet the same arm reaches in two directions at once:
For the wicked the reward will come as judgment. But the same "Arm" will be gracious, acting with the tenderness of a shepherd toward the smallest and weakest of the Lord's true sheep.
The next verse keeps the same subject. It shows the other side of the same arm:
In Isaiah 40:10 we see the Arm of the Lord in its governmental authority. In verse 11 we see it in its loving activity, gathering the lambs and folding them to His bosom. There He carries them safely, and there they know the warmth of His love.
Some say this promise came true when a small group of Jews returned home from exile in Babylon. One writer tests that reading against the words of the verse and against Ezra's own account:
Do they really think that small, weak return fulfilled the words, "Behold your God!… behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him"? The king of Persia was the one who began it… Ezra was an inspired man, and he saw no road prepared through the wilderness to match that bright promise. He would have called it blasphemy to say that the remnant's return in his day was the triumphal march of Israel's king.
- Behold — a Person answers the herald's cry: the Jehovah who comes here is the same Jesus who came before.
- Arm — "the Arm of the Lord" is a title for Christ, the One who carries out God's will; as Servant He suffers, as Arm He rules.
- For Him — He rules for God, not for His own interest. Human power-seeking never does that.
- Reward — He arrives already carrying it. The wicked meet judgment; the meek see crooked things made straight.
- Bosom — the arm that rules in verse 10 gathers lambs in verse 11. Power and tenderness belong to one Shepherd.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead those that give suck.
Isaiah 40 comforts a broken people by pointing them to God Himself — the One who measures the oceans in His hand. The surprise of verse 11 is that this same God stoops to carry lambs in His arms.
The verse sits inside a message announcing the coming of the Lord in power, and the Shepherd here is not a lesser rescuer.
"Say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with might, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him" (vv. 9-10). There can be no doubt that the One who came long ago and will come again is Christ. In a word, the same Jesus is not only Christ but Jehovah. First comes His coming in power. Next comes His full tenderness of heart, as One who takes pity on them because they are defenceless and exposed.
So a second question follows: could Jesus of Nazareth be this Shepherd?
It is clear from those Old Testament Scriptures which speak of the Shepherd that He is God the Creator. Take Isaiah 40 as an example... Can the lowly Nazarene, whom the people despised, really be this Shepherd? Can He be so great beyond measure, and yet so good and gentle, as this glorious Scripture describes? Well, in our chapter twice over He says, "I am the good Shepherd," and in so saying He declared that He was God.
Verse 11 and verse 12 stand side by side on purpose. The same God does both.
The sea lies in the hollow of God's hand, and His power restrains all its fierce rage. In the same way He held us and restrained us in those days... His hand upholds creation, but His bosom is the place of rest for His lambs. All creation must acknowledge His power. His bosom is open for the weakest of His lambs, and they know His love. And if He has restrained us by His mighty hand, it is that we might know the rest and the safety and joy of His bosom.
In Scripture the word "bosom" carries a settled sense, and it also comes from an everyday sight.
Used symbolically for the seat of deep affection. John speaks of the Lord Jesus as the only begotten Son "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18)... With a loose robe and a belt, people regularly carry many things in the bosom, even a lamb. Isa. 40:11.
The verse singles out the young of the flock, and the two clauses about them are not saying the same thing twice.
The prophet Isaiah likens God's people to a flock that God delights to feed. The lambs of the flock are the ones the enemy can scatter most easily. He gathers them with His arms of power and holds them close in His heart of love... The wolf may seek to scatter the lambs, but the great Shepherd of the sheep will gather them with His protecting arm. The enemy may seek to bring about their fall, but the Shepherd will carry them, and bring them home to glory at last.
This care for the slowest is not new. It showed when God brought Israel out of Egypt.
The royal Shepherd of Israel cares for the lambs of His flock... He cared for the weakest of the flock when He led His people Israel out of Egypt and through the sea. "Not a hoof was left behind." He gave food to them all, around their tents each morning, as they travelled through the empty, howling desert.
Commentators note that the shepherd care promised here was afterwards outdone by the Shepherd Himself.
In Isaiah 40:11 it is said of the Lord Jehovah that He feeds His flock like a shepherd and carries the lambs in His bosom. Here He Himself goes much further. He proves Himself the Good Shepherd by laying down His life for the sheep. No one else would do it. And if you could imagine another doing it, it would not count with God or for man.
- Behold your God. The Shepherd of verse 11 is the Lord who comes with might. He is the Creator, and He is the same Jesus who said, "I am the good Shepherd."
- The same hand. The hand that holds the seas in check is the arm that gathers lambs. His power restrains creation; His bosom gives rest to the weakest.
- Arm and heart. Lambs scatter most easily, so they get His arm of power to gather them and His heart of love to carry them home.
- Pace set by the weakest. He sets the pace by the slowest, those with young. The same care left not one hoof of Israel behind.
- Further than carrying. The Shepherd who carries went on to lay down His life for the sheep. No one else would give that care, and no other could count with God or for man.