The everlasting God and great Creator loves and cares for us – Isaiah 40:28

God is all powerful, everlasting and is the Creator of all things. He has shown that he loves and cares for us. This should be enough to motivate us each day to dedicate ourselves to the ways of God.

The state of Israel’s health

Isaiah was a prophet who lived around 740 to 680 BC. This was the period when the Assyrian Empire was growing in power and Judah was about to be invaded by King Sennacherib. Isaiah looked carefully at Judah (the southern kingdom) and found that they were not doing very well in their relationship with God.

Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Isaiah 1:5-6

Isaiah was saying to them that they were spiritually sick. Their attitude to God was wrong. They had this idea that if made offered expensive sacrifices to God, that they could then continue  to make money by illegal means. What they seemed to not understand is that God is not interested in expensive offerings, what he wants is our hearts and our full commitment to Him. We can receive forgiveness from God but we need to show our repentance by changing our lives. If we do this He will wash away our sins and we will be clean before Him.

The commission

In chapter six of the book of Isaiah, the prophet is given the task to go out and preach the word of God to the people of Judah. However, he is told before he does this that the people will not change their ways:

And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;  keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Isaiah 6:9

This same situation was repeated in the New Testament when Jesus and the apostles taught the words of God, but the people did not listen becoming blind and deaf to the words. Only a small group wisely took notice of what was being taught.

God’s questions to Israel

In the words of Isaiah, Israel is challenged in relation to the majesty and counsel of God. All nations are nothing when compared to God. Israel are criticized for their rejection of the counsel of God. They are also condemned for their idolatry which they had copied from the heathen nations around them. How could they do this when God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt? He had shown His love for them time and time again.

This same thing happened later in the first century when Jesus was rejected by the people of Israel. God had sent Jesus to save them yet the people again rejected the counsel of God. 

This brings us to the central verse we are considering in this article:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28

What could be done more than God has done in Israel? It was a similar question to what had been asked in chapter 5 and verse 4:

What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? Isaiah 5:4

This is a question we can ask ourselves. To those who do not believe – if the natural world around us is not enough to show there is a creator then what hope is there? To those who do believe – if the promise of a worldwide kingdom in the future is not enough to keep us in God’s way, then what hope is there?

The creator

God had shown the people of Israel many times over their history His love for them by saving them from difficult situations and directing them towards the Promised Land. But in the verse we are considering, Isaiah 40:28, God also appeals to them to consider  that he is the everlasting God and the creator of the earth. In verse 26 he reminds them of the stars and universe around them – God is the creator of it all.

Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number,calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Isaiah 40:26

Many years before, the father of the nation Abraham, had lifted up his eyes  on high, and as a result believed the promise made to him by God. King David had lifted his eyes on high, and was astounded that the Creator of these worlds should take any account of man at all. Unfortunately, most of Israel was not of this way of thinking.

Lifting up our eyes

We need to not be like many of the nation of Israel in those days and many who think that way in the age we live in. We can look at the skies about us and the beauty of the earth we walk on and then marvel at the great God who has shown His love towards us. We can appreciate and then dedicate our lives to God who has made the promises to us. There will be a worldwide kingdom in the future and there will be salvation for those found acceptable to be part of that kingdom. Surely this must motivate each one of us to live each day committed to the ways of God.

Chapter 40 of Isaiah finishes with the reliability of that beautiful promise:

they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31