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Home Behold Your God (Isaiah 40)by Les RaineyTENDERNESS AND HARSHNESSSTRAIGHTNESS AND CROOKEDNESSFAITHFULNESS AND FRAILTYGOODNESS AND BADNESSGREATNESS AND LITTLENESSWISDOM AND FOOLISHNESSSTRENGTH AND WEAKNESSNO BOOK in the Old Testament provides such rich treasures of preaching material for the minister who will get into the spirit of Isaiah and present the material with the abandon of a prophet. Great themes present themselves for meditation, study and enjoyment. For majesty, there is no greater chapter in this miniature Bible than Isaiah 40. The whole section of the book (40-66) is the same message as the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God." The secret of all true comfort, which is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus is portrayed by the evangelical prophet in the heart of his message (Isa. 53:5). The source of all consolation springs from the hand of Yahweh (Jehovah) (v.2). The channel of all consolation flows through the unchangeable imperishable word of God (v.8). The goal of all consolation is the glory of Yahweh (Jehovah) (v.5). The chapter moves on to present an antithesis between the God of gods and the nation and the nations. Attention is invited to the incomparability of God, "To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? To whom then will ye liken Me, that I should be equal to Him? saith the Holy One" (vv.18,25). None can compare with God; all must be contrasted with Him. TENDERNESS AND HARSHNESSThe opening words look forward to a time when judgement will have ended and all is well between God and man. Jerusalem will have paid enough for her iniquity. Sin is a warfare against the Almighty and the word is suggestive of a miserable condition which is for an appointed time. Comfort is possible through the coming of the Messiah and peace has been effected (Col. 1:20) whereby rebels may come in and surrender. Sin is a debt owed to Him; but it has been paid in full, for Jesus paid it all. In Bible times, a bill of debt was torn in two; one piece thereof retained by the debtor, and the other by the creditor - this second portion was handed to the debtor as soon as the money was paid. It was called "the double". STRAIGHTNESS AND CROOKEDNESSThe Herald of the Messiah is now introduced and the New Testament shows that this prophecy relates to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ (Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4-6; John 1:23). The call is to make a highway for their God. In olden
days when roads were few and uneven, men went before the king's progress
to prepare the highway. Valleys were filled up, hills reduced, and rough
places made smooth. The effect of His coming upon man will be threefold - to level up, to straighten out, and smooth off. Of course there is a physical application of the text, but obviously the main message is moral and spiritual. Christ alone can meet the need of man who is so uneven, so crooked, and so rough. Social and economic inequalities still mark men and nations, despite all the progress of science and programmes of socialists. FAITHFULNESS AND FRAILTYAs usual in the OT prophets, the two comings of Christ
are blended together, the prophecies of verses 4 and 5 were only
partially fulfilled at His first advent. When He comes again there will
be complete fulfilment (compare Rev. 1:7 with John 1:14,2 Pet 1:16-18;
and I John 1:1,2). The perishableness of man in seen over against the imperishable Word of the living God. In himself man is of no greater importance than the grass that perishes. The Gospel brings out the frailty in man but hastens to assure us of the unchangeable enduring value of the Word of God (1 Pet. 1.24,25). God's Word is sure and all that He has promised will be fulfilled. GOODNESS AND BADNESSAccording to vv.10,11, to His strength is added sympathy, to His greatness is linked graciousness and gentleness, to His control is coupled comfort. All that is crooked, Jacob-like, guileful must be abandoned. The hard rocks, the stones and clods of impenitent men must be broken up. The Mighty God is illustrated as the one who is the good, the great and the chief Shepherd of His people. That mighty arm takes up, and carries within the folds of His dress, the new-born lambs and patiently waits on the nursing mothers, gently leading them along that give suck. Oh, the graciousness of God over against the worthlessness, the roughness and the waywardness of man. How wondrously these verses bring out the glorious character of the Shepherd of Israel and the Lord Yahweh (Jehovah) who is Israel's God and Saviour. GREATNESS AND LITTLENESSThe nations so mighty in their own eyes, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome are all but as the drop that hangs for a time and then falls from a bucket as it comes from the well. Or as the fleck of dust that does not affect by its weight the poise of the scales on which it lies. The isles, not the smaller pieces of land surrounded by water, but the great continents that rise from and are bordered by oceans, He lifts them as if they were only one tiny atom. How great is God! Creation is a measure of His greatness as the chapter shows. The numerous inhabitants of this earth are in His eyes as grasshoppers in ours, so little and inconsiderable, of such small value, of such little use, and so easily crushed. Proud men's lifting up themselves is but like a grasshopper's leap; in an instant they must stoop down to the earth again. If the spies thought themselves as grasshoppers before the sons of Anak, what are we before God? In spite of the immensity of the universe God measures it by means of a handbreadth, so largehanded is He. All the waters of the earth can nestle in the palm of His hand, whereas we can hold but a little water. The dry land He easily manages for he comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure or with His three fingers, that which He takes up between the thumb and two fingers. Let a man stretch his hand to its fullest, he can but cover a few inches a span, which is so true an expression of his own short transitory life, as the Psalmist confesses, "Thou has made my days as an handbreadth" (Ps. 39:5). The span of God goes beyond both horizons from east to west without limitations. WISDOM AND FOOLISHNESSGod is seen as omnipotent, omniscient and of infinite wisdom. The question is asked, "To whom then dare ye liken me?" The chapter abounds in rhetorical questions (Job 38), awaking one to a sense of God's illimitable powers. The context is full of His powers and performances. Here is a God who spreads the starry vault of heaven and spangles it with His suns and systems; who by His precision and power so controls these myriad million constellations in their courses without collision or collapse. Who but God could maintain the cosmos so that not a planet shall swerve a hair's breadth from its appointed orbit? How wise is God! He is the only wise God! (Rom. 16:27; Jude 25). He is a God of knowledge (1 Sam. 2:3). He needs neither counsel nor instruction for His very name is "Wonderful Counsellor" (Isa. 9:6). How ignorant is man with all his progress on the earth and putting rockets into orbit around the earth, his lunar probes, his transplants, yet fails to take God into account as the Creator of the universe and Author of life. How true the word of God which says, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" and manufacturers of idol-gods which have mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands and feet which cannot in any way carry out their supposed functions (Rom. 1:22; 13:16 and Psalms 115:4-8). What a reproach that men should think that gods of their own making could be of any help and service to them! What a rebuke to us who serve the Living God for these idolaters spared no expense or time in their Satanic delusions! They took care that their idols should not be moved (v.20), whereas we oft provoke God in our way and words to depart from us. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSFinally, the prophet after reproving the nation for looking to their man-made dolls rather than the God who made and maintains the heavens and the earth, the Controller and Creator of the mighty universe says, "Why sayest thou, O, Jacob and speakest, O Israel." The titles include Jacob, the carnal man, and Israel the spiritual man. Jacob had proved the God of all grace and fidelity and Israel reminds us that the God of Israelis a covenant-keeping God. The same God who marshals the hosts of heaven and watches over them as a general will never be unmindful of your way in life. He gives His care to His spiritual creatures as He does to His physical creation. Great is His faithfulness! YT 7/92
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