“It Is Well; Your Days Of Hardship Is Over!”

“It Is Well; Your Days Of Hardship Is Over!”(Is.40:1-6).
LORD, I step out in confidence because I know you know plans you have for me!
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord ; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.'”
Biblical interpretation requires that we read meaning out of the text(exegesis). However, no one approaches a text as a tabula-rasa. Personal and social context determines the questions we pose to the text. This may be understood as reading meaning into the text (eisigesis), but it is not fully so.
Today’s text was God’s assurance of comfort to exiled Judah. It was time to comfort them, for they had paid for their sins by the hardships of the exile.
Isaiah foresaw the fall of Babylon by King Cyrus, God’s anointed servant. The message was in context. New Testament theology lifted this story out of its initial context, interpreting it as a prophecy for the fulfilment of the Messianic era.
It is in this light that by faith, we accept that the voice calling in the wilderness was calling for John the Baptist to “prepare the way for the Lord…”
The sum of it is that God has a way of punishing us for our sins. But when we have completed the hardship, he comforts us through grace.
The psalmist expresses the depth of God’s love, compassion, and grace in these words: “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning”(Ps.30:5).
Christ has come to ensure that the rejoicing that comes in the morning should not depart from us again.
God in Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit rekindles our confidence that the expiry date of our problems has passed.
Prayer of the day and week: LORD, God Almighty, thank you for our comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ .
Have a blessed day and week! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
12/01/2025.