Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Parallel Translations
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Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
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Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
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Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? His discernment is past searching out.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (32)
Passages linked to Isaiah 40:28 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 11:33-34 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
- Psalms 147:5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite.
- Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- 1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
- Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
- Isaiah 40:21 Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?
- Luke 24:25 He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
- 1 Corinthians 2:16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
- Genesis 21:33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.
- Jeremiah 4:22 “For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”
- John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’
- Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
- Psalms 90:2 Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
- Isaiah 57:15 For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
- 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
- Psalms 139:6 This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it.
- Isaiah 45:22 “Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9 Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
- Mark 8:17-18 Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember?
- Psalms 138:8 Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me. Your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.
- Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy from before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’
- Isaiah 59:1 Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
- Mark 9:19 He answered him, “Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.”
- Mark 16:14 Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn’t believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
- John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
- Acts 13:47 For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, that you should bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’ ”
- Romans 16:26
- 1 Corinthians 6:16 Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.”
- 1 Samuel 2:10 Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them in the sky. “Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
- Isaiah 66:9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says Yahweh. “Shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God.
- Jeremiah 10:10 But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles. The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.
- 1 Corinthians 6:3-5 Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Showing that men must patiently abide, and not curiously…
Showing that men must patiently abide, and not curiously seek out the cause of God’s delay in our afflictions.
And therefore all power is in his hand to deliver when his time cometh.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not…
Isa 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding.
Ver. 28. He fainteth not, nor is weary.] Or, He is neither tired nor toiled, viz., as earthly judges may be. And his own people, for thinking otherwise of him, are here taken up as tartly as those idolaters before, {Isa 40:21} with, "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard?"
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There is no searching of his understanding.] Submit to him therefore as to the only wise God. This the very heathens taught men to do, as Plutarch. {a}
{a} De sera Num. Vindic.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Of the ends of the earth; of all the…
Of the ends of the earth; of all the earth, and the inhabitants thereof, from one end to another. He seems to mention the ends or utmost bounds, because they might seem to be more out of the reach and care of God’s providence, as being most remote from Jerusalem, the only place of God’s solemn and public worship in the world, and being then thought to be uninhabited. The argument is clear and strong: God, who made all, even the most desolate and barbarous parts of the earth, and consequently takes care of them, will not neglect his own land and people.
Fainteth not, neither is weary; he is not by age or hard labour become weak and unable to help his people, as men are apt to be.
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There is no searching of his understanding; his counsels, by which he governeth all the world, and in a most particular manner thine affairs, are far above the reach of thy understanding; and therefore thou dost ignorantly and foolishly in passing so rash a censure upon the ways and works of the infinitely wise God.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He giveth power to the faint,.... Who are ready…
He giveth power to the faint,.... Who are ready to faint under afflictions, because they have not immediate deliverance, or their prayers are not answered at once, or promises not fulfilled as they expected; to such he gives fresh supplies of spiritual strength; he strengthens their faith, and enlarges their views, to behold the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, and confirms his blessings and promises of grace unto them, Psa 27:13. The Targum is,
"who giveth wisdom to the righteous that breathe after the words of the law:''
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and to them that have no might he increaseth strength; not that they have no might at all, strictly speaking; for then it could not be properly said their strength was increased by him; but that their might and power were very small, and that in their own apprehensions they had none, and then it is that fresh strength is given them; as the apostle says, "when I am weak, then am I strong"; Co2 12:10, though this may be understood, not of the strength of their graces, but of their sins and corruptions: a word from the same root as this here used signifies "iniquity"; and the sense may be, that the Lord increases the spiritual strength of such on whom the lust's, corruptions, and virtuosity of nature have not the power and dominion (e).
