Isaiah 40:25-31 Have You Forgotten Who God Is?
Introduction:
• Prophet Isaiah was speaking to the people of Israel in exile – a people who feel forgotten and abandoned.
• In their suffering, the people questioned God’s goodness. They felt that God was blind to their plight and was ignoring their pain.
God responded too, with His own set of questions, to enlighten them.
• Let’s read Isaiah 40:25-31.
Notice the questions here – in verses 25-26, 27 and 28.
• 40:25-26 shows their WRONG THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD.
• 40:27 shows the WRONG THOUGHTS ABOUT THEIR SITUATION.
• 40:28 directs them to the TRUTH about God and their situation.
God posted these rhetorical QUESTIONS to get His people to think:
FIRST – 40:25 “25To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?”
This question has to do with their WRONG THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD.
In their captivity, the Israelites felt that God was too powerless to help them; “too weak” to respond to the powerful empires and their pagan gods.
• But God spoke into their despair and asked, “To whom will you compare me?” (v.25)
Exiled in a foreign land and seeing many idols and false gods, the captives may be tempted to think that the pagan gods were great.
• But the Lord says, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?” (v.26)
• The evidence is clear, even in a foreign land - the Lord is the Creator of the universe.
• 40:26b “He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power, not one is missing.”
• He is the Creator and sustainer of all that was made.
God is NOT unaware of His creation. Look at the stars, even with billions of them, He knows it when one is missing.
We can all have wrong thoughts about God.
• God cannot be the product of our imagination. He cannot be who we “think” He is, but who He says He is.
• Our knowledge of God can only come from REVELATION. God reveals Himself through creation, His actions in history, His Word and Jesus Christ.
J. B. Phillips wrote an interesting book entitled “Is Your God Too Small?”.
• He says many people have a distorted and overly “human” conception of God.
• Our thoughts of God are too “human”. We imagine God to be, sometimes, much like us – weak, limited and powerless. We think of Him in human terms.
• We project our own understanding, reasoning, or emotions onto Him. He is who we THINK He is, not who He SAYS He is.
• If we have 40 of us in this room and each of us has our own “impression” of God, then we can have 40 different “gods”, all projected by our imaginations.
Isaiah challenged them to look at the stars and remember their Creator!
They had wrong thoughts (1) about God, and (2) ABOUT THEIR SITUATION.
SECOND - 40:27 “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”?
God has not abandoned His people, no matter how bad the situation was or how much they had failed Him.
• Listen to what the Lord says in the next chapter, Isaiah 41:10 – “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
• This was God’s promise to them right from the beginning, when they were led out of Egypt. Deut 31:6b “He will not leave you or forsake you.”
God’s presence is not conditional on our actions but on His unchanging character.
• 2 Tim 2:13, "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."
• That’s WHO He is. He never abandons anyone on whom He has set His love.
Where is God in all this? Frankly, the true answer is, He is right there.
• He is right there watching it all happen because this outcome has been prophesied by the prophets (N Isaiah, Hosea, Amos; S Isaiah, Jeremiah).
• The empires were instruments of God’s discipline for Israel and Judah.
• Not to destroy them but to educate them, to correct them.
In “Knowing God”, J. I. Packer says, [Knowing God, p.94]
“It is as false as it is irreverent to accuse God of forgetting, or overlooking, or losing interest in, the state and needs of His own people. If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek grace to be ashamed of yourself. Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonours our great God and Saviour.”
History tells us that the people of Israel will be freed one day (after 70 years) and return to their homeland, as God promised.
• Every loving Father will discipline the one He loves. And when the time of disciplining is over, He will restore them.
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They had wrong thoughts about God and about their situation. Isaiah directed them to the truth – 40:28-31.
• He started again with rhetorical questions - 40:28 “Have you not known? Have you not heard?”
Isaiah 40:28-31
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.
29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 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.
God is still all-powerful, and those who wait on Him shall renew their strength!
• Where does their strength come from? From Him!
• Look at how Isaiah said it. There is nothing “human” about God; He is NOT like us.
• He is everlasting, His understanding unsearchable, and His power is constant – He does not faint or grow weary like men.
God is dependable, and He helps those who WAIT ON HIM.
• And that wait is not passive or in a resigned way, because God responds to our WAIT by “giving power to the faint” and “increasing the strength of the weak”.
• It’s a wait that comes with a confident expectation that God will act.
• And like the eagles in flight, God will lift us above our earthly struggles. By His strength, we will “run and not be weary”, “walk and not faint.”
This is not a promise that we will never face problems again. It is a promise that, despite the difficulties, we will find the strength we need to overcome.
• How? With God’s help. He will be our strength. He will be the WIND beneath our wings. He will carry us when we cannot carry ourselves any longer.
So look at the stars and remember our Creator and the Sovereign Lord.
• Remember that He is the everlasting God who does not grow weary. He is not blind to our plight.
• We pray and wait on Him. He is more than able to renew our strength and give us the power to move on.
How can they be sure? All that God has said came true for Israel!
• After 70 years, they returned to their homeland, as God promised.
• History authenticated what God said. The prophecies were fulfilled.
Dear friends, God has already revealed Himself to us – in creation, in history, in His Word (Scripture), and more fully, in Jesus Christ.
• John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
• We can trust Him today.
The best way to overcome anxieties and fear in life is NOT to dwell on the circumstances, but to FOCUS on the resources we have to OVERCOME.
• What greater resource is there for us than HIS PRESENCE in our lives?
• Have you forgotten WHO God is?
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we praise You for being our everlasting God, the Creator of heaven and earth. You never grow weary, and Your understanding is beyond ours.
Today, we confess our limited understanding, our weakness, doubts, and fears. Teach us to wait on You. Renew our strength so that we may soar like eagles above life’s storms, run with endurance in the race You set before us, and walk daily in faithfulness without tiredness.
For those who are still seeking to know You, reveal Yourself as the God who sees, cares, and loves them. Bless the works of our hands today. May all be done to Your glory.
In Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
