Isaiah 40b – A God This Big…

A translation and sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 29 July 2007

 

Translation

12. Who has spanned the waters with His palm,

and with the arm measured the heavens,

held in a bucket the dust of the earth; and

weighed the mountains in the scale and the hills in balances?

13. Who has measured the Spirit of Jehovah, and

is there a man who can cause Him to know his counsel?

14. With whom did He counsel

and cause Him to understand

and teach Him a way of justice

and teach Him knowledge

and make known to Him a way of understandings?

 

15. Look, nations are like a drop from a pail,

and are considered like dust as far as scales are concerned.

Look, coastlands are picked up like powder!

16. Even Lebanon would not be enough fuel

and its livestock would not be a sufficient burnt-offering.

17. All the nations are as though they were non-existent before Him,

considered from the null and the void by Him.

 

18. So to whom could you liken God

and what likeness could you compare to Him?

19. The idol –

a craftsman casts

and a smith will cover it with the gold –

even casting silver chains.

20. The impoverished offering,

a tree that will not rot he chooses,

a skillful craftsman he seeks for himself

to set up an idol that will not totter.

 

21. Do you not know?

Do you not hear?

Has it not been related from the beginning to you?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22. He is the one who is sitting above the sphere of the earth

and the ones sitting on her are like the grasshoppers.

He is the one who is stretching out the heavens like the curtain

and spreading them like the tent for the dwelling.

23. He is the one who stretches distinguished men to non-existence,

judges of earth He makes like the void.

24. “Surely they were never sown,

surely they were never planted,

surely their stem never took root in the earth,”

yet even He blew in them and they wither and the tempest carries them up like the stubble.

 

25. “So, to whom will you compare me that I should be like?” says the Holy One.

26. Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who created these?

He brings out by number their host;

He calls to all of them with a name,

from much strength and strong power, each is not missed.

 

27. Why, Jacob, do you say, and Israel do you speak,

“My way is hidden from Jehovah, and from my God my justice is passed over.”?

28. Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Everlasting God –

Jehovah,

Creator of the ends of the earth

will not grow faint

and will not tire;

it is not possible to make a survey of His understanding,

29. giving power to the faint

and to the ones who have no strength He will increase might.

30. Now, boys will grow faint and tire,

and young men will utterly falter,

31. But Jehovah’s attendants will exchange strength;

they will take wing like the eagles;

they will run and not tire;

they will walk and not grow faint.

 

Opening Illustration

When I was a boy, I remember reading a science fiction story where a mighty race of powerful alien creatures conquered their entire world and then decided to come and conquer the earth, so they put on their impressive battle clothes and armed themselves with their most fearsome weapons and came roaring into the earth’s atmosphere in their great battleships – only to be mistaken for a cloud of gnats and snapped up by a little yappy dog.

 

They thought they were big stuff because they had conquered everyone on their planet, but they hadn’t taken into account how small they were in comparison with the earth they wanted to conquer.

 

You know we’re that way with God. We get to thinking we’re great and we don’t really need God, or we get to thinking that the forces of the world that are opposed to us are great and wonder if God is big enough to help us.

 

Well, God gave us the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah to remind us to persevere in trusting Him because He is an order of magnitude larger than anything we can ever imagine.

 

Review – to put this in context

A)    In Chapter 39, the judgment of exile is announced to the king in Jerusalem.

B)    Then the first words of chapter 40 are “Comfort! Y’all, comfort my people, says your God.”

C)    Tone changes dramatically in Isaiah from here on out – so much that some people think it is a different author from the Isaiah who wrote the first 39 chapters.

D)    It is the same Isaiah, but he speaks much more in the latter part of his book about the blessings God promises to His people.

E)     Isaiah 40 tells us that we can trust God to deliver the promised blessings because He is big enough to do it.

F)     40:1-11 – Sermon this past Christmas

1.      Comfort in terms of bad things ending – God’s punishment of war and captivity will end because the sin of the people will be more than atoned for and pardoned and they will receive double the blessing instead.

2.      This is fulfilled in the first and second comings of Jesus – “Behold, your God!”

G)    Now we pick up at verse 12 where we left off and we see what this God is like.

Just how big is your God?

 

What is God calling us to do about this?

  1. Acknowledge God’s supremacy
    1. v.21 “Do you not know? Do you not hear…? Have you not understood?” Well now you have heard it, so know and understand that God is higher than the earth and that He is in charge of everything.
    2. The soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb underestimated God’s power and just about got their heads chopped off for their foolishness to think they could keep Jesus in the grave!
    3. v.26 “Lift up your eyes on high and see who created all these.” Acknowledge that God made the heavens and the earth and all the stars. Every time you look out a window or look up into the sky, you should think, “God, you are awesome!”
    4. Colossians 1:14-18  Jesus is the one “in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins:  15  who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;  16  for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him;  17  and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  18  And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.”
    5. Part of acknowledging God’s supremacy is believing that Jesus is the master not only over the universe but over your life in particular.
    6. Romans 10:9  “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Have you done that? That is the first step.
    7. Missionary Otto Koning tells the story about his early years in Papua New Guinea, how the natives used to steal things from him at night. Then he taught them that God sees everything we do. This was a revelation to the natives. “You mean He can see in the dark?” “Yes he can see in the dark – He’s big!” “So he sees us when we steal things from your house at night?” “Yes, He is big – He can see everything!”
    8. v.27 “Why are you in the habit of saying, ‘God isn’t noticing me; He’s not bringing my enemies to justice!’” Stop talking like that. Acknowledge that God is big, if He never misses a single star – even though there are more stars in the heavens than our modern-day scientists can count even with their sophisticated telescopes and computers – be assured that He will never miss a detail of your life.
    9. Luke 12:24  “Consider the ravens, they sow not, neither reap; which have no storage or barn; yet God feeds them: of how much more value are you than the birds!”
    10. Hebrews 6:10  “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which you showed toward His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister.”
  2. If you acknowledge that God is big and that Jesus is Lord, then persevere in that faith
    1. v.31 “Those of Jehovah who wait will exchange strength” What does it mean to “wait”?
    1. The context of this promise
      • Jerusalem is about to undergo a long hard time – 80 years of political decline with bad kings, then a siege and overthrow and 70 years of exile. God is saying that He will uphold those who wait on the Lord during this tough time.
      • Likewise you are going to face tough times. As Chip taught us two weeks ago, we must expect suffering. It may be financial difficulties, it may be the shame and hurt of people hating you, it may be bad health, it may be depression, it may just be the challenge of decades of child-rearing and all the difficulties involved in that. God does not promise to remove all the hardships, but He does promise to enable us to fly, run, and walk through them.
      • For Lazlo, it was religious persecution. Lazlo Tokes was pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Timasar, Romania during the oppressive regime of Coseasceau. Lazlo’s trust in God gave him courage to persevere in faith and speak out against evil in his country. It looked hopeless. He was attacked in his home by thugs. Doubtless, the secret police arranged it. He and his wife and the two friends who were there battled back. Three months later the police came to deport him. He ran to his church, and his congregation surrounded the church, forming a human chain. Others came from other churches and joined, but after a short-lived resistance he was led away by the authorities. That afternoon the people of the city assembled in the main square to protest. The dictator ordered the police to fire. Several thousand died, and the revolution began. The revolution which ended Coseasceau's tyranny was the result of one man’s persevering faith in a God big enough to change his country.
      • God is big enough to sustain you and give you strength through those difficult times ahead. He can be trusted.
    2. The source of this strength
      • The strength that God promises does not come from inside ourselves. It is His strength. It is an “exchange” of our puny-ness for His strength.
      • v.29 “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even boys shall faint and grow weary, and young men shall utterly falter, but they who wait for Jehovah will renew/exchange their strength”
      • Kids can have seemingly boundless energy. They can be bouncing off the walls and you think they’ll never simmer down and go to sleep. That kind of energy is nothing compared to the energy God has to give us to persevere through difficulties when we wait on Him.
      • “The ones who wait for Jehovah… shall take wing like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

 

Order of Worship

Call to Worship: Isaiah 40:1-3

O Worship the King (Psalm 104/RT#2)

Confession of Faith: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 & I Timothy 3:16

Prayer of Adoration: Mark

Call to confession of Sin: Romans 4:3-8

Prayer of Confession: Chip

Hast Thou Not Known Not Known Hast Thou not heard (T#28)

O.T. Reading Isaiah 40:12-31 (Lector: Josh H)

N.T. Responsive reading: Matt 11:2-6;27-30

Immortal Invisible (RT#38)

Sermon: Isaiah 40b - A God This Big…

Prayer of Supplication: Nate

From all that dwell below the skies (RT#7)

Words of Institution of Lord’s Supper: 1 Corinthians 11:23-28

Thou Wilt Keep him in perfect peace/They that Wait Upon the Lord (chorus RT#704)

Benediction: Isaiah 40:2

Doxology

Church Dinner

 

 

Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions

 

Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons