Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.”
I’ve been experiencing some green envy lately. I walk around our block every day and admire the beautifully groomed yards with their budding trees, splashes of tulips and green grass. Our grass is not green. It’s brown.
We live on a farm with over two acres of mowable lawn. My husband wanted to get a head start on weed control, so he decided to go all out this year. He purchased a new type of weed killer and spread it over the lawn. All two and a half acres! The online reviews praised the product, so he had no reason to doubt. And it did kill the weeds—but it also choked out the grass. Think sand-colored Sahara Desert without the sand. I tried to cheer him up, “At least you don’t have to mow this summer!” But, honestly, it’s pretty ugly. Hence, the green envy.
Isaiah reminds us that grass withers and flowers fade. Peter reiterates this in the New Testament as well (1 Peter: 1:24-25). It’s a principle we humans tend to forget. Life is transitory. Nothing we see, nothing we experience, will last. From the deepest sorrows to the grandest achievements, everything will fade like yesterday’s headlines (or in our case, grass). But one thing will last. One thing stands forever.
The word of God.
When Isaiah wrote these words, Israel’s bloom was coming off the rose, as they say. Their rebellion and idolatry had culminated in God’s judgment. Doomsday was about to replace the glory days; they would find themselves exiled to a foreign land because of their sin. But their punishment would be temporary.
God promised to bring them back home, to restore them and redeem them. Their suffering would end. It was a promise intended to fill them with hope because it rested on one unassailable truth: God’s word stands forever.
So where are you today? Are you letting things that aren’t going to last define you? Maybe it’s a good time to let permanent realities outweigh the impermanent.
I don’t know how or when our grass will be green again. But I think it’s more prudent to be envious for God’s word. Definitely more reliable than an Amazon review.