Isaiah 40

“Comfort ye”(v1).  There could be no comfort if God was not sovereign in all power and ability.  Yet, there would be no comfort if an all-sovereign God had no intention of blessing people. But God’s people are able to speak of enjoying the comfort of God because both of these things are true beyond contest.

Go ahead and make a comparison of whatever you wish to prove the power of Almighty God.  Grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. (v8)  Surely the people are like grass and our strongest are like the flowers that fade.  Are we able to confuse God with our logic and our knowledge?  Will we uncover something He has not known since the beginning?

God himself will come to lead His people like a shepherd leads a flock (v11).   This history of humanity has only known leadership from human governments, human philosophy, both limited and corrupt.  Even in Israel, leadership was bound up in human mediation which always failed.  Kings, priests, and judges would come and go and always fall short of satisfactory.  Such is the backdrop of God’s promise of personal intervention.  He himself will lead His people.  That promise has already dawned in Jesus Christ and will be universally recognized upon His second coming.

He does not need anyone’s advice.  He knows the weight of the earth, the mountains, and the oceans.  Who will sit with Him to counsel?  When His government comes, whose name will you put forward to advise Him?

18 To whom then will ye liken God?
or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

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