Brief recap, last week we looked at the first 11 verses of Isaiah chapter 40 and we saw that that's kind of an overture in some sense to chapters 40 through 55. It introduces a number of themes that are going to pop up throughout these chapters. It's really Isaiah's new message that the Lord has given him, a message of comfort for the future exiles who will be away from the city of Jerusalem and away from the land of Judah. So the message contains themes like God is still their God, they are still his people, right? He hasn't forgotten his covenant, he will remain faithful to it. There's forgiveness of sin. Isaiah has not yet said how that's gonna happen, but later on we will obviously find out that it's through a sacrifice of the servant. this theme that all the people would see the glory of the Lord, it's not just Israel, so there's this missionary theme that's going to recur, this idea that God's word will stand forever, and also the call then to proclaim this good news of this God to others, right? And So he's made these promises, these statements of comfort to the people. And now through the rest of chapter 40, what Isaiah is going to do is he's going to go on to show why the people can trust. God. How can they know that these things are true, that this message will come true? And it's because of who God is as the creator, and as the ruler, and as the sustainer of all things, and that there is no other like him. So you could kind of headline this whole section from verses 12 through the end of chapter 40 as sort of the incomparability of God. So we'll see that as we go through it. This is the God who gives those promises and this message of comfort. And the danger was that as the people of Israel are in exile or they recognize that the Lord has declared that exile is coming, the danger is that they're going to forget what God is like as they're languishing in exile in this difficult situation. If you want to, you know, later this afternoon, just an idea of what would be the mindset of these people, read Psalm 137. And that's the mindset that these people will have as they're in Babylon. And so it's interesting, we're not going to necessarily learn anything new about God in these verses, and I don't think the Israelites would have learned necessarily anything new, but one of the commentators, Barry Webb, he points out that Isaiah is really just reminding them of truth that they already know. but he's clothing it in fresh and vivid language in order to kind of penetrate the dullness that maybe has set in based on their circumstances. And he needs to give them fresh hope. And so the language we'll see is very striking as he reminds them of things that they should already know, they do already know, they just need to be reminded of it. And I was thinking about that as well, even as a Sunday school teacher, and I'm sure preachers also, sometimes you're tempted to come up with some new key insight that nobody else has seen before, right? Over and over again, the key themes of Scripture are just really reminding us of things that we've already known, especially if we've grown up in a solid church, right? We've learned these things, we've heard these things, and yet we're forgetful people. I'm obviously midlife, I've got teenagers, I've been following Christ for decades, and the older I get, the more I realize that I forget things. It's not that I don't know them intellectually, but they just sort of slip out of my mind, and I need to be reminded each Sunday and each Wednesday of these things that I already know, and yet I need to be reminded afresh, and that's what Isaiah is doing here in this passage. And he's also going to continue to mention this doctrine of creation, as we'll see, God as the creator. That's going to continue to pop up in this section as well. So chapter 43 in verses 7, verse 15, chapter 44 in verse 21 and 22, and even chapter 54, verse 5, this theme of God as the creator is going to pop up again. So we'll just take these section by section. So again, this is Isaiah reminding them of who God is, the one who has just given these promises and this word of comfort. This is what God is like. He says in verse 12, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are counted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. We'll pause there. So this first section obviously is about the Lord and his work of creation. And we get this picture of almost like a craftsman at his workbench building something, building maybe a model of something, or he's constructing something. But in this case, as easy as it is in some sense for a skilled craftsman who's competent, knows what he's doing, is good at his job, as easy as it is for him to build, say, a little model, that's what it's like for God to build the whole universe, the vastness of the world, right? He builds everything. There's intentional language here of kind of encompassing everything. So the waters, the heavens, the earth, the mountains, the hills, all of it. It's all included in this work of creation that God does. All of these things which are so vast to us. Our family went hiking yesterday up in North Carolina to Bear Wallow Mountain. So if any of you like hiking, I would recommend Bear Wallow Mountain Trail. It's a nice one. You can get up to the top and it's kind of clear and you can look out and just see so far. And Isaiah says, right, these mountains, these hills, the Lord, he just puts them on a scale and weighs them, right? The waters, all the oceans, all the seas, he just measures it here in the hollow of his hand. Just this little space. A span, so he marks off the heavens with a span. A span is basically if you stretch out, I've got small hands, but if you stretch out your hands, it's from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your little finger is what a span is. That's how the Lord measures the vast heavens. And so again, Isaiah is reminding them, this is who God is, right? The obvious answer to the question, who has done this, is the Lord himself. He's the only one who could do this. And again, it's that language of conveying a sense of easy competence. This is not hard. It's not a struggle for him. This is all very easy for him to do. And then verses 13 and 14 is still connected to this work of creation, but this section is focusing not on the actual work itself, but on the kind of the wisdom that it takes to do that. All right, so you see the, who has measured the spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel. I think it's, the ESV, I think rightly kind of matches verse 12 and verse 13. It's the same word, who has measured. So the idea there is like who understands the spirit of the Lord or who can who can gauge the spirit of the Lord or grasp what the spirit of the Lord is doing. Again, the answer here is obvious. It's no one. And this is, Isaiah is intentionally doing this because of the idea of the ideas of creation. in the Babylonian Empire and also the surrounding kind of Canaanite cultures. In those cultures, so for example in the Babylonian creation mythology, Marduk is the creator god. but he has to consult with Ea, the all-wise. So he can't do it by himself. He has to do it with someone else. And in a lot of the Canaanite religions, their understanding was they were like opposing forces at work in creation that the creator had to overcome. And Isaiah is intentionally saying this is not the case with God, right? God made it all Himself. He gets counsel from no one. He needs no help. And in fact, we can't understand fully His ways. It's the language of discernment in verse 14. discernment or enlightenment understanding. The path of justice could also be translated the right way. So who taught him the right way? And again, the answer obviously is no one, right? No one taught the Lord what is the right way to do these things. He alone has correct judgment. and makes the right choice at the right time. He knows these things. He sees to the heart of a matter, would be another way that you could translate some of that. And it's the Lord himself, right? And only the Lord, who is at work in creation, understands, he has the power, the ability, he does these things, and he needs no help from anyone else. I'll pause there. Any questions on those first few verses? So, all right, verses 15 through 17, then, is, you might say, kind of drawing conclusions from those first few verses. So in light of the fact that God alone is the creator, all-powerful one who can do these things, and he needs no help, needs no wisdom or counsel from anyone else, what conclusions can be drawn, then, about specifically the nations? Right? And remember, this is written for those who are understandably fearful of the nations around them, right? They've sunk from a prominent position and being peaceful, secure. If you remember what Dr. Masters said kind of at the beginning of Isaiah, they were actually in a time of prosperity, which was dangerous. They're now at a point where the readers of this are either, they see exile potentially on the horizon or there may have been those in exile who have copies of this and are reading it. And so they are looking at the nations around them, the nation that they're subjected to, the world powers. they're, you know, understandably afraid or concerned. And so Isaiah now wants to highlight to them, this is what the nations are before this kind of God. This is how they stand before this kind of God. And the emphasis here is not that God despises the nations, but rather it's simply how insignificant they are in comparison to such a great God. So verse 15, behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket. and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust." There's intentional connection with the beginning of verse 15, a drop from a bucket, kind of harkens back to the fact that the Lord measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, right? So how can a nation or even all of the nations, right? How can they limit or thwart God in his plans when they're but a drop from a bucket and the Lord takes all of the oceans of the world and can, you know, measure them out in the hall of his hand? He's highlighting the absurdity, right, of fearing these other nations. Similar thing with the language about the scales, right? The Lord, the one who puts mountains and hills on a scale, right? He sees, in comparison to that, the nations are like dust that you just, oh, I gotta blow that dust off the scale. I need to wipe it off, right? This is what the world powers are before him. Verse 16 at first is a little less clear, like what's going on in verse 16. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel nor are its beasts enough like a burnt offering. I think the most helpful way to understand that is if you think about kind of the questions that are lying behind some of these verses in terms of, is the Lord limited in any way, or can he be thwarted in any way? Is there any sort of danger of man, you know, kind of impinging on him? And this would be in the sense of worship. So if the Lord requires worship from people, then isn't that in some way a limiting of the Lord? Or does he depend in any way on what the people give to him in worship? And what Isaiah is saying here is, no, even if you can think of the grandest sacrifice and offering, religiously speaking, even if you took the whole nation of Lebanon and used it for the fire and took all the livestock of that country and used it for the sacrifice, that's still not enough to match his dignity and his worth. He's far above that. And I think perhaps there's even a little bit of a hint that, you know, in the coming chapters we'll see what kind of a sacrifice is worthy of the Lord. It's the sacrifice of his own son, right? The suffering servant. But here the point is you can take all of this and use it as a sacrifice to the Lord and it's not even worthy of him because he's so grand. And then verse 17 obviously just repeats the point of verse 15, that the nations are, again, he's not despising them, but it's the sense that they are so small and insignificant compared to his greatness and his majesty. Nothing can compare to him. It's as if they've gone from being to non-being. They're empty of meaning and purpose. So this is a picture, Isaiah's painting, of God. And then the obvious question that he asks after portraying God this way is, in verse 18, to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness compare with him? Who can you compare him to? The real, again, the real answer is no one. All these rhetorical questions are pretty obvious in their intended answer, right? No one can be compared to the Lord. But he's going to go on in verse 19 and 20 and address a potential challenger, I guess you could say, right? So verse 19, he says, an idol, a craftsman casts it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. In verse 18, when he says, to whom then will you liken God? He uses the Hebrew word El, just E-L, which is typically considered to be the most transcendent of God's names. So this is different from Yahweh, right, the covenant name. But this is the name often used when emphasizing God's dominion over all, his absolute deity, over against all other so-called deities. But yet he recognizes that some would say, well, there's, you know, these idols that people worship in other cultures. What about them? And the point he's going to make here, and he's also going to, again, he's going to make this as well, the same point throughout this section. So we'll see. similar things in chapter 41 verses 5 through 7. I don't know how much of this Dr. Master will highlight but 41 5 to 7 and 21 to 24 and 29 and then chapter 42 verse 8 and verse 17 chapter 44 verses 6 through 20 there's a longer section and chapter 46 1 through 7 are all gonna highlight idolatry and the shift now is actually not so much a a thought of idolatry is sinful they should know that by now but it's actually pointing out or highlighting the uselessness of it or the the the pathetic inadequacy, you might say, of idolatry. It's just, it's pathetically inadequate, right? It's useless. The foolishness of it, really, is what he's trying to emphasize and point out. Not so much the sinfulness of it, which, again, he's already said, and they should already know. And so what is the folly of idolatry? Well, you'll notice, hopefully you noticed, in contrast to the Lord who made all things, just like a skilled craftsman, an idol has to be made by a craftsman, right? Somebody, in fact, somebody that God created, a person, has to make an idol out of things that God created. Material, right? Wood and gold and silver, right? These things of the earth, which Isaiah has already pointed out, the Lord has made, those are the things that are required in order to make an idol. So it's foolish, right? There's this great contrast between the true God who crafted the whole universe in an idol who is itself crafted by someone. And he also, in these verses, is pointing out that the level of the glory of that idol, so this is kind of the point of verse 20 when he says, he who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. The point there is that an idol's worth or an idol's value really is only so high as the material is made of, right? And the skill of the person making it, and the wealth of the person who commissioned it to be made or bought it, right? There's all these limiting factors in terms of how glorious is that idol, right? Even if you get the best wood, you get a skilled craftsman, you got a really wealthy person, they don't compare to the glory of God himself, right? And he also finishes then by pointing out that really in the end it's designed not to move. It's immobile. You put it in one place and it can't do anything. Even though it's meant to represent some kind of force or some personal god of some kind, ultimately Worshiping an idol is worshiping something that can't move that's made by a person out of the things of the earth and that's Ridiculous is really what Isaiah wants to highlight And so he's in a sense Encouraging the people obviously not to worship idols, but also highlighting the fact that they don't need to worry about these other nations who worship idols because ultimately they don't have any true power. They don't have any real power. Only the Lord has true power. All right, let me pause there for any questions, thoughts, comments. Yeah, Mark. In the end of, this is going back a little way, in the end of verse 15, behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. I'm not really sure what that imagery of taking up is referring to. Good question. I don't know the root word behind the taking up part. probably just a kind of repetition of the first part of 15. So maybe even just blowing it off or wiping it away kind of a thing. Not a sense of taking it up into his place or his glory with him, but a sense of getting it out of the way, I think, is what is conveyed. And the word that they translate, coastlands, actually can be translated islands. coastlands or lands with coast on it, but also it's sometimes used just a landmass. So it may even be bigger than the sense we get of like just the coastlands, but actually he's talking about all the land, all of the nations, not the geopolitical entities, but the actual like geographical lands themselves. They're like dust before him because he is so great. Yeah. Any other questions before we move on? All right, so Isaiah is going to turn now again. He's dealt with this sort of so-called challenger to the Lord in idols, and he's going to turn back now to the true and living God who is supreme in rule and authority. So that's kind of the point of 21. 22, 23, and 24. I'll just read all of this together. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in. who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. So, shifting now slightly from the idea of creation to his continuing rule, right, over the earth. You see that with this notion of him sitting above the circle of the earth, which could be the horizon, could be just the heavens themselves. We see it kind of as a circle, right? But the Lord sits above that on his throne. And people are like grasshoppers again. He's not saying they're not important to the Lord It's the sense of this is how great God is And how small we are in comparison? to that and The inverse 23 We see this, he's bringing in princes and rulers. So these people that, again, from the standpoint of the people of Israel, even from our standpoint today, seem to have, they seem to have power, right? They wield sway in the world. They're the ones who are, you know, behind the, the things that are happening, or at least we would think that that's the case, right? Yet, God says he brings them to nothing. He makes them as emptiness. He literally says he appoints them to non-existence. That is, when it's God's time to do that, that's what he does. And they should take comfort from this fact. Verse 24 just kind of goes on to highlight that same point with some kind of ironic language. There's the, we have scarcely, or you might say no sooner, there's an ironic force behind it. So it's meant to convey something like, so these rulers are planted, are they? So they are sown, indeed, is that the case? But it is also the case then that the Lord has blown on them and they've withered. right? They're gone, carried off like the stubble, and there's a sense of judgment there, that the Lord judges them for the way that they rule, and when he decides, he will carry them off. Any other questions or thoughts on that section so far? We're all, and we're building up to a and is in some sense building up to verse 27 through 31. We'll see at the end here. So again, hopefully this language is even maybe fresh for some of you. It might be passages we know. It reminds me in some ways of some of what God says to Job at the end of Job, right, about who he is. All right, so again, in verse 25, we get this question, to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One. So same exact question that we saw in verse 18. So what's the connection then? After verse 18, he goes on to talk about idols. Here, he's gonna actually speak again of the work of creation, but a particular part of creation. And interestingly, This seems perhaps to be connected in some way, or at least certainly fits Psalm 96 verse five. So listen to what the distinction is between the false gods and the Lord. So now Psalm 96 five says, for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols. Sounds like what we saw in 19 and 20, but the Lord made the heavens. So versus 25 and 26, to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these. He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatest of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. So fundamentally, again, the difference between God and these false gods, God is the creator, the one who made all things. And here he's highlighting the heavens or the stars, right? I found this interesting. This is a note from, I think, the ESV Study Bible, but they point out that probably during Israel's time in ancient Israel, they could have maybe seen around 5,000 stars visible at night, which is already a vast number, right? As they say, astronomers now estimate, however, that there are more than 400 billion stars in just the Milky Way galaxy, and that there are 125 billion galaxies in the universe. So the total number of stars is estimated at 1 times 10 to the 22nd, or 10 billion trillions of stars, right? Just think about that for a moment. And every single one of those was put there by the Lord. And he's named all of them, right? There's again this contrast with the surrounding pagan nations because what was prevalent at that time in those nations is worship of the stars, right? There's a lot of astrological worship that happened in their religions and again Isaiah is pointing out the fact that they're worshiping something that God made and names and makes sure every single one of them is in the right place. This is just foolish. He is the one who has done this. The Creator God, he knows by name every single item in his complex creation. And that leads us then into this next section. This is why Isaiah asks in verse 27, Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint." So one of the temptations when hearing about how great and awesome God is, right, is to then think, well, that's, that's wonderful. He's great and awesome. Does he care about me? Right? Is he good? How is he using that, that power, that sovereignty, his rule and his authority? Isaiah is addressing the despondency that he knows will have set in on these people, right? When they hear of the coming disaster of exile, or they're in exile themselves, he knows that they're going to be tempted to think, how can God do this to us? Surely the Lord has forgotten us. Right? Maybe he doesn't see. My way is hidden from the Lord. Obviously, he's just refuted that, right? There's no way that God can't see what's going on, but maybe they were tempted to say, you know, does the Lord even hear my prayers? And so the first answer he gives in verses 28 and 29 is he restates again the doctrine of God. Do you not know? This is who God is, right? Do you not know? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. All those things I just said are true about God. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. So we do, I think, at times, need to be reminded, in the midst of difficulties, as you're reading the news and you hear about inflation rising and coming elections and what's Putin going to do, all of these things, they can get a little concerning at times. And we are tempted to think, what's going to happen? And the first place to go for comfort is a passage like this, a reminder of this is what God is like. This is who he is. Derek Kidner says, the wrong inference from God's transcendence is that he is too great to care. The right one is that he's too great to fail. And then the second thing that Isaiah does is he points to experience for those who wait on the Lord, those who rest and trust in the Lord, right? will not fall. They will have strength from the Lord. The Lord is not only one who has strength himself, but he gives, he shares that strength with those who need it, right? As he says in verse 29, he gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. So he's good. He's not only all powerful, he's also good. He cares for his people and he will be with them. Just briefly, a couple points of application. Well, I mean, one of them I just mentioned. When you're discouraged, confused, not sure what's going to happen, don't run to the news. Don't run to other things. Run to a passage like this. Run to the end of Job to remind yourself. This is what God is like. There's an excellent book by Ed Welch called When People are Big and God is Small. It deals with the fear of man, something which I've wrestled with in the past and still struggle with at times. But one of the main points in that is a lot of times we just need to lift our gaze. We need to look to the Lord, who he is, lift our gaze above our circumstances and those around us. If we fear the Lord and recognize who He is, that will change everything, right? Another point of application I thought from this passage, most of us, I'm guessing, are not tempted to build little idols and stick them up on our mantelpiece in our home, right? But there is, I think, still some application there. What are some things that we might look to for things that only the Lord can provide, like satisfaction and fulfillment, what are some material things that we might look to, right? Are we tempted sometimes to say, if only I had that, whatever, fill in the blank, right? If only I had that outfit, if only I had that car, if only I had that home, if only I had that job, um whatever else it might be right that you're looking to to say like that will bring me some sense of happiness and fulfillment and we all know that right even if we get those then we're left immediately thinking looking to the next thing like where are we going to find that uh and i think it's in some ways you know isaiah is highlighting the absurdity of that for us right those things are No more valuable than whatever they're made of and the skill that went into making them which you know may be Tremendous there might be a tremendous skill put into something And it's okay to enjoy them Unlike idols, which we should never enjoy, but we have to remember that We cannot look to those things right we can't worship those in a sense and Any other thoughts of application? Questions? If not, I will pray and we'll be dismissed. Going once, Emma? Yeah, go ahead. It seems really fascinating whenever we are called to meditate on creation and God's creative power and omnipotence, that we as humans often take that in an agnostic direction and think, oh, well, then he's far above us. Whereas, almost all the time when he refers to that in scripture, it's to say, I am faithful, and I will be faithful to you. Right. I will use this on your behalf. As his people. That's a great point. He will use his omnipotence, his all-sufficiency for his people, not in some detached way, but actually in our lives and for our good. Yeah, other thoughts, questions? Going once, twice? Okay, let me pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you for this reminder of a truth that hopefully all of us already knew, but we recognize we need to see it afresh, that you are the one who reigns on high that you have made all things you're all powerful all wise you need no one and yet you you use that power that wisdom for the good of your people and for the fulfillment of your promises the keeping of your covenant and because of that you sent your son christ to die on the cross for sins, and all those who trust in Christ, who believe the gospel, are bound up with him in the fulfillment of those promises. And so we can rest in that, Lord. Would you help us even in our own day as we look at the forces around us and are tempted to give them more weight than they deserve? Remind us, Lord, that it is you who sits above the circle of the earth. You are the one who is ruling and reigning, and we can trust you, and you will give strength to those who are weak and weary. You will uphold us. We pray that you would bless the time of worship now, that it would be honoring and pleasing to you. Help us this day to honor you as Lord and Savior. We pray all this in Christ's name, amen.