Who is like our God? The Creator of all we can see or we can ever imagine. Isaiah 40:12 – 20

Isaiah 40:12-20 New International Version

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^[a] 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.

Word of God for the Children of God

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

This section of Isaiah has some of the most majestic and superb language about God found in Scripture.

God himself is asking man, 

Can you do what I do?

Can you hold the waters of earth in the hollow of your hand? 

I stood on the pier at San Diego.

It was a gorgeous day.

I watched the great combers coming in from the Pacific.

As I watched those great billows crashing on the sand I thought of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, extending thousands upon thousands of miles to the West.

I thought about the great volumes of waters in what small part of the ocean I could look out at and repeatedly stumbled trying to calculate those remaining.

The volume of the Pacific Ocean, representing about 50.1 percent of the world’s oceanic water, has been estimated at some 714 million cubic kilometers (171 million cubic miles).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean#:~:text=The%20volume%20of%20the%20Pacific,(171%20million%20cubic%20miles).

These words came to my mind, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? God himself in majesty and greatness controls all the forces of earth.

Verses 13 and 14 speak of God’s incredible wisdom: 

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? (Isaiah 40:13 RSV)

Who could do that?

Many attempt to.

I confess there have been times when I have been confronted with a difficult problem which I studiously analyzed and thought I had solved.

Then I have come to God and told him step by step what he could do to work out the problem—only to find, to my utter astonishment, that he just completely ignored my approach and did nothing about it.

I have become irritated over this.

I have said to him, “Lord, even I can see how to work this out. Surely you ought to be able to understand just how much time it has taken to work it out this far.”

But as the problem remained, and a whole new situation came to light, I humbly realized that God saw far more than I could see, that he knew of obstacles I had no knowledge of, complexities that had touched the lives of hundreds of people.

He was working out purposes that would go on not only for the moment, but on and on, one generation after another; infinity unto infinity, eternity to eternity, that his solution ultimately was the best one.

I had to say, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 11, 

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33 RSV).

In Verses 15 to 17, God compares himself with the proud nations of earth:

“Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust.” (Isaiah 40:15 RSV).

How feeble the boasts of men, leaders of the nations, with their ‘claims’ to the glory, might and power, when they are compared with the sheer enormity, the greatness, the majesty and the strength of God himself.

Psalm 139:17-18 New King James Version

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

They are nothing, as a grain of sand in the desert God says, absolutely nothing.

Ephesians 3:14-19 New King James Version

Appreciation of the Mystery

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father ^[a]of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you,  being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now, stand in front of a mirror and repeat each statement below … contemplate their meaning (individually and Acts 2 collectively)…. their current relevance …. their current significance, insignificance (individually and Acts 2 collectively)…. their unifying or divisive or polarizing abilities, qualities and also influences ….

Praying ….

Psalm 139:23-24 English Standard Version

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!^[a]
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!^[b]

1. The prophet Isaiah gives a vision of the gospel in Isaiah 40:12-17.
2. Mankind has always found it difficult to believe and accept the word of God.
3. Our failure to believe the Bible is due to a lack of understanding who God is.
4. We think of God as like ourselves instead of the almighty, glorious God he is.
5. Many stumble over Christian doctrines because they have a wrong view of God.
6. We must start with God, not ourselves, to understand the Bible and its teachings.
7. Isaiah 40:12-15 shows God’s greatness, might, and power in creation.
8. Isaiah 40:16 shows God’s transcendent glory that surpasses all human comprehension.
9. Isaiah 40:17 shows God’s ways are inscrutable and beyond human understanding.
10. We must come to God with a childlike faith, not demanding to understand everything.
11. When we see God as he is, we realize how sinful we are and need Jesus as Savior.
12. Jesus died to bring us to God and save us, not just make us feel happy.

In the name of God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen

Praying ….

Psalm 119:25-32 Christian Standard Bible

ד Daleth

²⁵ My life is down in the dust;
give me life through your word.
²⁶ I told you about my life,
and you answered me;
teach me your statutes.
²⁷ Help me understand
the meaning of your precepts
so that I can meditate on your wonders.
²⁸ I am weary^[a] from grief;
strengthen me through your word.
²⁹ Keep me from the way of deceit
and graciously give me your instruction.
³⁰ I have chosen the way of truth;
I have set your ordinances before me.
³¹ I cling to your decrees;
Lord, do not put me to shame.
³² I pursue the way of your commands,
for you broaden my understanding.^[b]

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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