Biblion Bible Commentary
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They Will Mount Up With Wings Like Eagles
Isaiah 40:12-31
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? · WEB
God is measured against the universe and the idol-makers in turn, and the answer to a complaint about being overlooked is the star count.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales? Isaiah 40:12.
Four questions, and each takes something immeasurable and puts it in a household unit — a cupped palm, the span from thumb to little finger, a basket, a pair of scales. The oceans fit in a hand.
Who has directed Yahweh's Spirit, or has taught him as his counselor? Isaiah 40:13.
Paul quotes this at the end of the most difficult argument in Romans Romans 11:34 and again in Corinthians 1 Corinthians 2:16.
Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance Isaiah 40:15.
Not a bucket of water — a drop left hanging on the rim after it has been emptied, and the dust that settles on a scale pan and does not move the needle. This is said to people whose lives had just been rearranged by one of those nations.
Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering Isaiah 40:16.
The largest forest and all the game in it would not make one adequate sacrifice.
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold Isaiah 40:18–19.
The answer to the question is a description of manufacture, and the chapter does it twice — once for the rich man's gold-plated version and once for the poor man's, who chooses a tree that will not rot and hires a carpenter to make something that will not be moved Isaiah 40:20. The single quality the budget idol is required to have is that it stays upright.
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in Isaiah 40:22.
Who brings princes to nothing... They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither Isaiah 40:23–24.
Three times scarcely. Dynasties are described as seedlings that have not got their roots down, and what removes them is breath.
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name Isaiah 40:26.
The stars are counted and named individually, and not one is lacking.
Why do you say, Jacob... "My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God"? Isaiah 40:27.
Only now does the complaint appear that the whole chapter has been answering. It is not that God is too weak. It is that he has not noticed — and the answer given is the roll call of the stars: one who takes attendance of the sky is not likely to have mislaid a person.
Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength Isaiah 40:30–31.
The strongest people available are named as the ones who give out. And the order of the promise runs downward — mount up, run, walk — ending on the least impressive, which is the one that takes longest.
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