Gifts of Grace: Unexpected Help

Memorial Day: for some, it is a day to remember America’s fallen soldiers; for some, it is a long vacation weekend, the unofficial start of summer; for some, it is a day to reflect on where America is going as a country;

Politicians will make speeches. Some will invoke God’s name. Some will claim that God is on our side. Some will claim that our righteousness makes us mighty—that right makes might. Some will claim that we are a Christian nation, that we have a divine calling as a country. What if they have it wrong?

Isaiah 40:10-31

Commentary

v10-11 There is no justice, no reward, apart from God. There is no "living happily ever after" in the absence of God. What if the relationship is the reward?

v12 Here we have the first of a series of rhetorical questions (v12, v13-14, v18, v21, v25, v26, v27, v28) which collectively argue for the complete transcendence of God. Simply put, we cannot understand how God operates, and our attempts to define how God works will inevitably fail (Isaiah 55:8-9). v12 testifies to a divine order for all creation established by a Creator who is so vast that he can comprehend the incomprehensible.

v13-14 These verses go from the sublime to the ridiculous—given the vastness of the Creator in v12, how ridiculous is it to assume that he needs our advice on anything?

v15-17 The images in v15 refer back to v12—God is not just in control of the natural order, he is in control of human affairs as well. The scales imply a divine judgment—a judgment of what will last. Nations, all nations, are instruments of God; God can use pagans, evil-doers, and the devout to accomplish what he purposes to do. However, the kingdom of God is not found in nations! The kingdom of God is found within us, within our hearts, and minds, and spirits.

v18-20 Jesus said, quoting Deut. 6:16, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test: (Matt. 4:7). However, the Bible is full of places where God wants to be tested against false gods as a way of drawing people to him (1 Kings 18:21-39; Isaiah 41:21-29; 43:9-12; 44:6-20). Again going from the sublime to the ridiculous, God invites comparison of himself to a man-made idol (compare v18-20 with Isaiah 44:6-20).

v21 This is the only one of the rhetorical questions which legitimately should be answered, "No!" Humans do not know God adequately unless he chooses to reveal himself to them. Even then, the bane of humans is that they forget the mighty acts of God that they have seen.

v23-24 An important reminder for Memorial Day and the politicians who say, "God is on our side!"

v25-26 Again God invites comparison between him and lesser powers. On Memorial Day, the charge is to remember our fallen soldiers. Here the inference is that God—who not only created the stars, but calls them all by name and remembers them—has not forgotten us.

Go to any cemetery and look at the gravestones eroding away. Ultimately the gravestones crumble and the names are obscured and forgotten. Which is more important—that we should remember those who came before, or that God should remember them (and us)?

v27-28 The point of all of the rhetorical questions is to get to this climax, this summary of all of the questions.

v29-31 The question of whether God is on our side is rendered moot; the real question is who is on the Lord’s side? Who belongs to him?

Points to Ponder

What is wrong with calling a nation a Christian nation? What would Isaiah say is wrong with that?

Immanuel Kant in a lecture at Königsberg (1775) said, "The wish to talk to God is absurd. We cannot talk to one we cannot comprehend—and we cannot comprehend God; we can only believe in Him. The uses of prayer are thus only subjective." Is Kant right or wrong: if God is incomprehensible, can we talk to him, or not?

Let us finish as we started (v11) with the illustration of the shepherd. Are the needs of the sheep disregarded by the shepherd? Do the sheep comprehend the mind of the shepherd? Although the sheep can never understand the workings of the shepherd, they know of his care for them, and they know his voice. "All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them ... I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." (John 10:8,14) The reward is the relationship.

End Notes

1 - A black preacher introduced a guest speaker with the following: "The man we have speaking to us is a man who knows the unknowable, can solve the unsolvable and can screw the inscrutable."

2 - Recently John McCain rejected the endorsement of Rev. John Hagee after discovering that Hagee said that God used Hitler to get the Jews back to Israel. Hagee misinterpreted Jeremiah 16:14-16. However, in other places the Bible speaks very specifically of God using rulers to achieve his ends; e.g. the king of Assyria (Isaiah 8:1-3) & the king of Persia (Isaiah 45:1-3).