Isaiah 40:1-31
The LORD Has Complete Understanding and Brings Us Great Hope
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
18 With whom, then, will you compare God?
To what image will you liken him?
19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
20 A person too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot;
they look for a skilled worker
to set up an idol that will not topple.
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
The Great Prophet Isaiah’s message is a powerful reminder of God's eternal power and His unwavering LOVE for His people...He calls us to acknowledge our own limitations and to trust in the God who is Infinitely greater than we can comprehend...Isaiah emphasizes God's incomparable greatness...He uses vivid imagery to illustrate God's vastness and power, comparing Him to the vastness of the heavens, the immensity of the sea, and the countless stars...Isaiah highlights the limitations of human understanding in grasping God's true nature...God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers...He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in...We are like "grasshoppers" compared to God, learning and trying to better understand different things of this world...While the LORD of Heaven is Infinite and Eternal and is Complete Understanding...
Isaiah talks about God's Understanding...Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way?...Who was it that taught Him Eternal Knowledge, or showed Him the path of understanding and wisdom?...These verses show God's Self-Sufficiency and emphasizes that His understanding is Eternal and beyond human comprehension...Man, limited by our finite minds, often struggle to grasp this truth, reducing God to something we can easily comprehend, rather than the Awe-Inspiring, Infinite Creator He truly is...
So let us better see that there is a Danger of Reducing God to the size of man...When we try to make God more like ourselves and humanize God, we make Him fit into our own limited understanding...When we do this, we diminish His True Eternal and Infinite Nature and hinder our ability to truly believe in Him...Even all the nations are like a drop in a bucket to Him...
Many people today have lost this sense of God's Awesome Size, as Isaiah describes Him...We often reduce God to our manageable, and understandable human-sized Deity, One we can easily comprehend and control...This humanized and tamer God fits neatly into our worldview, but it fails to capture the awe-inspiring reality of the Infinite Creator...The Infinite God, as Isaiah portrays Him, staggers the mind...His power and majesty are beyond human comprehension...When we try to confine God within the limits of our own personal understanding, we diminish His Grandeur, His Nature, His Character, and ultimately cripple our ability to truly believe in Him...With whom, then, can you really compare God to?...To what image will you liken to Him?...Who is God's equal...
Sometimes we are so busy and caught up in our work or with other people, or the earthly things around us, we can miss the awe-inspiring wonders of nature, the earth, and the universe...When we miss these things will we might wonder if we will ever see the universe's grandeur...Maybe we just get stuck in our heads with our earthly thoughts not recognizing the Infinite and Eternal Power of God...We fail to see our own limitations with our human understanding, we cannot grasp the true nature of our Awesome Creator...We have become so engrossed in our daily lives and earthly concerns that we fail to pause and truly appreciate the awe-inspiring wonders of the universe...This can hinder our ability to grasp the Infinite Power and Majesty of God...
So let us pray that we do not fall into this trap, reducing God to a manageable, human-sized concept...That is when we fail to grasp the Infinite, the Incomprehensible, the Awe-inspiring God...
This echoes Isaiah's message: 'Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His Hand?'...The sheer scale of the expanding universe, the intricacies of creation, and the profound mysteries of existence should evoke a sense of awe and wonder, leading us to acknowledge our own limitations and the Infinite Majesty of God."...
And in the knowledge of Isaiah let us find this Eternal Hope in the Father and Son...Despite our limitations and the challenges we face, Isaiah weaves in this Grand Message of Hope...Those who trust in the LORD will find strength and renewal, soaring on wings like eagles...Isaiah puts it this way: Do you not know?...Have you not heard?...The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth...He will not grow tired or weary, and His Complete Understanding no one can fathom...God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak...Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who Hope in the LORD will renew their strength...Those who believe in Him will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint...