Isaías 40

Isaías 40:31

Constable adds that God declares… Not only is God infinitely superior to anyone else in power, wisdom, dignity, sovereignty, and authority, but, far more significantly, in His holiness. He is unattainable and unassailable in His moral perfections; He is wholly other. (Isaiah - Expository Notes) God strikes a fatal blow against the astral worship that plagued Babylon (cp Dt 4:19, cp what happened to Israel - 2Ki 17:16, 21:3). God is the Creator and the Sustainer of everything by virtue of His great might and power. As innumerable as the stars are He knows every one and has named every one. And so the night sky with its "twinkle, twinkle little star" gives clear testimony concerning Jehovah's creative ability (cp Ps 19:1, 2-note, Ro 1:19-note, Ro 1:20-note). Such a great truth should prompt wonder, awe and worship by the creature! Like a general who brings out his armored host to the battle field, God causes the stars to "come forth" night after night. Vine comments that… Omnipotence alone is requisite for the whole constant, glorious and orderly procedure. The heavenly host exists and moves, not simply by natural laws. The Son of God is Himself the sustaining Center, Upholder and Controller of all: “all things have been created through Him, and unto Him: and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (i.e., hold together), (see Col 1:16-note, Col 1:17-note). He upholds “all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3-note).While what has just preceded is retrospectively a protest against idolatry in the nation, it is also introductory to a message of comfort to the remnant of the godly who are cast down and despairing. (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson) God has just testified to His might and power (Is 40:25, 26) and now the prophet is addressing Jacob and… Israel (Note: This combination of names occurs 21x in Isaiah = Isa 9:8;10:20;14:1;27:6;29:23; 40:27; 41:8;41:14; 42:24; 43:1; 43:22; 43:28; 44:1; 44:21; 44:23; 45:4; 46:3; 48:1; 48:12; 49:5; 49:6) - Given the fact that this prophecy could have been uttered prior to the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom in 722BC and certainly before the Babylonian conquest of the Southern Kingdom in 586BC, the designations Jacob and… Israel could be directed at both the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Lange writes… The Prophet sees that the long chastisement of the Exile would call up doubts in the spirits of the Israelites. Carried off into a heathen land, they will suppose that God’s eyes do not penetrate to them, and that the wrong they suffer escapes His notice (Is 40:27). (A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Isaiah). And so God Who sees the beginning from the end, has His prophet Isaiah utter words that He knows will bring comfort to the Jews in captivity who would otherwise become disillusioned and downcast thinking that Jehovah no longer saw and no longer cared for their miserable plight! Have we not all been here, beloved, thinking surely God must have forgotten about my current miserable lot in life, whatever might be the specific details? Focusing inward, rather than outward and especially upward (Godward on the One above, the things above, the eternal rather than the temporal - cp Col 3:1-note, Col 3:2-note, 2Co 4:18, fixing our eyes on Jesus - He 12:2-note), we instead have chosen to have a "pity party" and declare "God is not really concerned with my miserable state?" One antidote at times like this is to remember Who God is, recalling past blessings from His gracious hand (cp La 3:20, 21, 22, 23, 24, Ps 42:5-Spurgeon's note) "When the water-floods of grief Round your helpless head shall rise, When there seems no relief, Lift your gaze to yonder skies; There behold how radiantly Beams the star of HOPE divine! Yesterday it shone for thee, And today it still shall shine. Ask no aid the world can give, LOOKING UNTO Jesus, live!" Charlie Dyer writes that… Isaiah’s readers were under the threat of Assyria. Years later Isaiah’s readers during the Babylonian Captivity were under the domination of a godless empire. So Isaiah encouraged the people to remember that God never relaxes; He is always watching His people. (Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor) Look around and be distressed. Look inside and be depressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest. (Listen to Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Alan Jackson) Vine adds that… Any of us who are tempted to despondency because of the pressure of adverse circumstances should lay hold of the facts which we have accepted by faith, as well as gather from our experiences of God’s merciful dealings with us, that He, the Creator of all things, is “the same yesterday and today, yea, and forever,” (He 13:8-note) and therefore has the same power at our disposal as He manifested in His creative acts (cp the power of His living Word = Lk 1:37ASV, He 11:3-note and Is 50:4). He never suffers from overexertion (Is 40:30); and since His understanding is infinite, He knows (Omniscient) all about us. Our most trying experiences, whether from without or within, are not only known to Him, but are under His absolute control (Sovereign). He appoints the time for His interposition and our deliverance (Sovereign). (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson) Two rhetorical questions are calculated to cause the reader to recall God's character. (Listen to the Song - Do You Not Know?) He is everlasting (cp His name El Olam in Ge 21:33). God is Eternal (see study of this attribute). Comment: So in contrast to the dark judgment of the preceding chapters, this last section shines with the light of the promises of restoration to the land (Isa 40-48), of the coming of Messiah (Isa 49-57), and of millennial blessings for Israel (Isa 58-66). Keep in mind also that Israel had not yet gone into exile but God allowed the prophet Isaiah to see not only to their exile (Isaiah wrote this amazing prophecy over 150 years before the Jewish believing remnant would ever need it for their encouragement) and subsequent restoration to their land but to see far beyond that terrible time to future blessings. Why? Because God had made a promise, a covenant to Abraham hundreds of years before and those promises had yet to be fulfilled. God foreordained and orchestrated events so that the promises of the Abrahamic covenant were brought to fruition in the New Covenant (Je 31:33 cp Zec 13:9, Ro 11:26,27). Our omniscient, omnipotent God is indeed providentially in control of all of human History for ultimately it is "His-story".