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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).

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.

There is a sense that the world is becoming ‘increasingly unstable and dangerous’, as I read recently in an email. For anyone who stops to think, there must be a recognition that these are scary times. There are nations (and leaders of nations) who pose a real threat to peace. So, here is perspective:

Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket,
    a mere smudge on a window.
Watch him sweep up the islands
    like so much dust off the floor!
There aren’t enough trees in Lebanon
    nor enough animals in those vast forests
    to furnish adequate fuel and offerings for his worship.
All the nations add up to simply nothing before him—
    less than nothing is more like it. A minus. (The Message).

‘He’s got the whole world in His Hands.’

How we need this (infinitely) wide-angle, cosmic view of God. He is so great, it isn’t possible to over-worship Him (16): ‘No amount of sacrifices can do justice to the greatness of God – even if all the firewood and animals of Lebanon were available!’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1038.

Why the big noise, nations?
Why the mean plots, peoples?
Earth-leaders push for position,
Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers:
“Let’s get free of God!
Cast loose from Messiah!”
Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing.
At first he’s amused at their presumption;
Then he gets good and angry.
Furiously, he shuts them up:
“Don’t you know there’s a King in Zion? A coronation banquet
Is spread for him on the holy summit.” (Psalm 2:1-6: ‘The Message).

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 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?

Derek Kidner writes regarding Isaiah 40:12-31:

‘This superb poem rebukes our small ideas and flagging faith…by its presentation of God as Creator (12-20) and Disposer (21-26) of a universe dwarfed by his presence.’ ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.656.

Reading today’s passage, words from Psalm 8 came to mind: ”…what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (v.4). God does not need people. Let’s get that straight. He chose to make us, and He loves us, and it is His plan and purpose to use us. But He doesn’t need any of us. I have heard some people say that practicing a regular rhythm of ‘sabbath’ helps them to recognise that they can rest and the universe goes on running without them! Pastors discover that the church continues when they are not on the job 24/7. The world does not stop.

God is God – and we are not!

‘When you behold the greatness of God, then you will see everything in life in its proper perspective.’ (Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘Old Testament Commentary’, p.1185.)

This includes you.

This includes me.

Let’s listen to today’s reading again: this time from ‘The Message’:

Who has scooped up the ocean
    in his two hands,
    or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger,
Who has put all the earth’s dirt in one of his baskets,
    weighed each mountain and hill?
Who could ever have told God what to do
    or taught him his business?
What expert would he have gone to for advice,
    what school would he attend to learn justice?
What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows,
    showed him how things work?

Next time you feel tempted to, in your prayers, advise God what to do, remember these words and think again. We need to consult the Lord for our enlightenment, but He does not need our counsel.

You who bring good news to Zion,
    go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
    lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
    say to the towns of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”
¹⁰ See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
    and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense accompanies him.
¹¹ He tends his flock like a shepherd:
    He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
    he gently leads those that have young.

Just recently, Jilly and I attended a beautiful Sunday morning service. God was truly there and being worshipped. We were very much aware of His presence, even though we were a very small company. Our being there took the overall number to eight (including the preacher). As I was in prayer, it suddenly struck me what a truly counter-cultural thing it is just to go to church – particularly in settings where, it seems, very few want to go. Yes, Christian witness is about much more than church attendance, but don’t miss its significance as a testimony to others. (It may also still be a goad for some consciences).

I hear the call to unashamed and unafraid witness in these words from Isaiah. The world is so in need of the good news of the gospel. The good news in Isaiah’s day concerned the defeat of Babylon and the release of the Jewish captives (52:7-9); the good news today is that Jesus has defeat Satan and sin at the Cross, and He will liberate all who put their faith in Him (61:1-3; Lk.4:18-19)

In the original context, the people of God were being told that the God who was going to bring them home from captivity is both great (10) and good (11); He is powerful and strong, and He is loving, kind and tender. His people would have a long and arduous journey ahead of them, but the Lord would be with them, providing close and personal attention. ‘God’s arm is a mighty arm for winning the battle (Isa.40:10), but it is also a loving arm for carrying His weary lambs (v.11)’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘Old Testament Commentary’, p.1185.

The picture of God as Shepherd is a familiar one in the Old Testament, and it finds its fulfilment in Jesus who said,  “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me…” (John 10:14).

