Isaiah 40

Who has measured waters in the hollow of a hand, marked heavens with a span, weighed mountains? Wesley: who can do this but God? The discourse of infinite power and wisdom is added to give greater assurance that God was able to do the wonderful things He had promised.

Omnipotence serves the comfort of 40:1–11. The God who measures the sea is not waiting to discover whether He can keep a word. No dispute here: only God does this.

Who hath measured? Calvin: he proclaims power so that the promises may be believed; Abraham did not hesitate because he believed God who promised was able to perform. Restore a people beyond belief requires minds raised above the world, not limited to human means.

Reformed: if this conviction were seated in the heart we would not be so alarmed. Common ground with Wesley: the measuring God can do what He said. Sovereignty here is why the highway and the shepherd are not wishes.

Who has directed the LORD’s Spirit, or has taught him counsel? Wesley: who did God either need or take to advise Him in any of His works, creation or government.

God rules; He is not an idol that needs a committee. Romans 11:34 will quote this. Arminian interpreters still confess an unsearchable God; they do not smuggle in a deity who learns from us what to do next.

Who instructed the Spirit of Jehovah? Calvin: God had no need of a teacher to inform Him about things unknown. Spirit here denotes reason and judgment; he accommodates to our ignorance. Paul quotes this to deter us from judging the unsearchable counsel (Rom 11:34).

Reformed: nothing more foolish than man lifting himself to examine God’s works by his own ability. Where they meet: no counselor. God is not advised; idols are.

Whom did He consult? Who taught Him justice, knowledge, understanding? The questions pile so that no creature gets a seat at the table.

Both readings: the path of justice is His before anyone showed it to Him. Comfort for captives is that their God does not rent wisdom. He is not filling gaps in His understanding from Jacob’s advice.

From whom took He counsel? Calvin: nothing more foolish than man venturing into heaven to judge God’s works. Our reason is darkness till enlightened by Christ. All senses captive to obedience.

Reformed match to 40:13 and Rom 11:34. He was not taught. The nations of v. 15 will look even smaller once this is granted.

Nations like a drop in a bucket, dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust. Wesley: counted by Him and in comparison of Him. Dust which accidentally cleaves to the balance but makes no alteration in the weight. Isles: those vast countries reached from Judea by sea.

Sovereignty: empires do not tilt God’s scales. Drop, dust, fine dust. This is why Babylon cannot cancel 40:1.

Nations as a drop of a bucket, small dust of the balance; He takes up the isles as a very little thing. Calvin: we must not imagine that everything Satan does blocks God’s path. All nations and peoples are nothing compared with God; by breathing He scatters them like small dust.

Reformed: nothing more contrary to reason than to exalt creatures to diminish God’s power. Wesley agrees: drop and dust. The measuring God of v. 12 now weighs peoples and finds them light.

Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts for a burnt offering. Wesley: if men were to offer a sacrifice agreeable to His infinite excellency, the whole forest could not afford beasts enough or wood enough.

Worship cannot buy this God. Both traditions hear: even the best fuel is too small. He is not an idol you can afford or out-offer.

Lebanon would not be sufficient. Calvin: if we must sacrifice according to what He deserves, neither the whole of Lebanon nor the beasts that graze upon it would suffice.

Reformed: he leads readers to deeper reverence; some infer no man entitles himself to God’s favor by sacrifices—true, though the design is confidence that all things are nothing beside Him. The offering-God of v. 16 is the same as the no-idol God of vv. 18–20.

All the nations are like nothing before him, less than nothing, and vanity. After drops and Lebanon, the verdict is emptiness.

Both readings: not that nations are unreal, but that before Him they cannot found hope or fear as rivals. God rules. Jacob’s complaint in v. 27 will have to answer this scale.

Calvin: this is said by comparison; depravity obscures divine majesty and places above it what ought to be subject. We cannot subsist but in God.

David’s lighter-than-vanity (Ps 62:9) is the same music. The nations are as nothing before him. The point is not contempt of people but the end of idol-scale politics.

To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? Wesley: a proper inference from infinite greatness; from which he shows the folly of mean visible representations of God, and the utter inability of men or idols to oppose Him.

God is not an idol. Common reading: the question is the center of the passage. The incomparable One is why comfort stands.

To whom then have ye likened God? Calvin: a grievous injury if believers, discouraged by adversity, turn aside to the idols of the Gentiles. He continues to be like Himself; He does not change His nature on account of inventions of men. Impossible to frame from dead matter an image resembling His glory.

Paul uses this against idolaters (Acts 17:29). The living God of the word, not a figure, is Judah’s shield.

Isaiah holds up the idol for scorn. A craftsman casts it; the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and silver chains. Wesley: he melts metal into a mould, afterwards graven to make it more exact.

