Isa 40:18-24 ESV - 18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. 20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. 21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
If we can’t compare God with the majesty of mountains or the vastness of an ocean, then, of course we would fashion an idol to represent him — or replace him. How absurd!
Who gave the craftsman and the goldsmith the talent and knowledge to perform their craft with skill? Did that piece of wood magically speak and tell the craftsman, “this is where you cut and this is what I should look like?” Did the gold speak to the goldsmith to tell him how hot to make the fire to melt the gold and just what to add to make it the most beneficial?
To continue the absurdity, someone who already is pinching pennies for food spends what he doesn’t have for a block of wood, and then spends more to hire someone to make it into an idol that he can set up in his house and pray to and ask to supply him with more food and shelter that he needs.
Can you hear the frustration in Isaiah’s voice? He has just explained how useless it is to try to compare an incomparable God. But he will review . . .
Imagine sitting above the circle of the earth — in outer space, beyond earth’s gravitational pull; so immense that if the heavens (all the galaxies and more) were curtains or a tent He could just spread them out because God is bigger than the heavens . . .
Again, Nebuchadnezzar got a glimpse of God’s power and might. (He’s not the only one) We think our lives are so long but compared to eternity this temporal life is marked by “scarcely”
Pray for the Persecuted Church–OpenDoorsUSA
Day 6: Pray that God would bring opportunities for
local Open Doors partners to serve the persecuted
church in Cuba.
Daily Wisdom Psalm 108-111 Proverbs 24
Pro 21:30 ESV - 30 No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD.
I read this proverb and thought of Isaiah 40. Meditate on and stand in wonder at our Sovereign God.
Isa 40:12-17 ESV - 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Just try to compare God . . .He is as big as____; He is as wise as_____; as strong as_____. It can’t be done. God truly is incomparable. Who else can hold every drop of water on this entire planet in the hollow of his hand? Who else can actually measure the heavens and know a number that immense? Who else can measure and weigh every speck of dirt and grain of sand on this planet . . .and calculate the number?
God goes to no one for advice. He does not need anyone’s permission for anything. King Nebuchadnezzar found this out rather dramatically . . .see Daniel 4
Dan 4:34-35 ESV – 34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
God doesn’t need to learn anything. He doesn’t need to google or consult a dictionary or encyclopedia or owner’s manual. He has no body or limitation, so even if there were a way to say “bigger than” or “more than” — all the nations of the earth would be like a drop in a very large bucket; all the sand of all the coastlands would be like a little bit of dust on a scale.
All the trees in all the forests could not fill His “wood stove”– there aren’t enough animals on earth to sacrifice for an offering. As important as we humans like to think we are — God does not need us. He existed long before He created man.
That this Almighty God would choose to love me and save me; that He would be merciful and want to have a relationship with me; that He would care about me. . . amazing . . .
Pray for the Persecuted Church–OpenDoorsUSA
Day 5: Pray with children of church leaders whose
faith and last name make them doubly vulnerable
to persecution.
Daily Wisdom Psalm 106-107 Proverbs 23
Plea for Grace 