"The Creator" Sermon: Isaiah 40:12-31 (manuscript)

“The Creator”

[Isaiah 40:12-31]

May 5, 2020 YouTube

            In the first half of Isaiah 40, Isaiah tells the people of Jerusalem and Judah that the time is coming when the Babylonians will conquer them and take them into captivity – and this is God’s discipline of them.  However, they need to remember – they need to be reminded – they need to tell their children and their children – that God will comfort them in captivity – in exile.  The God Who sends them into captivity has secured the salvation of all those who will ever believe, the Word of God – all the promises God made to them still stand and will stand throughout their exile – God’s Word is eternal.  And the God Who sends them into exile is also their shepherd.  God is disciplining them for their good.  It is through this discipline that they will come out a mature and holy people.

            What are you telling yourself during our exile – of varying degrees?  What do you believe about God and His promises?  Are you thinking more about Who God is – what God’s character is – what God is like?

            God, through the prophet Isaiah, answers the question of the generations hearing the prophecies of exile:  how can you say that God cares if He is going to exile us?

            How can we say God cares for us when people are dying, and it looks like we will never completely return to the “way it was”?

            The short answer we see is God saying, “I am the Creator, you are My creation.”

            First, God is the fount of all power and wisdom.

            God answers the unvoiced question, not unlike Job’s shaking of his fist at God and asking, “Just give me one reason…”

“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? 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 beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.”

God says, “first off, I have measured the earth and water – I know everything about everything.”

God says He can hold all of the waters of the earth in His hand.  He marked off the dividing line between the earth and sky.  And the mountains and hills of the earth are like dust on His scales.  God is the Ultimate Power – all power is God’s.

And who counselled God and taught Him?  Many of the pagan idols required humans to teach things to them.  Not the God of Judah!  God measures out the Spirit.  God knows everything, God understands justice – He has all knowledge and understanding.  God does not need an advisor – God has all wisdom and knowledge.

But couldn’t the nations get the better of God if God allows them to take Judah into captivity?  The nations are like a drop of water from a bucket or dust on the scales.  There is no injustice with God and God will never slip up and lose control – He is Sovereign over the nations.

And He is worthy of worship unlike any idol.  God is worthy of worship that is beyond human ability – if all the trees of Lebanon were burn and all the animals of the coastlands offered up to God in sacrifice, it would all be nothing compared to what God deserves.  God is the One True and Holy God.

The God of Judah – our God – is more powerful and more wise than we can possibly conceive – but He is also Good.  He is the God Who has chosen a people for Himself, and even if we don’t understand all that happens or all that God has said – He calls us to trust Him and believe Him and to stand on His Word.

Judah is told – and we ought to believe this and hold to it also:

“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4, ESV).

If God allows Jerusalem to be destroyed and the people taken off into captivity – it is not because God did not have enough power or lacks wisdom.  No, God knows what He is doing – and He is bringing it together for the good of we who love Him – He acts on the behalf of those who love Him and who wait on the promises He has made.

And Jesus promises that whether they live or die – whether we live or die – whatever happens, nothing and no one can ever separate us from God Who loves us and sent His Son, the Savior for us, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand” (John 10:29, ESV).

So, in the midst of the destruction of Jerusalem – in their being slaughtered and taken into exile for seventy years – in losing the Temple and the Promised Land – in the midst of the uncertainty of Covid – trust that God is all-wise and all-powerful and He is doing exactly what should be done – the best thing that should be done right now – so let us have hope as Abraham – and old man with a barren wife – had hope:

“In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ‘So shall your offspring be’” (Romans 4:18, ESV).

God does care for Judah in exile and He cares for each one of His people.  He knows everything and has all wisdom and can do exactly whatever He wills whenever He wants.

Let us learn Who God is from His Word and worship Him as we trust Him and have hope for the future.

Second, idolatry is worshipping the inferior.

“To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. 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.”

Calvin said that humans are idol factories.  We tend to turn to things we can control and make into our own image.  When we need or want something, we tend to avoid bowing before He Who is all-powerful and all-wise, because we have no way to influence Him – He cannot be bought off.

But we can have someone make a fancy silver or gold statue that we can pray to.  Remember the golden calf.  And if we can’t afford that, we can have something made out of wood that we can pray to until it gets rotten.

And we may think – no, it was those primitive people in Bible times that bowed down to idols, we don’t do that anymore.

Actually, there are people and there are religions where you bow to a statue and worship a statue.

But in America, it is more subtle.  We pray to the government to solve our problems.  We pray to our analysts to solve our problems.  We pray to the lottery to solve our problems.  We pray to the stock market to solve our problems.  Anything can become an idol if we put it in the place of God.

God knows that Israel has turned to idols in the past and will turn to idols in the future.  And here, God briefly gives this shock to the system as they prepare for exile by telling them Who He is and then – incredulously saying, “I am the Creator of everything that is.  I am the Almighty and All-wise.  And you are going to pay someone I created to take some metal or a piece of wood that I created to form into a god that has no power and no wisdom for you to worship and bow down to – are you serious?”

Who or what are you looking to for salvation and wisdom in Covid?  Where do you place your greatest trust?  Who do you think has the best chance of delivering you?  Have you turned Dr. Fauci into an idol?  Dr. Burx?  Nancy Pelosi?  President Trump?  The Congress?  Joel Osteen? Joe Biden?

It’s easy, isn’t it?  “If we just gave all-power to so-and-so, we would be delivered from this crisis.”

God has given us people and governments to serve us and Him, but God is God.  There is no comparison between God and anything else.  Making a god out of someone or something God has created is going to an inferior power.  Idolatry is worshipping the inferior.

As Judah prepares for exile, they should be in the Word of God and in the Temple in worship, seeking to grow in faith and obedience.  That is the proper way to be as something terrible comes and as we endure the terrible and as we come out of the terrible, by the grace and the mercy of God.

Know God and don’t be tempted by an idol.

Third, God is the Creator and Sustainer of all.

“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? 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; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.  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. 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? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”

Rather than worship an idol as things go wrong and in the midst of exile, worship God, because God is your Creator and God is the reason you continue to live and breathe.

God says, “Don’t you understand?  I am from before the beginning.  I am outside of time and space, and I created time and space, and I came into time and space to be the God of My people.  My home is outside of time and space.  Humans are like grasshoppers to Me.  I hung the sky like a curtain and spread out the earth like a tent for you to live in.

“I am the One Who puts princes in power and takes them out of power.  I build up kingdoms and take down kingdoms.  I cause the trees to grow from the seed, and I cause them to fall to the ground and rot.

“Who will you compare Me to?  Am I derivative of someone?  Is there someone who needs to teach Me so I grow into the great being than I am – the Holy One?

“Consider Who I am and what I do.  Look out at the night sky.  Look at the stars. I created every one of them.  I put each one of them in their place.  I cause each one to come out across the night sky.  I call each one of them by the name I have named them.  By My greatness and My power each one is and is not missing from the sky.

“If I am the Creator and Sustainer of all of Creation, do you think I could forget you?  Do you think I would forget My people? Do you think that My disciplining you means that I have failed or will not keep My promise to save the remnant?  I am intimately involved with all of My Creation, sustaining it and bringing it to exactly where I have planned it to be.”

Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:29-33, ESV).

Just as God causes sparrows to be born and live and die, so God cause us to be born and live and die.  But we were created in the Image of God, and we who believe savingly in Jesus are being conformed to His Image.  So, we have nothing to fear – in prosperity, in lack, in life, and in death, God is sustaining us and bringing us to exactly where He would have us be.

God is the Creator and Sustainer of all.

Fourth, God is the source of our strength.

“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

In hearing about their captivity and the length of it, some were depressed and thought that God didn’t really care about them – that God had forgotten them – perhaps, even, that God had violated their rights.

And God tells them, “Don’t you get it?  I am the Creator.  I never get tired.  I never run out of energy or power or strength.  I never forget what I am doing.  I never fail to keep My promises.  I am everlasting – and My health stays perfect!  My understanding is unsearchable.  When you don’t understand why something is happening – I know exactly why it is happening.  It may not be something I reveal to you, but I know everything.

“In fact, I am the One Who gives strength to the weary.  I give power to the faint.  I give might and increase the strength of the one who has none.”

Jesus told His disciples to pray for their “daily bread.”  That includes strength.  And God promises in this that He will give each person everything he needs to be and do what God wants for that day.  Understand, God gives each of us everything we need to be the person God wants us to be each day.  God does not give us everything we want to be who we want to be each day.

You may not want to be in exile or sick or lonely or frustrated or bored – whatever that is – but God – Who loves His people – is doing what is good and right and best for us to be His people.  We won’t always know what is happening or why, but God does.  God knew about Covid even before the Chinese government.  And God knows the “why” behind it.  I certainly don’t – except to say that such things happen in a sinful world, so let us know God and grow in faith and obedience in response to the salvation we have been given in Jesus.

The final sentences of this chapter are one of those “famous” sections of the Bible:  “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

I see this on plaques that are given to fat high school graduates – I got one – and to people in nursing homes, but we miss the point if we think this text is a talisman for getting good grades or overcoming illness – that’s not what it says.

The words that are translated “youths” and “young men” refer to choice men, men in their prime, those who are most fit for the military, and Olympians.  So, we are told that the people who hold in highest regard for their physical fitness get faint, weary, and fall down exhausted – they can’t go on forever – the best of us physically have a breaking point.  Even those of us who don’t have the body of an Olympian get overwhelmed by our circumstances.  Being told that the nation would go into exile for seventy years is overwhelming.  The shut-down of our country and everything we don’t know about Covid can be overwhelming.

But God!

Those who seek the Lord.  Those who look to grow in faith and obedience.  Those who have hope in the promises of God.  Those who cry out to God and say, “I am totally overwhelmed, Lord.  I don’t understand.  I don’t know what to do.  I don’t understand how we will come through this.  I find myself becoming depressed and anxious at times.  Lord, help me to wait on You!”

God will renew the strength of these people, because God is the source of our strength.  The only reason why you or I can do anything – physically, mentally, spiritually, is because God enables us.  God gives us the strength to be who God knows we are best to be today.  And, as God is pleased, He will strengthen us in ways such that it seems that we’re flying, that we’re running, that we’re walking – whatever God would have for us and enable us for this day.

Paul writes, “which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me” (II Timothy 1:12, ESV).

Judah, Jerusalem, brothers and sisters, how can we say God cares when we are in exile?

God is the fount of all power and wisdom.  This is all happening according to God’s plan – nothing has gone awry in the plan of God.

Turn away from worshipping any kind of creation.  Only God is God.

God is the Creator and Sustainer of all.  God is not some absentee god.  God is intimately involved in everything that happens, and He is bringing all Creation to the end for which it was created.

And God is the source of our strength.  From day to day, God provides for us according to His bounty and what He knows we need to be His people.

When Paul writes Timothy, he tells him he is suffering for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus.  And he tells Timothy that whatever God has for him –   life, suffering, or death – he is certain that God Who created him and sustained him thus far, will bring him to glory at the day of Christ Jesus.

Terrible things will happen for various reasons – perhaps only truly known to God.  Trust Him, know Him, worship Him, and wait on Him.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we thank You that You have made Yourself known to us as the Almighty, All-wise God, the only One worthy of worship, the Creator, Sustainer, and Source of all of our strength.  Help us to wait on You.  Send the Holy Spirit with power to us so we would not turn away or doubt or despair as we face difficult times.  Help us to trust that You are Sovereign in every moment of life – even in our lives.  Help us to look forward in hope, even when we don’t understand, knowing that You will bring us to Glory, through Your Son, Jesus.  For it is in His Name we pray, Amen.