The Incomparable Jehovah
(Isaiah 40)

by Chuck Durham

BECAUSE OF hardened hearts and gross iniquity, God crushed His beloved people in the winepress of His wrath. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Her virgins ravaged. Her young men slain. Her rulers executed. Her sanctuary defiled by Gentiles. Her children groaning as they slowly died in their mother’s arms. Famine. Captivity. Fire. The walls came tumbling down. The prophet weeping and weeping. “How shall I console you? To what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you that I may comfort you … For your ruin is spread wide as the sea; Who can heal you?” (Lamentations 2:13). Judah was dashed to pieces.

Yet, a century before, God, in lovingkindness, gave them hope. “ ‘Comfort, yes comfort My people!’ says your God. ‘speak comfort to Jerusalem’ ” (verses 1–2). With urgent tenderness, He expresses His love to His own. They who were Lo-Ammi are now “My people.” No matter how powerful the enemy—whether Babylon, Rome, or Hades—God never forsakes His own. God is our inheritance—not pain, suffering, death, or oppression. He will bless the end more than’ the beginning.

“But what is our surety of this?” asks Judah. “The mouth of the LORD has spoken,” replies Isaiah (verse 5). “But does He have the power to keep His word?” “O Judah,” Isaiah implores, “Behold, your God!” (9). “Have you forgotten what the fathers and prophets told you? [See verse 21]. Are you like the heathen having never heard the story of His majesty? The LORD comes with mighty power staggering the farthest reaches of your imagination. He comes, O house of Jacob, to bring you home across the wilderness. He will gather the sheep of His pasture and carry the little ones in His bosom. He will gently lead you home. Prepare His way—soften your hearts, hear His voice, obey Him! Is He able to bring you back? He is well able! The Holy One, set infinitely apart from any other, has no equals. Transcending the breadth and depth of the universe, He is incomparable” (see verse 25; 55:8–9).
“Compare Him to the power of nature (verses 12–14). The mighty Mississippi pouring six million gallons of water into the Gulf of Mexico every second. Yet, He measured all the waters of the earth in the cupping of one hand. Must He call you to task, like Job, and undo you with questions that still haven’t been answered? He is absolute in power, knowledge, and wisdom. No one has counselled His decisions or revised His plans. Every scientific discovery merely thinks God’s thoughts after Him.”

“Compare Him to the nations (15–17, 22–24). Does the sword of Babylon strike dread in your hearts? Or, the nuclear arsenal of the U.S.S.R.? When you buy barley in the market, do you ask the vendor to brush the dust from the scales to get an accurate weight? As “weighty’ as dust, so are the nations compared to I AM. They are grasshoppers at best. He raised up Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Cyrus—the list goes endlessly on. And He threw them all on the ash-heap of history. They are powerful, but not all-powerful.”

“Compare Him to the idols (18–20). In foolish arrogance, man carved his concept of God out of stone and wood, substances he cannot even create. God is not an “it” to inquire about, read of, talk about. He is the living I AM imparting life to the universe. Ultimately, we need to talk to Him, not about Him. Long before God ever crossed our minds as being real, we were known by Him—intimately (see Psalm 139; Jeremiah 1:5). No man-made philosophy can plumb the depths of who God is, what He values, what He is doing. It is why every man-made philosophy is so futile. It either ends at the beginning not acknowledging God, or it ends with self—not listening to God, but telling mankind what it thinks God is.”

But Judah cries from the ash-heap, “My way is hidden from the LORD … passed over by my God” (verse 27). Isaiah says, “Be ashamed! God who knows the path of every star and calls them all by name, you dare to say He doesn’t care for you? Is He less interested in those for whom He shed His precious blood than in mere matter? (26). The cross of Jesus Christ forever says He cares (see Romans 8:32). The darkest night can never wipe that away.”

When my child is stricken with cancer and I faint with fatigue, in fear and tears—He faints not. Pain and suffering will not have the last word. When I, like Jeremiah, fail to produce results, grow weary and think of quitting—He never wearies or gives up on me. He will renew me with His strength. When Caesar spills the blood of God’s people and we cry at the altar, “How long, O Lord, until you avenge our blood?”—He tells us, “Wait on Me.” His ways are unsearchable. His agenda rules, not ours. He remains faithful and, with trust, we wait through the long, dark night simply because He promises the morning will come. Finally, when worn out with age, I lay my head down to breathe my last, my thought will be of victory, not defeat. In the resurrection, “I shall mount up with eagle’s wings; I shall run and not be weary; I will walk and never faint.”

Durham, C. (1990). The Incomparable Jehovah (Isaiah 40). (P. Earnhart, Ed.)Christianity Magazine, 7(1), 16.