WWUTT 2039 They Will Mount Up with Wings as Eagles (Isaiah 40:12-31)

There are many who would congratulate themselves for their strength and their accomplishments. They think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, but God will tear them down and bring them low and lift up the one who trusts in Him when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, and welcome back to our study of the book of Isaiah.

As we started chapter 40 last week, this second part of the book of Isaiah that goes from chapters 40 to 66, and we just did the first 11 verses because that really serves as an introduction not just to part two, but even in what we're reading here in chapters 40 to 48, where God is going to confront the people for worshiping false gods, and then even put their false gods on trial.

So let's pick up in chapter 40 where we left off. I'm going to begin reading in verse 12, and we'll go through verse 20, though we want to try to cover through verse 31 today, which goes to the end of the chapter.

I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and encompassed the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?

Who has encompassed the spirit of Yahweh or as his counselor has informed him?

With whom did he take counsel and who gave him understanding and who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and made him know the way of understanding?

Behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as a speck of dust on the scales.

Behold he lifts up the coastlands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him. They are counted by him as non -existent and utterly formless.

To whom then will you liken God or what likeness will you compare with him?

As for the graven images, the craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold and a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

He who is too impoverished to make such a contribution chooses a tree that does not rot.

He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman to prepare a graven image that will not be shaken.

So we stopped there for a moment. Let's kind of recap a little bit what we had considered in those first 11 verses.

God gives comfort to his people. We heard a word that has been repeated in the

New Testament. Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our

God. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion. Bearer of good news, raise up your voice powerfully,

O Jerusalem. Raise it up and do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, behold your

God. Now those who have trusted in the Lord God and fear him have nothing to fear of the indictment that God is going to give of the people coming up in this next section.

The gods that they have fashioned, whom they have worshiped, the powers behind the gods whom

God is going to confront. Yes, he puts the gods on trial, but the gods are as nothing. An idol is an empty thing.

It's been made in the image of man. So why would God even bother putting these false gods on trial?

Well, because there are spiritual forces behind them, deceptive devices of Satan that have convinced the people to worship the created thing rather than the creator.

So that's what God is confronting when he puts the false gods on trial. But here, as we continue on in Isaiah 40, in the section that we've just read, verses 12 to 20,

God exposes the ignorance, the foolishness of the people to think that they can make something that will be powerful enough whom they can serve.

Like why would you make a god that you then enslave yourself to? The whole concept, the whole logic behind it is utter foolishness.

And so God begins at first by saying who has the kind of power or who has the kind of knowledge that Yahweh has?

And we see some verses here that sound familiar, particularly out of Romans chapter 11, where who has who has been his counselor is the question that Paul asked there in Romans 11.

And that's the question that's asked in Romans 40. Or I'm sorry, I'm confusing my books of the

Bible now. Isaiah 40 verse 14. With whom did he take counsel and who gave him understanding?

And who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge? A lot of these questions that are asked here in the very beginning of this section of Isaiah 40 might sound familiar to you.

It sounds very much like something God asked of Job. Like who told the sea that it can only go this far?

Who is it that fills the heavens with snow or sends the lightnings from this place to that place?

Those are the questions that God had asked of Job said, stand up, gird yourself like a man.

I'm going to question you and you're going to answer me. Job thinks he knows or can give counsel to God.

But where was Job when the foundations of the earth were laid? And so God begins this indictment of the people and even the trial that he is going to put the gods under by asking these questions about himself, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and encompass the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales.

Has anybody done these things? Does anyone know the answers to these questions? Like how much a mountain weighs?

Do you know how to answer that question? The Lord knows for as Jesus says to us in the

Sermon on the Mount, he even knows how many hairs are on your head. So shouldn't you entrust yourself to the

Lord? What do you have to fear of anything if you are a follower of Christ, the one who is sovereign and sits in throne and reigns over everything?

As R .C. Sproul has said, there are no maverick molecules. Nothing in the universe is outside of the will and the control of God.

As Abraham Kuyper said, there is not a square inch in all of the universe that God has not declared mine.

So if you trust in God, what do you have to fear of anything else?

Who are these men who fashion these false gods as if they can give counsel to the

God that they have made? Who counsels the Lord? He is the one in whom all knowledge dwells.

So the Lord goes on to ask who has encompassed the spirit of Yahweh or as his counselor has informed him.

And then the next part is with whom did he take counsel and who gave him understanding. Verse 15, behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as a speck of dust on the scales.

Behold, he lifts up the coastlands like fine dust. So stopping there for a moment, the nations are like a drop in a bucket.

Nations will last centuries, right? You'll have rulers of these nations that may last a few decades at the most.

And they might fancy themselves as being gods and that they are sovereign and hold the control of everything in their hands.

But even their own nations last longer than they do. Yet, do any of these nations last longer than God?

The nations, the extent of these nations, how long they last, the kind of power they have, they're like a drop in a bucket and are counted as a speck of dust on the scales.

