Isaiah 40:1 “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.”
This passage is a practical-prophetic message to the New Testament Preachers, instructing them to “comfort ye my people” and to “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem”! Our Lord often uses actual circumstances in the Old Testament times to prophetically illustrate events that would occur in the New Testament days of His Kingdom. In this case, Israel-Jerusalem would be defeated by the Babylonians, and many taken into captivity and held in a foreign land for seventy years (Isaiah 39:6), after which the Lord would lead them back and reestablish them (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). That dreadful experience, followed by such a great blessing prophetically points to the “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4:26); that is, the Spiritual “Jerusalem”, which is the whole household of God, both Jews and Gentiles. Thus, the Preachers are Commanded to preach, in the Church, messages that “comfort” the “people” of God; most especially, in times of heart-wrenching difficulties. The reason that we need to be comforted is that we know that we “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); and, our sin is a great distress to our soul. When we realize that it is our sin that Crucified our Beloved Lord and Savior, our hearts are broken and we are like “the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). But, we are greatly comforted when we hear that we have “received of the LORD’S hand double for all” our “sins”; that is, our Lord has abundantly (“double”) blessed us with sufficient Grace, that now we know, He has fully and finally paid our sin-debt! The word “double” means that His Sacrificial Death was well sufficient to pay our sin-debt for us. Now, when we are blessed to hear the wonderful message that, “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23), we are greatly comforted, and we, with great joy, worshipfully cry aloud, “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.” (Psalms 48:1)!