God is Great!

Isaiah 40:1–31 ESV

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 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. 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.

Introduction

Chapter 39 ended with difficult news for Judah. Although all would be safer for the generation of Hezekiah, a future generation would enter into exile by the Babylonian Empire. Judah knew of the Northern Kingdom’s Exile into Assyria, but they did not imagine it would happen to them. God allowed both kingdoms to experience the consequences of their sin and rejection of God. But exile is not God’s final goal for His people. The purpose of God’s discipline is to reunite in peaceful fellowship again.

The words of chapter 40 serve as a reminder of God’s bigger plan, promises, and faithful love. The current and future generations that listened to these words would have to decide whether to place their trust in God or conclude that God is not faithful. Yet even we fail as humans, God will always prove Himself greater. This Bible teaches us that God has fulfilled these promises in Jesus Christ. All that we read about this great God of Israel applies to Jesus Christ. “For in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily...” Colossians 2:9

Comfort, Comfort My People

After exile and discipline, God promises to show tender comfort instead of tough love. The warfare, also translated as trouble or hardship, was due to their spiritual rebellion. But it will be no more, for God will solve the problem that is rooted in the heart. The term “pardoned” recalls the concept of atonement.

Lexham Theological Wordbook Atonement

The term atonement expresses the notion of divine forgiveness as the removal or covering over of human guilt and the turning away of God’s wrath.

God provided atonement through the various sacrifices. So what is the sacrifice that will atone and pardon this sin? Chapter 40 does not give us the details of how. But he assures us that God will. Later in chapter 53, we will learn of a Servant who will suffer and bring a solution for the sins of Israel. We know this Suffering Servant to be Jesus Christ.

God promises that Judah will receive “double for her sin.” It literally means “folded in half.” This phrase is also used in the book of Job regarding God’s wisdom. It implies something great yet hidden. God’s wisdom that we can not fully grasp. Again we can look to the cross of Jesus as that “double” act of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18–19 ESV

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

The sin problem of humanity that keeps us in exile and separated will be solved through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In him, we will find God’s comfort.

3 Voices

The remaining verses are a wonderful poetic picture of why Judah can trust God. Next, we see three unnamed messengers for the people. Their messages are simple:

The glory of God will be revealed.

The word of the Lord will stand.

The Lord will shepherd His people.

The first voice should sound familiar to us. The gospel writers used these verses to describe the ministry of John the Baptist. John came before Jesus, preparing the way through a message of repentance and baptism. He proclaimed that someone greater would come after him, which was Jesus. The writer poetically describes a massive adjustment to the earth’s geography as it becomes ready to receive the Lord. The changes signal the people that God’s glory is going to be revealed for all to see.

The second voice is connected to the first message by reminding us that God’s Word will stand forever. Human authority and power will always fade, but God’s will not. Our “glory”, hesed, will not stand. This wonderful term is used to describe God’s goodness and unfailing love. Our spiritual faithfulness and goodness are unreliable, but God’s hesed is eternal and unfading.

The last voice is the most dramatic. The messenger is told to go to the highest point on a mountain that overlooks all people below to utter this message. All Jerusalem will hear the good news. This is the message: Behold, your God! God is pictured as a conquering hero returning from battle with victory and spoils of a battle. God does not come to battle Judah. Instead, He enters with a gentleness connected to verse 1. God arrives to gather His people and lead them as a gentle shepherd.

A Picture of Christ

Before we continue, we should recognize that we are looking at a portrait of Jesus Christ. God promised that He would act on Israel’s behalf and the entire world when he ordained these words in Isaiah. When we celebrated Palm Sunday, where we remember that Christ rode into Jerusalem in such a humble way, but as the King, a true Son of David. He came to shepherd all people because we were lost and separated from God. We read that Jesus went to the cross to become that solution for our pardon from sin. John the Baptist repeated that powerful word, Behold!

John 1:29 ESV

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

We are privileged to live in this day when we look back to see what God has done through Christ. What the ancient people hoped to see, we know as Jesus Christ.

Five Reasons to Trust God

The remaining part of the chapter gives the people five reasons to place their entire hope in God.

God is all-wise

God is infinite

God is not like the other “gods”

God is sovereign

God is creator

God is all-wise

Just as human “glory” (hesed) fades, so will our wisdom and understanding. No one can know all things nor make the best decisions. Only God is all-wise. His power and wisdom exceed our ability to reason, evaluate, and perceive the visible or unseen world. We would do well to admit our limitations and submit to God, who is the basis for becoming wise.

Proverbs 9:10 ESV

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

God is infinite

If our wisdom fades and fails, so does our physical existence. We are finite and limited, but He is infinite. Compare the greatness of God to the nations, empires, and world powers. They are all just a drop in the bucket. If the nations are drop, then what are the individuals in those nations? Are we not seemingly more insignificant? Yet God’s greatness is not a deficiency to relate to us. It is part of His glory to reach down to us and personally show us grace and mercy.

God is not like the other gods

The ancient people placed hope in their gods. They connected to their god through worship and images of their god, which a skilled artist crafted. The artist made them from various materials and often performed rituals so that the idol would be a conduit to the god. God mocks the practice of making an idol because the artist has to make sure to build it well so that it endures. But all physical items erode and decay over time. A physical object can never represents God. Instead, God’s glory is represented in the evidence of the created world. These things point to God and never become a conduit or substitute for God. God’s glory is reflected in all things.

Romans 1:19–20 ESV

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

God is sovereign

Sovereignty is a term that we typically use in legal documents or politics. It describes the rights, abilities, and authority of an entity to make its own decisions and actions of its own will. God is portrayed as above all things. He sits above the earth, and all the inhabitants appear as grasshoppers. All human potential and power fail the moment they think that they are greater than God. Even the rulers and leaders are only present for a time and a purpose that God allows. He removes and raises them up because He is sovereign over all things.

God is the Creator

We know that somethings exists beyond our ability to see, and so we recognize there is much to still learn about our universe. Some conclude that our universe is a result of random chance over billions of years. The Bible declares that God is the Creator. Evolution and Creation are not repeatable events that we can study, so we have to make conclusions from evidence in the world. Both models require a level of belief. One places belief in mutations and chance, but the other recognizes that this world is too organized and fits so well to sustain life that we must conclude that there is purpose and design to our universe. Believers must agree with the biblical explanation. God is the Maker of heaven and earth.

The Final Conclusion

After accepting the five reasons to trust in God, the writer adds the natural human issue of trust. It sometimes seems that God is great, powerful, sovereign, and amazing, but maybe he is too big and too busy to notice what we are personally experiencing. It may also seem that God has forgotten our weakness, our struggle, and our problems. But the writer once again corrects this by reminding us that God does not experience limits like tiredness, nor is he ignorant of our situation. God promises power and strength to us, but there is a response we must make. We must wait for the Lord. We must place our full confidence and hope in Him. This means we must count the passing minutes as bringing us closer to God’s promises.

Life’s challenges and even waiting may cause us to grow weary. But waiting upon the Lord is the only option that promises us a renewal. Jesus Christ is all that we see about God in this powerful chapter. When we place our faith in Christ, we are putting our trust in the eternal God.

Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary ii. God the Creator, Guarantor of His Promises (40:12–31)

Renew, from a basic meaning ‘to change’ (√ḥālap), comes to mean ‘to put on afresh’: here, ‘keep putting on fresh strength’. It is a different strength, as if people become eagles, a strength brought about by transformation; it is divine strength, a strength like the Lord’s own that does not weary or faint (28e). Run, the exceptional demands of life; walk, the ordinary daily grind.