Epiphany Season · Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany · Year B
Isaiah 40:21-31
Comfort for God’s People
February 7, 2027
Overview & Insights
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” (Isaiah 40:1)
So Isaiah 39, set in Isaiah’s own day, envisages the future deportation of Judeans to Babylon. Isaiah 40–55, however, is set in the time after this deportation has happened. It does not say “In days to come God will send a message of comfort to people who have been punished,” in the manner of a passage such as 30:19–26. It says, rather, “God is now comforting you who have been punished.” The traditional view is that these chapters were written by Isaiah ben Amoz, and we may assume that God could have revealed to Isaiah the message to be addressed to the people in Babylon 150 years after Isaiah’s day. But the way the chapters themselves speak suggests that they are rather words of comfort that God gave in the here and now of suffering through the pastoral ministry of a poet whom God called to be a new Isaiah for people who had long been under judgment.
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Commentary
Isaiah 40:21-31 Working Preacher
On how Second Isaiah disputes rival powers and confesses the incomparable Creator to an exiled people.
Isaiah 40:21-31 Center for Excellence in Preaching
A Reformed reading on comfort for the weary and strength renewed for those who wait on the Lord.
Isaiah 40:31 verse by verse Precept Austin
An in-depth study of the promise to mount up with wings like eagles, with word studies.
Classic commentaries on Isaiah 40 BibleHub
The classic expositors verse by verse across Isaiah 40.
Isaiah 40:21-31 Enduring Word · David Guzik
An accessible verse-by-verse commentary, widely used across evangelical churches.
Background & Word Study
The Church Fathers
Questions preachers ask
What is the comfort of Isaiah 40?
God announces the end of exile with a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare his way; he comes with might yet tends his flock like a shepherd, gathering the lambs in his arms.
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