In Isaiah 40 there is an interesting conversation between the prophet and someone else (possibly an angel). It says:
A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (v.6-8).
At the beginning of the chapter Isaiah is told to speak a message of comfort to God’s people, which was not typically part of the prophet’s job description. Condemnation and correction, yes; but comfort? Never. But in this instance God wanted to make sure His people knew He still loved them even after calamity came.
Isaiah did not seem to be in the mood to deliver the message. It’s as if he says, “Why should I? They haven’t listened to me all these years, and now I am supposed to comfort them?”
Isaiah was in his emo era, thinking people are just like grass anyway—here today and gone tomorrow. So who cares?
And he wasn’t wrong. Grass has its season. It is born in the spring, thrives in the summer, and begins to fail in fall. By winter it is dead. The green that painted the canvas of summer is replaced with a dull brown. People are like that too. We are born in the spring, come into adulthood in summer, and begin to slow down in fall. Winter brings our funeral.
That’s a nice thought, isn’t it? Thanks Isaiah! But he is told something important: people are like grass that fades away, but God’s Word will never fade away. In God’s garden, the people are the annuals, but God’s words are perennials, evergreens that will never fade or die.
The words Isaiah was told to share as comfort were not just for the people he would speak to. They are for us too, 3,500 years later. With each new generation God’s words continue to speak words of life to all who will listen.
There is no winter with God’s words. They are always in bloom.
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