The parody is sharp: the nations of v. 15 fund a statue that must be chained so it sits. God measured the heavens; this god is merchandise. Isaiah’s target is a god you make and then ask to move.

The carver prepares a graven image. Calvin: public opinion has great force; he fortifies believers against the error that whatever pleases the multitude passes for law. He attacks the madness of the world laboring to make idols.

Reformed: rich and poor alike (v. 20). The craftsman is the agent; the idol does nothing.

The impoverished chooses a tree that will not rot, seeks a skillful craftsman, sets up a carved image for him that will not move. Wesley: he that can hardly procure money for a sacrifice is so mad upon idols that he will find money for the choicest materials—and after all this cost it cannot stir one step to help.

Will not move is the punchline. God comes with might (v. 10); the idol must be pegged so it does not fall. The contrast is between omnipotence and a piece of furniture.

The poor chooseth wood that will not rot. Calvin: no class is free from the crime; the poor select wood. All carried away by strange madness. Men wish to enjoy God’s presence; this is the beginning of idolatry. God is present by His word and Spirit, not by an idol.

Reformed: sacraments lead upward, not into a statue. Wesley agrees: it will not move. Sovereignty here comes down to this contrast: the Holy One of v. 25 versus a well-made stick.

Do you not know? Hear? Told from the beginning? Understood from the foundations of the earth? Wesley: known—God to be the only true God, maker and governor of the world.

The questions assume they have already been taught. Both confess: creation and old testimony leave them without the excuse that no one mentioned the incomparable God.

Do ye not know? Calvin: two methods—hearing of the Word, and the theatre of the world. Addressed to Jews taught by the Law, doubly inexcusable if they imitate Babylon. From the beginning: not a new God, but the God of Abraham and Moses.

Reformed: the world is a mirror of invisible things (Rom 1). Either reading: they have heard. Unbelief here is not innocent ignorance of whether God can measure seas.

He sits above the circle of the earth; inhabitants like grasshoppers; stretches heavens like a curtain, a tent to dwell in. Wesley: far above this round earth, in the highest heavens; men appear like grasshoppers. Circle of earth, as elsewhere circle of heaven and of the deep, because the form is circular. Spreadeth for the benefit of earth and mankind.

He sits; we hop. The tent is for habitation under His sky, not a roof He needs.

He sitteth upon the circle of the earth; inhabitants as locusts; heavens as a curtain, a tent. Calvin: not a moment’s creation then abandoned; He governs continually. Sitting denotes government. Earth remains only as upheld by His power. The heavens cover us as our habitation.

Reformed: as easy for God to spread heaven as for a man to spread a curtain. Both readings: grasshopper-scale humans. Match omnipotence: He sits; princes (v. 23) will not.

He brings princes to nothing, makes rulers of the earth as emptiness. The drop-nations of v. 15 now include their kings.

Both sides agree: God rules. Babylon’s court is emptiness before Him, which is why the comfort of 40:1 can outlast an empire. On this point there is no extra fight.

He bringeth the mighty to nothing; governors of the earth as if they were not. Calvin: God’s government extends; even high rank is not exempt. If the hand of God is so powerful against nobles, will He not drive the crowd wherever He thinks fit?

Reformed: tokens of immediate power, to arouse us. Shared with Wesley’s scale: princes as vanity. Sovereignty is not abstract; it unmakes rulers.

Scarcely planted, sown, rooted—He blows, they wither, tempest takes them as stubble. Wesley: they shall take no root; they shall not continue and flourish as they imagined, but be rooted up and perish.

The breath of v. 7 now hits princes. Planted differs from established. God blows.

As if they had not been planted or sown. Calvin: princes totally destroyed, no trace left. He bloweth on them: kings and princes like stubble before God, driven as by a whirlwind. Do not lean on earthly supports.

God was not an instantaneous Creator who abandoned the work; nothing is done but by His will. Both traditions see: blow, wither, stubble. Judah in captivity needs this more than a theory of weather.

To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal? “Says the Holy One.” Wesley’s inference from v. 18 now in the first person, with the name Holy One.

Both note: the Holy One will not be ranked with the unmoving idol. God is not an idol. The question is closed by v. 26’s stars.

To whom will ye liken me? The Holy One asks, “To whom then will you liken me?” Calvin: He will not suffer Himself to be likened to idols, that the Jews may not detract from His power because captives saw Gentile prosperity. Holy: they would be ungrateful if, set apart by Him, they do not sanctify Him in return. No holiness in the gods of the Gentiles.

He is not compared; He is confessed. The Holy One cannot be compared to any likeness. Adversity is not evidence that Bel beat Yahweh.

Lift up your eyes: who created these? He brings out their army by number, calls them all by name; by greatness of might not one is missing. Wesley: that at first brought them out of nothing, and from day to day brings them forth, to rise and set in appointed times. Faileth—either to appear when He calls, or to do the work to which He sends them.

Named stars, none missing: eternity and omnipotence in the night sky. He calls; they come. This is not a God who counts and hopes they show up.

Lift up your eyes on high; who created these? Bringing out by number their army; He will call them all by name; by greatness of strength not one wanting. Calvin: stars preach one God; regular order is not by chance. Army: almost infinite number and admirable arrangement. He always has His soldiers in readiness, by number; not one absent. Call by name: utmost submission, as Cyrus will later be called.

Reformed: nothing in heaven or earth that does not depend on His pleasure. Shared with Wesley: named, none missing. Shameful to compare Him to idols.

Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, The LORD doesn’t see my way, and my God ignores my cause? Wesley: why give way to such jealousies concerning thy God, of whose power, wisdom, and goodness there are such demonstrations? The complaint is uttered in the name of the people prophetically supposed in captivity: He takes no notice of my prayers and tears.

The measuring God has not mislaid Jacob. Hidden from us is not hidden from Him. Common confession: the complaint is wrong. Comfort is that the everlasting God of v. 28 has not passed over their cause.

Why wilt thou say, O Jacob? My way is hidden from Jehovah, my judgment passed over. Calvin: they were almost overcome by despair and did not look to the promises. Hidden means disregarded; when God delays we think He has forsaken us. He argues from the less to the greater: since God keeps every part of the world under authority, He cannot forsake His Church.

Reformed: the names Jacob and Israel recall the covenant. Both readings hold: the complaint is unbelief, not information God lacked.

The LORD is the everlasting God, Creator of the earth’s far ends; he doesn’t faint or grow weary, and no one can search out his understanding. Eternity, creation, unsearchable mind: the passage’s main themes in one verse.

Classical Arminians wait on this God; they do not reduce Him to a partner who might tire of the plan. Unsearchable is not ignorance on His side.

Isaiah asks, “Haven’t you known?” Jehovah is the God of eternity, Creator of the ends of the earth; not wearied; no searching of His understanding. Calvin: eternal distinguishes Him from idols that endure for a time. Eternity is never liable to change. Two statements: God is not wearied in doing good; no man can explore His wisdom. His purpose is incomprehensible; do not murmur though He does not at once comply with our wishes.

Reformed: doubly guilty if, taught by benefits and the word, they still distrust. That is why v. 27 was the wrong sentence.

He gives power to the weak, and to the one who has no might he increases strength. The everlasting God of v. 28 spends strength on the weak.

God gives power to the faint. Wesley’s later wait-and-renew (v. 31) starts here. Comfort is not that Jacob was never faint, but that this God gives power.

He giveth power to the faint. Calvin: applies the general doctrine to the present; the Jews were weakened, destitute of strength; on this account it belongs to God to assist the exhausted. Whenever our strength fails, the Lord stretches out His hand to the faint.

Reformed: first feel faintness, that Paul’s word may be fulfilled—power made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). Both agree: He gives. The strength is His, matching the arm of 40:10.

Even the youths faint and get weary; young men shall fall exhausted. Wesley: the youngest and strongest men, left to themselves.

Creature-strength fails, even at its prime. No extra fight: both camps know young men fall.

The youths are wearied; the young men by falling fall. Calvin: men’s strength easily fails; God’s never. He distinguishes strength that appears born with us from that by which God peculiarly supports His elect. Those proud of gifts sink and faint.

Reformed: the Church marked off from the world by perpetual spiritual grace versus fading earthly vigor. Agreed: youths fall. The next verse will name who does not.

Those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength; mount up with wings like eagles; run and not be weary; walk and not faint. Wesley: wait—that rely upon Him. Renew—shall grow stronger and stronger.

Waiting is reliance, not a God who might not come. Both hear: eagle, run, walk. Comfort lands on the faint who wait. Those in Wesley’s line hear a path of relying that can be taken; they still wait on the everlasting God of v. 28, not on a deity still taking counsel (v. 13).

They that wait for Jehovah shall exchange strength; raise wings as eagles; run and not be weary; walk and not faint. Calvin: waiting means patience; violent men dash themselves; the vigor of the godly is refreshed while they wait. We must be convinced of weakness that we may yield to God’s power. The Jews in captivity had great need of this.

Reformed: this is supernatural grace, the elect’s privilege, not the fading strength of v. 30. Wesley agrees: wait, renew, eagles. The light fork is whether waiting is the reliance of whoever will, growing stronger, or the patience of those God peculiarly supports when human vigor is already nothing.