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“Far-flung ocean islands see it and panic.
    The ends of the earth are shaken.
    Fearfully they huddle together.
They try to help each other out,
    making up stories in the dark.
The godmakers in the workshops
    go into overtime production, crafting new models of no-gods,
Urging one another on—‘Good job!’ ‘Great design!’—
    pounding in nails at the base
    so that the things won’t tip over.

It remains a burning question for ourselves does it not? In whom, in what are we trusting? Unless our trust is in the living God we will be disappointed.

‘The nations attempt to form alliances against Cyrus, but to no avail. Their leaders try to build morale (verse 6), while their craftsmen try to build better idols! (verse 7). But nothing will stop Cyrus.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1039.

Again, there is a comedic, almost mickey-taking, tone to the words about idolatry. None of our idols will ever save us.

‘The dearest idol I have known, whate’er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from thy Throne, and worship only Thee.’ William Cowper.

‘Who has stirred up one from the east,
    calling him in righteousness to his service?
He hands nations over to him
    and subdues kings before him.
He turns them to dust with his sword,
    to wind-blown chaff with his bow.
³ He pursues them and moves on unscathed,
    by a path his feet have not travelled before.
⁴ Who has done this and carried it through,
    calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord – with the first of them
    and with the last – I am he.’

The nations have every reason to fear. Why? A new super power is emerging and a new despot is about to make an appearance. ‘Cyrus’ is his name – the King of Persia. It’s not that he’s a decent chap. Far from it. He is not a man to mess with. When we read that God called him ”in righteousness” it doesn’t mean that he is righteous, but he will fulfil God’s righteous purpose, i.e. the restoration of Israel.

This passage reads even more graphically in ‘The Message’:

“Who got things rolling here,
    got this champion from the east on the move?
Who recruited him for this job,
    then rounded up and corralled the nations
    so he could run roughshod over kings?
He’s off and running,
    pulverizing nations into dust,
    leaving only stubble and chaff in his wake.
He chases them and comes through unscathed,
    his feet scarcely touching the path.

⁴ “Who did this? Who made it happen?
    Who always gets things started?
I did. God. I’m first on the scene.
    I’m also the last to leave.

In spite of all the fearful things Cyrus will do, it is obvious who is in charge around here. It is God who will raise him up and use him to get his people back home (see Isaiah 44:28; Ezra 1:1-4). ‘History is HISstory.’ When every Cyrus has come and gone, He who always was there will still be there – forever. From ‘everlasting to everlasting’ He is God. Because He was there before, and will be there after, He could announce the coming of Cyrus a century before He was born.

‘Be silent before me, you islands!
    Let the nations renew their strength!
Let them come forward and speak;
    let us meet together at the place of judgment.

I have to confess, my first thought on reading these words had to do with that renewal of strength many Christians find in silence and solitude. I would not be alone in seeing these spiritual practices as vital ingredients for a walk with God.

But verse 1 has nothing to do with spiritual disciplines. It is a sobering reminder that the nations of the world are accountable to God, and it will be formidable to end up in His court. They will need ”strength” for that appearance.

Let no country (or grouping) on earth think they can defy God, and do what they like with impunity. Their day in the dock will come.

In this chapter God speaks directly through Isaiah to the nations who are hostile to His people. On the great Assize day, they will have no legs on which to stand.

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
    or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
    He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
    And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
    gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
    young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
    They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
    they walk and don’t lag behind. (The Message).

It is not surprising that these verses continue to be beloved by believers, because in our frail humanity we do get tired on the journey.

‘The people are wrong to think that God has abandoned them (verse 27). God not only upholds the stars (verse 26); He also upholds His weak and weary people (verse 29). They are to hope (trust) in God and draw their strength from Him (verse 31). He will give them strength for seemingly impossible tasks; they will soar on wings like eagles. He will give them strength to face challenges and surmount obstacles; they will run and not grow weary. And most important of all, He will give them strength, abiding grace, for daily living; they will walk and not be faint‘ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p. 1038.

‘As we wait before Him, God enables us to soar when there is a crisis, to run when the challenges are many, and to walk faithfully in the day-to-day demands of life. It is much harder to walk in the ordinary pressures of life than to fly like the eagle in a time of crisis. ”I can plod,” said William Carey, the father of modern missions. ”That is my only genius. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”…Blessed are the plodders, for they eventually arrive at their destination!’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘Old Testament Ccommentary’, p.1185.

Prayer: Lord, I remember someone saying, ‘If God brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it.’ Thank you that you provide the strength for all the circumstances you cause us to face. Help us to actively trust in you. Help me to draw my strength from you.

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.

 ‘With the power of God within us, we need never fear the powers around us.’ Dr. Woodrow Kroll.

Over the next day or two, I am going to share some quotes on this magnificent climax to an awesome chapter. Doctrine/theology is practical in its outworking; it is intended to change our lives. God doesn’t want us to merely know that He is Almighty; He wants to impart His own strength to us.

‘The wrong inference from God’s transcendence is that he is too great to care; the right one is that he is too great to fail (28); there is no point at which things ‘get on top’ of him. But vs 29-31 make the big transition from power exercised to power imparted, to be experienced through the faith expressed in the word hope (or ‘wait’…So the final reminder of human frailty (30) is forward looking; it clears the way for trust and the transcending of natural resources. The phrase renew their strength (31) is (lit.) ‘change strength’, as one might change into fresh clothes or exchange an old thing for a new. It may be significant that the three final metaphors speak of overcoming natural impossibility and two natural weaknesses, ending on the note of steady progress.’ Derek Kidner, ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.656.

Prayer: Lord God, please help me to do what your promise says. Enable me to actively look to you in faith. I surrender to you my strength (which is weakness) and open myself to your strength (which truly is strength). I confess I need fresh clothes, and I come to you to receive them.

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.

Listen to how ‘The Message’ puts it?

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
    or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.

Why would we ”ever complain”? But we do. Some people make a lifestyle of complaining, and, it has to be said, they tend to not be all that likeable or popular. They start to grate on others with their constant ‘whining’. But it should be added, I think, that many of us who complain little outwardly, may actually be great complainers inwardly. Have you really listened to your own internal conversation recently?

”Why do you complain…’

The Bible shows that God’s people can and do complain, and He is patient with our human frailty. But when we do complain (and especially if we start to complain about Him), is it not because we are forgetting important theological truth about the Lord?

Do God’s children have any legitimate cause to complain about their good Father?

‘Complaining is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.’ Van Wilder.

“So—who is like me?
    Who holds a candle to me?” says The Holy.
Look at the night skies:
    Who do you think made all this?
Who marches this army of stars out each night,
    counts them off, calls each by name
—so magnificent! so powerful!—
    and never overlooks a single one?

Between 1975 and 1978 – my student days – I lived in Capel, a village situated deep in the Surrey countryside. I was billeted in Pleystowe House on the Rusper Road, where there were no street lights. The darkness was so thick you felt you could reach out and touch it. Also, especially on a clear, cold night, the sky glittered with a seemingly infinite number of stars. What a sight! It both filled me with awe, and made me feel very small. But we are small. We also need to be able to see ourselves in perspective, and not just nations and rulers.

The God of Isaiah 40 is the One who ”also made the stars” (Genesis 1:16b).

Derek Kidner, in the ‘New Bible Commentary’, expresses ‘…the true lesson from the majestic progress of the stars: the precision, not the absence of God’s control.’ (P.656).

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. (New International Version).

How wonderful, that God knows each star by name. But even more so, He knows His own ”sheep” by name (John 10:3,14).

Here is a great quote from Sean McDowell. He had been to a seminar on ‘seeing Christ in Creation’, led by Dr. Eric Hedin, when he wrote this:

”Psalm 147:4 says, “He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names.” The key point of Psalm 147 is that God is the Creator and is worthy of praise. The Psalmist wants his readers to absorb God’s greatness by stepping out of their limited perspective and considering the divine perspective. This is done by considering that God numbers the stars in the universe and gives them their names.

Let’s put this in perspective. Scientists estimate that there are about 1 x 10²² stars in the visible universe. That would be equivalent to roughly 10,000 stars for each grain of sand on every beach on planet Earth. Let that sink in for a moment.

How long would it take to name all these stars, as Psalms describes God doing? According to Dr. Hedin, if the universe is 13.7 billion years old, it would require counting 1 million stars every second since the universe began. Looked at from another perspective, one would have to name 60 million stars per minute for the entire history of the universe to name all the stars in the visible universe.

Clearly this is a task beyond even the greatest computer. It is a task that only God can do.

Of course, the Psalmist would not have understood these numbers. But the Psalmist was still in awe at God. Now that we can begin to grasp the depth of creation, we should be even more in awe at our Creator.

Here’s the bottom line: God is astonishingly powerful. He cares deeply about creation. And this same God who counted the stars knows the number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7).

God cares about creation. And yet He cares even more deeply about you.”

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 the blows on them and they wither,
    and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

Here is the same passage in ‘The Message:

Have you not been paying attention?
    Have you not been listening?
Haven’t you heard these stories all your life?
    Don’t you understand the foundation of all things?
God sits high above the round ball of earth.
    The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas—
    yes, like a tent canvas to live under.
He ignores what all the princes say and do.
    The rulers of the earth count for nothing.
Princes and rulers don’t amount to much.
    Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,
They shrivel when God blows on them.
    Like flecks of chaff, they’re gone with the wind.

I believe it is worthy of note that, for centuries, there was a widely-held belief that the world was flat. But not for Isaiah. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he spoke of the earth as a ”circle” or ”round ball”.

There are some pretty scary nations out there, but we get to see them in perspective (15-17). Also, there are some fairly terrifying tyrants on the prowl, but look at them from heaven’s perspective (23,24). What we read in verses 6-8 equally applies to political leaders. They are transient, and they are in God’s Hands.

I have to admit, though, that it is one thing to catch a glimpse of world events in proper proportion, but it is quite another to maintain that perspective in the face of the 24 hour news cycle. Warren Wiersbe’s comment seems relevant:

‘Someone has defined ”circumstances” as those nasty things you see when you get your eyes off God.” If you look at God through your circumstances, He will seem small and very far away, but if by faith you look at your circumstances through God, He will draw very near and reveal His greatness to you.’ ‘Old Testament Commentary’, p.1185.

PRAYER: Lord God, please help me not to be overwhelmed by all that I see and hear in the news. May I see everything in the light of your eternal throne, and your indestructible rule.

So who even comes close to being like God?
    To whom or what can you compare him?
Some no-god idol? Ridiculous!
    It’s made in a workshop, cast in bronze,
Given a thin veneer of gold,
    and draped with silver filigree.
Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood—
    olive wood, say—that won’t rot,
Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god,
    giving special care to its base so it won’t tip over! (The Message).

The folly of idolatry is a repeated theme in this section of Isaiah. He spoke into a world littered with idols. The culture the Jews lived in (Babylon) was thoroughly pagan. The people of Israel, and then Judah, had spent years in captivity because they turned from the true God to idols. Israel ‘did time’ in Assyria, and Judah tasted bondage in Babylon.

But they were without excuse. God had made His commands explicitly clear:

And God spoke all these words:

² ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ ‘You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ ‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:1-6).

See the emphasis here on how helpless idols are. They have to be helped to stay upright; they need assistance to be kept on their feet! Contrast this with the real God who has strength and gives strength (vv.26, 29-31). We are to trust, not in helpless gods, but in the helpful true and living God.

(See Romans 1:18-23 where Paul exposes the wilfulness behind the blindness of those who worship false gods).