Forever

Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

The New American Standard Bible translation has this verse on its opening page.  Of all the thousands of verses in the Bible, why was this verse chosen as the thematic verse of the Bible?  Well, the answer is fairly obvious, as Isaiah 40:8 makes the claim that the word of God stands forever.  But, let’s note some other less obvious teachings of this verse.

It compares the word of God to God’s natural creation.  Have you ever thought about the fact that every living thing in God’s creation eventually dies?  All flora (plant) and fauna (animal) life eventually die.  Verses 6-7 speak of men being like grass and grass will wither.  While this might have been God’s will for plants and animals, it was not His original will for mankind. Because of Jesus, mankind will not die forever just like God’s word (“dabar”—spoken word) will stand forever. 

It is not the word of God, but the word of “our” God that stands forever.  The pronoun “our” means that there is only one creator God who is God of all as emphasized in the first of the Ten Commandments.

The verb “stands” means “to arise, to become powerful, to be established or to endure” and there is nothing that can cause the word of God to fall, falter, fail, fade away.  Just reflect on all the attempts in history to refute, deny, ban, or destroy the word of God, yet even today it remains as the greatest selling book in the world. 

Isaiah 40 is a chapter of comfort.  Its first verse says: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God”.  Its last verse says: “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Verse 8 is a verse of comfort with respect to assuring all sincere and serious readers that what is written in the Bible will last forever while whatever mankind might say or write or believe that is opposite of the truth of the Bible will wither away. 

Contemplate the meaning of the word “forever”.  Humanly, we cannot comprehend this word or what the word eternity means.  Note this definition of eternity from Hendrik Willem van Loon’s History of Mankind (1922): 

High in the North in a land called Svithjod there is a mountain.
It is a hundred miles long and a hundred miles high
Once every 1000 years a little bird comes to this mountain to sharpen its beak.
When the mountain has thus been worn away a single day of eternity will have passed.