The grass withers and the flowers fall
Isaiah 40:6-8 - Let these verses stand as a reminder to you that no matter how dire things may seem in this world, God’s Word is eternal and will never disappear.
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“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.””
Isaiah 40:6-8 NIV
God is really blessing me with some amazing verses these past few weeks! This is the second one from Isaiah in the past 10 days, and as Barb is showing you with her dive into the prophecies of Daniel, the prophets can be difficult to understand at first glance, yet are beautiful in their lyricism and packed with scriptural meaning.
Chapter 40 of the Book of Isaiah is a turning point in this book. For the first 39 chapters, God (through Isaiah) was warning the Israelites of their coming judgment, intermixed with occasional words of comfort and hope. In this chapter, the tone of the book changes dramatically to comfort, blessing, and the glory of God.
These verses begin with a command and a question. The command? “Cry out!” The question from Isaiah? “What shall I cry?” God or some other heavenly messenger is commanding Isaiah to make a public statement to the people, which is the duty of prophets.
By responding with his question, Isaiah shows that he immediately wishes to obey, but he wants to make sure that he’s sending the right message since it is so important. This type of conversation with God is found elsewhere in the prophetic books, showing that all of the prophets in the Bible had a close relationship with the Creator.
God replies with the words found in the rest of the verses: “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
The first sentence is a metaphor highlighting the transient nature and fragility of human life. Grass withers quickly when it isn’t watered, which reflects how temporary human existence is. For the second part of this sentence, some translations use the words “all its glory” rather than “all their faithfulness”. I like the use of “glory” in describing human achievements, strength, and beauty, which are beautiful (like flowers) but also short-lived. With this imagery, God is telling us that we need to rely on His eternal promises instead of human endeavors.
What causes the grass to wither and the flowers to fall? “The breath of the Lord.” The Hebrew word used here for breath — רוּחַ (rûaḥ) — also means spirit or wind, providing a connection to God’s intervention. It’s His will that determines His creation’s fate — He has all authority!
The next verse reiterates that “surely the people are grass,” meaning that like flowers, they are frail and don’t last long! We have a huge need to rely on God, and He is telling us through Isaiah to focus on eternal spiritual matters rather than short-term earthly concerns.
The key point in these verses? We’re only here for a short time, but “the word of our God endures forever.” What powerful words! Here’s what Enduring Word had to say about this:
The word of our God stands forever: The message is the permanence of God and His word. In contrast to the frailty and fleeting glory of man (The grass withers, the flower fades), the word of our God endures.
i. The word of our God certainly has endured. It has survived centuries of manual transcription, of persecution, of ever-changing philosophies, of all kinds of critics, of neglect both in the pulpit and in the pew, of doubt and disbelief — and still, the word of our God stands forever.
ii. “Written on material that perishes, having to be copied and recopied for hundreds of years before the invention of the printing press, did not diminish its style, correctness, nor existence. The Bible, compared with other ancient writings, has more manuscript evidence than any ten pieces of classical literature combined.” (Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict)
iii. In A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian demanded that every copy of the Scriptures in the Roman Empire be burned. He failed, and 25 years later, the Roman Emperor Constantine commissioned a scholar named Eusebius to prepare 50 copies of the Bible at government expense.
iv. Voltaire, the French skeptic and infidel who died in 1778, said that 100 years from his time, Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history, and that the Bible would be a forgotten book. Many years after Voltaire’s death, the Geneva Bible Society used his press and his house to produce stacks of Bibles.
v. “Infidels for eighteen hundred years have been refuting and overthrowing this book, and yet it stands today solid as a rock. Its circulation increases, and it is more loved and cherished and read today than ever before. Infidels, with all their assaults, make about as much impression on this book as a man with a tack hammer would on the Pyramids of Egypt. When the French monarch proposed a persecution of the Christians in his dominion, an old statesman and warrior said to him, ‘Sire, the Church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.’ So the hammers of the infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures. If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives.” (Hastings, cited in McDowell)
vi. “A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put.” (Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences)
Let these verses stand as a reminder to you that no matter how dire things may seem in this world, God’s Word is eternal and will never disappear.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Your Word reminds us that all people are like grass, and all our glory fades like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but Your Word endures forever. Teach us not to place our hope in fleeting things, but to stand firm on Your eternal truth. Let our lives reflect the permanence of Your promises, and help us trust in what never fails—Your unchanging Word. AMEN.