Isaiah 40:12-17 - The King of the Nations

Ray Beebe’s funeral -

Intro. Isaiah 40 - Behold Our God

God is both incomprehensible and knowable.

Incomprehensible.

Psalm 145:3 “3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”

The main reason why God is incomprehensible is because God is infinite and humans are finite.

We are limited but God is limitless.

Just because God is incomprehensible it doesn’t mean that God cannot be known. A person can know God because God has revealed himself through his Word. Our knowledge of God has a personal impact. 2 Peter 1:2 states that grace and peace is multiplied (increased) as we grow in our knowledge of God.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you asked, “God, what are you doing?”

Readers in exile - what are you doing God? Maybe he is not going to do anything? If he wants to do something, is he able to do it?

Adoption story

Our passage today will give us perspective,

Isaiah 40:12-17 “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.”

Two things I would like for us to behold:

The Greatness of God’s Sovereign Power

God asks a series of questions using nature as the visual aid.

These questions are designed to offer a sharp contrast: for humans this is impossible, but for God nothing is impossible.

These questions point to the greatness of God’s sovereign power.

(1) Who has held the oceans in his hand?

How much water do you think you could in the hallow of your hand? Do you think you can hold one gallon?

Do you know how many gallons of water is in the ocean? The ocean contains 352 quintillion gallons of water! (352 w/18 “0s”)

God can measure the enormous amount of water found in our planet earth by simply cupping his hand.

Compared to God’s power and wisdom, no problem is too big or complex for him.

(2) Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?

The Bible was written before the Hubble Space Telescope was invented. Now we have the James Webb Space telescope.

Astronomers now estimate, however, that there are more than 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and that there are 125 billion galaxies in the universe. The total number of stars is estimated at 1x1022 or 10 billion trillions (ESV Study Bible, 2008)

Show video of stars and galaxies

According to Guinness World Record, The widest hand span measures 12.32 in (31.3 cm) God can measure the immeasurable distances in the skies with the span of his hand.

Compared to God’s power and wisdom, no problem is too big or complex for him.

Psalm 33:6-7 “6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.”

(3) Who knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?

We now move from the ocean and the sky to dry land. God’s power is so great that he is able to gather the dust of the earth in a measuring cup. He is able to place the mountains and hills on a scale.

How much does the earth weight? Since Earth is too big to be placed on a scale, scientists use mathematics and the laws of gravity to figure out Earth's weight.

Deadlift record: 1,105 lbs ( 501 kg)

V.14 wants to put things in perspective: If God is able to measure the size of our galaxies, the oceans, and various parts of the earth such as the mountains, do you think your problem is that big of a problem to God?

Compared to God’s power and wisdom, no problem is too big or complex for him.

The people of God needed to hear this words. They were living in exile in Babylon (world’s super power). The homeland was destroyed: temple & walls

The Greatness of God’s Limitless Wisdom & Knowledge

We discover this in vv. 13-14 through another series of questions

Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord?

J. Oswalt points to the essence of the implied question: “if we cannot even take the measure of the physical world, how can we take the measure of God?” Gary Smith’s commentary on Isaiah

It is ridiculous to think that anyone has the capability to measure the depth and breadth of the mind of God the Creator.

Compared to God’s power and wisdom, no problem is too big or complex for him.

Next question

Who has instructed God as his counselor?

God does not need our input to figure out anything!

1 Corinthians 2:16 “16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”

God alone knows he plan that he designed in his limitless wisdom & power. God is not going to form a committee to give him advise or suggestions.

V.14 has more questions:

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?”

“Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?” Erwin Lutzer

God has never learned anything, and he never will. So no human being can teach God a single thing.

I do home projects - I learn as I go. I make mistakes, I learn tricks. God is not like that.

The apostle Paul writes,

Romans 11:33-34 “33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?””

NOBODY!

Isaiah 55:8-9 “8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The wisdom of God is on full display at the cross.

1 Corinthians 1:21-24 “21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

From a human perspective this was a foolish plan, but the cross is God’s wisdom in action.

The Jews believed the Messiah was going to defeat the pagans and establish the kingdom of Israel once again not end up hanging on a tree.

For the Greeks who valued wisdom the cross is utterly shameful. A crucified Messiah? That’s foolish! How can God become human and die on a cross like a criminal.

God’s thoughts defies human wisdom & understanding.

A Great Perspective: From the Greater to the Lesser

V. 15 uses the word “behold” twice. They act like a “therefore” in a sentence. In light of God’s sovereign power and limitless wisdom and knowledge 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.” (v.15)

If the oceans and the galaxies and the mountains are so small compared to God’s power, surely the “super powerful” nations of Assyria and Babylon are no greater than a drop of water from a bucket or dust on a scale. The little coastland nations are even smaller. They are like a speck of dust that floats in the air.

Compared to God’s power and wisdom, no problem is too big or complex for him.

The biggest problem is the problem of sin.

There is nothing we can do or offer that would match the greatness of God not even if we were to use all the trees in Lebanon for fuel and offer God all its animals for a burnt offering (a sacrifice to atone for sin).

In v.15 We are under his power and in v.16 God is beyond our power. There is nothing we can do to earn his favor. There is not enough good works you can do to earn his love and forgiveness. There is only one sacrifice worthy of God and he provided it himself. It was offered 2,000 years ago on a cross. Only through Jesus we can be accepted.

In v.17 The Prophet Isaiah addresses all nations stating that ,“All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.”

This doesn’t mean that the nations of the world don’t have value. The context is not talking about the value of people. Isaiah is simply pointing to the fact that humans are finite and God is infinite.

Compared to God’s power and wisdom, no problem is too big or complex for him.

Who will you trust?

“God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.”

― Jerry Bridges, Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts