"To whom then will you liken me? And to whom shall I be equalled? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high; And see, who has created these. He draws forth their armies by number; He calls them all by name: Through the greatness of His strength, and the mightiness of His power, Not one of them fails to appear. Wherefore say you then, O Jacob, And why speak you thus, O Israel, My way is hidden from Jehovah, And my cause passes unregarded by my God. Have you not known, have you not heard, That Jehovah is the everlasting God, The Creator of the bounds of the earth? That He neither faints, nor is wearied; And that His understanding is unsearchable! He gives strength to the faint, And to the infirm He multiplies force. The young men shall faint and be wearied; And the chosen youths shall stumble and fall: But they that trust in Jehovah shall gather new strength; They shall put forth fresh feathers like the moulting eagle: They shall run, and not be wearied; They shall march onward, and shall not faint." (Isaiah 40:25-31,Lowth)
In the verses just preceding, in this chapter, we have a vivid presentation of the weakness and insignificance of man. As compared with God, he is less than nothing, and vanity. He is only emptiness. All nations together are but as the fine dust of the balance, which makes no perceptible difference in the weight of any article, and which cannot be seen, to be brushed off. A breath from God would blow away the whole race; and yet these very men presume to make gods for themselves, that is, they presume to make a likeness of the God of heaven. But whatever a man makes must be less than himself; therefore his gods are nothing.
A Likeness of God
"To whom then will you liken me? and to whom shall I be equalled? says the Holy One." (Isaiah 40:25,Lowth)
Who can make a likeness of the true God? God manifested himself to the children of Israel as He never did to any other people, (Deuteronomy 4:7; For what nation is there so great, who has God so near unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for?) but Moses, speaking of the time when the Lord spoke to them from Sinai, said, "You heard the voice of the words, but you saw no similitude; only you heard a voice. ... Take therefore good heed unto yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire." (Deuteronomy 4:12,15)
Nobody has ever seen God, so that he could make a likeness of His form; whatever image anyone makes, therefore, professing to be a likeness of God, is but his conception of the power and attributes of God.
But if men would but use the reason that God has given them, and learn the very first and simplest lesson from creation, they would at once see how impossible it is to make any representation of the living God. How can such a thing be done, when He is in all things? He fills heaven and earth. "Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:24)
Every created thing reveals His everlasting power and Divinity; every tint of rose or rainbow exhibits a little of the loveliness of His face. In order to get a representation of God, one would need to bring together every separate phrase of strength and beauty in the entire universe; and even then he would not have a representation of God, because what he would have would be dead, and God is life itself. No one can make an image of life. Therefore there can be no likeness of God. God is, and that is the sum of the matter. Beside Him there is nothing. "But men need something to keep God in mind," say some, as an excuse for the making of images of the Lord; "something to aid their devotion."
Very true; and since that is so, God has provided for it. Do you think that God needed to depend on man to make something as a memento to himself? Was God so thoughtless that He forgot an important need of mankind? What a libel upon God all such "aids to devotion" are! No; lift up your eyes to the heavens, and see "the work of God's fingers, the moon and stars which He has ordained," (Psalm 8:3) and there you can always have an aid to devotion. "Lift up your eyes on high; and see, who has created these." (Isaiah 40:26,Lowth)
Someone has said that: "An undevout astronomer is mad."--Edward Young, Night Thoughts, Night IX: The Consolation, 1745.
Why so? Because a man who is continually turning his eyes to the heavens, and exploring their depths, and gazing on their wondrous beauty, beholding the glory of God, which they declare, and yet does not worship their Creator, must be devoid of reason. So it is indeed with anyone who does not worship the God of heaven. Whoever does not recognize and worship the true God, has less sense than his ox or his ass. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel does not know, my people do not consider." (Isaiah 1:2-3)
Moreover, God has given us the Sabbath, in which the works of His hands are specially to be remembered. God's created works are the reminders of His power and goodness, and the Sabbath, the last day of every week, is for contemplation of the works of creation, so that none need forget God. Plenty of aids to devotion has God provided. If all kept the Sabbath of the Lord in truth, the knowledge of the glory of God would cover the earth. "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! who have set your glory upon the heavens." (Psalm 8:1)
Individual Care
"[He] brings out their host by number." (Isaiah 40:26) "He tells the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names." (Psalm 147:4)
How many are there of them? Only God knows. Look up on a clear starry night, and you become lost as you try to count them; yet you see only a few of them. Visit an observatory, and the attendant will turn the huge telescope to some part of the heavens where your eye can discern nothing. Now look, and you will see swarms of suns blazing where it seemed as though there were only empty space. But you have not yet exhausted the possibilities, although such a thought as trying to count them would make you wild.
We can see nothing more with the telescope, and now we resort to photography. We make the stars tell their own story. The sensitive plate is exposed for hours, and the light which is too faint, on account of infinite distance, to be taken into account even with the aid of the telescope, gradually accumulates until it makes a tiny speck. Now we have a photograph of that space which appeared to be vacant even when viewed through the most powerful telescope, and lo, there are thousands of spots, each one indicating the presence of a star. The same thing done from any part of the sky would give a similar result.
Thus we see that the stars within man's reach, so to speak, that is, the stars of which he is able to detect the existence, are many thousand times more in number than what can be seen with the naked eye. But we have not yet reached the end. We have no more reason for supposing that the limit has been reached by our telescope and camera than the child has for saying that there is nothing beyond the horizon--that his eyes take in the bounds of the universe. The more powerful the instrument through which we look into the heavens, the greater the suggestion of infinite depths beyond.
So we may be sure that if we could transport our telescope and photographic apparatus to the farthest star that has yet sent us a glimpse of itself, and should gaze on in the same direction, we should but have the same experience, and so on indefinitely. We are utterly lost in the contemplation of such infinite creation, and can only say, "O Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom have You made them all." (Psalm 104:24)
Now we have some sort of appreciation of the expression, "the host of heaven." (Deuteronomy 4:19) "He draws forth their armies by number; He calls them all by name." (Isaiah 40:26,Lowth)
It is said that Caesar knew the names of all the men under his command. That, if true, was a most wonderful accomplishment; few men could retain in memory the names of so many men. Yet there were only a few tens of thousands, whereas God's host is tens of thousands of myriads.
We can liken it to a vast flock, of which God is the Shepherd. As the Eastern shepherd, who spends all his life with his flock, becomes so well acquainted with them that he knows each one, so God knows the name of everyone of His star flock.
Constant Sustenance
And as the shepherd by his faithful watchfulness and his power against the wild beasts, keeps everyone of his sheep safe, so God, by His power and wisdom, guards His starry host so that not one of them is ever lacking. "For that He is strong in power; not one fails." (Isaiah 40:26)
Man thinks of his work as great, yet it is at the greatest but a very small part of this earth that it has to do with. Compared with what we can see on this earth, man's work is puny; but what shall we say when we consider the heavens? What an inconceivably vast work God has on His hands! And God has this work literally on His hands. "He metes out the heavens with His span." (Isaiah 40:12)
They are "the work of His fingers." (Psalm 8:3)
What is it that keeps all these vast bodies in their proper places so that there is never any clashing, although all of them are constantly in motion? "Gravitation," they tell us. Take our solar system, for instance. Men leave God out of the question, and speak as though the force exerted was inherent in the heavenly bodies themselves. "The sun," say they, "keeps the planets in their orbits."
Very good, we know that since God's everlasting power and Divinity are seen in everything that He has made, (Romans 1:20) there is force in the sun and all other bodies; but let us think long enough to make sure that it is only God's power. See the earth revolving round the sun. Now it is flying with marvelous rapidity directly away from the sun. "The attraction of the other planets is drawing it," they tell us.
Very well, why does it not keep on? Why does it stop in its career, and turn back towards the sun? "Oh, the sun draws it!"
Yes, but why did not the sun keep it from going? It had just as much power when the earth was flying away from it, as it had when it turned to go back. Why then did it allow it to go so far away? There is no other answer to this question, but the statement--that the hand of God is on the things that He has made. God's own personal presence sustains and controls His works.
The fact that astronomers can calculate the relative power manifested through the various heavenly bodies, so that they can tell when to expect any given planet or star at any given place, does not at all destroy the fact that it is God who is personally working. There is no such thing as blind force. There is intelligence directing all power. God has not gone away and left His works to take care of themselves; there would soon be chaos if He should. No, He himself stays by, "upholding all things by the Word of His power." (Hebrews 1:3)
What therefore is the conclusion? Is it the common complaint that God has too much to attend to, to be mindful of our little cares? O foolish and blind unbelief! Why will men persistently put comfort away from themselves?
The Least and the Greatest
"Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed away from my God? Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding." (Isaiah 40:27-28)
If you have not heard it, then consider the heavens, and learn it. "Who has despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10)
Certainly not God, who warns man against such foolishness. Just because God is so great, He is able to keep the most accurate account of your case. Not a detail escapes His notice or His care. He who numbers the stars, also numbers the very hairs of your head. "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matthew 10:30)
Suppose there is here a great mathematician. He can make the most abstruse calculations. The largest numbers are handled by him with ease. Someone asks, "Can he count? Does he know that two and two are four?"
What foolish questions! Of course he can. "Well, I thought that he dealt in such great matters that he would not be able to bother with such small affairs."
Know then that the greater includes the less. The power to do great things implies the power to do that which is least. How surprised we are to find a great man of earth to be ignorant of some simple thing. "Is it possible you do not know that?" we exclaim in wonder.
But no one can ask any such question concerning God. There is no searching of His understanding. Nobody can ever get to the bounds of it, so as to find something that He does not know. He inhabits eternity, so that infinity, whether it be the infinitely large or the infinitely small, is in Him. All power and wisdom are His, for He is the Creator of all. "He gives power to the faint." (Isaiah 40:29)
All this contemplation of the wondrous power of God, as manifested in the heavens, is but a part of the comfort which God says must be proclaimed to His people. A little while ago we read about God's telling the number of the stars, and calling all them by name. Let us now read the connection, and see why that fact is stated. "The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. He tells the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power; His understanding is infinite." (Psalm 147:2-5)
So all this power, that is manifested in numbering and naming and upholding the innumerable stars, is the power with which God binds up the wounds of His people, and heals the broken-hearted. His gentleness in dealing with the wounded is equal to His power in upholding the universe.
Help for the Helpless
The pagan proverb has it that: "God helps those who help themselves." (The idea originated in various Greek dramas, but the phrase in this form is first found in Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government (1698), a published work that cost the author his life, as he was executed for treason against King Charles II in England. His book later became very instrumental in the formation of the American republic, and has been called "the textbook of the American revolution."--Wikipedia)
That is the way the devil tries to discourage people. All men are helpless, and there are times in every man's life when he feels himself to be absolutely without strength. God would have everybody to feel that way all the time. But when men find themselves in that condition, they think of that heathen proverb, and lose heart. Now the truth is that God helps those who cannot help themselves. "When you were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6) "[His] strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)
He makes men strong out of their weakness. "Out of weakness [they] were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." (Hebrews 11:34) "He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength." (Isaiah 40:29)
He multiplies force to them that are powerless. This He does by giving them himself. "It is God that works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
Think of that! The very same power that is manifested in the heavens, guiding all the planets and stars in their courses, is the power that works in us! All the power that is revealed in the heavens is for us. This is shown by the fact that "[He] gave himself for us." (Titus 2:14)
He pledged himself for our salvation. But on Him rests the entire universe. The power that is seen in all creation is His power; it is He himself at work. Therefore when He gave us himself, He gave us all the power in the universe. Is it not worthwhile to look up? Do you want an "aid to devotion," and something to put heart into you? Then look up.
Youth is the synonym for strength and endurance. Yet, "The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." (Isaiah 40:30)
There is a limit to the endurance of youth. Besides, age comes even to youth, and with age comes weakness and debility. "But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." (Isaiah 40:31)
Mark the implied contrast between youth and age. Youths may fail, but they that wait on the Lord, no matter how old they may be, shall renew their strength. God gives to all who trust in Him eternal life; that is, those who trust in Him get the benefit of it; and the characteristic of eternal life is youth. It renews itself. "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; To show that the Lord is upright: He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." (Psalm 92:13-15)
There is in this the miracle of life. Those who wait on the Lord, acknowledge Him in all their ways, depending on Him, receive fresh supplies at His hands daily. He shows them the path of life, and directs them in it. He shows them how to live,--how to eat and drink in the right way to renew life. "Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (1 Timothy 4:8)
There are wonderful possibilities in the Christian life, which no man in this generation has yet fathomed. Who will allow God to demonstrate in their bodies what He can do with them that trust Him? "They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)--Present Truth, September 28, 1899--Isaiah 40:25-31.