Isaiah 40:9-31--The Greatness of God

Isaiah 40:9-31
English Standard Version

The Greatness of God
9 Go on up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
    lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
    and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
    and weighed the mountains in scales
    and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD,
    or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
    and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
    and taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
    and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
    behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
    nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

18 To whom then will you liken God,
    or what likeness compare with him?
19 An idol! A craftsman casts it,
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
    and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for an offering
    chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
    to set up an idol that will not move.

21 Do you not know? Do you not hear?
    Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
    scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
    and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
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25 To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
    calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
    and because he is strong in power,
    not one is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
    and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

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The people of Judah and Jerusalem should gather together and sing the songs that David wrote for them to tell of the LORD's goodness and how He is going to fight for His people and care for them like a shepherd cares for the lambs and young sheep of His flock.

This next part reminds me of the questions God asks Job at the end of the book of Job.  Isaiah asks through the Spirit of the LORD Who has measured the waters with the hollow of his hand?  Who has measured the universe with the span of his hand (the distance between your pinky and thumb when you extend both fully on a single hand).  Who has set the limits of space and time?  Heaven and earth? Who is able to weigh the mountains on a scale or the hills on a balance? The answer to all these rhetorical questions is "The LORD alone can do this."

The questions continue--"Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD or can give Him counsel?" If that doesn't remind you of the book of Job, I don't know what will.  No man is bigger than God that he could measure the LORD and examine every dimension, and no one is wiser than the LORD that should be trying to give Him counsel on how to run things.  He needs not consult anyone to make just and right decisions, and He always makes the right decision, even if we don't agree with Him, we are the ones who have the wrong opinion, and He is right.  No one teaches Him wisdom, knowledge, or understanding.  In fact, all of these come from Him, and we are wise if we ask the LORD for them.

All the nations of the world are counted as nothing when weighed against the LORD.  There will be a day when all nations will gather in rebellion against the LORD and His remnant on the Earth, and He will destroy all of the rebels with the word of His mouth.  He is the one who spoke everything into existence out of nothing.  Should we try to offer a sacrifice to the LORD in proportion to His greatness, there would not be enough clean animals on the earth (or enough animals in general) and not enough wood for the fuel (the picture given of the cedar of Lebanon is because at that time, that whole nation was filled with forests of cedar trees--very tall and beautiful trees, but most have since been cut down.

Is there anyone like the LORD that we can compare Him to?  No!  There is none like Him.  This is why idols are so offensive to Him.  He created all these things, including the materials that we make the idols from, and yet we choose to worship the creature and the creation instead of the Creator.  He alone is the Uncreated One.  These idols are deaf, dumb, mute, ignorant, and impotent.  They will not come to the aid of their worshipers, because they are inanimate objects.  The LORD is the Living God who acts both to judge and defend, to save and protect, and act in ways that are beyond our comprehension, but are fully aligned with His character and nature that have been revealed to us through His Word.

Which man was there at the beginning of all things that understands how everything was made and how everything works?  It is the LORD alone who is above all of creation because He is the one who spoke it all into existence.  He alone understands it all because it all came from Hsi mind and proceeded from His mouth according to His Word.  Those who think they are mighty are inconsequential to the LORD.  They are like grasshoppers that may make a lot of noise and maybe are somewhat destructive, but it is a small thing in comparison to a man.  So is all of mankind in comparison to God.  Something as simple as the LORD's breath (the same breath and Spirit that gives life) is something to be feared by His enemies as a destructive force.  As I mentioned before, all He will need to do is speak, and all of His enemies will cease to exist.

Why then do they listen to wicked kings that compare themselves to the LORD out of pride and arrogance?  Do they not understand that no man, not even the king of Assyria, is a match for the LORD?  Let such a man gird up his loins for battle and take up physical armaments against the Spirt of the LORD and see how far that gets Him.  God would be gracious to only knock such a person flat on their back to make them be humiliated and make them look up to Him in worship, but such a man deserves destruction so that all others might learn not to follow his example.  The LORD then asks a probing question, as He so often does.  If no one is like me, and if I am for you, who can stand against you and why are you so afraid?  The answer is obvious--they are afraid because they do not believe the LORD who is invisible because they are too focused on the things that are visible to them.  I say the answer is obvious, because we act the same way today.  We are not really that different.  We can't come to this passage and judge and condemn the people of Judah because, in so doing, we would be condemning ourselves.  By the same measure we use to judge others, we will be judged.  So, have grace and humility when reading a passage like this, but since the LORD is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we can read this and understand that He is calling us to faith instead of fear.

Isaiah then turns towards the people and tells them to stop acting like they hide anything from the LORD and live a "secret" life of sin.  There is no such thing.  First, their sin will find them out and it won't be a secret for very long, but also, they should know and understand that the LORD who made heaven and earth is ever present, He is Ligh and there is nothing hidden from Him, and He knows everything there is to know (yet, He chooses to forget our sins that Jesus has paid for and not hold them against us).  Therefore, we should not rely on human strength to save us, for even young and strong warriors have their limits, but the LORD never sleeps, slumbers, or grows weak or weary.

We can wait on the LORD and receive just some of His strength as He gives us everything, we need to do what He has commanded us to do.  Notice that we are both waiting and running.  It is an active waiting, not a passive waiting--we do what the LORD commanded us to do and trust Him with the results and to bring things to completion that are beyond our ability, for nothing is beyond His ability.  This brings Him much glory and shows people that we believe what we say.  It's one thing to say that we believe that our God is great beyond measure or comprehension, but it is quite another to truly act in a way that shows we believe "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty; there's nothing my God cannot do."  "The mountains are His.  The valleys are His.  The stars are His handiwork too."  "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty; there's nothing my God cannot do."  We probably learned that as a child, but do we really believe it?  Do we practice that?  Trust in the LORD and receive His miraculous peace that surpasses all understanding and His provision for each new day for everything He has ordained for us.  Even the hard and challenging things are part of His plan for His purpose (even though we likely won't understand it but can believe that He is working all things together for His glory and our good as He conforms us more into the image of His Son by the power of His Spirit).