Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 40:26
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth.
26. and behold who hath created ] Better as R.V. marg.: and see: who hath created these? The word “create” occurs fifteen times in ch. 40 55 and five times in the chapters which follow; perhaps not more than nine times in the whole of the earlier literature. No other language possesses a word so exclusively appropriated to the Divine activity. Although it may not express the metaphysical idea of creation ex nihilo, it certainly denotes the effortless production, by a bare volition, which is the manner of God’s working. Its frequent use in these chapters is significant not only of the writer’s theology, but of the great movement of religious thought in Israel about the time of the Captivity. See Introd. pp. 44, 48.
For these things render simply these, i.e. “these (stars) yonder” which you see when you lift your eyes on high. The stars are likened to a great army, a host of living, intelligent beings, which every night Jehovah marshals and leads across the sky.
that bringeth out ] a participial clause like those of Isa 40:22 f.
he calleth names ] Better: calling them all by name, i.e. not “bestowing names on them,” but calling each forth by his name. Cf. Psa 147:4-5.
by the greatness faileth ] Render as a single sentence: On account of Him who is great in might and strong in power not one is missing; none dares to leave its post vacant when it hears the summons of the Almighty. A slight change of pointing ( mrab for mrb) seems necessary to make the epithet “great in might” correspond with “strong in power.” For the latter cf. Job 9:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lift up your eyes on high – Direct your eyes toward heaven, and in the contemplation of the wonders of the starry world, and of Gods power there, learn the evidence of his ability to destroy his foes and to save his friends. Lowth connects this verse with the former, and renders it:
Saith the Holy One,
Lift up your eyes on high.
The words on high here are evidently synonymous with heaven, and refer to the starry worlds. The design of the passage is to convince them of the folly of idolatry, and of the power and majesty, of the true God. It is proof of mans elevated nature that he can thus look upward, and trace the evidences of the power and wisdom of God in the heavens; that he can raise his eyes and thoughts above the earth, and fix his attention on the works of God in distant worlds; and in the number, the order, the greatness, and the harmony of the heavenly bodies, trace the proofs of the infinite greatness and the wisdom of God. This thought was most beautifully expressed by one of the ancient poets.
Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram;
Os homini sublime dedit: ccelumque tueri,
Jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
Ovid, Met. i. 84-86.
In the Scriptures, God not unfrequently appeals to the starry heavens in proof of his existence and perfections, and as the most sublime exhibition of his greatness and power (see Psa 19:1-6). And it may be remarked, that this argument is one that increases in strength, in the view of people, from age to age, just in proportion to the advances which are made in the science of astronomy. It is now far more striking than it was in the times of Isaiah; and, indeed, the discoveries in astronomical science in modern times have given a beauty and power to this argument which could have been but imperfectly understood in the times of the prophets. The argument is one that accumulates with every new discovery in astronomy; but is one – such is the vastness and beauty of the system of the universe – which can be contemplated in its fall power only amidst the more sublime contemplations of eternity. Those who are disposed to contemplate this argument more fully, may find it presented with great eloquence and beauty in Dr. Chalmers Astronomical Discourses, and in Dicks Christian Philosopher.
Who hath created these things – These heavens. This is the first evidence of the power of God in the contemplation of the heavens, that God is their Creator. The other demonstrations referred to are the fact, that he brings out their armies as if they were a marshalled host, and understands and calls all their names.
That bringeth out their hosts – Their armies, for so the word hosts means (see the note at Isa 1:9). The word here alludes to the fact that the heavenly bodies seem to be marshalled, or regularly arrayed as an array; that they keep their place, preserve their order, and are apparently led on from the east to the west, like a vast army under a mighty leader:
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Job 38:32
By number – As if he had numbered, or named them; as a military commander would call forth his armies in their proper order, and have them so numbered and enrolled in the various divisions, that he can command them with ease.
He calleth them all by names – This idea is also taken from a military leader, who would know the names of the individuals that composed his army. In smaller divisions of an army, this could of course be done; but the idea is, that God is intimately acquainted with all the hosts of stars; that though their numbers appear to us so great, yet he is acquainted with each one individually, and has that knowledge of it which we have of a person or object which we recognize by a name. It is said of Cyrus, that he was acquainted by name with every individual that composed his vast army. The practice of giving names to the stars of heaven was early, and is known to have been originated by the Chaldeans. Intimations of this custom we have not unfrequently in the Scriptures, as far back as the time of Job:
Which maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south.
Job 9:9
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?
Or loose the bands of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Job 38:31-32
This power of giving names to all the stars, is beautifully ascribed to God in Psa 147:4 :
He telleth the number of the stars,
He calleth them all by their names.
This view of the greatness of God is more striking now than it was in the times of David or Isaiah. Little then, comparatively, was known of the number of the stars. But since the invention of the telescope the view of the heavenly world has been enlarged almost to immensity; arid though the expression he calleth them all by their names, had great sublimity as used in the time of Isaiah, yet it raises in us far higher conceptions of the power and greatness of God when applied to what we know now of the heavens. Yet doubtless our view of the heavens is much further beneath the sublime reality than were the prevalent views in the time of the prophet beneath those which we now have. As an illustration of this we may remark, that the milky way which stretches across the heavens, is now ascertained to receive its white appearance from the mingling together of the light of an innumerable number of stars, too remote to be seen by the naked eye. Dr. Herschell examined a portion of the milky way about fifteen degrees long, and two broad, and found that it contained no fewer than fifty thousand stars, large enough to be distinctly counted, and he suspected that that portion contained twice as manymore, which, for the want of sufficient light in his telescope, he saw only now and then. It is to be remembered, also, that the galaxy, or milky way, which we see with the naked eye, is only one of a large number of nebulae of similar construction which are arranged apparently in strata, and which extend to great length in the heavens. According to this, and on every correct supposition in regard to the heavens, the number of the stars surpasses all our powers of computation. Yet God is said to lead them all forth as marshalled armies – how beautiful a description when applied to the nebuloe! – and to call all their names.
By the greatness of his might – It is his single and unassisted arm that conducts them; his own hand alone that sustains them.
Not one faileth – Not one is missing; not one of the immense host is out of its place, or unnoticed. All are arranged in infinite wisdom; all observe the proper order, and the proper times. How strikingly true is this, on the slightest inspection of the heavens. How im pressive and grand is it in the higher developments of the discoveries of astronomy!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 40:26
Lift up your eyes on high
Looking up and pressing on
A mans vision broadens as it lengthens.
Look straight down at your feet; what do you see? A few inches will measure the diameter of the circle within which your sight has play. Look up at the blue which spans the heavens, and what see you then? Your circle of vision takes a sweep which demands astronomic computation. The circumference widens with the distance. But that is not all. Within the near and narrow circle there is room only for small details and severed parts–mere fractions and fragments, whose drift is not clear. The distant and wide outlook shows great and harmonious aggregates, shows their movement and drift, shows their obedience to the time-beat of a sovereign purpose. Herein lies the explanation of our text. It was a call to men to look at the stars, and to get therefrom a larger and more inspiriting conception of Gods providence. The downward look throws an exaggerated emphasis on local details and passing experiences. It shows a complexity of events and movements whose design is not clear. The outlook is too confined to reveal the great issues which give meaning and value to details. Life sinks to a series of disjointed commonplaces. Man is robbed of the vision which inspires creative thought and heroic endeavour. Hope, faith, courage are the fruit of a loftier and far-reaching vision. The present finds its interpretation in the eternal, the local in the infinite. The soul of the seer expands with his vision. Narrow thought and hasty judgment become impossible to him. Essentially, then, our text calls us to a broader outlook, bids us to form our judgments and to feed our impulses on larger views of life and providence. This is far enough from bidding us to become visionaries and star-gazers in the sense usually associated with those terms. It is vision in order to labour, not vision in place of labour, to which we are called. By rising in vision above the present, we shall more adequately fill the present with wise thought and toil.
I. THIS THOUGHT GUIDES US TO THE PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF PROVIDENCE. God works on a large scale. His purposes, like Himself, inhabit eternity. In His government there is nothing small, arbitrary, merely local. Every passing movement is part of a big design. And the man who would read even the plainer words of that purpose must get his light from a wide study of Gods ways. Providence cannot be interpreted by details. We get a glimpse of this truth when we engage in retrospect. Looking back over a long stretch of years, we are enabled to perceive merciful meanings in crises which at the time perplexed and burdened us. The same truth impresses us when we take a panoramic view of nations and movements in history. To the man of downward look and narrow view, few things are more perplexing than the oftentimes apparent breach between moral worth and material progress. He sometimes becomes cynical over it. He has been heard to say that righteousness has nothing to do with prosperity. He looks down at the few facts lying near his feet, and this is what he makes of them. Think you that the resources of civilisation have banished for ever the dispensations of righteous, all-controlling providence? Read history. You will find that virtue, truth, honour, are more than mere sentiments–are vital elements of victorious power. God works on a grand scale. We must look far if we would adequately see. To this grandeur of purpose, which is the glory of providence, must be traced our many perplexities. Higher intelligence and larger aims must ever work in a manner ill understood and misunderstood by lower capacity. There will ever be need for trust and patience, but there may be moments of insight and realisation. But these can only come to the man who attains the broad outlook. In this matter we multiply our inevitable perplexities by the persistence of our downward look. Our thoughts and interests are so centred in the passing day and the current event as to narrow both our views and our sympathies. The things of to-day are what we are eager for; and on Gods relation to us through them do we often misjudge His character and purpose. Give scope to your eyes. The tree will then sink to small proportions. It will become a pleasing detail on the broad expanse which stretches away to the horizon. The men to whom the text was first spoken needed this exhortation. They had been trying to see the landscape while placing their eyes upon the tree.
II. THIS THOUGHT GUIDES US TO THE PROPER STANDPOINT FROM WHICH TO LOOK AT MAN. The downward look tends to the denial of God. It tends equally, and as a consequence, to the degradation of our thought of man. It is by enlarging our vision, by taking in a wider view of facts, that we shall rightly see God, and through Him, ourselves. In a word, as we must look at lifes facts in the light of Gods great purposes, so must we look at man, not as he merely is, but as he is ideally in the redeeming thought and design of the Father. Man, looked at only from below, does not inspire great expectations or reverential regard. Before us looms a being of measurable height, of weight and bulk definable, acting under the impulse of appetites and desires which he holds in common with the brutes, showing now and again the possession of genius and virtues clearly not brutish, but for the most part failing to rise above sheer commonplace alike of power or sympathy. The natural man of ordinary proportions is not impressive. And the observer who looks downwards at him will soon lose all heroic conceptions of life, all sense of mans high origin and destiny. We become the victims of a delusion. The eye tricks us into the belief that we see, and under that belief we begin to cherish low views of mans worth. Man, like providence, to be seen aright must be looked at on high. Here we come under the tyranny of his too obtrusive parts. It is in Christ that we must look at our life, judge its possibilities and its worth, its character and destiny. Looking at man in Him, we behold a being God-like in the proportions of power and quality. If God, looking upon the very imperfect disciples of His Son, calls them saints, while yet they are a long way from sanctity, I will be guided by the example.
III. THIS THOUGHT GUIDES US TO THE PROPER INSPIRATION OF WORK. Never yet was great work done by the man of mere downward look. The eye, to be sure, must look steadily at the object and instrument of its toil, must look down and around at the place and conditions of the work to be done; but nothing much will come of it till the eye kindles the soul, and the soul rekindles the eye to wider vision. The artist who painted for eternity had mastered the secret of most patient and potent work for time and man. In the same spirit of lofty consecration did the men work who planned and reared our great cathedrals. Not for pay, not for fame, not by regulating rule of trade society did the chisels chip, and the hammers ring, and the trowelsiply their busy task. The workmen consciously worked for God. And nothing less than a renewal of this vision can redeem the work of to-day from insignificance or degradation, or lift men into the confidence and joy of patient well-doing. The busy housewife, engaged in an endless round of detailed tasks, would surely fail through very weariness, did not the large vision and love of home and family give great value to small activities and lifelong significance to patient fidelity. It is when the preacher or the Sunday-school teacher looks at his work from on high, and sees before him not so many recognisable people about whom he knows everything, but a company of immortal spirits whose life passes measurement or comprehension, that he is strengthened for the drudgery attaching to his vocation, and rises to the height of passionate enthusiasm. The commerce and industry of the day are to some extent smitten with debility through the narrowing of their outlook, consequent upon hot competition and vigorous clashing of rights and claims. The downward look has resulted in the blight of worldliness. Only the broader vision can raise the tone and quality of life. It is the business of the poet, the preacher, the leader, to bring and keep these loftier inspirations within the practical spheres of life. The tendency of work is always towards absorption in its own immediate occupation.