It’s personal…it is all so personal.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to believe that you love me, and you have all the details of my life in your care.

You who bring good news to Zion,
    go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
    lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
    say to the towns of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”

We hear the call both to ”go up” and ”lift up”. Christian witness – the bringing of the ”good news” about Jesus – is to be visible and audible. It is true that we increasingly feel squeezed by forces in the culture that show hatred and disdain for Christianity, and we need to tread wisely and carefully. But really, when has it ever been any different? Sensitivity has always been important. Nevertheless, the world needs to see and hear who God is and what He is like: that He is great and good, and that He has shown Himself most clearly in Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

It has been said that we believers are the only ‘Bibles’ some people will ever read.

PRAYER: Lord, in this challenging cultural moment, keep me from giving way to cowardice. I increasingly see how urgently the world needs to hear the good news of the gospel. There is no hope, no real life, outside of Christ. Cause my light to burn ever brighter amid the ‘encircling gloom’.

A voice says, “Cry out.”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,
    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
⁷ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
    Surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.”

I seem to remember a book belonging to one (or both) of my parents, entitled ‘What shall I tell them?’ I think it was a volume of ideas for sermons or Bible class talks- something of that nature. Maybe it was about preaching.

As I was coming towards the end of the series on ‘Hebrews’, I said to my wife, Jilly, ‘I have no idea where I am going next with these daily thoughts!’ (But I was, of course, praying about it.) ‘You’ll know,’ she said. I think it was that very same day that Isaiah 40 was impressed upon me. I still believe that ‘What shall I tell them?’ is an important starting point for every preacher (if He hasn’t already shown you!).

Have you noticed the emphasis, in the first part of chapter 40, on God speaking, and then people speaking what He has spoken? Look at verses 1,2,3,5,6-8,9-11. But don’t miss the priority of God’s Word. His speaking comes first.

‘What shall I tell them?’

The message in these verses concerns the transience of people and the permanence of God’s Word.

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Sting’s song, ‘How fragile we are’. I was driving through Harehills, in Leeds, one dark morning, on my way to meet a friend for a run in Roundhay Park. Back then, in my mid-30’s, I already understood something of how frail we humans are, but today, in my mid-60’s, I know, and feel, it all the more.

James 4:14 says, ”What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

‘How fragile we are.’

But the good news is:

‘For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For,

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
²⁵     but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.‘ (1 Peter 1:23-25).

The ”word” (i.e. the gospel) is no longer merely contrasted with our transience, but is, in fact, its cure.

”…whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:17).

There are eternal consequences when we are born anew by ”the living and enduring word of God.” We can never truly die (John 11:25,26).

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for how your Word has changed, and is changing, my life. Thank you for your eternal life invading and filling mine.

A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.
⁴ Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
⁵ And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Sometimes, or so it seems to me, God says, ‘Prepare’, and yet He doesn’t give detailed information about what exactly it is we are to prepare for. We just recognise that we are in a season of preparation for something that a.) God is going to do, and b.) we are to be in some way involved. So we wait – prayerfully- preparing ourselves as best we know how, until the Lord gives another piece of the puzzle.

One thing is for sure, if God decrees a matter, it will happen:

”For the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (5b). That sounds final! It is final!! One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. All people will see God’s glory. If God says it, that settles it. Our call is to believe it.

The reference to ”the wilderness” (3) reminds us that God can do remarkable work in unpromising contexts; He can do the most unexpected things amid difficult terrain. Of course, it provides an echo of the ‘exodus’ story’, and anticipates a second one: this time the Lord will lead His people home, through the desert, from Babylon.

Returning to reflect on this text earlier today, the word ”one” grabbed my attention. ‘One with God is a majority.’ John the Baptist was such a one. He was to appear many centuries after this prophecy was delivered. His own humble estimate of himself, when interrogated as to his identity, was: ”I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ ” (John 1:23). Jesus ”was the Word” (John 1:1), but John the Baptist was ”the voice” to proclaim the Word. His ministry was costly. Jesus said of him: ”John was a lamp that burned and gave light…” (John 5:35), and the idea is that he ‘burned up’. But how God used him!

Does Jesus have your ”voice”?

