Isaiah 40:12-28, What’s He Like?

The Prophecy of Isaiah 40 and the Question “What’s He Like?”

Isaiah, chapter 40, from verses 12 to 28,. Here are the word of the Lord. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span and closed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains and scales in the hills in a balance.

Who has measured the spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel. 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.

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. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel nor are its beast enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing. And emptiness. To whom then will you like God. Or what likeness compare with him. An idol. A craftsman cast it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast for its silver chains.

He was too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. And seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Do you not know. You're not here. Has it not been told you from the beginning.

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth. 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 out like a tent to dwell in.

Who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth is emptiness. Scarcely are they planted. Scarcely sewn. 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.

To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these. Who brings out their hosts by number calling them all by name by the greatness of his might.

And because he is strong in power not one is missing. You made the Lord out his blessing to the reading of his Holy Word. Faith is believing things when common sense tells you not to do you believe that.

Think about it is that what faith really is is a contrary to common sense. You have to believe like that against common sense in order to have. And the quote goes on to say kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.

Is that true. Well that depends on what or who you believe in. I guess if you believe in something that can't be proven that isn't even true then sure faith is a is a leap in the dark. It's against the facts.

It's in defiance of reality. But what if what you believe in it is real you have to defy common sense then. Well then you better know who you believe in and what he's like. Well that quote by the way on faith is from the beloved Christmas classic miracle on 34th Street.

It's a charming movie in many ways of protests against consumerism what he calls commercialism in the movie against the cold life of the agnostic who doesn't believe in anything just in making money living for what can you can see don't believe in anything unless it can be proven to him or actually to her.

In that case of that movie how life has to be more about than just simply dollars and cents about making profits about getting ahead. But the stuff that you can buy in a department store or now online there has to be intangibles kindness joy and love.

And they only come through faith. Well so far so good you might think. But in the movie rather than faith in God the faith is in Santa Claus. And particularly in one man's claim to be Santa Claus. Which makes the quote really weird especially in the context is in the movie of a trial because the character who says it is a lawyer who is defending his clients claim to be Santa Claus.

And as a lawyer you'd think he'd want to make his case on the facts. Right. Here's the facts that prove that my client Chris Kringle really is Santa Claus. Instead he says in a very unlawyerly like way well you just have faith faith of course then in what you're saying he is a certain person and you should be able to prove it.

But he says but no just believe. Of course by talking about faith and that faith in this in this one being the source of kindness joy love and other intangible spiritual things. He gives away that here in this movie Santa is a kind of stand in for God.

The movie is about faith in God. Or at least it is like faith in God because what is faith for him is also true. If it's true for faith in Santa then it's true for faith in God. Isn't it here Santa Claus is being like God.

He's he's wholesome. He's moral. He's about kindness joy and love and all the other intangibles. The kind of things that many Christians today would insist that we need more of be positive encouraging all the time.

Just like the cynical down-to-earth businesswoman in the movie is agnostic about Santa Claus. So the film is trying to to winsomely persuade agnostics out there in the world these cold soulless people just living for money and what they can put their hands on trying to persuade them on the value of faith.

But faith in what. Now someone whom common sense tells you that you shouldn't believe in although it may sound positive and uplifting it communicates something about the one we believe in. It says that God like Santa can't be proven.

He's a source of good feelings of sentimentality. He's an incentive to be nice to have joy and love and peace and all that. He's a motivation to have all the other intangibles. And so even if common sense whatever that is says not to believe.

Well you should anyway. What's father God like what he's like. Father Christmas. The traditional English character who was a predecessor to Santa Claus. What's Jesus like. Well the God the Son. What's he like.

Maybe he's not fat and old but he otherwise he is in the imagination of many people in our culture many people around us. He is a kind of a jolly gift bringer. One of the most I think popular. Obviously like a pole or anything on it.

But it looks like one of the most popular images of Jesus these days is not of a Jesus kind of looks like a nice surfer dude with a nice pruned beard and he's laughing. That's many people's image of Jesus kind of a younger version of Santa in a way.

And he after all he's a jolly gift bringer. He's saying stuff for the little children and letting them climb into his lap. Making a list of who's naughty or nice but practically everyone is really one of the nice ones.

Let's be real. I mean he says he's making a list of the naughty and nice but everyone really gets a gift. I mean have you ever heard of Santa actually giving out a lump of coal to some kid you know threatened but it's never done.

As far as I can tell this is what God is like to most people gearing up for Christmas right now on this culture all around us. That's what they think. He's a generous rewarder nearly everyone somewhat supernatural like Santa you know able to fly with a reindeer but not overwhelmingly.

So he's a legalist who rewards according to good behavior because that's what the naughty and the nice thing is that's that's that's called legalism in theological terms. But in the end he's a legalist with very low standards since in the end almost everyone gets rewarded.

Someone who helps keep the kids nice. He's a projection of our folk religions idea of God that he's. That is the culture's doctrine of God. What's God like. Well the culture says he's like this jolly old man in a red suit.

What do you really like. What do you compare him to. We see that here in Isaiah chapter 40 in five parts a first immensity second triviality third similarity then simplicity and finally analogy. What's he like.

We see the first the immensity of God. Isaiah is asking rhetorical questions. To begin with we kind of sang those in that behold our God song paraphrase right from this passage. Questions about about who God is and they each have an obvious answer in them is to get you to think think how enormous God is compared to us.

And verse 12 who has measured the waters and the hollow. That's the the cupped palm of his hand. Who has done that. Well not bail. Not the Assyrian gods whom the Assyrians thought were superior to the Lord.

Certainly not Santa Claus who is so immense so far beyond us that to measure out all the oceans and the lakes and the rivers in the world. He's got to put a few drops in the palm of his hand said yeah that's enough for planet Earth.

Who did that. Of course the Lord who created it. All who else could do it. Well no one. He is in a class by himself who marked off the heavens with a span. In verse 12 a span is the is the length between the tip of your thumb and the tip of your little finger.

So with is that it's your hand breath your your hand fully extended the heavens. He means the universe. He measured it. God measured the universe with his hand. And notice only one span says he measured the universe with his span.

Singular span not multiple spans. There's just one all the universe 94 billion light-years wide. I had to look that up a light-year being 5 .88 trillion miles. So get the length of the universe is 94 times 5 .88 trillion miles.

And that fits within the hand breath of God. That's the tip of his thumb to the tip. Or at least it fits in their step of his thumb to the tip of his little finger. Of course I think incomprehensibly immense.

We can't even imagine imagine a million miles. Certainly not a thousand million which is a billion. Certainly not even a thousand billion which is a trillion. Then multiply that a trillion which we can't imagine anyway.

Multiply that by five point eight eight. And then multiply that by ninety four. And that's how. That's how many miles fits in his hand. Just one hand breath. Of course this is beyond our comprehension.

And that's just the point. The point isn't that God actually has a physical hand out there. That's that big as big as a universe. The point is that he's everywhere at all times that he is right now 94 billion light-years away.

And he is just as present there as he is here. He who out the universe with just one hand cannot be measured by anything in the universe. Who else is like that. He enclosed the dust. I think it means all the dirt the soil the rocks.

And a measure. He weighed at the mountains and scales like a gold dealer go to a gold dealer. He asked for an ounce of gold. He measures out the gold in a container. This probably contains exactly an ounce.

Or I put it on a balance scale one side to God. It's all the dirt of the rocks and the mountains and the hills of the whole earth on one side and there's something on the other keeping it balanced. Maybe his finger like that verse 13 he was measured the spirit of the Lord.

And in Romans chapter 11 verse 34 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 16 Paul quotes this very verse as he reveals the gospel. And he's saying what the Spirit has revealed in the gospel. It's so great. Who could have figured it out just philosophically it came from the Spirit.

So things of the Spirit in 1st Corinthians 2. Who could have thought this up from their own mind. For who has known the mind of the Lord for the word mine therefore spirit in both Romans 11 and 1st Corinthians 2 them who has known the mind of the Lord.

Who could have guessed this. Who has been his counselor. Who did you have to go to for advice to figure all this out. Who's advised him to come up with a gospel. Now a tribal God who saves everyone in his tribe his chosen nation.

That's easy to imagine. The Assyrians thought that the Lord was just another tribal God as they stood outside Jerusalem mocking the Lord. All these other nations they had their gods. They weren't able to.

They listed them all these nations. You don't we I don't even know who they are. He listed them. They weren't able to save their their gods weren't able to save them. And your Lord is not gonna be able to save you.

He'll be no more able to save Jerusalem than all the other little tribal gods of the other little nations around have that we've conquered. They may mocked. And they found out the hard way when 185 thousand of their troops were killed that the Lord isn't like that at all.

A religious God who saves people. Who gives them all they want. Who rewards sacrifices. He rewards money. You give money. He gives you something back. You do the ritual. He gives you what you want. That kind of God is as predictable as a vending machine.

He's a blessing and cursing machine. You went to blessing. You put in the right. The right rituals are the right donations put in the right coins of religion. The right rituals the right church attendance right prayers.

Or the donations. That outcomes the blessing you want. It's easy. It's predictable. That kind of God is totally fathomable. You could. You could measure him. You can figure him out. He fits in our religious containers.

He follows our laws. When a Mary's nephews tried to talk her mother his grandmother out of confessing Christ she confessed Christ on basically go in her deathbed just a few weeks before she died. And one of her nephews tried to talk her out of that.

I don't talk her back into traditional Chinese religion. But the argument that he has a religious God who works pretty well it's religious God works pretty well. He thought. When he prays whatever he praised it was a Buddha or the ancestors or whatever God or all of the above he gets what he asked for.

He has a God who's like Santa Claus the giver of gifts. Mary told her mother that faith and God is not about getting the gifts you want. You crawl into his lap. You tell him your wish list. And he'll grant it as long as you've been nice.

Of course no. It's about forgiveness of sins and having a relationship with God that Christ our Savior loves us. And he will one day restore all things including our bodies as we're about to die. She nodded.

Yes. And when you're on your deathbed being offered a God like Santa isn't impressive. The true God isn't someone to be used to get the result. You want the trinket you want. He's someone you give your life to and all.

And worship like at the end of Romans 11 the beginning of Romans 12 after describing what the Spirit of the Lord has revealed in the gospel. Then in worship you respond in worship. Who has known the mind of the Lord.

He's so immense. Who has been his counselor. He doesn't need our advice. Who could have thought up this gospel. And then immediately you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. And you transform your mind so that you so that no more.

Are you trying to use God to get him to give you whatever trinket that you want whatever thing on your wish list that you want him to do for you. But you humble yourself. You are humbled by how immense he is.

What's he like. He's infinite in wisdom in verse 14. Whom did he consult. Who did he go to for advice. Who trained him. Who educated him. Don't know one because he never needed it. He's not like us. You know not even the most educated people of most intelligent smartest people among us.

I was a teaching assistant for a Nobel Prize winner. That Nobel Prize winner had to be taught. He had to go to university too and learn. He had to consult. He had to learn. He had mentors. But God's not like that.

He's not a just. He's not just a good student kind of the top of his class. Who learned all the information. And then it has it all mastered by now. Now he knew it all already. It's by his nature because it comes from him.

All truth. All true knowledge is an expression of the mind of God. It comes from God. All truth is first in God. We have to learn it. He already is it who taught him the path of justice. Justice the Hebrew words mishpat the right way to live.

Well no one. He's not like us. You have to be taught what is right. You know why we shouldn't kill. Not just because we'll get punished for it. But why we should not even not even do it if if we think we can get away with it.

Why sex is only for marriage. Why the property of others should be respected. So don't steal. Why we shouldn't slander people or be greedy. No one convinced him that. You know here's the way for society to prosper.

That the only way to have a thriving economy is if people are safe. So they're not fearing crime. The families are whole. This private property is honored. And he and he just kind of saw the logic in that and go.

Mm-hmm. That makes sense. I'll go with that plan. No that's the way we are. We have to be taught because we all often end up thinking. But you know I want to do what I want to do. I want to live in a society where I could kill if I don't like someone.

I can have sex with anyone. I don't like that. But then we have to learn. No the whole. Not only our lives get messed up. Everyone's world gets messed up. We have to be taught. But God's not like that.

Those laws are expressions of who he is. They're a reflection of his character. When we learn the right way we're learning about God himself. He's not like us. You need to be instructed to get knowledge.

You need to be trained to get understanding. You know that's why we teach what Bible calls the law. Why we have Sunday school and is part of why I'm doing what I'm doing right now. To teach to train. You need to be taught knowledge and understanding.

So you know the right way the way of justice. God is not like that knowledge and understanding our qualities. God has expressions of his character. There are who he has always been. We're learning to become like him.

He always is always perfect. He never has to learn or to grow. He's not like us. He's not in those ways. What's he like. He's infinite. And wisdom he's immense. What's the world like then in comparison to him.

We're so impressed by it attempted to be shaped by it by. But what's popular. If it's popular so many millions of people believe it. It must be true that that forms us. What's it like to him. It's trivial.

Second part. The triviality of the world. Starting verse 15. Behold I was pay attention. Notice. Compared to God the nations are like a drop from a bucket. Imagine you go to the well or to a faucet. Fill up a bucket.

All the nations all the people in the world their wealth and their power compared to God are like one little drop sloshing out of a filled bucket. It's trivial. Not worth noticing. They are accounted as dust on the scales.

You went to a gold dealer. Ask him to measure out for you an ounce of gold. You wouldn't insist. Yeah first you better claim those scales. I don't want to have to pay for that dust. That's on the scales.

Wipe it off. Afraid the dusters just weigh it down. He's cheating you out of gold. But having some dust on the scales. No the dust is just so. It's so trivial so inconsequential. Now. There's dust there.

Sure. But it's so light it's not worth the bother worrying about. He takes up the coastlands. It says oh that's all the nations out there beyond the sea. It's probably us right now. It's America. He takes them up like fine dust.

You know like this for God ever. 16. All the forests of Lebanon. You're renowned for his trees. They aren't sufficient. If you could sacrifice all the animals there that wouldn't be impressive to him.

That's just that's trivial. Verse 17. All the nations as nothing before him. They count them as less than nothing. China or India has the most people. Russia has the most land. America has the most money and power.

You put them all together with all of Europe and Africa and South America all the islands and still to God less than nothing and emptiness. We're impressed by this world. But what's popular. What's big.

What's successful. Big numbers populations and great power. They what everybody is now saying is right. We're so impressed by it that will even change what we believe and how we live to conform to it.

Because it must be right. Everyone's doing it. It's if so many people now believe or say something we're gonna go along often because we're just awed by it. God sees that all is trivial. A thin layer of dust you can wipe off in a second.

What's he like. Third point similarities. We try to portray him with similarities what he is similar to. To whom will you liken God in verse 18. I feel God is like whatever comes next is often just a projection of what that person wants God to be.

We have an urge to liken God to something to literally make likenesses of God. The Second Commandment forbids images of God. But we continue doing that anyway. And this is just an ancient problem that's about modern people have overcome now.

It's still going on very widespread. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses images of worship images of saints that each portray something about God that they they venerate really worship. They just make up a different word.

So they get a try to get around the Second Commandment. They've supposedly converted over a million evangelicals to their church in the United States over the last generation. So I don't think this is something past that we can just ignore.

Now they likened God to be who they want him to be in their idols. Verse 19. Craftsmen make beautiful likenesses. They're often beautiful. No sense to describe here. A craftsman makes images. It's a skilled piece of work of art.

Goldsmiths played it with gold. They adorn it with silver chains. It was nicely decorated. Idols are beautiful. Even the little icons the Eastern Orthodox Church. They're often exquisite works of art.

You look at them that way. They're often very well done. Remember in verse 6 all flesh is grass and it's beauty. Hebrew work has said the most beautiful thing people have. It's like a flower. Flowers are beautiful.

Idols are beautiful or attractive. We don't make idols out of ugly things. It's not most of the time you make them out of beautiful things. You'll make idols of what they think is beautiful. They make idols out of money.

They're too committed to making money to be able to come and to worship the true God. They idolize the relationship the relationship. That's a beautiful thing. They idolize it or the family. Family is a beautiful thing they idolize it.

If they're poor like in verse 20 they choose a good solid chunk of wood have a woodworker carve it make an idol out of it and make it. Make sure it's stable. Notice verse 20 to set up an idol that will not move.

You know one that won't fall down. They think that this thing that's beautiful this card with skill that this solid I think it's stable so it's worth living for. So they worship it today. We worship whatever it is our money our leisure our pleasure our sports our family the relationship.

We worship it with our time our we're so committed to our business the income that we can get so we have to work and we can't go to church. We think that's stable. We can build a life on that our God is.

Whatever we think is stable. What we think is worth sacrificing everything else for what we can build everything else on note that our God is what we think is stable what we sacrifice for what we think we can build on.

We think our money is stable that we can build our lives on it. And so we'll work. We'll do what whatever we can to get more of it even at the cost of worshiping God of the church. If we think our family is stable something we can build our lives on we'll sacrifice even the Lord for it.

Maybe that's the real reason we're making money. That's not necessarily because we're greedy but because we want to make money for the family. And so we're family worshipers. And so we'll create a God in our imagination who is similar to us who gives us what we want money family the relationship.

We try to make a God with similarities to us. And that's what an idol is. But that's not what God is like what's he like. Fourth point. Simplicity. Be amazed at the simplicity of the answers. Do you not know.

If somebody asked you that do you not know. Don't you know. They're asked. You're not really asking you a question. They're trying to tell you. You know this already. I'm trying to remind you of something you already know in verse 21.

Do you not know. It's a rhetorical question meaning that we already know the answer. Even if in our quest to make a God like what we want him to be make an idol. If in that quest we've denied it that's the only reason we're confused.

But we know it's obvious it's common sense. It's only when we try to make a God to serve us a God in our own image who give us what we want. Then when we've done that then we realize. Well that doesn't really make any sense.

Does it. You know it's against common sense that there's a God out there is all about me and getting me what I want doesn't make much sense. Does it. And so we say that we've got to believe in this self-made God our idol.

We got to believe in him anyway. Faith is believing with common sense tells us not to really why is that. Why is common sense telling us not to believe in this thing this God that we believe in. We say that because it's common sense that the creator of the universe doesn't exist to give us our wish list.

Does he make no sense to think. Here's the God the creator of the universe so large the whole universe fits in the hand one hand breath. And he exists to give me whatever I want on a wish list that doesn't make any sense.

So we say. Well faith is believing with common sense tells us not to. It's common sense of the true God doesn't revolve around us. So we make up a God who does maybe that God is the almighty dollar. Maybe our own sexual desires our own ego.

And so we'll fool ourselves. We'll call it a mystery. How can the great God of the universe be all about me. It's a mystery. We'll fool ourselves. We'll lie to our kids and ourselves. But if we're honest and ask what's he really like.

What's the true God like. But we know already. Really don't we. There's a simplicity to the answers because they're common sense. Do you not know. You're not here. You can hear the answer if only you listen to what's obvious.

The answer is simple. Has it not been told you from the beginning. From the beginning you heard about God that he's the Almighty. He's the creator of heaven and earth. In the beginning God created the heavens of the earth meaning that he is not part of creation.

He is the creator. He's eternal. He's infinite. Have you not understood this from the foundation of the earth. The answer is to all these questions is an obvious yes. Of course. The simplicity to the answer to the question what's he like.

What's the simple answer in verse 22. He sits above the circle of the earth. He's above the globe. We are to him there like grasshoppers little insects hopping around. We're small. We should know that already.

We should know that if we if we just thought about it we should know it's common sense. If he's the creator of everything then we're tiny to him. It's simple. He stretches out the heavens meaning the whole universe like a curtain.

He spreads it like a tent to dwell in. Astronomer Hugh Ross comments that this phrase he spreads out. That's stretching out the universe like it's a sheet. It accurately describes what's happening. The universe is indeed expanding like it's being stretched.

Who could do that. Who could pull the universe out like you put up a canopy. The answer is simple. We know it already. It's common sense. Verse 23 who brings princes. Or the word there judges powerful people.

People who can declare war. Who could put you in jail. Who closed down your business. Who can find you. Who could fire you. Who brings those kind of people we're so impressed by. Who brings them to nothing.

You can take the powerful down to be empty. The word emptiness at the end of verse 24 is again the same word as in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 where the new earth was without form and void. This is in verse 17 where all the nations are less than nothing.

In emptiness. They're void. He makes them like that in verse 24 makes the princes void empty. Verse 24 when he blows on them. This is in verse 7. Remember back to verse 7. The grass withers. The flower fades.

When the breath of the Spirit of the Lord blows on it. Here in verse 24 scarcely it was just after hardly any time has transpired. Scarcely are the powerful these princes. Scarcely are they planted. Scarcely sown.

They just begun to rule. They've just gotten power. Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth. They think they can be presidents or bosses or judges for life. But their life isn't that long. When the Lord blows on them and they wither and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

They thought they were so powerful. But they then they get blown away like dead leaves in a storm. Who does that. The answer is simple. God does. The answers are simple because we should know them already.

They're common sense. We see a night sky or the splendor of nature. And you know who created this didn't come about by chance. It didn't create itself. That's impossible. Remember even science proves the universe was created but could not create itself.

So where does it come from. We all know the answer. It's simple. What's he like. Fifth point. Analogy. We want an analogy to compare him with starting verse 25. But all our analogies distort him. They reduce him Billy just to something that we can understand.

And if we understand him we think we could control him. You know someone like Santa Claus. Be nice. You get what you want. It's easy to control. Right. And so he asked in verse 25. To whom. Then will you compare me.

Who is like God. Now we all like visible illustrations. Well like analogies especially of the invisible something that we can point to and say the invisible God is like that that thing you can see. Who do you compare God to.

Who is he like. And now God here is asking us who do we think he is he asking you who do you think I am. Is he like the president is powerful. It's kind of distant. Doesn't really know you personally.

You're kind of just a statistic to him. You like a teacher. He's informative is engaging. Do you like a parent. It's an authority but close in relationship with you. But which parent. He's not really like Santa.

Is he a legalist with low standards. A jolly gift-giver. All about giving you the stuff you want. But now we know better than that. Who's a good analogy for God. What's he like. Verse 26 tells you lift up your eyes on high.

Stop looking down here for analogies to him. So looking down here at the people who who are like you. Only to be disappointed. Have your view of him distorted. Look up your lift up your eyes on high to the Holy One.

Holy means distinct. He's separate. He's higher. He's unlike least perfectly unlike anything else in creation. See who created these this enormous universe this earth with life teeming around us. See that it's it's him who brings out the stars brings out the galaxies one by one calling them all by name.

There's so many of them. We've run out of names for them. But he has names for them all. He introduces each star each nebula each galaxy each comet each asteroid each planet. But the greatness of his might which is infinite.

There are at least one septillion. This is a word I didn't know existed until this week I learned it just preparing this one septillion stars. That's one with 24 zeros behind it. Try to imagine how long that is.

There are an estimated 10 trillion galaxies in the universe with each about averaging about a hundred billion stars each that's totaling 1 septillion stars. And God made each of them and named each one because he is strong in power.

There's enough power to create all these. And not one is missing. Not one of the one septillion of them is overlooked. Now one falls to the cracks. It's got about that star back there. Not one. So who.

Exactly. Who are you going to compare him to. What analogy can you use for him that does him justice. Nothing. No one you can't. He's in a class by himself. So we like Job at the end of Job sit back stunned quietly in silence overwhelmed.

What's he like. He's not like anything anyone we can comprehend. We like to imagine he is. We like to reduce him to the idols that we think we can control. Or the analogies. People who are like us. If we can comprehend him we think we can control him.

But he who measured out the universe cannot be measured by anything in the universe. Certainly not by us. We grasshoppers. What's he like. Well he is like someone. Actually the answer is simple. There is one who compares that you can point to and say God is like him and not reduce God.

He's like the one. The voice in the wilderness in verse 2 told us to prepare for Jesus. God is like Jesus like I'm like me. And you're like you. The Lord the Holy One is like Jesus because Jesus is as in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.