(e) "Cur non sumatur", "illis quibus non sunt vitiosae concupiscentiae robur auger", Gusset. Ebr. Comment. p. 21.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 28. There is no searching of his understanding…
Verse 28. There is no searching of his understanding - "And that his understanding is unsearchable."] Twenty-four MSS., two editions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, read ואין veein, with the conjunction ו vau.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Hast thou not known? - This is the language…
Hast thou not known? - This is the language of the prophet reproving them for complaining of being forsaken and assuring them that God was faithful to his promises. This argument of the prophet, which continues to the close of the chapter, comprises the main scope of the chapter, which is to induce them to put confidence in God, and to believe that he was able and willing to deliver them. The phrase, ‘Hast thou not known? refers to the fact that the Jewish people had had an abundant opportunity of learning, in their history, and from their fathers, the true character of God, and his entire ability to save them. No people had had so much light on this subject, and now that they were in trial, they ought to recall their former knowledge of his character, and remember his dealings of faithfulness with them and their fathers. It is well for the people of God in times of calamity and trial to recall to their recollection his former dealings with his church. That history will furnish abundant sources of consolation, and abundant assurances that their interests are safe in his hands.
Hast thou not heard? - From the traditions of the fathers; the instruction which you have received from ancient times. A large part of the knowledge of the Jews was traditionary; and these attributes of God, as a faithful God, had, no doubt, constituted an important part of the knowledge which had thus been communicated to them.
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The everlasting God - The God who has existed from eternity, unlike the idols of the pagan. If he was from eternity, he would be unchangeable, and his purposes could not fail.
The Creator of the ends of the earth - The phrase, ‘the ends of the earth,’ means the same as the earth itself. The earth is sometimes spoken of as a vast plain having limits or boundaries (see Isa 40:22). It is probable that this was the prevailing idea among the ancients (compare Deu 33:17; 1Sa 2:10; Psa 19:6; Psa 22:27; Psa 48:10; Psa 65:5; Psa 67:7; Psa 98:3; Isa 43:6; Isa 45:22; Isa 52:10). The argument here is, that he who has formed the earth could not be exhausted or weary in so small a work as that of protecting his people.
Fainteth not - Is not fatigued or exhausted. That God, who has formed and sustained all things, is not exhausted in his powers, but is able still to defend and guard his people.
There is no searching of his understanding - The God who made all things must be infinitely wise. There is proof of boundless skill in the works of his hands, and it is impossible for finite mind fully and adequately to search out all the proofs of his wisdom and skill. Man can see only a part - a small part, while the vast ocean, the boundless deep of his wisdom, lies still unexplored. This thought is beautifully expressed by Zophar in Job 11:7-9 :
Canst thou by searching find out God?
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
It is as high as heaven;
What canst thou do?
Deeper than hell;
What canst thou know:
The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
And broader than the sea.
The argument here is, that that God who has made all things, must be intimately acquainted with the needs of his people. They had, therefore, no reason to complain that their way was hidden from the Lord, and their cause passed over by him. Perhaps, also, it is implied, that as his understanding was vast, they ought not to expect to be able to comprehend the reason of all his doings; but should expect that there would be much that was mysterious and unsearchable. The reasons of his doings are often hid from his people; and their consolation is to be found in the assurance that he is infinitely wise, and that he who rules over the universe must know what is best, and cannot err.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain known--by thine own observation and reading of Scripture.
known--by thine own observation and reading of Scripture.
heard--from tradition of the fathers.
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everlasting, &c.--These attributes of Jehovah ought to inspire His afflicted people with confidence.
no searching of his understanding--therefore thy cause cannot, as thou sayest, escape His notice; though much in His ways is unsearchable, He cannot err (Job 11:7-9). He is never "faint" or "weary" with having the countless wants of His people ever before Him to attend to.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 28. Hast thou not known — The words here…
28. Hast thou not known — The words here go on with the same reassuring intent. After the first pair of questions of Isa_40:21, the affirmation is: This eternal, all-perfect God does not tire of the humble supplicant’s appeal.
Fainteth not — To search the depths of his wisdom baffles all effort, but proof is found therein of goodness that fails not.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 28. that the everlasting God, the Lord] Better: An…
28. that the everlasting God, the Lord] Better: An everlasting God is Jehovah. He fainteth not] a new sentence.
there is no searching …] Therefore it must be for wise reasons that
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Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs, etc.
29 should be joined in one verse with the last two lines of Isa_40:28.
Not only is Jehovah never weary, but He gives strength to them who are weary.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (28) Hast thou not known? . . .—The questions…
(28) Hast thou not known? . . .—The questions are parallel to those of Isa_40:21, but are addressed to the Israel of God, rather than, as those were, to mankind.