IV. THE PROPER EFFECT OF THIS UPWARD LOOK IS THE RENEWAL OF OUR FAITH AND RESOLVE. It is to grace we must look for the secret of all that is beneficent in providence and bright in the prospects of man. And as we recall these blessings, we do but emphasise the work of Jesus, through whom man is crowned with favour and immortality. We lift up our eyes on high, and there we behold Jesus crowned with glory and honour, all dominion granted to Him, holding the reins of power while bearing the marks of conflict. In Him we see the Father. (C. A. Berry, D. D.)
The universe and man
These words remind us of an incident in the life of the first Napoleon. On board the ship which carried him across the Mediterranean to him campaign in Egypt, there were French savants who had convinced themselves, and thought they could convince others, that there is no God. The great commander found them discoursing boastfully on their favourite theme, and, calling them upon deck, while the heavens above were bright with innumerable stars, he said to them, Tell me who made these. Napoleon was no philosopher, no metaphysician, no theologian. But he was a man of great common sense. We are not content to be told conjecturally of any processes through which things have passed into their present forms of existence. Nebular hypotheses and atomic theories explain nothing. If assumed as true, we demand to know whence the nebulae and whence the atoms came. Nor are we content to be cheated out of an answer to the question, Who made these? by a metaphysics which ends by leaving us in doubt as to whether these stars have any existence except in our own thoughts and thought-processes. There was a time when the children of men, lifting up their eyes on high, saw in the hosts of heaven not creatures of God, but gods. And we scarcely wonder. The living God once forsaken and forgotten, who or what so worthy of adoration as sun, moon, and stars?
I. IT IS THIS OLDER FAITH WE FIND IN OUR TEXT–not obscurely, but with the positiveness of knowledge. And it is not in this text alone, but horn the beginning to the end of our Bible. Its writers, in succession to one another, explicitly maintain the faith of a living God, Maker and Ruler of all And in doing so, they stood alone in the world. The wisdom of Egypt and the wisdom of Assyria gave them no countenance. The teaching of these Hebrew writers, through all the ages, from Moses to Christ, is like a pure crystal stream flowing through a vast desert, unabsorbed by sand or sun, and undefiled by the ten thousand impurities on its banks. The old Hebrew faith stands as firmly in the light of modern science as it did when science in its modern sense was a thing almost unknown. Sir Isaac Newton, in closing his exposition of the system of the universe, worshipped and declared that its cause could not be mechanical; it must be intelligent, it must be found in a voluntary agent infinitely wise and mighty. But while these men of the old Hebrew race knew less of the vastness of the universe than we do now, they did not feel it less. The man of science, with his telescope and mathematical reckonings, must feel himself utterly bewildered when he attempts to imagine the distances which his demonstrations reveal But it does not follow that his impression of that vastness, or his awe in the contemplation of it, is in proportion to his knowledge. A child, with a true childs heart, may be more deeply impressed with the glory of the over-hanging heavens, than a full-grown man who exercises all his intellectual power in endeavouring to understand them. The Hebrews knew enough and saw enough to produce the profoundest feeling. Perhaps the chief explanation of the feeling with which the Hebrews contemplated nature is that they saw God in everything.
II. THIS IS THE SECOND POINT TO WHICH OUR TEXT INTRODUCES US. He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might; for that He is strong in power not one faileth. But what of the laws of nature? The Hebrew Scriptures, instead of denying the constancy of nature, seem to affirm it more consistently than some modern scientists. Take, e.g., these primitive statements: God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so. And God saw that it was good. But the Bible, While explicit in regard to the constancy of nature, asserts with equal explicitness a continued Divine agency in nature (Psa 104:14; Joh 5:17).
III. ALL THIS IS MADE THE FOUNDATION OF AN ARGUMENT OF COMFORT PRIMARILY TO THE ANCIENT ISRAEL OF GOD, AND EQUALLY TO ALL THE SPIRITUAL ISRAEL. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? etc. Galileo approached this idea, whether he got it from Isaiah or not, in a very significant form. I would not that we should so shorten the arm of God in the government of human affairs, but that we should rest in this, that we are certain that God and nature are so occupied in the government of human affairs, they could not more attend to us if they were charged with the care of the human race alone. The prophet goes a step beyond this, and draws an argument from Gods care over the universe to assure us of His care over us. Christ said, Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? But the prophet seems to argue from Gods care over the greater to His care over the less. As if he said, He watches over suns and stars, therefore He will watch over you. More than this, the Bible story of creation gives us the keynote of the Bible idea of man. Man is not merely one of innumerable living creatures made to people the earth; the earth was made for him. He was the end for which and towards which progressive changes, spread over vast ages, were effected. Glorious as that star may be, and wonderingly as I contemplate its brightness, I am more to God than it is; I am nearer of kin to God than it is; and if God cares for it, much more will He care for me, His own child. (J. Kennedy, D. D.)
The heavens testily of God
Cicero could ask, with unfailing constancy, Can we doubt that some present and efficient ruler is over them? And Seneca says, They all continue, not because they are eternal, but because the watchfulness of their Governor protects them: imperishable things need no guardian; but these are preserved by their Maker, who, by His power, controls their natural tendency, to decay. And Hume, though his philosophy was irreligious in comparison with that of either Roman, could raise his hands to the starry sky and show that he too had a human heart, by exclaiming to Fergusson, Oh, Adam, how can a man look at that and not believe in a God! (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 26. Left up your eyes on high] The rabbins say, He who is capable of meditating on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and does not meditate on them, is not worthy to have his name mentioned among men.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Lift up your eyes on high; to the high and starry heaven as appears from the following words.
These things which you see on high, the host of heaven, as it follows.
That bringeth out; that at first brought them out of nothing, and from day to day brings them forth, making them to rise and set in their appointed and fixed times.
Their host by number, as a general brings forth his army into the field, and there musters them.
He calleth them all by names, as a master calleth all the members of his family.
For that he is strong in power; which work is a certain and evident proof of Gods infinite power.
Not one faileth, either to appear when he calleth them, or to do the work to which he sends them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. bringeth out . . . hostimagefrom a general reviewing his army: He is Lord of Sabaoth, theheavenly hosts (Job 38:32).
calleth . . . bynamesnumerous as the stars are. God knows each in all itsdistinguishing characteristicsa sense which “name”often bears in Scripture; so in Gen 2:19;Gen 2:20, Adam, as God’svicegerent, called the beasts by name, that is,characterized them by their several qualities, which, indeed,He has imparted.
by the greatness . . .failethrather, “by reason of abundance of (their inneressential) force and firmness of strength, not one of them isdriven astray“; referring to the sufficiency of the physicalforces with which He has endowed the heavenly bodies, to prevent alldisorder in their motions [HORSLEY].In English Version the sense is, “He has endowed themwith their peculiar attributes (‘names’) by the greatness ofHis might,” and the power of His strength (the betterrendering, instead of, “for that He is strong”).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Lift up your eyes on high,…. From the earth, and the inhabitants of it, even those of the greatest power and influence in it, to the heavens above, those that are visible to the eye:
and behold who hath created these things; that are seen in the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars; consider the Creator of them, what a glorious Being he must be; what power he must be possessed of; what dazzling light he must dwell in; what glory and majesty he must be clothed with; and how infinitely transcending all mortal creatures he must be:
that bringeth out their host by number; not only into being, at the first creation of them, but at every proper season; causing the sun to rise every morning, the stars to appear at night, and the moon in its revolution; as a general brings forth his army, marshals it in order, musters it, and takes the number of his soldiers:
he calleth them all by names; suitable to their position and influence; he knows the proper names of them all, which no astrologer can pretend unto; and this is such knowledge as no general of an army has; for though the stars are innumerable to men, the names of most unknown, they are all known to him that made them, Ps 147:4:
by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power not one faileth; through the omnipotence of God, not only the sun and moon, the great luminaries, are continued in being, and constantly observe their order; but even every star keeps its place, or performs its course, and retains its influence, and in every instance obeys the commands of its Creator; never fails of appearing at his order, and of doing what he appoints it should. Kimchi gives the sense thus, that according to the virtue and efficacy that there is in every star, so is its name; and because of the strength and power that is in everyone of them, they remain unchangeably and unalterably the same as when they were first created; which not only holds true of the sun and moon, but of the stars lesser and greater. The Targum is,
“because of the multitude of strength, and the power of might, not one is hindered from its order;”
wherefore, as there is no likeness on earth, so none in heaven, with which the Lord is to be likened, or to which he can be equalled. This may respect not the might and power of the Lord, in supporting and maintaining these creatures in their being and usefulness; but the strength and power of the mightiest creatures, to hinder their influence and service: for the words may be rendered, “through the multitude of strength”, or anyone being “strong in power, not one indeed fails d”; or is wanting, that is, through the strength or power of the mightiest creatures, angels or men, the hosts of heaven cannot be stopped in their course, or hindered in their work appointed to do, or be deprived of their being.
d “prae multitudine virium, et robore virtutis, ut ne unum quidem deesset”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
After the questions in Isa 40:18 and Isa 40:25, which close syllogistically, a third start is made, to demonstrate the incomparable nature of Jehovah. “Lift up your eyes on high, and see: who hath created these things? It is He who bringeth out their host by number, calleth them all by names, because of the greatness of ( His) might, and as being strong in power: there is not one that is missing.” Jehovah spoke in Isa 40:25; now the prophet speaks again. We have here the same interchange which occurs in every prophetic book from Deuteronomy downwards, and in which the divine fulness of the prophets is displayed. The answer does not begin with , in the sense of “He who brings them out has created them;” but the participle is the predicate to the subject of which the prophet’s soul is full: Jehovah, it is He who brings out the army of stars upon the plane of heaven, as a general leads out his army upon the field of battle, and that b e mispar , by number, counting the innumerable stars, those children of light in armour of light, which meet the eye as it looks up by night. The finite verb denotes that which takes place every night. He calls them all by name (comp. the derivative passage, Psa 147:4): this He does on account of the greatness and fulness of His might ( ‘onm , vires , virtus ), and as strong in power, i.e., because He is so. This explanation is simpler than Ewald’s (293, c), viz., “because of the power ( ) of the Strong One.” The call addressed to the stars that are to rise is the call of the Almighty, and therefore not one of all the innumerable host remains behind. individualizes; (participle), as in Isa 34:16, suggests the idea of a sheep that is missed from the flock through staying behind. The second part of the address closes here, having demonstrated the folly of idolatry from the infinite superiority of God; and from this the third part deduces consolation for Israel in the midst of its despair.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
26. Lift up your eyes on high. The Prophet appears to linger too long on this subject, more especially because it presents no obscurity; for he repeats by many statements what is acknowledged by all, that God’s wonderful power and wisdom may be known from the beautiful order of the world. But we ought to observe what I have already said, that we are so wicked and ungrateful judges of the divine power, that we often imagine God to be inferior to some feeble man. We are more terrified frequently by the empty mask of a single man (122) than we are strengthened by all the promises of God. Not in vain, therefore, does the Prophet repeat that God is defrauded of his honor, if his power do not lead us to warm admiration of him; nor does he spend his labor in what is superfluous, for we are so dull and sluggish that we need to be continually aroused and excited.
Men see every day the heavens and the stars; but who is there that thinks about their Author? By nature men are formed in such a manner as to make it evident that they were born to contemplate the heavens, and thus to learn their Author; for while God formed other animals to look downwards for pasture, he made man alone erect, and bade him look at what may be regarded as his own habitation.
This is also described beautifully by a poet: (123) “While other animals look downwards towards the earth, he gave to man a lofty face, and bade him look at heaven, and lift up his countenance erect towards the stars.” (124) The Prophet therefore points out the wickedness of men who do not acknowledge what is openly placed before their eyes concerning God, but, like cattle, fix their snout in the earth; for, whenever we raise our eyes upwards, with any degree of attention, it is impossible for our senses not to be struck with the majesty of God.
