A God Bigger Than Our Needs - Isaiah 40
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©Copyright May 15, 2022 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche.
We have been studying the book of Isaiah. As we turn to Isaiah 40 we make a dramatic change in the focus of the text. Up to this point we have been focusing on historical narratives. Now, Isaiah changes from talking to the people of his own day to a people of a future day. He speaks of the future as if it was happening in the present. This is a prophetic technique to convey something that is sure to happen.
The remaining chapters fall into three sections. Chapters 40-48 talk about Judah’s delivery from the Babylonian Captivity. 49-57 focus on our redemption of sin from because of the work of the Messiah. 58-66 look forward to the future and eternal reign of Christ.
In chapter 40 Isaiah is talking to the exiles in Babylon. After the Assyrian threat died down, Babylon took over as the powerful empire. They attacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and deported a large number of people (including Daniel) to live in Babylon. These people were in exile for 70 years! Isaiah’s message to these future exiles is “God has not abandoned you. There are good days ahead, keep trusting Him.”
Isaiah 40 is one of the most majestic passages in the Bible. It is a powerful and heartwarming passage that hopefully will expand your concept of God.
God’s Comfort
God spoke words of comfort to the Israelite captives. The words can just as easily be God’s message to us.
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
Tell her that her sad days are gone
and her sins are pardoned.
Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over
for all her sins.”
3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
4 Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
5 Then the glory of the Lordwill be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!”
The first thing God said to Israel was, “the punishment (or exile) has been hard, but it will not last forever. He told them someone was coming to announce the glory of the Lord. John the Baptist applied these words to himself. Their rescue, OUR rescue and comfort, comes from the Lord.
This was a remarkable prophecy at the time because there is no record of a nation EVER returning from exile to their homeland and once again becoming an independent nation. We will talk more about this next week. God was going to do something in Israel that was unprecedented. In fact, people still look at the nation of Israel with wonder. They are a clear example of God’s greatness and power.
Isaiah continues,
6 A voice said, “Shout!”
I asked, “What should I shout?”
“Shout that people are like the grass.
Their beauty fades as quickly
as the flowers in a field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fade
beneath the breath of the Lord.
And so it is with people.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fade,
but the word of our God stands forever.
9 O Zion, messenger of good news,
shout from the mountaintops!
Shout it louder, O Jerusalem.
Shout, and do not be afraid.
Tell the towns of Judah,
“Your God is coming!”
10 Yes, the Sovereign Lordis coming in power.
He will rule with a powerful arm.
See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. (40:6-10)
The message is this: Each of us has to come to grips with our own temporary nature. We are all going to die (Unless the Lord returns first). Our anchor in life is the fact that The Word of the Lord does not change because God does not change. This does not mean God is stale or out-of-date as some people might see God. It means, God’s character, unlike ours, is consistent. The truth of God’s Word is the standard that remains constant even as the society around us erodes into confusion and nonsense. We can be swept away with all the political correctness, or we can stand on the truth of God’s Word. Only God’s Word will give us the stability and guidance we need.
We may feel forgotten, like the exiles may have felt, but we are not forgotten. God’s delays are purposeful and instructive. Rather than complain, we are called to wait and watch for the One who is coming. We are to live with hope and confidence in the promise of God.
The Greatness of This God
I know sometimes it is hard to hope in God. He seems so far away. Isaiah wants us to see that God only seems far away because of His grandeur. He SEEMS unapproachable but through faith we can draw near to Him. Isaiah 40:12-15 Isaiah remind us,
12 Who else has held the oceans in his hand?
Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?
Who else knows the weight of the earth
or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
13 Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?
Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
14 Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice?
Does he need instruction about what is good?
Did someone teach him what is right
or show him the path of justice?
15 No, for all the nations of the world
are but a drop in the bucket.
They are nothing more
than dust on the scales.
He picks up the whole earth
as though it were a grain of sand.
Our God is not some localized deity, He is the creator of all there is. There is no person or nation who has any power over Him. The most powerful nation is just a drop in the bucket. God does not need our help. He doesn’t need us to “correct” His teachings for contemporary times. He is the God of life and truth, and He is able to do just what He intends to do.
It should be our desire to spend our lives getting to know this One who is so far beyond what our minds can fully grasp. He is worthy of diligent examination. We spend all kinds of time learning all sorts of good, but eternally useless things, when the God who made us, remains largely unstudied! How foolish is that? John Piper has written,
In the church, our view of God is so small instead of huge, so marginal instead of crucial, so vague instead of clear, so impotent instead of all-determining, and so uninspiring instead of ravishing that the responsibility to live to the glory of God is a thought without content. The words can come out of our mouths, but ask the average Christian to tell what they know about the glory of this God that they are going to live for, and the answer will not be long.[1]
Our concept of God is too small. We compact Him to fit in our theological boxes and describe what we think He is. Instead, we must learn to open our minds to His greatness.
In verses 18-28 we see this sense of the magnitude of God.
18 To whom can you compare God?
What image can you find to resemble him?
19 Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold,
overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?
20 Or if people are too poor for that,
they might at least choose wood that won’t decay
and a skilled craftsman
to carve an image that won’t fall down!
21 Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand?
Are you deaf to the words of God—
the words he gave before the world began?
Are you so ignorant?
22 God sits above the circle of the earth.
The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!
He spreads out the heavens like a curtain
and makes his tent from them.
23 He judges the great people of the world
and brings them all to nothing.
24 They hardly get started, barely taking root,
when he blows on them and they wither.
The wind carries them off like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
26 Look up into the heavens.
Who created all the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another,
calling each by its name.
Because of his great power and incomparable strength,
not a single one is missing.
27 O Jacob, how can you say the Lorddoes not see your troubles?
O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?
Isaiah ridicules our attempts to describe God and explain Him. He makes fun of those who worship idols . . . they are decorated with gold and silver and maybe out of wood if the people are poor. Isaiah says, “You better choose a God that won’t rot and make sure you put this god on a stand that won’t tip over. How foolish people are who follow after manmade gods! Our gods may not be figures before which we bow, but we may worship stuff, status, sports, pleasures, or other temporary and shallow things.
We are like grasshoppers to the Lord. (In truth, even that is being generous to us!) He says we hardly get started when we are blown away. Compared to the Lord our life is but a whisper.
Yet, He loves us! He redeems us. He protects us. It is a staggering reality! It is one that should make us shake our heads in wonder and cause our eyes to well up with tears. How can this be? How could a God so great and powerful care about us? But He does.
God’s Truth’s for His People
In the last four verses are more mind-rocking truths.
28 Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
31 But those who trust in the Lordwill find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
What comforting words. We are told God is big enough for any problem we have. He is the One who will see us through life’s losses, challenges, and trials. He is never too busy or preoccupied to help you. The key is to trust Him. I like the older translations that tell us we “wait upon the Lord.” We must take His promises and build our lives on them.
This means we must stop trying to make things happen and wait for His perfect timing. It is not easy to wait. We feel God should act immediately. We want our problems to be SOLVED. When He doesn’t do this immediately, we take matters into our own hands. This inevitably makes things worse.
However, when we do wait, God takes us places we would never see on our own. He leads along paths we thought were impossible to travel. And as He does so He introduces to a joy and a peace we thought were lost.
Whether or not we really believe is seen in the way we respond to the challenges of life. Do you trust Him? Will you live life with the spirit of grace and truth and trust that God will do in you and through you what you cannot do on your own? You can overcome the tough and sometimes horrible things in your life . . . but you can only do it in His strength and by His leading.
Notice also the only proper fear is the fear of the Lord. I read these words from Paul Tripp this week and thought they went right to the core of the problem.
Fear can overwhelm your senses. It can distort your thinking. It can kidnap your desires. It can capture your meditation so that you spend more time worrying about what others think than about what God has called you to be. Fear can cause you to make bad decisions quickly and fail to make good decisions in the long run. Fear can cause you to forget what you know and to lose sight of who you are. Fear can make you wish for control that you will never have. It can cause you to distrust people you have reason to trust. It can cause you to be demanding rather than serving. It can cause you to run when you should stay and to stay when you really should run. Fear can make God look small and your circumstance loom large. Fear can make you seek from people what you will only get from the Lord. Fear can be the soil of your deepest questions and your biggest doubts. Your heart was wired to fear, because you were designed to have a life that is shaped by fear of God. But horizontal fear cannot be allowed to rule your heart, because if it does, it will destroy you. (Tripp Dangerous Calling p. 128)
The exiles who received this message may be like some of you. They were tired, confused, and maybe feeling defeated by life. Their dreams seemed unreachable. Their lives seemed hopelessly mired in the complexities of life. I wonder what they thought as they read these words. Did they wonder if they were really meant for them? Did they dare to imagine that this great and mighty God saw them, loved them, and wanted to help them? Were they willing to rest in Him? Was this what gave them the strength to hold on?
I imagine them reciting these words to one another.
“Hey, remember, there is no one who can compare to our God!”
“Yes, He will strengthen us and help us mount up with wings like eagles.”
“Do not give up! He knows what He is doing.”
“He is coming for us. Don’t let down your guard.”
We all need to learn to wait and rest in the Lord. Don’t you want to soar with the eagles?
[1] John Piper, “A Passion for the Supremacy of God,” Spirit of Revival, March 2002, p. 5.[1]