Our Creator and Redeemer

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Isaiah 40:12–31 NKJV

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has taught Him? 14 With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. 16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. 17 All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? 19 The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains. 20 Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter. 21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? 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 out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. 24 Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. 25 “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His 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 just claim is passed over by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on 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.

After the tremendous promises of the first 11 verses, Isaiah answers a question that will arise. Israel will be in captivity and treated horribly by Babylon. There will be tremendous suffering in exile.

The question will naturally arise:

Isaiah 40:27 NKJV

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

God isn’t paying attention. God doesn’t hear us.

He doesn’t love us.

When the people of God begin to ask THAT question, the temptation to follow after idols becomes very, very strong.

If we could control the gods, if we could manipulate him and force a response, then we might die anyway, but at least we will be in control.

The allure of idols is the power - the illusion that god’s power could be controlled, possessed, manipulated - by ritual, by words, by works, by images, by sacrifice...

The only alternative is trust and wait, when our whole being is crying out to “DO SOMETHING!”

That is what the prophet is answering through chapter 48 - God vs idols, the works of human hands

Who is God?Through a series of rhetorical questions, Isaiah is demonstrating why the objection of verse 27 cannot hold up.

Verse 12 - God the almighty creator

All things were made with wisdom. There are no random facts. Everything is measured, ordered, counted, weighed, balanced.

Will a mountain or valley prove too much for God? Did the Red Sea prove to be an obstacle?

The mountains, the dust, the universe is the way that it is because God measured it and laid it out exactly the way that it is.

His knowledge of all of creation is therefore exhaustive because he knows his own decree.

Verse 13-14 - God’s knowledge is not dependent. I am who I am.

He does not count, ratiocinate, or look to his creation to learn something. Everything is the way that it is because God has decreed it.

Further, he is not dependent upon the judgment of men to be wise and just. Wisdom and Justice are HIS attributes, and we are weighed by HIM, not the other way around.

Shall WE say to the maker, “you aren’t doing this right”?

In Babylonian mythology, Marduk cannot create without consulting Ea, the wise one.

But the God of Israel is one - his power and wisdom and decree are all one.

He does not need to be told what needs to be done, for he knows it all perfectly.

We can rest, even in exile, for he is our God - he sees, he knows, his knowledge is so, so far greater than ours - his immensity and his knowledge are infinite. There are no boundaries to his decrees

Verse 15-17

When the nations conspire, when the kings of the earth threaten, when men shake their fist at God, when they seek to establish their own kingdom under their own power, will this prove to be a barrier to God’s decree?

When God says, “In 70 years, I will return you to the land” will something happen that will overpower him?

All the nations together are a drop from a bucket. God is not swayed by the power of all of the nations combined any more that a drop from a bucket will sway or overpower a man.

The exiles had no politicians and no statesmen to plead their case for them, but fear not - The powers of the world are as dust. A drop in the bucket. God will plead for his people and who can stop his hand.

The dust on the scales does not affect the scales. a drop does not affect the weight of the bucket. The coastlands can all be lifted up by God without expending any energy at all.

Isaiah’s point is NOT that God does not care for his creation. It is a comparison. GOD is not frightened at the decrees of the nations.

God is independent. His wisdom, decrees, actions are not dependent upon his creation. It is the other way around.

Therefore, even if one was able to offer the whole of Lebanon - all the beasts burning with all of the trees - would that be enough to sway God’s determined course?

Is THIS God subject to the manipulation of his creation? Is he a power to be tapped into at will and carried from place to place?

Compare, for example, the idols of the heathen

Verse 18-20

What likeness will you make of God? His immensity and his eternity and his wisdom are so, so far beyond human reckoning. He is incomprehensible. He does as he pleases, and therefore he can be relied upon, trusted, and waited for - because nothing can stop his hand.

But idols, on the other hand, are exhausting. You have to carve them, weigh them out, measure the gold,

The impoverished one - the idea is that the value of the god is dependent upon the wealth of the devotee. If one is rich, he can use gold. If one is poor, he picks a tree.

Hopefully, he will have enough money to find a tree that won’t rot.

And the best that he can hope for is that when he is done carving it, it won’t fall down.

What kind of a God is this? Not only is it impotent to save, it is even impotent to stay upright without the strength and skill of the one carving it.

The allure of idols is the illusion of power. The one with the idol has the power over the god.

But the reality is that the idol has no power at all. The strength it takes to try to control the power of the gods is exhausting and fruitless. Satan is a liar.

And everything that the people of God need has already been revealed to them

Verses 21-24

It is the creator, the same one who laid the foundations of the earth, who also controls all things by his decree, and nothing will hinder him from fulfilling his promise

Instead of fearing the nations and their gods, remember that in the sight of the God of Israel, the nations and kings are just as impotent as their gods.

When God “blows” on them, they wither and are blown away.

Verse 25-26

When you begin to think that God has forgotten you, go outside. Look up. See the stars. He knows every one of them, calls them by their names.

There isn’t any strength in all of humanity to even come close.

Because we are image-bearers, we name some of them. Just like we have some power.

We can decide if we want eggs or pancakes at ihop. We can decide if we want to speak a kind word or snarl at a dog.

But naming some of the stars is a far cry from naming ALL the stars.

And making a few decisions is a far cry from holding the nations in the palm of your hands, looking down on the kings of the earth as grasshoppers.

So who are we to decide that we know what God should do?

Do we have access to all knowledge, do we know every contingent thing, are we aware of everything that could and might possibly happen?

How can you say that God has forgotten his covenant?

Verses 28-31

When we try to control the power of the gods, we are seeking to hold back the sea with our breath. It is exhausting and cannot be done.

He, though, is a source of endless strength to those who wait on him.

Idolatry seeks to use OUR power to control God’s power.

But the true God, our creator and redeemer, has made promises that cannot fail. We don’t try to force a blessing from his hand. We believe him, and wait for him.

It is the difference between trying to hold up the world with power - even a young man at the peak of his power - will wipe himself out.

Holding up your gods so that they don’t totter will eventually fail. You will run out of strength.

But wait on the Lord -

He gives strength to the weak. He delights to show himself strong when we are at our weakest.

Israel, when you are in exile, at the bottom, near to death, no cultural power whatsoever, rejoice! For God is near to the oppressed and weak. He gives grace to the humble.

But he resists the proud. Don’t seek to be one of the powerful. You will wear yourself out trying to stay on top.

Instead - catch the breeze. Like an eagle. Wait on the Lord, and let his spirit lift you up.

But look at the eagle - they catch the wind, and glide for hours.