Isaiah 40:1-2

God exhorts Isaiah to speak tenderly to His people and comfort them becausethey have received a DOUBLE for all their sins. What comfort could be found in receiving double for your sins? A perplexing passage for those who are not familiar with Bible customs and culture in Isaiah’s time. Let us take off our western eyeglasses and replace them with eastern ones as we examine this verse more carefully.

The wages of sin is death as God promised to Adam and Eve in the garden.”The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”(Gen 2:17). This was a spiritual death since Adam and Eve lived for many years after their sin of disobedience. Spiritual death is separation from God. This sin carried a penalty not a punishment; therefore a penalty can be lifted if someone pays for the sin. This brings us back to our passage under consideration. A person in Isaiah’s time would declare bankruptcy by making visible their “certificate of debt “at the gat e of the city for all to see. Also the elders sat at the gate to transact such business.

Someone would see the “certificate of debt” and agree to pay the person’s debt.  The elders would receive the amount owed, fold the “certificate of debt” and nail it to the announcement board at the gate. When the bankrupt person returned and saw the paper folded and nailed to the board, they knew their debt was cancelled. Someone had paid it in full.

The word DOUBLE is the word for FOLD (the same word in Exodus 26:9 when reference is made to the double or fold in the curtain in the Tabernacle). In our Isaiah passage, the word fold refers to the certificate of debt which was folded and a nail driven through it to signify it was paid in full.

The word DOUBLE is the word for FOLD (the same word in Exodus 26:9 when reference is made to the double or fold in the curtain in the Tabernacle). In our Isaiah passage, the word fold refers to the certificate of debt which was folded and a nail driven through it to signify it was paid in full.

So God told Isaiah to announce the good news that he was offering Israel a double for all their sins. Their sins were paid for in full. How beautiful to see this fulfilled in Christ who paid our debt, and now bankrupt sinners can receive a double (fold) for all their sins. Christ took our sins and nailed them to His cross (Colossians 2:14).The words “It is finished” is an economic term, meaning “paid in full”.

Have you received your double? If not, do it today.

Mar 24th by admin