Isaiah, 40:1-14
Vern Peterman · Sep 24, 2006
Isaiah, No. 37
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492602401130

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Before we proceed into our Isaiah passage this morning, I just want to bring to your attention just one last time, because next Sunday is when the new electives start, okay? So we have those in the Romans class who we encourage to continue. Identification truths in 1 Peter are the ones for which there are sign-up sheets. out in the hallway there. Marriage, family, and finances, we're going to shift that to another time. See me if you are interested in that, and we'll want to set up a time that's convenient for all those that are interested. So anyway, sign up for the 1st and 2nd Peter and Identification Truths if you're going to be taking those.

Alright, into our Isaiah 40 passage. Gene read the particular verses we'll be focusing on this morning. We pointed out last week that there are differences in these sections. Here we have this book that's 66 chapters long. By chapter count, the longest book in the Bible. And we've made a shift here from the first 39 chapters to what we'll be covering today. Before we leave chapter 40 entirely, Excuse me, I'll leave chapter 39 and go on to 40 entirely.

We'll want to play a little game. You've probably played it. You get together with somebody you haven't seen for a while and you play what happened to, right? It's sort of an old home week kind of thing. Whatever happened to so-and-so, right? That sort of thing. You've done that, I'm sure.

Isaiah chapter 39 is the last place we pointed out last week in the book of Isaiah where the name Isaiah and Hezekiah are mentioned. As a matter of fact, early on in the book, at the very start, we said that there are four kings that are listed as being kings of Judah, and it was during the time of those kings that Isaiah had his ministry. Hezekiah, the fourth one, mentioned for the last time here in chapter 39. So the question is, playing this game here, I don't know if they had high school annuals in those days, but whatever happened to, we're going to look at that.

The Lord protected Jerusalem just like He promised. Remember we said last week the Lord made a unilateral promise to Hezekiah. Not, I will protect Jerusalem if, but just flat out, I will protect. King Hezekiah lived out the 15 years the Lord had promised. and Hezekiah's son Manasseh took the throne at age 12. How about that? Is John here with us here this morning? Yeah. John, are you ready?

I mean, you've already had a few years in at your kingship here, right? Okay. So reigning for 55 years. I guess if you start young, you've got plenty of time, right? So this is pretty extraordinary. We also included, and you have in your handout as well, This timeline, basically about 702 was when Hezekiah was given these promises. Died, as he was told, 15 years later. How about that? To be told you're going to, regardless of anything else, have 15 years. Period. That's it. Nothing's going to happen. Nothing's going to happen to you, the city you're in. Nothing. You got 15 years. That's it. Flat out. That's what Hezekiah had.

Now, the rest of the story. Isaiah does not actually have any sort of detailed account in Scripture to tell us whatever happened to the guy. We have a bit of a hint, but most of what we have is other accounts which, of course, don't have the same level of reliability of Scripture. I'm not saying they're not true, but simply Scripture is absolutely reliable. These are less so.

Written Jewish traditions, this is particularly what's called the Babylonian Talmud, say that Manasseh sent his soldiers to hunt Isaiah down. Once his father was kind of off the position of control, Manasseh said, go get that Isaiah guy, take him out. Well, what happened, according to the account, they caught Isaiah hiding in a hollow tree. And so the order was, cut the tree. Only Isaiah was in it.

Hebrews 11.37 kind of gives us a hint of what occurred, and that's about as close as Scripture comes. Here you have it on page 1 of your handout, and I'll read it here. This is in what is sometimes called the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, starting in verse 32.

And what more shall I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel, and the prophets. Isaiah, of course, is one of those. who by faith, and then moving on down to verse 37, they were stoned, they were sawn in two. This would be consistent with, even though it doesn't mention Isaiah specifically, the account that's outside of scripture. They were tempted, they were put to death with a sword, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, certainly Isaiah was at this point, men of whom this world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. So this is the best biblical hint that we have. So that would have been what happened to Isaiah from the information we have.

Now, finally, Hezekiah's son Manasseh. What happened to him? He was the most wicked king. until the time when he was taken captive to Babylon. Remember we heard last time that Hezekiah was told, you'll be okay, you'll live another 15 years, the city of Jerusalem will be protected. After that, uh-oh, it's trouble. So he was taken to Babylon. It was after that humbling experience that he did turn to the Lord. It was too late for Isaiah, however, and in his last days, remember he was king for 55 years, in his last days he did turn to the Lord.

Now, we're shifting over into chapter 40 here, which is the second section. One of the things we're going to find out from chapter 40 into 48, Isaiah is going to be making substantially in those chapters a contrast between the God of Scripture and the pagan gods.

And what does that do for us, is that tells us about the character of God. Because one of the things that he's going to be doing is saying, the God of Scripture is like this, the real God is like this. Contrast that with the pagan gods. So there we have then revelation to us. What is God like? This passage of scripture we're starting into now tells us what is God's character. What is God's character?

Alright, he starts off in chapter 40. We're not going to touch on it but briefly. Comfort, O comfort my people. This is a double imperative in the Hebrews. And it is a message to comfort the Jews, who are God's chosen people. Comfort is a theme in the rest of Isaiah. This is two times, and there's going to be eleven more through the end of the book. Comfort is going to continue to be brought up again and again to the Jews here. The other thing, in many of those instances, is God is the one who does the comforting. Here we see the imperative. Comfort, comfort my people, says God. but most of the passages where it talks about comfort, it's actually God being the one who is doing the comforting. So, what's meant by comfort?

Does that mean everybody in Jerusalem gets one of those lazy boys? Is that what it's talking about? Probably not. Okay. No, it's encouragement, it's hope, it's consolation in troubled times, it's relief from anxiety. It is those things. So I have a question. You say, well, that's great. I'm not in Israel. What does that do for me? Is there comfort offered for me as a believer who... No, I'm in the church. I'm not part of Israel. Are we offered these benefits of comfort? Or are those only offered to Israel and we're just out of luck? Well, let's take a look. Here's 2 Corinthians. Chapter 1, 3 through 5.

Bless me, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. Who? Comforts us. God is the one comforting. Just like we saw in the rest of Isaiah. Most of the accounts there were talks about comfort in the last half of Isaiah. God is the one comforting. We get that too. We ourselves are comforted by God. There's a ministry of comfort. but it begins with Him comforting us. Here's Romans 15, 5 and 6. May the God who gives perseverance and encouragement an aspect of comfort.

2 Corinthians 1.10, a brief reference there. Hope. Where is our hope? Our hope is in Him. He on whom we have set our hope. Our hope is in the Lord.

Here's Philippians, which is itself a very encouraging book. From the first to the last, it's a book of encouragement. Therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and compassion, make my joy complete. Remember, that's not a Clint Eastwood statement.

Make my joy complete. No. Alright? By being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Alright? And finally, Philippians 4, 4-7. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing. Now, wait a minute. Nothing? Don't I get kind of a percentage there? Can't I keep a little bit to be anxious about? What fraction do I get to count? Every third one, I'd be anxious about that? No. For nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

All right, here's Isaiah 43-5, a voice calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. And let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." In the start of Isaiah, something kind of astounding happens here. Isaiah chapter 40 opens with some amazing words, these comfort, comfort my people, but then, revealing insights into both the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 40 verse 3 is paraphrased in Matthew 3. And it turns out it is telling about the ministry of John the Baptist. You may recall seeing that in Matthew. It's quoting from Isaiah. Matching up the chapters in Isaiah and the books in the Bible with the sequence, you find that Matthew is Bible book number 40. And we're reading in the 40th chapter of Isaiah.

Interesting connection there. Here in verse 3, a voice is calling, clear the way of the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. It was conventional practice in those times to put out an announcement ahead of royalty coming through so that they can smooth out the roads.

One of the things that we point out earlier, the practice in those days was if you're a farmer, you don't want rocks in your field, right? So where do you throw the rocks? In the road, right? And so, finally then when the king comes through, you got rocks on the road. Where do you throw them? In the field, right? Okay, so everybody's happy for a while. This would be an example of, here's a bunch of rocks on the road. Road's rough. Alright, smooth it out. Make it a nice smooth highway. Pitch the rocks back into the field. Let the farmer deal with it.

Verse 5, then the glory of the Lord will be revealed. One of the things that we point out is that Isaiah continues through, and especially through these next chapters, to proclaim God's eternal purpose. We've pointed that out in four ways. To reveal God's glory, to declare God's glory, to share His glory, that He might be glorified.

Isaiah talks about the Gentiles. Isaiah talks about Israel. He does not, however, talk about the church, and this is not in your handout, so make note of it if you'd like. Isaiah has not spoken of the church. It's a message revealed only in the New Testament. The Old Testament does not speak of the church. So we'll have Isaiah talking about the Gentiles, as he has been, and about Israel, but not about the church yet. That's to be held to the New Testament. Here's some examples in verse 5, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together when the Lord comes.

Why? He's glorious. The next chapter, 41-16, you will rejoice in the Lord, you will glory in the Holy One of Israel. Where's the glory? In Him. Isaiah 42, next chapter, I am the Lord, that is my name, I will not give my glory to another. Now wait a minute. Isn't that a little puzzling? We said, reveal his glory, declare his glory, share his glory. If he says, I will not give my glory to another, isn't that a contradiction? Do we have a Bible problem? Ah, nor my praise to graven images. That's what he's talking about. Remember, this whole thing is God and the pagan idols.

And he says, I'm not giving my glory to that. You want to make something out of wood or metal, stone? You made it. But I'm not going to put my glory on that thing. And so that's what it's referring to. I will not give my glory to some pagan idol. He will, however, share his glory with us.

The next verse that comes along there is in verse 8. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Now, grass and flowers do have a glory, don't they? You see a field full of wildflowers and you say, oh wow, that is beautiful. Those things express and declare the glory of the Lord, don't they? They fade, but they do have a certain glory. But the Word of God, spoken and written, has a permanence, has an eternal permanence and a stability that's unmatched. God is the author of His Word.

Here's something to think about. Here we've got Bibles in the P.R.A.X. and many of you have Bibles with you. You've brought these along. Think about it. What you have is God's revealed Word brought to you by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit right in your hand. That is amazing.

Hebrews 4.12 says that the impact from that Word goes beyond just the eyeballs, beyond just the brain. It touches heart and soul, the very depths. Nothing else can get there. Nothing else can touch that. Nothing else goes that deep. God is the author of His Word. That's why He can say, the Word of our God stands forever. God is eternal and changeless. He has infinite character.

You have the revelation by God's own intent and declaration in God's Word. You have the expression of God's character. If you're holding a Bible now, that is revealing God's character by His intent. Every word inspired, His. It's through that written Word that we who believe behold the living Word. You have the written Word. We behold in that the living Word, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. It's in beholding Him that we're transformed from glory to glory. How? Through His written Word. We behold the living Word and are transformed, changed from glory to glory.

That's a word rarely used, even in the New Testament. But that's the power of God's Word. That's what we're studying here this morning. The Word of our God stands forever, and the changes that it makes stand forever. His glory, glory to glory, forever. This word forever shows up in Psalm 119, 89. Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. That's the same word as we see in Isaiah 40, verse 8. Just a little aside here, that's also the word that if the days in Genesis 1 were intended to be long days, that's the word that they would pick, olam, not yam. Alright, Matthew 24, 35. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will last a little bit longer? No, my words will not pass away. Why do these words last so long?

Is it the really special paper that they have? Is it because the ink is really, really, really, really good? No. It's the word of the Lord. It is His character that is expressed. Therefore, the words that He expresses, every last word that's inspired in what you have, those words are what last forever. Those words are eternal, because He is.

This heaven and earth will pass away. This message is also conveyed in 2 Peter 3 and Revelation 21. This present earth will pass away because God goes, oops! No, it will pass away by God's intent. God's word, however, will remain forever by God's intent. When it comes to these things, God is not making any accidents, no oopses. It is all by God's intent. When this earth is done, it'll be done because God says it's done. God's word, however, remains. Why? He says so. And He's going to be around forever to make sure. God won't be challenged in that way. God's words will not pass away. Here's Isaiah 40, verse 10.

Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. Now we have the first part of that verse there. Behold, the Lord will come with might, with his arm ruling with him. Of course, this is what his arm means, right? God pumps iron. He's really buff. No, probably not. What does it mean? What does it mean when the Lord will come with might here, with His arm ruling before Him?

Both the Old and New Testament point to this time still yet future. It's now been 2,700 years since Isaiah wrote these words, and this time is yet still in front of us. It's a time still yet to come. It'll be the end of the Tribulation period when He will come with mighty arm, and he will reign then on this present earth for a thousand years as revealed in Revelation 19 11 through 20 verse 6 you have it on a chart on page 2 of your handout there and it shows the time yet future the tribulation period seven years in length 360 day Jewish years And then the Millennial Kingdom, when he will reign on earth for that thousand year period of time. And you're about in here. You can slide that finger one way or the other a little bit, that's alright. But the idea is that the Tribulation is still yet future. That time of his reigning and coming to reign is still yet future.

So the arm of the Lord is used throughout Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament. to convey the power of God in action. Where you see it used, it's not just God's real powerful, believe me, and that's it. But God is real powerful and he shows it and he demonstrates it. One of the phrases that's used is God's outstretched arm. God is using his power. That's what's conveyed with this figure of speech. Anthropomorphism, it's called. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him.

Does that mean, oh boy, we all get just gold bricks like crazy? Our cars will be just loaded to the gills and we'll be scraping down the road with the gold bricks. Is that right? Is that what it means? Probably not. No. Christians will shy away. Ever run into anybody who does that? They shy away. Maybe even you felt that. Gee, rewards, that sounds kind of hokey, you know? If I'm going to go to heaven, am I going to be having a big stack of gold bricks in my mansion? Is that what I'm doing? What is this reward stuff? And I've actually had some Christians that have said, no, I don't want it. I'm not interested. Now, some people thinking it's materialistic say, no, I don't even want to hear about it.

But, what have we got here? Scripture speaks repeatedly of rewards for the Saints, whether in Israel, like in this passage here, or the Church. Revelation 22.12 quotes this verse about Christ's reward for us in the Church.

Here's Revelation 22.12 and then into verse 13. Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me. to render to every man according to what he has done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." These two verses are quoted substantially out of the book of Isaiah, and the one we're looking at right here in particular. This verse will be repeated in Isaiah 62, 11. Think of this. This is the last chapter of the last book of the Bible. It is God's expression.

A lot of times we would think when people are telling something and their time is like almost over, usually what they would say towards the end you would think would be important. So what does God do? Here is the book of Revelation, the last book out of the whole Bible, the last chapter of that book, the last things that are said by Christ. Wouldn't you think those would be really important? What is God eager to do? What is the Lord eager to do? My reward is with me. He is eager to reward us.

Here's Isaiah 41.4, 44.6, 48.12, the first and the last. That's quoted of God Himself saying that. God Himself says, I am the first and the last. Verse 13 is basically three statements that mean that Christ, who is God, He is the one who defines everything from A to Z. The rabbis used to say, from Elif to Taf, in the Greek, the Alpha and the Omega, and we would say in English, from A to Z. The first letter and the last letter and everything in between. Everything is defined by Jesus Christ. And guess where we get to be? In Him. We are in the One. by whom everything is defined.

Finally, Isaiah 46.10, and notice this is in that passage, chapter 40 through 48, keeps telling about the character of God, personalizing in the above what God says that he does, the beginning and the end. So here are these last things that Jesus Christ says to the church. are quoted out of Isaiah substantially. Alright, here's now the last part.

Behold, His reward is with Him. I think it's important for us to recognize God is motivated, and Jesus Christ is the agent. God is motivated, I would say, especially here, strongly motivated, when you look at the last words in the last book, the last chapter of the Bible, strongly motivated to reward us. and he wants to reward us fully.

Isn't that interesting? Second John, verse 8, he desires to reward you fully. Is rewarding you sort of a minor incidental thing with God? Does he want to be kind of nice if he sort of gave you a little bonus or something? No. He desires to reward us fully and he is exceedingly eager to do so. And the rewarding of us is not an appeal to just fleshly greed. It's not, I got a big mansion and it's just full of gold bricks. Heaven's sagging because of the gold bricks. No, that's not the motivation he's talking about.

This is a Stephanos crown. Now, that's the big picture. The New Testament contains, addressed to the church, five of these Stephanos crowns. You know, these are the ones that are listed. I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord adds to their number, but at least we're told about these. And so you have them here. A victor's crown in 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians. A church founder's crown. How about that? A rapture lover's crown. Are you looking for the Lord's coming? There's a crown for that. Okay? Lord's coming? Yep.

Nancy and I had a friend years ago who was in one of these department stores and you know how the department stores will occasionally have these weird tones and sounds that come over the loudspeaker and it means something to the She's got a lot of stuff. She's got a lot of stuff for various employees. It's like Christmas time, so her arms are loaded up with things. All of a sudden, the department store comes up with this, and she just drops everything.

I'm ready, Lord. I don't know. She may have wrecked a couple of gifts, but I think she's ready for a rapture lover's crown. She's looking for the Lord's coming. How about an elder's crown for service? People that you and I, you know, here on earth may never meet. They may not know their names. Sometimes their names may be unrecorded. God keeps track of it. There's a martyr's crown. Maybe other crowns. There's a general statement of rewards, which to me seems to open the door to other, you know, kinds of things. And a crown may be somewhat of a picture. Here's three of them.

A solid foundation. A reward for standing solidly upon the Word of God. A voluntary service reward. Doing it not because you had to. Not the arm-twisted-behind-the-back reward. A voluntary service and inheritance reward. So these are rewards, and again, I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord has other things, but the key thing is that the Lord does desire to reward us. He does desire to reward us fully. And these are things of eternal value.

This is a Stephanos crown, a victor's crown for an athletic competition. A victor's crown for an athletic competition. In one of the churches it says, he who overcomes, I will give to him a white stone. The white stone was used along with this victor's crown, was given to the victor, that was his invitation to the victory banquet. Marvelous pictures that he's using here. You're awarded not to be some kind of royalty, but these are pictures indicating your victory. These crowns are an eternal capacity to glorify the Lord.

Here's one of the ways that we see that, Revelation 4.10. We studied that, oh, many, many, many months ago. You memorized it, right? Okay.

The 24 elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever and will cast, and the Greek here indicates a repeated casting, repeatedly cast their crowns before the throne. It is an ability, a capacity to glorify the Lord.

Now, when we go up to glorify the Lord, if this person has five crowns, and I don't have that many, does that mean I'm somehow diminished? Everybody will be glorifying the Lord to 100% of their capacity. And one believer will simply have more of a capacity. But I won't be looking over at him and say, oh, I wish I had his capacity. No, everyone will be delighted to glorify the Lord. And our focus will be on Him, not on the crowns. And I don't even think your neck will get stiff if you have five. I think it'll be fine. Okay. Now, verse 11.

Like a shepherd he will tend his flock. In his arm he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing youths. Scripture frequently conveys both Israel and the Church in the idea of a shepherd leading the sheep. Now years ago, there's more farm stories you know, I spent a fair amount of time around the sheep and some of you might say, yeah I can tell. But anyway, I spent a fair amount of time around the sheep and you know, they take a lot of taking care of. It's amazing and some of the things that they do is also amazing. This analogy of the shepherd, and the one thing that the shepherds in biblical times did that I didn't do is they stayed with the sheep all the time. And I was glad to be able to leave them, especially after they put me on my... Anyway, okay. The flock isn't just a flock or some... Okay, this is a flock, okay? It is his flock.

And when it's used in reference to the church, we see it in Acts 20, 28 and 1 Peter 5, 2. It is his flock, it is his blood-purchased flock, and we're reminded of that. It's not just sort of randomly been given, you know, okay, here's your shepherd, you know, and there's one for you, but it is a flock for whom he paid his life's price. He bought the flock with his blood, a blood-purchased flock. It's His flock belonging to Him.

Notice the verbs that show up here. Tend, gather, carry, lead. Those are certainly written here to Israel, but you know the same words because the shepherd analogy holds. The same words apply to us who are in the church. Let's take a look at that. The Lord tends us, watching over us carefully for our spiritual provision and protection. The Lord watches over us carefully, looking at the outset.

He says, what do these people need to be blessed with? I know, I'll bless them with some blessings. Bless them with a couple of blessings. A few. No. I'll bless them with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. There's a good start. The flock has been made into one flock. There's a gathering. Made into one. Who did the gathering? It's the Holy Spirit's task. to place us into the flock.

The carrying and the leading of the Lord. We certainly have our eternal position in Christ, who we have been made to be, because as we said before, we are in Jesus Christ. He carries us. There is also the ongoing ministries of the Holy Spirit. If you look throughout the New Testament at all those many ministries of the Holy Spirit, it is amazing what the Lord is doing right now as an ongoing ministry in and through you and me.

It is astounding. We also have what the Lord has determined to be. Now some people, the idea of God determined something, they kind of feel constrained, almost claustrophobic. Do you ever feel spiritually claustrophobic? Well, some people feel that way, but these are comforting things. These are things that we ought to be able to look at. Remember that word comfort from before? These are things we ought to be able to look at and say, you know, I don't care what happens, there's a day when I'm going to go be with the Lord.

There's a day when I'll be with Him. Some dozen and so years back, my brother came down with cancer and it was getting towards the end of the calendar year at that point in time. And so I sat down with him and I played the guitar and he and I sang several songs together. And when he was all done, he said, Vernon, no matter what happens, here I am. I said, it's okay. He said, I'm alright, the Lord's got hold of me.

And he went home to the Lord a week later. but my brother could count upon. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter what's happening next. He'd count upon the Lord. The Lord's going to bring me home. I'll be with Him. It couldn't be better. This verse uses that shepherd analogy to show the Lord's Tender care for each one of us.

Notice there isn't some distant situation. There isn't some, you know, oh, there's a Lord up there somewhere. You know, the man upstairs, you know. All these things are close. The Lord is up close and personal with us. The Lord cares for us dearly in all the fine details. The Lord has no accidents. He's watching over every single detail, not missing a one. It is personal, individual, every detail caring for you.

One of the things that the shepherds did in biblical times is they would have names for the sheep. And one of the things that's neat, one of the churches is promised in Revelation that says, I will have a name that basically only you and me will know. Isn't that something? Are there thousands and thousands of saints? Yeah. But the Lord will have a unique relationship with you alone. He will know you by name. He cares about every detail. Every little one hasn't missed a stroke. There are no accidents. The insurance company may call it an accident, but there are no accidents. The Lord cares about every detail, every single one.

Now, Isaiah 40, 12-14, the last few verses of our passage here, lots of questions. You think, my heavens, it's all these questions, and he doesn't give answers for them. This is kind of weird. Alright, let's take a look at that. One of the things we notice as we look throughout Scripture, the Lord has seen fit to place some questions in various places in Scripture.

Genesis 3, here is the Lord coming into the garden, and Adam has just blown it, big time, okay? And the Lord comes and He says, what kind of sandwich do you want? No. He says, Adam, where are you? Is it because the Lord doesn't know where Adam is? No. He asks a question for Adam's benefit, for Adam to recognize, hey, wait a minute, something's different here. The Lord has not asked this question before.

Job 38 and 39 are mostly questions, even into chapter 40, which I haven't mentioned in here. There's still a section of chapter 40, lots of questions. Romans 6, 1 through 3, and other parts throughout Romans that the Romans elective is going through, questions. Why?

They're put in scripture not because God does not know the answers. They're put in scripture because God has seen fit to use in various places questions to involve us in the thoughts. If God just told you this and that, which he does in many places, we might not get so drawn into the thought process. What he definitely wants to do here when he asks questions is for us to think it through and to answer and to learn something to a depth that we wouldn't learn if the question wasn't asked.

The question is asked to involve us. The New Testament, let me just give a related illustration. The New Testament oftentimes use if It might be easy in some of those cases to just say, well, I just mean sense and go on. And the reality is that the if is put there to involve us in the thought. That's why it's there. And that's what we see in various places, including, again, the Romans class here. The author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is wanting us to be involved in the thought process.

Isn't prayer kind of like that? Couldn't the Lord just do everything? Couldn't He just say, you don't need to pray, I know about it already anyway. No. The Lord says, I want you to pray. Matter of fact, pray all the time. He says, I love to fellowship with you. I want you to be involved. Could He just do it? Could He just plug it in our heads and make it instinctive? Yeah. No, He wants us to be involved.

Here's verse 12, "...who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off 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." How does the Lord's scale of things compare to ours? The earth's oceans have about 321 million cubic miles of water. That's a lot of water.

I'm glad it's not in here. What magnitude is that to God? Does God go, wow, man, God doesn't do that, right? Why? It's so small, He measures it by the handful. That's the ocean. 321 cubic miles, no problem. The magnitude of the astronomical distance. What's God's view of those things? How big is an expanse of the universe? It's funny how this number keeps growing. Most recently estimated containing 500 billion galaxies. I think when I was in college, it was a billion, but okay. 500 billion is the latest number that NASA has come up with. I don't think they're planning on going to all of them.

But how big is that to God? Is God challenged by it? Think of it here, we have these phenomenal astronomical formations out there, some of which we're still discovering. It's small enough he measures it by the span of his hand. Does it mean God has a hand? No. The idea is it's no challenge to him. It's no biggie.

How about the dust particles? If you were to look at just the sediments in the ocean, you've got 77 million cubic miles of sediment. By the way, I've got to remind you, there's also dust on the earth and on the land. I don't need to remind you. Anyway, there's dust all over the land.

How does God deal with it? By the hand measure. That's it. Add a little cup. This was about the size of a coffee cup to give you an idea. That's the measure he's talking about. How about the weight of the mountains? That's heavy brother. The mountains and hills are supported by buoyancy. Now this is from the principle of isostasy, and I'm not talking culinary terminology. The principle of isostasy. Now I've shown you this picture before. This is the one, remember, where Nancy Holt heard me say 35 years ago, that I'm never getting married. You can't serve the Lord that way. You remember that one.

Okay. This is where we met. Right there. Okay. We didn't get married there. No. This is my geology class where they taught about isostasy. And what is that? Okay. This is a slice out of the earth. I'm sorry, folks. This is earth guts right on the screen. Okay. And it looks like this.

The mountains actually have a dip because of the buoyant forces and this balance, if you will, like Isaiah uses the terminology, is actually what's happening to the mountains and the hills. There's a balance that looks for equilibrium just like a measuring scale would. Isn't that interesting? Now, if all that blows your circuits, no problem.

The idea is, just keep in mind, a mountain is not too big for God to deal with. Not too big. Here's Isaiah 40, verse 12, the principle. The God of Scripture is a God of infinite power and knowledge and creative ability. Not big. Not big. Infinite. Creating the universe, to us, that's just awesome. Again, how many galaxies? Oh, a billion? Nah, they changed it recently to 500 billion. It's no challenge to God. As a matter of fact, they keep changing the number. God knows. He doesn't have to change the number. He says, I know how many I created.

God's act of creation wasn't taxing for him. God didn't go, let there be light. He didn't go, when he rested on the seventh day. It wasn't taxing for him. He was not exhausted when he was done. Nothing in our lives happens or doesn't happen Because God is capacity-challenged.

Oh, God would like to do something about it, but He just can't. He can't get here. He'd like to, but He just isn't fast enough. You've got to pray and let Him know. No, none of those things. God is not capacity- or knowledge-challenged. That brings up the next point.

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor, has informed him? With whom did he consult and who gave him understanding? Who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him in the way of understanding? Of course, he had some math tutors, right? That astronomy stuff is really complicated. He needed some genius help. As a matter of fact, maybe a consultant or two. Now, the reason he brings this up, in pagan mythology it worked this way.

Marduk was kind of the chief of the gods, and Marduk, which has nothing to do with ducks, Marduk had to go to Ea, the god of wisdom, in order to learn how to create everything. The God of Scripture isn't like that. The pagan gods would assemble at intervals, and by the way, that's the root of a lot of our New Year's celebrations and a lot of the mythology around that. That would be the time when the gods would get together and figure out what was going to happen in the next year. And so we have all these things to try to keep the gods from making bad decisions against us. Anyway, among the pagan gods of Isaiah's day, no one god had all the knowledge. They had to put their heads together and argue and trick each other and all sorts of things. The God of Scripture is not dealing with that.

He doesn't have to ask anybody, how do I do this? Let there be light. See, what's the formula for that? No problem. Look at the actions in these verses. Has directed. As his counselor has informed him. Did he consult? Gave him understanding. Taught him. taught him, informed him.

The intent is that we're able to look at that and say, well, nobody is the answer to all those questions. So if you guess nobody, give yourself an A. Nobody is the answer to all those questions. God has no deficiency in any one of these things. He doesn't need somebody to tell him what needs to happen. He's totally and completely sufficient in himself. Entirely. Why? It's because of his character. Now, think about this. Does he lack anything in his character to deal with your life? Does he lack anything in his character to deal with your life?

No. God's character is fully sufficient for everything in your life, and he's not pacing the floor, he's not wringing his hands, and he's not frustrated, and he's not saying, oh, I wish I'd been there. He's not challenged by any of those things. He's completely adequate for everything that He intends to do regarding every single detail of our lives, even the traffic jams. God doesn't ask us to pray so that we keep Him informed. FYI, God, just so you know, what's the email address for heaven?

Just to zip Him off one. Prayer has to do with our fellowship with God and not getting God up to speed. Now, just before I pray, we need to not overlook something. We have a couple here who just yesterday celebrated their first weekiversary. Can I have you stand please? Ben and Kate Franklin. Alright, you can go up and comfort them later. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you as we look at your word. How wonderfully comforting it is to know you are sufficient for every single thing. No shortage, not even challenged incapacity. And Lord, how marvelously you've shown that, shown your care for us, your love for us. How tremendously comforting that is. In Jesus' name, Amen.