Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 40

Verse 8

PERISHABLE AND IMPERISHABLE

‘The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.’

Isaiah 40:8

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. 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.’

Canon Liddon.

Illustration

‘These three verses contain a contrast between our transient human life and the permanence of God’s Word. The fairest things it all nature are pointed to, the graceful grass, the starry flowers, which make the Oriental fields so beautiful. They are images of the best and brightest human life. What splendour there was in the days of Solomon, what luxury under Jehoiakim! And now it was all withered and faded. Meanwhile, the word of our God shall stand for ever. Religion endures when business and pleasure fall into decay. Ten years, they say, is about the average length of the feverish speculator’s business life, as he rushes and pushes and shouts on ’Change. The Temple foundations remain in Jerusalem to-day, but Solomon and all his glory have left not a wrack behind.’

Verse 31

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH

‘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.’

Isaiah 40:31

I. Consider, first, what it is to wait upon the Lord.—Three things make it: service, expectation, patience. ‘Wait on the Lord.’ We must be as those Eastern maidens who, as they ply their needle or their distaff, look to the eye and wait upon the hand of their mistress, as their guide which is to teach them, or their model which they are to copy. Our best lessons are always found in a Father’s eye. Therefore, if you would ‘wait upon the Lord, you must be always looking out for voices—those still small voices of the soul—and you must expect them, and you must command them. But service, however devoted, or expectation, however intense, will not be waiting without patience. Here is where so many fail. The waiting times are so long; the interval between the prayer and the answer, between the repentance and the peace, between the work and the result, between sowing-time and reaping-time, and we are such impatient, impetuous creatures. We could not ‘tarry the Lord’s leisure.’

II. Consider, next, the action: elevation, rapid progress, a steady course—soar, run, walk.—Is it not just what we want—to get higher, to go faster, and to be more calmly consistent? (1) Elevation. What are the wings? Beyond a doubt, faith, prayer; or, if you will, humility and confidence in a beautiful equipoise, balancing one another on either side, so that the soul sustains itself in mid-air and flies upward. (2) ‘They shall run.’ Have you ever noticed how the servants of God in the Bible—from Abraham and David to Philip in the Acts—whenever they were told to do anything always ran. It is the only way to do anything well. A thousand irksome duties become easy and pleasant if we do them runningly, that is with a ready mind, an affectionate zeal, and a happy alacrity. (3) But there is something beyond this. It is more difficult to walk than to run. To maintain a quiet, sustained walk, day by day, in the common things of life, in the house and out of the house, not impulsive, not capricious, not changeable—that is the hardest thing to do. Let me give four rules for this walk: ( a) Start from Christ; ( b) walk with Christ; ( c) walk leaning on Christ; ( d) walk to Christ.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘In the ministry of Christian service the last is the best. It may be best with us long after the two pence are spent, when we are spending more and more, and yet spending far more consciously than before what is not ours by nature. The promise marks an ascent, though it may not seem to do so. “They shall mount up on wings as eagles.” There is a better thing, “They shall run, and not be weary,” and best of all there is this, “They shall walk, and not faint.” It is the climax of covenant grace.

So as of old I follow Him

Only another way;

When the lights of the world are growing dim,

And my heart already is singing the hymn

Of twilight grown to day.’