PODCAST
Comfort Ye, My People
November 30th, 2013
Isaiah 40:1-11
If you have attended a performance of George F. Handel’s Messiah you may remember how it begins. Following a brief string overture a single tenor voice sings “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God,” (Isaiah 40:1, KJV). The first three selections are all taken from Isaiah 40:1-5.
A friend and patron of Handel’s, Charles Jennens, is believed to have arranged the libretto (the text) on which the Messiah is based. Jennens was a supporter of the biblical view that God is redemptively involved in the world. He opposed the uninvolved Creator proposed by the popular deists of his day. Jennen’s expressed his view powerfully in the scriptures he selected. Even today they remind us that a Savior, the Messiah, has come.
The glory revealed at Christmas is Immanuel, God with us. In the manger of Bethlehem we observe, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Lift up your voice and do not be afraid, say to cities and people near and far, “Behold, your God!” (Isaiah 40:9, KJV).
Author: Duane C. Brush
