Here Is Your God!

• the Messiah. to be reminded of what I seek to remind you routinely and myself in the process of the fact that the Bible is ultimately a book about Jesus and that when particularly in reading the Old Testament we may be tempted to be bewildered by its sheer size and variety, we can navigate our way around by keeping our eyes on Jesus.
• And just as a compass points to the north, so the Bible ultimately points to Jesus. And indeed, in large measure, the story of the Old Testament is the story of a people who are looking for waiting for God’s promise of a Messiah to be fulfilled. And in chapter 40, by the time that Isaiah is writing as he does, the people of God are in exile.
• They have been taken away into foreign territory. And it is while they are in that uh state of exile that the word of God comes to his people through the prophet Isaiah. And you will notice in Isaiah 40 and verse one, it is first of all a word of comfort. A word of comfort. And again, you will remember in the Messiah uh that great and striking beginning, comfort ye, comfort ye.
• And coming here from this opening verse of Isaiah 40, the comfort of course is to be found in the fact that God is fulfilling his promise. And in verse five, the glory of the Lord is going to be revealed. And not only will these people of God, the people of Israel see this, but through them and beyond them, all mankind together will see it.