Questions That Need An Answer (Isaiah 40:12-31) Series

Our passage today is built around a series of questions. You might find these questions comically easy to answer. Parts of this might feel a bit like Sunday school when you were very little. But work with me this morning. Multiple times, I'm going to ask you the question the prophet asks. When I do this, you can speak up, and answer. A wise man once said that knowing is half the battle. So consider this a test, to see what you know.

Verse 12:

(12) Who has measured in the hollow of his hand [the] waters,

while the heavens/skies, with the handbreadth who has gauged/directed/apportioned (Job 28:25),

and [who] has contained (1 Kings 8:27) with a third of a measure the dust of the earth,

and [who] has weighed out with the balance-scale (Prov. 16:11) the mountains,

while the hills with a set of scales (Jer. 32:10; Ezek. 5:1)?

Who does these things?

There are times in human history when humans have built magnificent things. We think of the great cathedrals of Europe. The Hoover Dam. The Golden Gate Bridge. They are enormous, impressive. And we can measure each of those things. We can know how much building material went into them. We can know how much they weigh. We can know how tall, long, and wide, they are. But how would we find those answers?

Not directly. We can't get out a ruler, measure the height, or width, or length. We can't get out a bathroom scale, and measure the weight of the concrete in the Hoover Dam. Right? Humans have built something far greater than themselves, but if we work at it, we can find the answer.

Now, when we leave our big cities, and get out in the countryside, and look around, what do we see? We see that God, like humans, has built a magnificent thing. There's oceans, and lakes. There's the sky/heavens. There's hills, and mountains. And there's lots and lots of dirt.

So both God, and humans, have built big, magnificent things. But one of the differences between us, is that God is far more capable of measuring what he's created. God sounds a bit like my wife, working in the kitchen (here, props are helpful). My wife measures liquids with a small glass measuring cup. God measures the oceans with his hand. My wife measures sugar and flour with a small plastic measuring cup. God measures all the dust of the earth with a measuring cup, and it only takes up about 1/3. I'm not sure what my wife measures using her kitchen scale, but she has one. That's what God uses-- a scale-- to measure the weight of hills and mountains.

So what does this tell us about God?

God has made all these things that we think are huge, but they aren't so huge to God. If this is really the answer, then what is God like? God is a giant. He's supremely capable. He has an easy, total control over his creation. He measures the world, like my wife measures water, or flour, or sugar.

With this, we come to verses 13-14. These verses are poetic, with lots of parallel lines we are supposed to read in groups. So it's best to just grab the whole thing at once. I say that, but I want to rabbit trail a bit after reading the first two poetic lines:

(13) Who has gauged/directed/apportioned the Spirit/spirit/mind (Ezek. 11:5; 20:32; Isaiah 19:3; 29:24; 1 Chr. 28:12) of Yahweh,

while/or a man of his counsel, who has informed (Joshua 4:22) him?

[The idea here is maybe paraphrased, "Who is his human advisor who brings God into the loop?"]

Whenever we read about the "Spirit of Yahweh" in the OT, my guess is that our knee jerk reaction is to assume we are talking about part of our Trinitarian God. But the Hebrew word "ruach" often means something like "mind." Ezekiel 11:5 talks about the "thoughts of your ruach," which very clearly means "thoughts of your mind." Ezekiel 20:32 talks about having a thought in your "ruach" that will never happen. The word is used, several times, in parallel with other words having to do with thinking (Isaiah 19:3; 29:24). And that's what's happening here, as well. The prophet isn't talking about the Holy Spirit. He's not saying it's impossible to measure God's Spirit. He's asking, "Who measure the depths of God's mind?" Is there are a teacher out there, advanced in knowledge, who can measure how much God knows? Is there someone who can chart God's progress, as if God is a high school student, and figure out what He's learned, and what He still needs to know?"

Is there? (No)

And then in the second line, which is connected (while X), he's asking, "Who is the human advisor who brings God into the loop? Who lets God know about how things are down here on earth? Who acts as God's news feed?