Isaiah 40:1-11

Ancient lens

What's the historical context?

Longing created by exile

While crises seem innumerable in the OT, none could compare to the crisis of exile. Babylon, in 587 BC, destroys the city of Jerusalem and the temple, and carries many of its citizens away from the promised land of Judah into Mesopotamia and the biggest empire of the time, Babylon. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah prophecy this judgment, but for it to actually take place must have been an absolute shock.

The people of God were living in exile, away from their ancestral homes and their place of worship. It must have felt like the end of the world. Waiting and waiting to return to their ancestral homes. Waiting and waiting to once again…