Isaiah 40:1-3 KJV - 1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins. 3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Israel received double for her sins and should now be comforted seeing her iniquity is pardoned as she has received double judgement for her sins.
The voice that crieth in the wilderness was John the Baptist. John would identify and proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to Israel.
John would present Jesus as the one who would shed his blood to forgive Israel their transgressions committed under the first testament as seen below:
Hebrews 9:15 KJV - And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [that were] under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
The sins of national Israel will be blotted out at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Acts 3:19 KJV - Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Israel as a nation will be forgiven when the new covenant is established at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 KJV] 31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Israel received double for her sins and should now be comforted seeing her iniquity is pardoned as she has received double judgement for her sins.
The voice that crieth in the wilderness was John the Baptist. John would identify and proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to Israel.
John would present Jesus as the one who would shed his blood to forgive Israel their transgressions committed under the first testament as seen below:
Hebrews 9:15 KJV - And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [that were] under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
The sins of national Israel will be blotted out at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Acts 3:19 KJV - Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Israel as a nation will be forgiven when the new covenant is established at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 KJV] 31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
