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Peter quotes Isa. 40: 6 and places the symbol of frailty between references to the
incorruptible seed of the Word of God and that enduring Word of the Lord, which, by the
gospel, was preached by the apostles (I Pet. 1: 23-25).
When he would speak of the fleeting character of riches, James also uses the same
figure, saying, "So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways" (James 1: 10, 11).
Allusions in the Psalms also indicate this same tendency of the grass to wither and
fade; "For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb"
(Psa. 37: 2). Again the figure is used in that magnificent Psalm of Moses, where he
calls upon men to number their days, and describes them as spending their years as a tale
that is told:
"They are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up;
in the evening it is cut down, and withereth" (Psa. 90: 5, 6).
In another Psalm we are told that,
"He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are
as grass; as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it
is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more, BUT THE MERCY OF THE
LORD IS FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING" (Psa. 103: 14-17).
If, despite the frailty of the flesh emphasized in his prophecy, Isaiah had no cause to
doubt but that the Lord would fulfil His promise, he is nevertheless inspired later in the
same prophecy to enforce the lesson, saying, concerning the return of the redeemed to
Zion:
"I, even I, am He That comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of
a man that shall die, and the son of man which shall be made as grass" (Isa. 51: 12).
Consequently we may learn from Isa. 40: and Isa. 51: that the frailty of man will
neither accomplish nor frustrate the purpose of God.
"The voice said, Cry", and we now see that the basis of the blessed proclamation to be
cried and the hope of its glorious fulfillment are found in the words: "The mouth of the
Lord had spoken it."
"Word of God, hath He then spoken,
And shall He not make it good?
Never can His word be broken
Ever faithful it has stood."*
(* - From our book "Hymns of Praise".)
Having heard the voice of the forerunner and the voice which called upon the Prophet
to cry and declare the good news of Isaiah's restoration, the theme returns to those words
which were spoken to Jerusalem: