God’s Powerful Wisdom

Isaiah 40:12-14 “God’s Powerful Wisdom”

I hope Isaiah 40 is an old friend by now. Last week we took a break from Isaiah. Let’s get reacquainted.

Verses 1-2 the prophet is commanded to speak comfort to God’s people, who are in exile in Babylon. The good news that brings comfort is proclaimed by 3 voices.

1. 3-5 The voice cries: prepare the way of the Lord. God’s salvation is coming to his people; his glory will be revealed to all people.
2. 6-8 The voice cries: all people are like grass but God’s Word stands forever.
3. 9-11 Behold your God! He comes might! He comes as a gentle shepherd for his people.

Isaiah sets forth the good news for a despised and weary people. The good news is “Behold your God!” Behold the power of his Word. Behold his unstoppable salvation!

We turn a corner in Isaiah 40 at verse 12. The rest of the chapter is what is called a “disputation.” It’s almost like God and his people are in court. For any of you that have ever been involved in a court case, this probably doesn’t sound very positive. Verse 27 is the position of God’s people that God is arguing against (read). Verses 28-31 are God’s response: the correct view. Verses 12-26 are God’s arguments against their incorrect view of him.

Isaiah has offered great news in verses 1-11. In the rest of the chapter, he takes on the questions: Is this good news true? Can God really keep his promises? One commentator says it this way, “Isaiah here uses the doctrine of God the Creator to assure his people of their security and the certainly that the divine promises will be fulfilled.”

This ancient disputation is actually not far from each one of us. On a daily basis, we doubt our security as God’s people and we question the certainty of God’s promises. Do not fear. Isaiah 40 was written for us. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says it this way: “God not only gives us his message, but he helps us believe it.”

It can come down to this on a daily basis: do I believe Romans 8:28? Do I believe that God will work out all things for my eternal good and his eternal glory?

Many of you know that I have a host of restrictions on what I eat. It’s a bit complicated, but the outcome is that I cannot have any dessert and most anything served at a fast-food restaurant. Really, it seems that I can’t eat anything that tastes good. Bye-bye to pizza, ice cream, brownies, and doughnuts. Compared with the actual sufferings of others, those restrictions are nothing, especially in the light of eternity. But sometimes, I just want to sit down and have fellowship with a tub of ice cream. Even in something this small, I doubt God’s goodness in bringing these restrictions into my life. I doubt his wisdom in making me the way I am.
Each one of us have our trials and sufferings in this life, big and small. Israel was stranded in Babylon and thought God had forgotten them. To comfort our hearts, to reassure us of his promises, God proclaims: “I am a powerfully wise God.” The truths that we will see tonight are simple truths. But they are vividly and powerfully set forth to capture our hearts and calm our fears. In verses 12-14, we will find that God is powerful and God is wise.

1. God’s Creative Power (12)
A. God is really big (read verse 12)

God is the master craftsman of the universe. When we look at the mountains and the far away star\s, we are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of creation. God is bigger. He fit all the oceans in the palm of his hand. He measured millions of light years with the width of his hand. He put all the dirt in the world in a 1 cup measure. He put Mt Everest on a scale. During VBS, the kids had to guess how tall Mt Everest is. 29,035 feet. That’s over 5 miles tall. That’s from here to 5 Mile Baptist Church, basically. God picked up the mountains and put them on a scale.

This shows the immensity of God. He doesn’t literally have hands and a body, but he does fill all things. There is not a place in this universe where God is not. Here is not one thing that God did not create.

B. God created everything
Look at what God created: water and heavens. Earth and mountains. The OT will often use the extremes of something to describe those things and everything in between. The oceans and skies and everything in between. Because God created all things, he order all things, plans, all things, and rules over all things. These questions about God’s creative power should remind of God’s questions to Job.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
And God goes on for several more chapters. No one else but God created. He did it all. This should lead us to calm trust in God. Look at Isaiah 43:1-2.

2. God’s inscrutable wisdom (13-14)
Inscrutable means “impossible to understand.” Isaiah 55:8-9 says this about God’s wisdom.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I think we can agree that God’s thoughts and ways are impossible for us to grasp. What does this mean for Isaiah’s readers…what does that mean for us?

A. God does not need our help
Who directed the Spirit of the Lord? Who gave him counsel? God did not have our help in planning creation, and he certainly does not need our help now to figure out what should happen in our lives! He already knows. He’s already planned it.

Zachariah likes to help. He likes to help with chores, and likes to help with cooking. Which means, that if you are working in the kitchen with him, everything takes longer and makes a bigger mess. When we say- God, I don’t like what you’re doing in my life or in this world, we’re like a back-seat driver. “Umm, God, you’re driving too slow. If you would just hurry up a bit, everything would be better.” You’re like an arm chair QB. “God, that’s not the play I would have chosen. The game would go better if you let ME call the plays.” Or, you’re like a parents yelling from the stands at a baseball game: “Ump, that was a ridiculous call! Can’t you see things from my perspective?”

God doesn’t need your help planning your life or the course of this world. He is perfectly wise. Isaiah 46:9-11:

remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.

B. God’s way is perfect
Psalm 18:30 says: “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.”

God doesn’t need our help planning because his way is perfect. In vs 14, we find this is not just theoretical wisdom. Like a person that is book smart but has no common sense. Wisdom is skillful living. God know the path of justice and the way of understanding. He knows how to execute his perfect plan in a perfect way.

I want us to step back from these verses and consider God’s wise plan throughout history.

Who would have thought that a perfectly happy, eternal God in three persons, full of love and joy, would want to spread that happiness to others?

Who would have thought that this God was so powerful that he spoke the universe into existence with his words, that he created a man and woman to display his glory and live in fellowship with him?

Who would have thought that the fall of humans and the universe into sin was a part of God’s plan to bring more glory and honor to himself?

Who would have thought that after Adam and Eve had rebelled against God and rejected his rule, that he would promise a deliverer who would crush the head of Satan.

Who would have thought that God would save one family out of all humanity, and a bunch of animals, from a world-wide flood in a very large boat?

Who would have thought that God would choose one man—Abraham—who worshipped idols, and tell him that he would be the father of many nations, and that through him, God would bless the whole world?

Who would have thought that God would multiply this one man to a nation, that he would deliver them from Egypt, lead them through the Red Sea, and give them his good and gracious law?

Who would have thought that this nation, once they were in the land God had given them, would reject God as their King and seek an earthly king? And even after they rejected God’s rule, that God would promise one of their kings—David—that one of his sons would be God’s forever King?

Who would have thought that this nation, after God sent prophet after prophet to them, would continue to reject God’s gracious Word and worship idols, and finally be led into captivity?

Who would have thought that after 400 silent years, God would speak again? But not from a mountain with thunder, but in the cry of a baby, born in a dirty animal stable, and announced to smelly shepherds?

Who would have thought that God’s plan for his Son was to conquer sin and death not through sword and spear, but through his death on a criminal’s cross? Who would have thought that our rebellion in the garden would be paid for by the death of God’s Son?

Who would have thought that a man, crucified on a cross and buried in a tomb, would rise again, proving that he was the Son of God?

Who would have thought that God’s plan now rested on a rag-tag bunch of fishermen and unlearned men, in a room in the city of Jerusalem? Who would have thought that it was better for Jesus to ascend to heaven and to send his Holy Spirit to begin his church?

Who would have thought that God used those people and those who believed their message, to begin the church, and spread it across the globe? Who would have thought that this church was survive wars and persecution for 2,000 years, preserved by the Word of God and His Spirit?

Who would have thought that God’s plan from the end is for a previously dead man to return in the eastern skies on a white horse, to judge the earth, and set up his kingdom? Who would have thought that after all the sin and rebellion of humanity, that God will restore heaven and earth to be better than his original creation?

Who would have thought that you, an enemy of God, a rebel against his law, would have your eyes opened to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you would be given new life by God’s Spirit? Who would have thought that God would use us, not the rich and famous, but the ordinary, to build his church and to proclaim his gospel in this world for his glory?

Who would have thought that every tragedy, every heartache, every illness, every pain you have suffered is part of God’s plan for your eternal good and his ultimate glory?

Who would have thought that your life is now bound up with God’s incredibly wise plan? Who would have thought that from the beginning to the end of time, God has woven a beautiful tapestry for his glory, and that in Christ, your story, your life is perfectly woven into the fabric of his wise plan?

Dear friends, God is really, really big, and very, very wise. Everything he does is good. We don’t question his power and his wisdom, but we bow before him and trust him. Let our words, be those like Job’s words (Job 42):

2 “I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”