Fifty Two Weeks / Isaiah 40

Victoria Falls

I have been to Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River. It is over a mile long and the water drops over 350 feet into the gorge. The spray from this drop rises to a height well over a thousand feet and creates a literal rainforest on the Zimbabwe side of the falls; something essentially unheard of in Southern Africa. This massive spray is the reason for the indigenous name of the falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders). On most days under sunny skies one can often see double or even triple rainbows in the spray.

What has Victoria Falls got to do with Isaiah 40? Believe me when I saw that words, and even pictures, fall far short of being able to convey the experience of Victoria Falls. In the same way whenever I read Isaiah 40 I feel so inadequate… though it is composed of words words themselves are inadequate to convey the experience of this magnificent sermon-poem.

Please, please, please read this for yourself. It is like looking into a clear night sky far away from any light pollution or standing on the edge of Victoria Falls. I’m going to briefly touch on three points from this deep rich chapter, but please drink from it yourself.

John the Baptist

When the Jewish leaders sent a delegation to ask John who he was the Baptist answered in the words of Isaiah the Prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” (John 1:23) 

These first few verses are directly connected to the ministry of John the Baptist and by extension they point to the coming Messiah. The reference is to this message being brought into the “desert” and the “wilderness”. Clearly this fallen world can well be likened to a barren inhospitable place. The news of the coming Messiah is the creation of a smooth level road and, wonder of wonders, God is coming to us; all of us. “The glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.”

Who is Like God?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? 

The incredible features of the earth are quite small compared to God. The nations themselves are but a drop in the bucket. Superpower indeed! All the nations taken together are merely dust on the scales - less than nothing.

Who counsels God and gives Him advice? To even think that someone taught the Lord the right way brings a laugh at the absurdity of the idea.

Look at the heavens. Who created all of these? We hear talk of billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars, not to mention solar systems accompanying those stars. Ah, but He calls each of those stars by name, one by one.

Of course He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. They are just men (or women) and they are gone in an instant.

But for Those Who Trust in Him

He gives strength to the weary

      and increases the power of the weak.

      Even youths grow tired and weary,

      and young men stumble and fall;

      but those who hope in the LORD

      will renew their strength.

      They will soar on wings like eagles;

      they will run and not grow weary,

      they will walk and not be faint.

I could no more improve that than I could improve Victoria Falls. All we can do it look and be amazed and be aware that the same one who inspired Isaiah created all of the rivers and seas and oceans and waterfalls of the universe.