And see who hath created them. By mentioning the stars, he states more clearly that the wonderful order which shines brightly in the face of the heavens preaches loudly that there is one God and Creator of the world; and all who shall observe, that amidst the vast number and variety of the stars, so regular an order and course is so well maintained, will be constrained to make this acknowledgment. For it is not by chance that each of the stars has had its place assigned to it, nor is it at random that they advance uniformly with so great rapidity, and amidst numerous windings move straight forwards, so that they do not deviate a hairbreadth from the path which God has marked out for them. Thus does their wonderful arrangement shew that God is the Author and worker, so that men cannot open their eyes without being constrained to behold the majesty of God in his works.
Bringing out by number their army. Under the word army he, includes two things; their almost infinite number, and their admirable arrangement; for a small number of persons do not constitute an army, and not even a considerable number, if there be not also numerous companies. Besides, it is not called an “army,” when men are collected together at random, and without any selection, and in a confused manner, or when they wander about in a disorderly state, but where there are various classes of officers, who have the charge of ten, or a hundred, or a thousand men, (125) and where the ranks are drawn up and arranged on a fixed plan. Thus the wonderful arrangement of the stars, and their certain courses, may justly be called an “army.”
By the word number he means that God always has this “army” at his command. In an army the soldiers may wander, and may not be immediately collected or brought back to their ranks by the general, though the trumpet sound. But it is otherwise with God. He always has his soldiers in readiness, and that “by number;” that is, he keeps a reckoning of them, so that not one of them is absent.
He will call to all of them by name. The same expression occurs, (Psa 147:4,) and in the same sense. Some explain it to mean that God knows the number of the stars, which is unknown to us. But David and Isaiah meant a different thing, that is, that God makes use of the stars according to his pleasure; as if one should command a servant, calling him to him by name; and the same thing will afterwards be said of Cyrus, whose labors and service the Lord employed in delivering his people. (Isa 45:1.) In a word, it denotes the utmost submission and obedience, when he who is called instantly answers to his name.
By the greatness of his strength. Those who explain the preceding clause to mean that the Lord knows the number of the stars, are also mistaken in supposing that by giving them their names is meant their power and office. Others explain it, that there is not a star that has not its own power and energy, because the Lord gave to them those qualities they would always possess. But others connect these words with יקרא, (yikra,) “he shall call;” as if he had said, “The Lord is so powerful that all the stars listen to his commands.” But a meaning which appears to me to be more appropriate is, that God is so powerful, that, as soon as he has issued an order, all the armies of the stars are ready to yield obedience. In this we have an extraordinary proof of his power, when those highly excellent, creatures unhesitatingly submit to him, and by executing his orders testify that they acknowledge him to be their Author.
Not one shall be wanting. The word איש (ish) is applied by Hebrew writers not only to men and women, but also to other animals, and even to inanimate objects, as in a former passage, (Isa 34:16,) when, speaking of the birds that should occupy those splendid abodes, he said that “ not one should be wanting,” he used the word איש (ish). (126) These words commend to us the power of God, that we may know that there is nothing in heaven or in earth that does not depend on his will and pleasure. Nothing, therefore, can be more shameful or unreasonable than to compare him to idols, which are as worthless as anything can possibly be. (127)
(122) “ L’apparence d’un ver de terre.” “The appearance of a worm of the earth.”
(123) “ Par un poete profane.” “By a heathen poet.”
(124)
“
Pronaque quum spectent animalia caetera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque videre Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.”
Some readers will, perhaps, thank me for a translation of the above passage into French rhyme, taken from the French version of this Commentary. — Ed.
“
Et neantmoins que tout autre animal Iette toujours son regard principal En contre bas, Dieu a Phomme a donne La face haute, et luy a ordonne De regarder l’excellence des cieux, Et d’eslever aux estoilles ses yeux .”
(125) “ Mais celle ou il y aura des sergens de bande, capitaines, colonels et autres conducteurs.” “But where there shall be serjeants of companies, captains, colonels, and other officers.”
(126) In the passage referred to, although not איש ( ish) but the feminine form אשה (ishshah) is used, this does not invalidate our author’s argument. — Ed.
(127) “ Qui sont plus vaines que la vanite mesme.” “Which are more vain than vanity itself.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE UNIVERSE AND MAN
Isa. 40:26. Lift up your eyes on high, &c.
We find in the textnot obscurely, not ambiguously, but with the clearness and positiveness of knowledge
I. That God should not be confounded with His works, but apprehended as the personal and living Author of all. This faith is conspicuous throughout the whole Bible. The first verse of the Book is an explicit declaration of it. On this foundation the Book rests, and from it it is never moved. In this the Bible writers stood alone in the world. The wisdom of Egypt and Assyria gave them no countenance; they lacked the sympathy, to a large extent, of their own nation. This old Hebrew faith stands as firmly in the light of modern science. Sir Isaac Newton declared that the cause of the universe could not be mechanical; Galileo saw God as clearly as Newton in the heavens, whose scientific prophet he was.
That we moderns know more of the material universe scientifically than did the ancients is not to be questioned; but while the Hebrew writers used popular language, they were preserved from mixing the false or inaccurate science of their times with their religious teachings. But while they knew less of the vastness of the universe than we do now, they did not feel it less. The modern scientists awe in the contemplation of it may not be in proportion to his knowledge; the Hebrews knew enough and saw enough to produce the profoundest feeling, and more scientific knowledge would scarcely have added to the depth or intensity of their feeling.
II. That which God created He sustains. For that He is strong in power, not one faileth. But are not the laws of Nature self-working and constant? Constant, certainly; self-working, in the sense of being independent of their Author, as a well-made clock is of its maker, is not, to say the least, so evident. The Hebrew Scriptures affirm the constancy of Nature more consistently than some modern scientists. God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, &c., and the fruittree yielding fruit after its kind. God created every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after its kind. And man, we may add, has produced after his kind. Nature has been constant; all history proves it. The Bible traces it to its source in an ordinance of the Creator. God saw that it was good. Good it was,a most beneficent decree (H. E. I. 3157). Anything else would have turned human forethought and activity into folly, and would have furnished a new illustration of the old Greek notion of a fortuitous concourse of atoms. It is not by the Bible, nor by believers in it, that the constancy of Nature is now doubted; it is by a very bold and boastful section of scientific men, who do not believe that things have always produced after their kind. But the Bible asserts with equal explicitness a continued Divine agency in Nature. It tells us that God still causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, &c. (Psa. 104:14). My Father worketh hitherto, said Christ. The Sabbath-rest was not a cessation from Divine activity. The best of our living astronomers, as well as the greatest of the past, believe that the heavens declare the glory of God, that they are sustained in their immensely complicated but most orderly structure and relations by the power of their Maker; they accept the words of the prophet as containing the conclusion to which science shuts us up. Nor are they offended by the metaphoric or poetic form in which the sublime conception is here expressed; poetic in form, it is true in fact. How consoling is this thought! When we think of the physical possibilities of the universe or of our own globe, we may tremble. Our fear is allayed, not so much by the idea of the regularity and stability of Nature, as by the assurance that God reigneth (2Pe. 3:7)
III. These truths are made the foundation of comfort, primarily to the ancient Israel of God, and equally to all the spiritual Israel (Isa. 40:27-29). The vastness of the universe in nowise detracts from nor diminishes Gods care over the human race. The prophets argument seems almost an inversion of our Lords (Mat. 6:26). Suns and stars are glorious things; we are as atoms and worms in comparison (Psa. 8:3-4). But if this feeling is turned into an argument to place us at a distance from God, there is a reply to it from His own mouth (Isa. 66:1-2). More than this, the Bible story of creation gives us the keynote of the Bible idea of man. The earth was made for him, and he was made in the image of God. The material universe, which was made glorious, has no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. This idea lies at the foundation of the whole Christian scheme, which assumes both the majesty and the misery of man. If man is not a glorious being, he is not worth the expenditure by which he has been redeemed; if he is not fallen, he does not need the redemption of Christ. If we be human atoms, as a modern Pantheist calls us, without personal relations to God, dots of animated jelly, to be absorbed by and by into the mass from which we have been taken, assuredly the Christian redemption is uncalled for and incredible. The African traveller was cheered, when almost dying, by discovering a tuft of living moss. But if we understand things as the prophet did, not only every blade of grass that grows, but every star that shines, justifies faith in the providential love and care of our Heavenly Father. Happy if, in addition to this, we can enter into full sympathy with the apostolic argument! (Rom. 8:32).John Kennedy, D.D.: Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi. pp. 225227.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHEER FOR THE DESPONDING
Isa. 40:26-31. Lift up your eyes on high, &c.
These encouraging assurances must have been of the highest value to the captive and disconsolate Jews in Babylon. Banished for so long a period from the land of their fathers, they were ready to fear that they were outcasts from God. And they are of the utmost value now, for even now the people of God are in times of trouble often tempted to take a dark and depressing view of Gods dealings and dispensation. Then let them consider the facts here brought before us.
I. In His providential government, God exerts on behalf of His children the same almighty power which at first created and still sustains all worlds (Isa. 40:26-27). When by the aid of astronomy we attempt to conceive of the vastness of the universe, we are not only astonished, but confounded. Two thousand stars are said to be visible to the naked eye; but astronomers declare that there are 250,000,000 of them. What an evidence of the affluence of Gods creative energy! The same power that at first called them into being must be perpetually put forth in regulating their movements, sustaining their harmony, and controlling their mutual influences (H. E. I. 362365). Surely, He whose eye can discern, whose arm upholds millions of worlds, can distinctly survey and effectually preserve and bless every individual of His redeemed family, without overlooking or disregarding the minutest of their concerns (cf. Isa. 40:10-11; Luk. 12:6-7; Php. 4:6-7; Rom. 8:28. H. E. I. 40154022).
II. In ordering the concerns of His people, God exercises the same wisdom which He displays in regulating the constitution and course of Nature (Isa. 40:27-28). His wisdom is equal to His power. To Him causes and effects, tendencies and results, are alike known. The events both of the past and the future lie distinctly before Him (H. E. I. 2264, 2268). How great, then, is the encouragement to refer all our interests to Him with whom an error in judgment is a thing unknown, and a mistake impossible! (H. E. I. 40494057.)
III. God is pleased to impart ample and diversified communications of grace to those who wait upon Him. Of those who receive from Him renewal of strength it is said, They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. These words seem to imply that there are those of whom all this elevation of spirit, buoyancy of heart, and untiring alertness in their prescribed course may be asserted. But there are many more to whom some one of these capabilities is imparted without the others.
1. The first part of the description presents to us a favoured class of devout worshippers, distinguished by fervour of spirit in their approaches to the throne of grace, so that they are enabled to soar far above this lower region of cares, fears, and turmoils into a higher and serener atmosphere, where they attain to more realising views of God in Christ, and more intimate, joy-inspiring, and transforming communion with Him. Such were Baxter, John Howe, Leighton, Watts, Doddridge, and other poets of the sanctuary who have aided the upward flight of redeemed spirits. There are such men still among those who here wait upon God.
2. There are other Christians, whose minds are less buoyant, whose affections are less fervid, and whose imagination is less vivid; but, by the grace of God, they run with persevering energy the race set before them, and are not weary.
3. There are others of whom it can only be saidyet, blessed be God, it can be saidThey walk and do not faint. Their movement is less rapid than that of the former classes, but still they are making constant progress in the path of duty and safety. Some of them are aged, infirm, afflicted, or tried, harassed, and tempted; but still they look unto Jesus, and He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no power He increaseth strength (Psa. 69:33; H. E. I. 952961, P. D. 474).
IV. Divine aid is necessary to support even the strongest. Without it, even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. There may be an allusion here to young men selected for military service, singled out as the most vigorous, active, and athletic. As even these cannot secure for themselves the continuance of their health and strength for a single day, so for vigour of faith, fervour in love, energy in obedience, we depend on the grace which renders us strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (H. E I. 23512358).
V. Divine aid is sufficient to strengthen even the weakest. From God comes the strength of the strongest, and in Him they trusted. David (Psa. 68:17; Psa. 71:16). Paul (2Co. 12:5-10). In all times of need and depression, let us look to the same Helper; we shall not look in vain (H. E. I. 47894981).H. F. Burder, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 262278.
The Christians life is a continual warfare. Nor has he any strength but in God. He is prone to reflect more on his own weakness than on Gods power.
I. THE DISCOURAGEMENTS OF GODS PEOPLE.
1. Temporal afflictions.
(1.) Pain and sickness.