The Creator of the ends of the earth.—The word emphasises the thought that the whole earth, from the Euphrates to the “islands” of the sea, is subject to the power of the Eternal.
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Fainteth not, neither is weary? . . .—Had Isaiah learnt to feel that even his own phrase as to men “wearying God” (Isa_7:13) was too boldly anthropomorphic, and might, therefore, be misleading?
No searching of his understanding.—The words come, like so many others like it, from Job (Isa_5:9; Isa_9:10), and must have been in St. Paul’s mind as he wrote Rom_11:33.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Hast thou not known? Complaining Israel is bidden to…
Hast thou not known? Complaining Israel is bidden to stay itself upon God, as
(1) everlasting;
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(2) the Creator;
(3) unwearied;
(4) unsearchable;
and is then further consoled by the promise that God will give them strength to endure; support them, refresh them, and, as it were, renew the youth of the nation (vers. 29, 31). Creator of the ends of the earth; i.e. "Creator even of the remotest ends," and therefore of the whole earth. Fainteth not. (comp. Psa_121:3, Psa_121:4) If God were for a moment to "faint" or "be weary," to "slumber" or "sleep," the whole fabric of nature would fail and disappear, universal chaos would set in, all moral order would cease probably all existence, except his own, sink into nothingness. God is wholly free from whatsoever is weak or defective in man. No searching . (see Job_5:9 Job_9:10 Job_11:7 Psa_147:5 Ecc_3:11) God"s ways being unsearchable, his servants must trust him to accomplish their deliverance in his own good time.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the…
Isa_40:28-31
The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not.
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The unwearied God and wearied men
For nations and for individuals in view of political disasters or of private sorrows, the only holdfast to which cheerful hope may cling, is the old conviction, The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
I. ISAIAHS APPEAL TO THE FAMILIAR THOUGHT OF AN UNCHANGEABLE GOD, AS THE ANTIDOTE TO ALL DESPONDENCY, AND THE FOUNDATION OF ALL HOPE. Hast thou not known; hast thou not heard, that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? To whom is he speaking? The words of the previous verse tell us, in which he addresses himself to Jacob, or Israel, who is represented as complaining: My way is hid from the Lord. That is to say, he speaks to the believing, but despondent dent part of the exiles in Babylon. There is wonder in the question, there is a tinge of rebuke in it. The prophet takes his stand upon the most elementary truth of religion. His appeal to them is: What do you call God? You call Him the Lord, do you not? What do you mean by calling Him that? The life of men and of creatures is like a river, with its source and its course and its end. The life of God is like the ocean, with joyous movement of tides and currents of life and energy and purpose, but ever the same, and ever returning upon itself. The everlasting Gods the Lord; and Jehovah, the unchanged, unchangeable, inexhaustible Being, spends, and is unspent; gives, and is none the poorer; works, and is never wearied; lives, and with no tendency to death in His life; flames with no tendency to extinction in the blaze. He fainteth not, neither is weary. Here is a lesson for us to learn, of meditative reflection upon the veriest commonplaces of our religion. There is a tendency among us to forget the indubitable, and to let our religious thought be occupied with the disputable and secondary parts of revelation. The commonplaces of religion are the most important. Everybody needs air, light, bread, and water. Meditate, then, upon the things most surely believed, and ever meditate until the dry stick of the commonplace truth puts forth buds and blossoms like Aarons rod. We all have times, depending on mood or circumstances, when things seem black and we are weary. This great truth will shine into our gloom like a star into a dungeon. Are our he.arts to tremble for Gods truth to-day? Are we to share in the pessimist views of some faint-hearted Christians? Surely as long as we can remember the name of the Lord, and His unwearied arm, we have nothing to do with fear or sadness for ourselves or for His Church or for His world.
II. THE UNWEARIED GOD GIVING STRENGTH TO WEARIED MAN. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. Earth knows no independent strength. All earthly power is limited in range and duration, and, by the very law of its being, is steadily tending to weakness. But though that has a sad side, it has also a grand and blessed one. Mans needs are the open mouth into which God puts His gifts. The low earth stretches, grey and sorrowful, fiat and dreary, beneath the blue arched heaven, but the heaven stoops to encompass--ay! to touch it. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.