Derek Kidner points out that Hosea 2:14 describes the desert as a place of repentance and renewal, then he adds:

‘John the Baptist, with prophetic symbolism, used the literal wilderness for this very work (cf. Mt.3:1-3). But God’s coming (cf. Mt.3:13-17) and the ‘exodus’ that he was to accomplish (cf. Lk.9:31) were to take a wholly unexpected form.’ (‘New Bible Commentary’, p.655).

This underlines the point that Old Testament prophecy can often be likened to a range of hills, which appear to be close together, one behind the other. But in reality they may be separated by huge valleys (i.e. long periods of time)

Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

In 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 Paul writes:

 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Clearly, Paul knew a very real God who could, and did, give very real comfort. He was regularly in need of it, and he knew its reality.

If God speaks, it happens. His Word is His work. If He speaks ”Comfort” over, or into, a situation, there will be comfort. People will be comforted. He may even use us to bring the comforting word.

It’s interesting that ”Speak tenderly” literally means ‘speak to the heart.’ Oh how wonderful it is when God’s love is ‘shed abroad’ in our hearts, so that we not only believe He loves us, but we actually feel His strong embrace, by the Holy Spirit.

As I began to meditate on these two beautiful verses, I got a picture in my mind of a very naughty child, who has been severely disciplined, but who is now sitting on the parent’s knee, enfolded in loving arms and feeling a father’s, or mother’s, tenderness.

This passage is about Judah and Jerusalem. God’s people had endured long years of chastening through their Babylonian exile. But it was about to come to an end. The Lord wanted them to know they were loved and forgiven. There is no comfort like that of realising all our sins have been forgiven by Almighty God. (By the way, there is no sense here of earning salvation, just the assurance that Jerusalem’s sentence has already been more than served.)

Now, in these New Testament days, we understand in a deeper, richer, fuller way that our ”sin has been paid for” by Jesus. This puts a new song into our hearts and upon our lips:

‘My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin not in part, but the whole,

Is nailed to His Cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.’

(See Psalm 32:1-5).

PRAYER: Maybe you have someone on your mind today, and you realise it would be good to pray that God will speak His comfort into their situation? Why not take time to do this. Maybe even let them know, if appropriate?

Having spent a long time in one of the BIG New Testament letters (i.e. Hebrews), we are now going to turn to one of the BIG Old Testament books: Isaiah. But we are going to focus our attention on the third, and final, section of this major prophetic book, and study chapters 40-66.

In preparation for getting into the text, here is an introduction from Tom Hale’s ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’ – a book I often turn to for its clear explanations. This quote will help set things in context for us:

‘The first thirty-five chapters of Isaiah are written against the backdrop of Assyrian domination. Assyria had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and was now threatening Judah and Jerusalem. Then, in chapters 36-39 (repeated in 2 Kings chapters 18-20), Isaiah records the failure of the Assyrians to capture Jerusalem, and he predicts that Babylon will rise and become Judah’s main enemy (see 2 Kings 20:16-18; Isaiah 39:5-7). Now, in Chapters 40-48, Isaiah’s vision leaps ahead 150 years: the Jews are nearing the end of their exile in Babylon and are about to return to Jerusalem led by the Lord Himself. Thus chapters 40-48 constitute an extended prophecy about the restoration of Judah (the faithful remnant of Israel) following the exile in Babylon’ (p.1037).

In the ‘New Bible Commentary’, Derek Kidner writes beautifully:

‘…we emerge in 40:1 in a different world from Hezekiah’s, immersed in the situation foretold in 39:5-8, which he was so thankful to escape. Nothing is said of the intervening century and a half; we wake, so to speak, on the far side of the disaster, impatient for the end of captivity. In chs.40-48 liberation is in the air; there is the persistent promise of a new exodus, with God at its head; there is the approach of a conqueror, eventually disclosed as Cyrus, to break Babylon open; there is also a new theme unfolding, to reveal the glory of the call to be a servant and a light to the nations. All this is expressed with a soaring, exultant eloquence, in a style heard only fitfully hitherto…but now sustained so as to give its distinctive tone to the remaining chapters of the book’ (p.655).

PRAYER: Lord, I marvel again at the magnificent variety in your Word. I want to give you my time and attention, and pray that I will hear you speaking to me through what you spoke to your people centuries ago. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.