Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
“INCOMPARABLE” is a claim many advertisers make about their wonderful product, but is it true? In recent times a new phrase has arisen to describe the “greatest of all time”. Particularly in athletics that phrase is shortened to “GOAT” when applied to a remarkable athlete with great accomplishments. But is anyone or anything actually INCOMPARABLE?
YES! That’s what our friend Mr. Isaiah was shouting to the world in his day, as we see in Isaiah 40. Listen: “With whom will you compare God? …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? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed God as His counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten Him, and who taught the LORD knowledge or showed Him the path of understanding? …” (Is. 40:18, 12-14)
So, what is our response to these very legitimate and practical questions when considering the majesty and magnitude of God while also considering the audacious claims of scientists insisting all creation evolved from some big bang; or humanity evolved from an ape or an amoeba; or astronomers claiming the universe, seen only through telescopes, is so complex and large it will never be fully understood or mappable.
Or what about some people claiming they can determine their own gender and reverse the design with which they were conceived, developed and birthed? Or some people claiming they have authority to choose life or death for the unborn child God is developing in their womb through the miracle of conception? And finally, what about the hundreds of millions of people who claim there is no God or they themselves are God?
Following the wonderful years of Isaiah partnering with king Hezekiah, a prolonged season of darkness covers the history of Jerusalem under Hezekiah’s miracle son Manasseh, who was born during those miraculous 15 additional years God gave to Hezekiah when God raised him up from his deathbed. Manasseh assumed the throne in Jerusalem at age 12 when Hezekiah died, and very quickly Manasseh turned both his own heart and the people of Jerusalem AWAY from God and led them to embrace and worship the man-made idols of the nations around them. As 2 Kings 21 describes, during Manasseh’s long reign of 55 years idol worship and even the occult worship of Satan became pervasive in the southern kingdom of Judah and even the city Jerusalem.
Thus, God gave Isaiah a series of very powerful messages which all proclaim the INCOMPARABLE wonder, majesty, holiness, and supremacy of Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Moses and Samuel and David and Hezekiah!
After declaring His INCOMPARABLENESS God tells Isaiah to write about the absolute foolishness of a human manufacturing a god with their own hands and then worshiping it! In Isaiah 40:19 Isaiah declares: “To whom will you compare God? To what image will you liken Him? As for an idol, a metalworker casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. A person too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot, they look for a skilled worker to set up an idol that will not topple.” (Is. 40:18-20)
The concept of fabricating your own god is so ridiculous it’s almost beyond insanity, isn’t it? Yet do you know how many Billion people around the world today bow down and pray to lifeless idols fabricated and maintained from decay by human hands?
God’s challenge to humanity continues in Isaiah 40:21 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? He, God, 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….To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal, says the Holy One…” (Is. 40:21,22,25)
Oh my, do you see three very powerful and challenging statements from God which call us to consider how HE has designed our universe and humanity?
First, God’s design is that children will learn from their parents and grandparents, so when they are old enough to think clearly for themselves, they will KNOW beyond any doubt that there is a God who created them, created this universe, loves them and wants them to know HIM!
That’s what Psalm 78:1-7 and Psalm 145:5 and Deuteronomy 6:5-9 proclaim loudly and clearly. Oh my, the human race has failed so badly at this basic, fundamental principle of generational truth education and influence!
Second, do you see God wants us to know He designed and created the earth as a circle, a globe, it is not flat, and He sits in sovereign authority over His creation holding it all together in perfect order!
Third do you see God wants us to understand He created multiple ‘heavens’ and He created them all to be inhabited!
There are the heavens and skies we humans, and all animals can see with our naked eyes, both day and night. That’s the glorious claim of Psalm 19:1-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God…” But God also wanted humanity in all generations to know there is a vastness of space far beyond what our naked eye can see. In the days of Isaiah, no one could imagine what people in our day have now seen through telescopes or satellite imagery… galaxies and black holes and stars millions of light years away from planet earth! Yes, God created it all and while there may be life out there in some form, we know for sure the millions of angels God has created can see and know about the vastness of the universe!
And God wants us to know there is yet another place He calls the ‘heavens’, and that is the place God and the holy angels dwell. Do you know who else is there? Yes, all those who have died before us and have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior before they died! 2 Timothy 4:7,8 & 2 Cor.4:14-5:10 proclaim the wonderful truth that at our time of death our soul & spirit will go to be with Jesus in this heavenly place, thus there are hundreds of millions of people there with Jesus right now!
That’s why God can make that bold challenge to any idol, any religion “To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength not one of them is missing!” (Is. 40:25,26) It almost takes your breath away doesn’t it my friends? Our great God is truly INCOMPARABLE, and He invites us, day or night, to look up into the sky, with the naked eye or sophisticated telescope and worship Him, the God who made it all!
So, I urge us to do that with this worship song, but also today and every day, as you lift up your eyes to see what God has made which is evidence that He is INCOMPARABLE, and we praise HIM for that today!
Today’s Scripture: Is. 40: 12-26.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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