Notice the preceding, words, Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, etc. In the simple astronomy of those early times, there was no failure, nor decay, nor change, in the calm heavens. The planets, year by year, returned punctually to their place; and, unhasting and unresting, rolled upon their way. Weakness and weariness had no place there, but, says Isaiah, Gods power does not show itself so nobly up there as it does down here. It is not so much to keep the strong in their strength as to give strength to the weak. It is much to preserve the stars from wrong, it is more to restore and to break the power into feeble men.
III. THE WEARIED MAN LIFTED TO THE LEVEL OF THE UNWEARIED GOD, AND TO HIS LIKENESS. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. That phrase means, of course, the continuous bestowment in unintermitting sequence of fresh gifts of power, as each former gift becomes exhausted, and more is required. That continuous communication leads to the perpetual youth of the Christian soul. According to the law of physical life, decaying strength and advancing years tame and sober and disenchant and often make weary because we become familiar with all things and the edge is taken off everything. My text goes on to portray the blessed consequences of this continuous communication of Divine strength: They shall run and not be weary. That is to say: this strength of Gods poured into our hearts, if we wait upon Him, shall fit us for the moments of special hard effort, for the crises which require more than an ordinary amount of energy to be put forth. It will fit us, too, for the long, dreary hours which require nothing but keeping doggedly at monotonous duties--They shall walk and not faint. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Energy and wisdom
I. THE DIVINE BEING AS POSSESSED OF INFINITE ENERGY. He fainteth not, neither is weary. His most stupendous works are rather the hidings of His power, than the manifestations of His might. The fact of Gods possessing infinite energy supplies us with four guarantees--
1. A guarantee of the regularity of the physical universe.
2. A guarantee of ability to fulfil His promises. Of what avail are promises if there be no executive energy?
3. A guarantee of His power to realise His threatenings.
4. A guarantee of Christs final enthronement. Feeble instrumentality is no argument against this view. Nor is the guilty indifference of the Church.
II. THE DIVINE BEING AS POSSESSED OF INFINITE MENTAL CAPACITY. There is no searching of His understanding. In God, therefore, there is a combination of infinite strength and infinite mind: power is under the government of intelligence! The universe is an embodied idea. Its minutest members are parts of one glorious thought. The infinite understanding of the Divine Being furnishes--
1. An assurance that the darkest providences are under the direction of infinite wisdom.
2. That no plot against His government can succeed.
3. That His plan of salvation is alone sufficient. Possessed of an understanding that is infinite, God knew the exact necessities of the human race, and provided that economy which alone could satisfy the cravings of human nature.
4. That He understands the peculiarities of every case. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? These words rebuke the idea that anything can escape the Divine notice. Christ knew all the springs of life, He saw the maladies which tainted the blood and crippled the faculties of man, and at the issue of His fiat the most malignant affection retreated as if in haste and shame!
5. An assurance of eternal variety in the study of His nature. There is no searching of His understanding. The eldest born in eternity may at this moment employ this same language; for those who have seen most of the Divine glory, confess most loudly the infinitude of His resources. Application--
(1) What is your relationship to this all-glorious Being?
(2) If you are out of sympathy with this all-glorious Being, what is your hope for eternity? (J. Parker, D. D.)
The inexhaustibleness of the Divine Power
Power is a faculty for producing changes and performing works. There are three kinds or manifestations of power--physical, intellectual, and moral. I go into St. Pauls Cathedral when some grand religious service is performed, the choral part is of the highest order, the sermon is delivered by the grandest preacher of the day. Here I receive an impression of three manifestations of power. The bringing together and adjusting the stone, marble, iron, timber that compose the enormous structure, impress me with physical power-power to act on material bodies. In the architectural symmetry of the whole I am impressed with the intellectual power--power of planning and contriving so as to give utility, stability, and beauty to the whole. In the sacred music that floats around me and the eloquent sermon that is addressed to me, my nature is brought under the influence of moral power--power that rouses the conscience, that stirs the deepest sentiments ofthe soul. Out in open Nature these three kinds of manifestations of power appeal to man. Gods power is inexhaustible in all these phases.
