Many people quote Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever," without realizing what they're really saying.
It doesn't take much contextual reading to get the gist of the passage. Isaiah is prophesying about the coming Messiah, the Comforter, the Glory of the Lord. God has told him to "clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness," and then God tells him to "call out." Isaiah wants to know what he should call out, and God apparently gives him an answer, for Isaiah immediately says, "All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."
There are at least two lessons here. One is the old saw about taking bits of Scripture out of context and thus altering their meaning. Clearly, Isaiah 40:8 isn't talking about plants withering and fading; it's talking about men and their good works, both of which fall apart at the mere breath of God...forget about actually hearing a word from Him. And therein lies the second lesson: that all our best accomplishments, everything in which we take pride, is at best like a flower that fades and dies. God certainly appreciates our good works, comparing them to flowers after all, but the fact remains that it's not enough to get us anywhere close to Him, except ultimately to be wilted by His breath and crushed under His feet.
A man often gives a woman flowers in an attempt to please and/or placate her. And it generally works, but not because of the flowers; for, if he were to boast about the flowers themselves, he'd receive poor treatment indeed from that woman. No, the reason it works is that the flowers are a physical manifestation of the relationship that exists between the man and the woman. They are merely a pretty reminder, meaningless in and of themselves. Similarly, we have a relationship with God as our Creator, and our good works are like flowers we present to Him. The only "flowers" that will last, though, are the ones that come from a right relationship with God--not just as Creator, or even as Father, but as "Abba," Daddy--and, according to Scripture, there is only one Way into this relationship.
Isaiah goes on prophesying about the Holy One, the Arm of God, the Counselor, and his prophecies were fulfilled several hundred years later in the person and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. When Jesus says things like, "I am the door" (John 10:9), "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well" (John 14:6-7), He is simply showing us the way to get past our own selves, our own works, our own pride, and become true children of God. He is showing us the way into relationship with God. That is exactly why Jeremiah prophesied:
This is what the Lord says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
In both of the Corinthian epistles, Paul reminds the Church in Corinth of this "righteous boast" they have in Christ. So we ought to be reminded, by the harsh truth of Isaiah 40:8 and the glorious truth of the resurrected Christ, that Jesus really is the only One worthy of a boast.
Posted by jon at May 9, 2003 07:45 AM