(2.) Losses and poverty,sometimes rendered heavier by the unkindness of friends and calumny. Job sank for a time under their weight (Job. 3:1; Job. 27:2).
2. Spiritual troubles.
(1.) Corruptions of the heart
(2.) Unsuccessful conflicts.
(3.) Temptations of Satan.
(4.) Desolations of Zion (H. E. I. 10591062, 2457, 3398, 39493951).
II. THE SUPPORTS WHICH GOD WILL BESTOW.
God is never at a loss for means to succour His people (Isa. 40:28).
1. He is not lacking in tenderness and compassion.
(1.) He has given them a sympathising High Priest (Heb. 4:15).
(2.) Accepts their weak endeavours (Isa. 40:31).
(3.) Infirmities are no bar to His favours (Mat. 12:20; H. E. I. 23132315).
2. He expects, however, that they wait upon Him.
(1.) Prayer is necessary (Eze. 36:37).
(2.) Effectual aid obtained by waiting (Deu. 33:25). The drooping shall mount up, &c.; they that had utterly fallen shall run; they shall march onward in spite of all opposition; they shall never faint through want of strength or courage.
(3.) None shall be disappointed in his hope (Psa. 40:1-2).
III. PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
1. To those who bless themselves that they have never felt such discouragements. Such ignorance argues an utter ignorance of true religion (Gal. 5:17).
2. To those who are now discouraged. Though the sources are many from whence difficulties arise, God is an all-sufficient Helper to those who trust in Him (2Co. 12:10; Php. 4:13). They shall soon be able to attest the truth of the prophets assertion (Isa. 30:18).Charles Simeon, M.A.: Skeletons, pp. 202204.
This is the language of Isaiahs despondency and consolation.
Sorrow may be said to be the heritage of us all. God never intended mans life to be a perpetual song. He made the roses and the thorns, the sunlight and the shadows. But to all who either feel or utter the prophets lament God sends the prophets consolation.
I. GODS POWER IS THE COMFORT OF HIS PEOPLE.
The problems of our life have no solution if we turn away from God. Life, when we turn to God, is never cruel and hard, however full of trial it may be. God has surrounded us on every side with reminders of what He is.
1. His power is painted on the sky.
2. His power is seen on earth.
II. GODS TENDERNESS IS, &c.
This is seen rightly only in conjunction with His greatness. We see the tender in contrast with the mighty. The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, stoops to give power to the faint. Tenderness is strength in gentle action. Gentleness is not weakness, but calm, quiet, loving strength. The Great Father has also a mothers tenderness (P. D. 1499). He giveth power to the faint. Not He gave; not He shall give; but He giveth (H. E. I. 2304). HE GIVETH!that is Gods name. He who fainteth not is drawn to those who do faint; and to the faint He giveth power. There is nothing so mighty as the faintness and weakness which takes hold of the Divine strength. It has omnipotence behind it (2Co. 12:9).
In Christ how is this character given Him by the prophet confirmed? Strong to exorcise devils, yet how tender with His disciples faults; strong to still the storm, yet so touched by His disciples trouble; strong to raise the dead, yet so tender to weep tears of natural sorrow (H. E. I. 951961).
III. GODS WISDOM IS, &c.
There is no searching of His understanding. This is not to say much if it only means that we cannot search it; but there is no searching of it. Gods infinite wisdom is to us the needful complement of His infinite power.
CONCLUSION.We cannot understand, but God knows all. Some plan there is in our changeful life. We can only rest in the thought of His wisdom, His tenderness, His power.
And Christ! He is the wisdom of God, the love, the tenderness of God. Away from Christ, there is no certainty, no rest; and hope is quenched in darkness.Henry Wonnacott: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi. pp. 180182.
SPIRITUAL DESPONDENCY
Isa. 40:27-31. Why sayest thou, O Jacob? &c.
Here is no mere utterance of the complaints of the people; for although the more earnest Jews of the day doubtless did feel that God had forsaken them, the prophet had felt it with the keenest agony. Consider the circumstances in which Isaiah was placed when the text was written.
1. He had been prophesying for fifty years with but few glimpses into the splendour of the future, and without any indications in the people of the beneficial results of his mission.
2. Imagine now his position. Summoned to prophesy with the strange warning that his words would harden the people (chap. Isa. 6:9-10), he had found for half a century the truth of that mysterious commission. He had seen words both of the most awful woe and of the tenderest love alike fail to rouse the people from their dreams. Invasion after invasion swept over the land; he had just seen the people panic-stricken at the approach of the dread Assyrian army; had beheld their hosts wither in a night before the breath of the Destroyer. Another and darker invasion, which would carry them captive to Babylon, had shaped itself before his prophetic eye. Must not the grey old man have been more than human if he had not been tempted, in some moments, to cry in utter gloom, The Lord has forgotten me?
3. In the midst of that deep depression, the new revelation, which begins with a shout of joy in this chapter, opened before him in its glory. The old question came back, with its grand reply, Why sayest thou? &c. We have three points before us
I. ISAIAHS DESPONDENCY.
It arose from a twofold source.
1. The sense of a Divine desertion: My way is hidden from the Lord. Just because the most earnest of the people felt the absence of God from the nation, he felt it far more intensely. Many men have had the same experience. If we are Christians, we shall know it sooner or later.
2. The absence of Divine recompense: My judgment is passed over from my God. A cry from the prophet himself. Remember how little result of his long labour the man of eighty years had seen.
The people were buried in God-forgetting repose; the priests were dead in formalism; the spiritual life of the land was decaying, and thunders of woe were muttering in the nations future. All great men think that they die in failure. The same terrible absence of Divine recompense has been felt by lesser minds, if only earnest.
II. THE TRUTH THAT REMOVED IT.
In Isa. 40:30-31, we perceive that the double manifestation of Gods greatness in Nature and the tenderness of His revealed will dispelled the gloom.
1. The greatness of God in Nature (Isa. 40:28; Isa. 40:26).
(1.) Would not He who guided unweariedly the stars guide the life of immortal man unforgettingly and righteously? And thus the eternal chorus swept down on the prophets soul from the heaven of heavens (Isa. 40:27). Before the majestic care of the Creator in Gods visible Bible of creation mans doubting heart should grow calm.