I. HIS PHYSICAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. This will appear if we consider--
1. The nature of His work in the material department. He is the Originator of all.
2. The effect of His work in the material department.
3. The constancy of His work in the material department.
II. HIS INTELLECTUAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. Intellectual force is as visible in nature to a thought ful eye as physical. Science shows that everything--the minute and the vast, the proximate and the remote, is formed, sustained, and directed according to plan. In Thy book all my members were written. Think of the boundless variety amongst all the flowers and trees that have ever grown. Amongst all the men of all the generations that are gone, have there been two in face and figure exactly alike? Here is intellectual fertility! The little intellectual force of contrivance possessed by the bee or the bird is very soon exhausted, Man, too, soon reaches a culminating point in inventive skill. But not so with God. But in the creations of the spiritual world the same inexhaustibleness of intellectual energy is displayed. Each spirit involves something of a new plan. On this little planet fresh souls appear every hour.
III. HIS MORAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE.
1. Look at His moral power in nature. Nature is brimful of the moral power of God; power appealing to the souls of men.
2. Look at His moral power in the Gospel. What is moral power? Truth and grace. (Homilist.)
The inexhaustible energy of God
I. HIS ENERGY IN THE SPHERE OF CONTRIVANCE IS INEXHAUSTIBLE.
1. Look at His contrivance in relation to matter. The rushing currents, the surging sea, the furious tempest, the revolution of planets, and the recurrence of the seasons--all give us the impression of power. But to the thoughtful, the intellectual force is as clearly developed in nature as the material, nay, is implied in the material.
2. Look at His contrivance in relation to spirit. Observe--
(1) Unceasing creation of new spirits.
(2) The government of spirits.
(3) The moral restoration of human spirits. What contrivance is here!
II. HIS ENERGY IN THE SPHERE OF EXECUTION IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. His power of working out His plans is equal to His power of invention.
1. It is so in the material. In the material realm God seems to develop His plans in two ways--directly and indirectly; without means and by means.
2. It is so in the spiritual. Let us look at His power to save. What is moral power? It is the power of truth. But the Gospel is the most powerful of any truth--
(1) Because it is moral truth.
(2) Because it is remedial truth.
(3) Because it is divinely embodied truth.
Example is stronger than precept. The truths to be deduced from the whole are--
(1) That the delay of punishment must not be referred to incapacity.
(2) That the urging of difficulties against the fulfilment of Divine promises is an absurdity. There are two classes of promises against which we urge this. One relates to the conversion of the world. The other to the resurrection of the dead. It is not only possible for these promises to be fulfilled, but impossible for them not to be.
(3) That if we are immortal we shall witness new manifestations of Divine power for ever.
(4) That the interest as well as duty of every man is to cultivate friendship with God. You are safe if you have God as a refuge. (Homilist.)
Profitable reflection in dark hours
Was it a true thing these exiles said? They suggested that they had worn out the Divine patience. They were ready to admit that He had been the God of their fathers; but He had now withdrawn from His covenant relationship, and would be favourable no more. That, they said, was the reason why they were allowed to languish year after year on the plains of Babylon. They spoke as though they had never known nor heard some of the most rudimentary facts about the nature and ways of God. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? In our dark hours we should revert to considerations which have been familiar to us from childhood, but have of late ceased to exert a definite impression. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Gods power the comfort of His people
The terms by which God is described are not what may be termed the gracious designations which are often employed to describe Him; it is not the Father, the Redeemer, the Gentle One; it is the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, as if Divine comfort were not a sentiment only, as if Divine comfort did not come only out of the Divine emotions, but poured itself down upon us from all that is majestic, dominant, mighty, immeasurable, royal, and grand in the Divine nature. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Gods moment the perfect miniature of His everlasting day's
It is said to be the property of a crystal to assume precisely the same form into however many fragments it may be broken up. The infinitesimal particle, for the study of which a magnifying glass must be used, is a precise facsimile of the parent crystal from which it came. If we could take Gods eternity and break it up into aeons, if we could take the aeons and break them up into ages, and the ages into centuries, and the centuries into years, and the years into days, and the days into hours, and the hours into moments, we should find each separate moment of Gods life to be just as resplendent with benignity, compassion, redeeming grace, and helpfulness, as His sublime eternity itself. (T. G. Selby.)
