Thou Art Mine

After thirty-nine chapters that are mostly warning, Isaiah 40 opens with “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” The Hebrew behind “speak ye comfortably” is literally “speak to the heart.” A voice calls for a highway in the desert so the Lord can come to His people (40:3–5); all four Gospels apply it to John the Baptist. Then the contrasts begin: people fade like grass, but “the word of our God shall stand for ever” (40:8). The Lord holds the oceans in His hand, yet gathers lambs in His arm (40:11–12). The chapter closes by answering a quiet complaint, “My way is hid from the Lord” (40:27), with a God who “fainteth not, neither is weary” and gives power to the faint.

🔗 Cross-references

• Luke 3:2–6 ↗Luke quotes Isaiah 40:3–5 to describe John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus.
• Doctrine and Covenants 33:10 ↗The Lord repeats the call to “prepare ye the way of the Lord” to missionaries in our day.
• 1 Peter 1:24–25 ↗Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6–8 and identifies the enduring word with the gospel preached to the Saints.

Chapter 41 gives one of scripture’s most loved promises: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee… I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (41:10). Three verses later the image turns personal: the Lord will “hold thy right hand” (41:13), like a parent steadying a child. Chapter 42 introduces the Servant, the first of several passages in Isaiah about a chosen one who brings justice gently. “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench” (42:3). A reed with a crack in it and a lamp wick barely glowing are exactly the things most people would throw away. Matthew quotes this passage and applies it to Jesus (Matthew 12:17–21). He does not discard the damaged. He mends them.

🔗 Cross-references

• Matthew 12:17–21 ↗Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:1–4 and applies the gentle Servant to Jesus Christ.
• Isaiah 41:17–18 ↗When the poor and needy search for water, the Lord promises rivers and springs in dry places.
• Doctrine and Covenants 68:6 ↗The Lord tells His servants to be of good cheer and not fear, for He is with them.

Isaiah 43 opens with the Lord as both Creator and Redeemer: He formed Israel, redeemed Israel, and says, “I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (43:1). He doesn’t promise to keep His people away from deep water and fire, only to be with them in it (43:2). Then comes a bold claim: “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour” (43:11). Latter-day Saints understand the Lord (Jehovah) of the Old Testament to be Jesus Christ before His birth, so these are the Savior’s own words about Himself. The chapter ends with a “new thing,” a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (43:19), and a promise to blot out sins and “not remember” them (43:25).

🔗 Cross-references

• John 10:3 ↗The Good Shepherd “calleth his own sheep by name,” echoing Isaiah 43:1.
• Doctrine and Covenants 58:42 ↗The Lord repeats the promise of Isaiah 43:25: He remembers repented sins no more.
• Mosiah 3:17 ↗King Benjamin testifies that salvation comes only in and through the name of Christ, the Saviour of Isaiah 43:11.

Isaiah 44:9–20 is scripture’s sharpest satire. A man plants a tree, lets the rain grow it, and cuts it down. With half he warms himself and bakes bread; the other half he carves into a god, bows to it and prays, “Deliver me; for thou art my god.” He never stops to ask, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (44:20). The wood was useful; the mistake was asking it to save him. Then Isaiah names Cyrus, the Persian king who would free the exiles, calling him the Lord’s “shepherd” and “anointed” (44:28; 45:1), well over a century in advance. Ezra 1 records Cyrus doing exactly that. The section closes with a universal invitation: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (45:22).

🔗 Cross-references

• Ezra 1:1–3 ↗Cyrus king of Persia proclaims that the Jews may return and build the house of the Lord.
• Romans 14:11 ↗Paul quotes Isaiah 45:23: every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to God.
• Mosiah 27:31 ↗Alma the Younger testifies that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess before Him.

Chapter 46 draws a picture every exile would recognize: Babylon’s gods Bel and Nebo loaded onto animals, a heavy burden for a “weary beast” (46:1–2). Idols must be carried. The Lord says the opposite of Himself: He has carried Israel since birth, “and even to hoar hairs will I carry you” (46:4). Chapter 47 mocks Babylon for saying, “I am, and none else beside me” (47:8, 10), claiming words that belong only to God. Chapter 48, which Nephi quotes as 1 Nephi 20, adds a hard comfort: “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” (48:10). Nephi’s version adds that the house of Jacob came forth “out of the waters of baptism” (1 Nephi 20:1). Then comes the wistful line, “O that thou hadst hearkened… then had thy peace been as a river” (48:18).

🔗 Cross-references

• 1 Nephi 20:1 ↗Nephi’s version of Isaiah 48 connects the house of Jacob with the waters of baptism.
• 1 Nephi 20:10 ↗Nephi read this promise of being chosen in the furnace of affliction to his family in the wilderness.
• Matthew 11:28–30 ↗The Savior invites the heavy laden to come to Him and find rest, the same contrast as Isaiah 46.

Isaiah 49 begins with the Servant, called “from the womb” and given as “a light to the Gentiles” (49:1, 6); Paul and Barnabas quote it to explain why they took the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:47). Then Zion speaks: “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me” (49:14). The answer is one of the tenderest verses in scripture. A nursing mother might forget her child, “yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (49:15–16). To engrave is to cut in, permanently. Many think of the marks the risen Savior still bears in His hands (3 Nephi 11:14–15). The chapter ends with Israel’s children carried home by the Gentiles (49:22), a gathering Nephi explains (1 Nephi 22:6–8).

🔗 Cross-references

• 3 Nephi 11:14–15 ↗The risen Savior invites the multitude to feel the prints of the nails in His hands and feet.
• Acts 13:47 ↗Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah 49:6 to explain their mission to the Gentiles.
• 1 Nephi 22:6–8 ↗Nephi explains the promise that Israel’s children will be nursed and carried by the Gentiles.

Return to the end of Isaiah 40, today of all days, as General Conference closes. The Lord who names every star (40:26) answers the tired complaint that “my way is hid” (40:27) with His own tirelessness: He “fainteth not, neither is weary” (40:28). Then the promise: those who “wait upon the Lord” will “renew their strength” (40:31). The Hebrew behind “wait” carries the sense of hopeful expectation, looking eagerly toward someone. The word for “renew” can also mean “exchange.” We bring spent strength and receive His. Notice the order: mount up, run, walk. Some days are flight. Many are simply walking and not fainting, and that is the promise kept too. Listening to prophets and apostles this weekend is one way of waiting upon the Lord.

🔗 Cross-references

• Doctrine and Covenants 1:38 ↗Whether by His own voice or by the voice of His servants, the Lord says, it is the same.
• Alma 37:37 ↗Counsel with the Lord in all your doings: a daily way of waiting on Him.
• 2 Corinthians 4:16 ↗Paul testifies that though the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day.