(2.) He speaks not only of the unsearchable Creator, but of the Everlasting God. The Everlasting implies the thought of One to whom past, present, and future are one now (Isa. 40:6-8).
2. The tenderness of the revealed will (Isa. 40:11; Isa. 40:29). The revelation of Gods tenderness fuller for the Christian man. We know how the Great Shepherd gave His life for the sheep.
III. THE RESULTS OF ITS REMOVAL.
They are twofold.
1. Strength in weakness (Isa. 40:31). Feebleness is transformed into power when God has taught His great lesson of glorying in infirmity.
2. Immortal youth. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. There is an old Jewish fable that the eagle in dying recovered its youthful power. This is what Isaiah meant. The trustful heart never grows old. The dying Christian starts into new vigour at the name of Christ. The oldest angels are the youngest.E. L. Hull: Sermons, First Series, pp. 8190.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(26) Who hath created . . .The verb may be noted as a characteristic of 2 Isaiah, in which it occurs twenty times.
That bringeth out their host . . .The words expand the idea implied in Jehovah-Sabaoth (comp. Psa. 147:4). He marshals all that innumerable host of stars, as a supreme general who knows by sight and name every soldier in a vast army, or as a shepherd who knows his flock (Joh. 10:3).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
As the Prophet’s commission opened, so the chapter is closed, in giving a special comfort to the Lord’s people. It is impossible to conceive in the whole compass of language, anything more gracious, more affectionate, or kind, than what is here said, in the Lord’s love, to Israel. Every glorious perfection of Jehovah, and all his covenant relations, seem here to be brought forward, to give confidence to his people, in the security of his promises. It would be to injure the blessed passage, to attempt any comment upon it. Every word is so plain, so sweet, and so gracious, that he who is taught of God, cannot possibly mistake the meaning; and the soul that is under the influences of the Holy Ghost, must receive the comfort of it. And how very tender is the Lord’s manner of expostulating with his people, on the unreasonableness of their timidity! why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? Reader! may the Lord give you and me grace to enjoy the full blessedness of what is here said. Thousands, who are gone to glory, have been, while on earth, refreshed by it; and thousands there are still to be supported by the same, during their pilgrimage state below. Oh! for the Lord, who gives the scripture, to give to you and to me, by his Holy Spirit, the enjoyment of the Lord in his scripture, and then shall we rest in the supports of a God all-sufficient and all-gracious in Christ, to rise above all the changeable circumstances of creatures in us, and about us, until we come to lie down in the everlasting arms of our Lord, in the kingdom which is above.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth.
Ver. 26. Lift up your eyes on high. ] Who is there, saith a heathen, a that looketh up toward heaven, and presently perceiveth not that there is a God? we may well add, and an Almighty God? Why then should the vanities of the heathen come in competition with him? or why should Jacob say, “My way is hid from the Lord,” &c., as Isa 40:27 as if God neglected them, or were weary of helping them. Isa 40:28
And behold who hath created these things.
That bringeth out their host by number.
a Cicero.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
calleth = calleth for, summoneth. by names. See Psa 147:4; and App-12.
strong = strong (for activity in working). Not the same word as in verses: Isa 40:9, Isa 40:29, Isa 40:31 (Hebrew. ‘amaz).
faileth = is missing (when called). Compare 1Sa 30:19. 2Sa 17:22. See note on Isa 34:16.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lift: Isa 51:6, Deu 4:19, Job 31:26-28, Psa 8:3, Psa 8:4, Psa 19:1
who hath: Isa 44:24, Isa 45:7, Isa 48:13, Gen 2:1, Gen 2:2, Psa 102:25, Psa 148:3-6, Jer 10:11, Jer 10:12, Col 1:16, Col 1:17
bringeth: Psa 147:4, Psa 147:5
by the greatness: Psa 89:11-13, Jer 32:17-19
Reciprocal: Gen 1:1 – God Gen 1:14 – Let there Jdg 15:19 – his spirit 1Ch 16:26 – the Lord Job 9:10 – great things Job 25:3 – there Job 26:7 – General Job 26:14 – how little Job 37:15 – Dost Psa 28:5 – operation Psa 89:8 – a strong Isa 41:4 – hath Isa 66:2 – For all those Jer 51:15 – hath made Joh 5:17 – My Rom 1:19 – that which Rom 1:20 – even his Rom 1:23 – an image Heb 11:3 – faith Rev 4:11 – for thou
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth {b} out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth.
(b) Who has set in order the infinite number of the stars.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The stars were objects of worship and signs of divine activity in Babylonian and Canaanite worship (cf. 2Ki 17:16; 2Ki 21:3). But they were only creations. The pagan cults assigned them names, but the Lord summons and directs them using their real names, the names that He as their sovereign assigns them. In the ancient world, to know the name of something was to know its essence and so to have power over it. Innumerable as they may be to humans, the Lord knows and controls each one of the heavenly bodies.
"Isaiah has insisted on the absolute transcendence of God: he is not part of the cosmos in any way, and the cosmos is not part of him [in contrast to pantheism and panantheism]. But to carry that line to its logical conclusion as Aristotle did is to end with a passionless, colorless force as the source of everything. It is to say that personality is an accident in time. Isaiah will not go that way. He insists on transcendence, but leaves no doubt that the Transcendent is a person with all that that means. When all is said and done, the combination of these two may be Israel’s greatest contribution to human thought." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 70.]
"Why does the glory of God sit lightly on believers today? It may be the fault of those of us who are preachers. Is our constant message to the people, ’Behold your God’? Or have we changed the subject? We seem to have sunk to the level of quick-stop churches where God is expected to lubricate the vehicle of American selfishness." [Note: Ortlund, p. 242.]
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God’s Superiority to All Possible Opposition [Note: Dyer, in The Old . . ., pp. 563-64.] |
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Argument |
Question(s) |
Conclusion |
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His superiority to the nations is shown by His creation of the earth. |
Isa 40:12-14 |
Isa 40:15-17 |
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His superiority to idols is seen in the fact that they are created by craftsmen. |
Isa 40:18 |
Isa 40:19-20 |
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His superiority to the rulers of the earth is seen in the fact that He is transcendent while they are temporary. |
Isa 40:21 |
Isa 40:22-24 |
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His superiority over other "deities" is shown by His creation of the heavenly bodies. |
Isa 40:25 |
Isa 40:26 |