The Nothingness of the Nations

Isaiah 40:15-17 “The Nothingness of the Nations”

Last week: God is really, really, big and very, very powerful.
This week: God is really, really strong and very, very independent.

1. God is stronger than all humans and nations (15-17)

A. The pictures
God is stronger than the nations, the coastlands or islands, and ALL the nations. Compared to God they are puny and nothing. The words: counted, as or like and before him show that though the nations are big in our eyes, they are not in God’s eyes. This world is incredibly large and the nations are very powerful. But God is much bigger and much stronger.

Look at the pictures: a drop in a bucket. Like that last drop of water left after you shake out a pot that you washed. Or what’s left after someone in our house scrapes out the peanut butter jar. Like dust in the scales: it doesn’t affect the measurement. The isles of the coastlands are like dust thrown into the air. What flies away when you dust off your hands.

This does not mean that God does not care about the nations or the world. It doesn’t mean he has no plan for the world or for the nations. He does care. He does have a plan. All this shows that he is so much stronger than the biggest nation or continent.

B. The nations in Isaiah
God has a plan and will accomplish it- even among the nations. That is very clear in the first part of Isaiah (1-39). God decrees judgment on quite a few nations….and it happened.
13- Babylon, the main power of that day
14- Assyria, the main power than preceded Babylon
15- Moab, a small nations east of the Jordan River
17- Damascus- the capitol of Syria, just north of Israel
18- Cush, in North east Africa
19- Egypt
23- Tyre and Sidon, two port cities north of Israel
24- The whole earth!

God had a definite plan for the world at that time and he was strong enough to carry it out. The same is true today.

Fast forward to a few chapters before Isaiah 40, we find the story of Hezekiah and Sennacherib. Actually, it is the story of God versus Sennacherib. Sennacherib was king of Assyria during the reign of Hezekiah. He was vanquishing nations left and right—all according to God’s plan. In Isaiah 36, we find him on the doorstep of Jerusalem, intent on destroying it. I’ll read the account for you, and we’ll see who wins. I’ll read from the ESV, for a smoother read.
“In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? 8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.’”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me[b] and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.”
Hezekiah goes to Isaiah the prophet, and the Lord answers: “Do not be afraid. I’ll take him out for you.” The Rabshakeh returns to the Assyrian camp, and the King is fighting elsewhere. So, he writes Hezekiah a letter. “So you think you escaped this time? We’ll be back. Your God won’t deliver you!” Hezekiah prays to the Lord, and the Lord answers again through Isaiah the prophet. Let’s pick up at the end of that response in 37:33.

“33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

36 And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”

That account is the immediate backdrop for Isaiah 40. God sets up kings and takes them down at his will. The nations are like a drop in a bucket to him.

Assyria soon passed from the scene and was taken over by Babylon, the nation ruling Israel in Isaiah 40. Babylon only lasted so long, then along came the Medes and Persians. Then came Alexander the Great and Greece, and soon after him, Rome. In 410 AD, Rome was sacked, and so fell the greatest empire known to mankind. Fast-forward to the beginning of the 19th century, a short and very determined French man named Napolean tried to take over Europe. But he was stopped…more than once. Germany tried to take over the world once, then twice. Near the end of WWII, Hitler died underground in a bunker while the Allied troops closed in on Berlin. Thus ended his plans for worldwide domination. The Soviet Union was a menace for several decades, prompting fears of a world-wide nuclear war. But it too fell into ruins, almost without warning.

We don’t have revelation from God in the Bible telling us about the rise and fall of these nations. But we know it all happened according to his plan and his will. In the present day, America as a nations seems very powerful. ISIS is terrifying and deadly. China and Russia and North Korea and Iran make their threats and make their moves. Closer to home, we wonder about the future of our nation as we look at the presidential elections, laws that undermine human flourishing, and a society that celebrates sin. All of this is but a drop in a bucket to God.

Wow, you may say, God is strong and big! Yes he is. But does he care? If the nations are a drop in the bucket, then what am I? We could answer this questions several different ways. Here are 2 answers from the context.

1. God calls us “my people” (vs 1)
God has made a covenant with Israel. They are his people; they belong to him. In the same way, we too belong to God as his people. I Peter 2:10- “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” We have been purchased by the blood of the new covenant. We have been redeemed. We belong to God. God’s bigness should be a terror to the rebellious nations, but it should give us comfort. Because God is more than sufficient to protect us.

2. God is still our gentle shepherd (vs 11)
God’s greatness is verses 15-17 does not change the words of verse 11. If you belong to God, you are safe in his arms. You are under his protective care, and have his wise provision in your life. His strength reassures us that he is a more than capable shepherd.

God is strong than the nations…including all the nations today. God is ordering the events of the nations even today. We are safe in him.

2. God does not depend on our worship
At first, vs 16 seemed out of place here. Vss 15 and 17 are about God being stronger than the nations. Right between them is a verse about sacrifice and worship of God. What’s happening here?

Vs 12-17 are displaying the greatness of God for his people. Vs 13-14: God is not dependent on our wisdom. He doesn’t need our help in ordering the world. In the same way, God is not dependent on our worship…our sacrifice.

Lebanon was north of Israel in Syria and was known for its large cedar trees. What Isaiah is saying here is: if you chopped down all the redwoods in California, and stacked them up, and lit them on fire, the blaze wouldn’t be big enough for a sacrifice for God….even if you gathered up all the wild animals and sacrificed them on this huge fire…it wouldn’t be enough for God.

Psalm 50:7-13
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?

What’s Isaiah getting at here? God is so big and so great, that nothing we can do is worthy of the worship he deserves. The tallest cathedrals, the largest church buildings, the biggest gift in the offering plate, the most fervent missionary service do not reach what God deserves. Until we realize this, we cannot truly worship God.

God doesn’t need our service. God doesn’t need our worship. God doesn’t have a self-esteem complex that needs fixing. God doesn’t have a worship deficiency that we must fill. He was completely perfect, happy, and content before he created the world. This is just another way of saying that God is very big and very powerful. We don’t worship God because he needs it. We don’t worship God to somehow pay him back for creating us or saving us. Impossible. No one is worthy to worship God.

Then why do we even serve him? The simple answer is this: we were created to worship God. It is the only fitting response to the greatness of God.

Verse 16 is here to increase our fear and reverence of God. We come to God having nothing, acknowledging that he is everything. We bow before God knowing we have no power, but he has all the power in the universe.

We go about our lives forgetting that God alone has the power to comfort and forgive. We forget that God will accomplish his salvation even as we get in the way. We forget that God’s Word stands forever, but we humans are like grass. We forget that the gospel is “Behold your God” not “behold me!” We forget that it is God, the gentle shepherd, who guides our lives, and not us. We forget that God created all things, and plans all things according to his inscrutable wisdom, and he doesn’t need our help. We forget that the nations are a drop in a bucket compared to the surpassing power of God.

What do we have to add to God’s wisdom and power? Nothing. Our worship is a response to God’s awesome majesty, not an addition to it.

But there is one person whose worship perfect enough for the majesty of God. There was one person who offered a sacrifice that was worthy of God’s perfection. There was one person who lived and died in such a way, that God accepted his worship and his sacrifice. And that’s Jesus Christ.

Christ is the answer to your question “how will I ever be worthy enough to worship God?” You won’t. But he is. Christ is the answer to your question “will I be safe when nations rise and fall, and terrorists strike and economies collapse and tragedies strike?” Yes, you will be safe. Because Christ it he one who sustains all things by the word of his power. It is Christ who sustains and protects those who are his. What a great God. What a mighty Savior.