Comfort, Yes, Comfort My People...

"Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" 

Says your God.

2 "Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,

That her warfare is ended,

That her iniquity is pardoned;

For she has received from the LORD's hand

Double for all her sins."

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

"Prepare the way of the LORD;

Make straight in the desert

A highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be exalted

And every mountain and hill brought low;

The crooked places shall be made straight

And the rough places smooth;

5 The glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

And all flesh shall see it together;

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.--"Isaiah 40:1-5

These verses quoted in part from Isaiah 40 in Luke Chapter 3 always fill me with joy.   This is so because of the unity and supernatural design of Scripture, and that even in judgment God “remembers mercy.

I love how Chapter 40 of Isaiah begins too...Comfort, yes, comfort My people!  This chapter also commences the 2nd section of Isaiah.  The two divisions of this OT book  (Chapt 1-39 & 40-66) contain 39 and 27 chapters, respectively, which is how the Old  and New Testaments are broken up...39 books in the OT and 27 in the NT.  Part 1 of Isaiah like the OT, emphasize law and judgment, while part 2 of Isaiah like the NT focus on grace and salvation.  The “NT” portion of  Isaiah begins with the prophecy fulfilled by John the Baptist 700 years later in the gospels, and ends with the coming of the “new heavens and the new earth”(65:17-66:24); further detailed in Revelation, the last book of the New Testament.