Isaiah 40: A drop in a bucket
vv.15-20. In these verses Isaiah compares (or rather contrasts) God to others. Who has measured the waters, who has held the dust of the earth, who has weighed the mountains, who has understood the mind of he Lord, etc. The answer is no one. God is incomparable in the sense that God is the creator of nature and that he has dominion over it (we see him "measuring" creation as a merchant would measure one of his own products). What other person could claim such powers? Surely not other nations, as Isaiah continues in v.15. The other nations (At his time, there was the existence of Greek city states, Assyria and possibly the founding the Rome), are like a drop in a bucket. These nations are regarded as dust on a scale. So powerful is God that he weighs islands as dust on the scales. If God could weigh these islands, then he could measure (or have dominion) these nations, that are mighty in the eyes of the people, but are only a drop in a bucket to God. One lesson this shows is that we need to see the world as God sees it. I’m sure that the people in Isaiah’s time were impressed by what they saw in the nations, but to God they were as nothing (Is. 40:17).
By the time v.18 rolls around, the answer to the question posed–To whom, then, will you compare God–is obvious. There is no one to compare God to, not even idols (v.19). Idols themselves and mere creations of nations that are like drops in a bucket. An idol is anything other than God that we depend on for significance and security. We look to them, more than we do God, to make us feel good inside or to give us some type of hope. The problem with idolatry is that it doesn’t work: it’s a sham because the idols back then were mere stones or wood carvings. The idols of today–well, you probably know what they are–have different shapes and forms, but they still play the same role (and still fail to deliver). I have a God who is wholly other. He is different. He is powerful, and he personally loves me and cares for me. This text has made plain who God is. He is the only one worthy of my worship and my love. It would be sad, wouldn’t it, to be impressed by a drop in a bucket.
Very well done post and commentary on Isaiah 40. I like the word you used “wholly other” and how you talk about the drop in a bucket. God has truly made himself known and it’s up to us what we will do with His Word. Thank you!