They are insignificant in the grand scheme of things that God has appointed by his will.

The nations exist to serve him. Whether you're talking about a wicked nation or a righteous nation, there are certainly some nations that have done better than others.

There have never really been any truly righteous nations. But, you know, thinking in the sense of the

United States of America being better than most nations in the history of the world. This has been a place where technology and advancement have thrived, that poverty is extremely low compared to the rest of the world, that people have more opportunities here in the

US than they have in any other nation in human history. It really is an anomaly in the history of the world.

So the United States has done some great things. It has been, indeed, a great nation.

And there are other nations that have existed in the history of the world where people have largely thrived, have been very prosperous, and all of the citizens of that particular nation have benefited from that prosperity.

It's the reason why God said to Israel when they were in Babylonian exile, pray for the welfare of your captors, for in their welfare you will find your welfare.

And Paul seems to repeat that with the church in 1 Timothy 2, that we would pray for kings and those who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

If everything is going well for the nation that we live in, then we benefit.

If we have good laws that exist in the nation in which we live, that would allow us to worship our

God and even spread the gospel with other people, well, then the kingdom of God even advances through, though they might be secular laws, those laws that have been established equally for the people, we're able to use those laws for the advancement of the kingdom of God.

Use them for our benefit or for the glory of God, you can put it that way. So there have certainly been some good nations on planet earth that have benefited the people in an immense way.

God will use that nation however he sees fit. A wicked nation, we saw that earlier in Isaiah, where God used the

Assyrians, ridiculously pagan and violent, and used the

Assyrians to bring judgment on multiple nations, even Israel, because they had worshiped false gods.

So the Assyrians, as talked about earlier in Isaiah, were like a hammer in God's hand.

They were a tool. They were an instrument that he used. But the nations altogether, it doesn't matter whether you're talking about a prosperous nation that has existed for centuries or one that has, you know, it's brand new, a fresh upstart of a nation.

They are all but a drop in a bucket or a speck of dust on the scales.

Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

So in other words, you could take all of the animals in a nation as great as Lebanon was at this particular time, and even that would not be enough for a burnt offering to God.

All the nations are as nothing before him. They are counted by him as non -existent and utterly formless.

What do the nations have to do with God and his purposes and his will? He is going to accomplish whatever he means to accomplish with or without the nations.

So no matter what nation might think of itself as mighty and incredible and the most successful nation in the history of the world, whether that be the

United States or China or Babylon or Rome or whoever else, none of these great nations that could be spoken about in the present or in the past, even any great nation that would come about in the future, they are as non -existent and utterly formless before God.

To whom then will you liken God, it goes on to say, or what likeness will you compare with him?

As for the graven images, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold and a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

So God does not exist in the mind of man. You can't even fathom him.

You can't even cast him in an image that would correctly or accurately capture him.

And that's one of the things behind the command that God gives to us that we would not raise any graven image.

God saying this to Israel, a commandment that still exists in its form. Even today, don't make anything that looks like me, whether it's in heaven above or in the earth or in or what is under the earth.

We are not to make graven images. There is no way there's no conceivable way to cast

God in a particular image. And this is one of the things that has also bothered me about Jesus being portrayed in television or in film.

It is an attempt to cast him in a particular image. So, you know, of course,

Jesus was a human being. He was very God and he was very man. He's God.

He's man. He's incarnate. He is the God man. So he did have human likeness.

He put on flesh and dwelt among us, as said in John one. He became like us in every way, as said in Hebrews.

So Jesus was a man. But to cast him in a show or in a movie is an attempt to make him into an image.

And oftentimes that is done attempting to make him into our likeness. The Jesus of the chosen, he is in the likeness of an ecumenical

Jesus that the Jews can even like because they have Jewish scholars on the show helping them write the show.

They have like advisors, you know, their advisors to the script. They've got Catholics. They've got

Mormons that work on this show. There are even people that do not believe in God. The guy who played

John the Baptist, I believe it was in this particular show was and is an atheist.

And the gal that plays Mary Magdalene claims that she has faith now that she's come into the show, but is probably not really a

Christian. So anyway, you have all these different people, all these different backgrounds working on the show, and they all love the

Jesus in the show because it is a Jesus that is cast in the image of commercial

Christianity. Big Eva, as it's sometimes called, big evangelicalism. That's the version of Jesus that is in this show.

It is an image of Christ that has been cast in the image of the creators of the show.

So even though Jesus did have the appearance of a man, it is wrong and perhaps even a second commandment violation for them to be casting

Jesus in their own image, in their own likeness, in this particular way. It is impossible to capture

God in an image or likeness. It would be to diminish God.

It is to lessen God, his holiness, his otherliness. You can't capture it in an image.

And this is the reason why God has said you will not make a graven image.

You cannot make an image and call it me and worship it because you have diminished

God. You have created something that is according to your imagination, not trying to worship

God for who he really is and what he has said about how he is to be worshipped. And so this question is said here in verse 18, to whom then will you liken

God? What likeness will you compare with him? But for the graven images, a craftsman cast it.

A goldsmith plates it with gold and a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished to make such a contribution chooses a tree that does not rot.

He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman to prepare a graven image that will not be shaken.

And this is revealing the absurdity of those who will make these images and call them their gods and worship them.

Going on into verses 21 to 26 here.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who inhabits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

It is he who stretches out, sorry, yes, stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to inhabit.

It is he who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth utterly formless.

These men who would fancy themselves the controllers, the sovereign of all that they possess, all that they have been placed in authority over, but they don't hold anything.

God reduces them to nothing. As said in Daniel chapter 2 verse 21, he changes the times and the seasons.

He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.

It is the Lord God who does this. Verse 24. Scarcely have they been planted.

Scarcely have they been sown. Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, but he merely blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like stubble.

These rulers of the earth, again, as nothing before God, just as it was said earlier that the nations are as nonexistent and utterly formless.

Verse 25. To whom then will you liken me that I would be his equal, says the holy one.

Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one who leads forth their host by number, he calls them all by name because of the greatness of his vigor and the strength of his power.

Not one of them is missing. Every star that exists in the universe has been placed there by God, and he knows every single one of them.

We don't even know how many stars there are in the universe. That number keeps changing. Every once in a while, there will be some new report that is released by NASA.

Oh, you know what? We miscalculated the number of stars. Here's the number that it really is. And it's a number that is so astronomically high, no pun intended, that we can't even wrap our minds around it.

It is given in scientific notation, you know, the number 10 with 56 zeros behind it or something like that.

We can't even fathom the number of stars that are in the universe, but God knows every single one of them.

And all of them by name, if they were to be named. Verse 27. Why do you say, oh,

Jacob, and assert, oh, Israel, my way is hidden from Yahweh and the justice due me passes by my

God? Do you not know? Have you not heard the everlasting

God? Yahweh, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired.

His understanding is unsearchable. So this is speaking to those who think of who think about themselves.

My judgment's not going to come upon me. I've been living this way, and I've not ever had to face any real consequences for my actions.

So God has just forgotten about me. He's gone on to other things. But the everlasting

God, the creator of the ends of the earth, he doesn't become weary or tired.

His understanding is unsearchable. No, he's not forgotten about you. You can't just go on sinning and expect that you're going to get away with it without judgment.

Verse 29. He gives power to the weary and to him who lacks vigor. He increases might.

Though youths grow tired and weary and choice young men stumble badly, yet those who hope in Yahweh will gain new power.

They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get weary.

They will walk and not become faint. So this is, of course, the most famous verse in Isaiah chapter 40.

I teased it out last week and had even finished the lesson with it, though we didn't get to verse 31.

They'll mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Right. You've probably seen that in a Christian greeting card. Maybe it's been on one of your

Christian mugs or in some kind of a Christian calendar. It is a very popular verse gets used a lot.

I wrote about it in my book 40 of the most popular Bible verses and what they really mean. But as we've been going through this and we get to the context,

I hope you recognize what's actually being said here. That is the

Lord God who gives one their strength. This isn't about heaven, which is often the way that Isaiah 40, 31 is taken that when we get to heaven, we'll run and not grow weary.

We'll mount up with wings like eagles. That's not what's being said here. It is God who gives men their strength so that even those who are weak and weary, even those who might be oppressed by the ones who say,

I'm not going to have to answer for my actions. God's forgotten about me. Even the weary gain their strength from the

Lord. Those who hope in Yahweh will gain new power. Those who do not trust in God, their power will be taken away from them.

They will be made as nothing. God will obliterate them and wipe them out in his judgment. But those who hope in Yahweh gain new strength, they mount up with wings as eagles.

And specifically, the reference to eagles is chosen here because an eagle will completely renew its feathers.

So it becomes a new creature. Almost. That was what was thought of about the feathers of an eagle.

So why even old eagles can still look young because they will completely replace every one of their feathers.

So mounting up with wings like eagles in this reference to gaining new power, running and not getting tired, they will walk and not become weary.

We are able to endure. We continue in this faith that we are in holding fast to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith because of the power of Christ that is within us.

When the apostle Paul said in Philippians 4 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

He was saying, I can endure the most difficult of trials because my strength comes not from myself, but from the

Lord. The one who holds the waters in the hollow of his hand, who encompasses the heavens by the span, who calculated the dust of the earth by measure and weighed the mountain in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales.

It is he who gives us our strength and will sustain us and bring him into his heavenly kingdom.

Those who do wicked and evil in the earth, they will come to judgment, but we will come into everlasting life.

Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read in Isaiah chapter 40, and I pray that you would write these things upon our hearts that we may fear

God. We would not fear man, but we fear the Lord who holds the entire universe in his hand.

But this also is of great comfort to us. As we read in the beginning of the chapter, comfort my people says your

God. And so we are comforted to know that you reign and you are in control of all things.

Draw us near to you. Help us to resist temptation and sin and pursue the holiness of Christ.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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