God never grows weary
A story is told of a little girl whose faith in God may teach us a lesson. The lamp had just been put out, and the little girl was rather afraid of the dark. But presently she saw the bright moon out of her window, and she asked her mother, Is the moon Gods light? Yes, Ethel, the mother replied; the moon and stars are all Gods lights. Will God blow out His light and go to sleep too? she asked again. No, my child, replied the mother, Gods lights are always burning. Well, mamma, said Ethel, while Gods awake, Im not afraid.
There is no searching of His understanding
Heartening conceptions of God
How to reconcile the approving verdict of creative wisdom, God saw that it was good, with that condition of things of which St. Paul speaks as the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain together; how to reconcile the idea of Almighty goodness with the existence of universal and apparently aimless conflict and struggle for destruction, is a question that, in itself, would seem incapable of exaggerated statement. It is the old, old question, which we shall see solved in the day, and not before the day, when He, the Son, the Creator, shall have put all things under Him; the question between life and death. Still if wisdom is to be justified of her children, we cannot bear as her children not to try to justify her; and although we know that we shall not attain to the answer, we cannot help hearing and thinking of the question. We look first at the possibilities which lie in what God has not revealed, and secondly for the particulars which, in developing His message and expanding our power of receiving it, and in regulating our conduct under and in consequence of it, it has pleased Him to make known to us about Himself. We may without presumption, certainly with nothing short of the most timid tentativeness, approach such mysteries as the travailing of creation, the gradual character of Divine revelation, the delay of the consummation of the mediatorial work, the agency of external and previous influences on the will, the conduct and the responsibility of human beings. All these four matters are of vivid and universal interest, ancient questions, older than Genesis, older than Socrates, older than Archimedes, older than Enoch; questions that no new theories can answer, problems that admit of constant new illustrations, but lie in the very incunabula of human thought. Take them in order.
1. In that beginning of which the first verse of the Bible speaks, the Creator, Almighty and All good, called matter into being: the material world, in that conformation which science reveals to us, may be the result, not only of immensely long periods of energy, but of immensely varied methods of agency; when it comes within our ken it is seen to be the result of operations into which pain and death largely enter, and in which, so far as we can see, they are still, with no traceable connection with mankind, actively at work. In our contemplation of pain and death in human morals, we trace back both to the effect of sin, and sin to the depravation of the free will at the fall of man. What hinders us from conceiving that the existence and continuance of such measures of pain and death as are found anterior to the existence of man, and external to the operation of his moral agency, are the results of a freedom granted to pre-existent, or continued, perverted, and fallen agencies, about which we have no other knowledge? It may surely be as likely that the creation or developing of man on earth, for the vanquishing of evil and the working out of blessing in redemptive and restorative work, may, mixed as are its effects now, be a step in a very gradual victory, by which pre-existent and continuing evil, arising from a pre-existent and continuing perversion, is being brought under the feet of the Only Begotten of the Father? Interminable cycles of the years measured by the revolutions of the earth, by the working of our system, and by the cosmic movements of the universe, might be required, but what obstacle does such a calculation place in the way of such a possibility with an Agent Infinite and Eternal? There is the evil, there is the slowness of the working of law, but there is eternity before and behind. Who shall say to Him, What doest Thou? There shall be no more pain: but it shall be when the former things are passed away.
2. Then, the slowness of revelation and its gradual character? We can either account for that by the reason of law that works so, or by the absolute necessity, the terms and conditions of the situation being such that it should be so; that is, we may either assume the law or justify the law. We have no more right to lay it down, as an axiom, that the perfect God could or would reveal Himself entirely by one act of revelation, than that He would give men free will and always keep it in conformity with His own will. The revelation, to be a part of the victory, must be a revelation that would expand with the expansion of the receiving minds, giving them the choice between light and darkness, and suffering and enabling them to rejoice in the light rather than the darkness. It must have a beginning: the words of revelation must be spoken in the language that the receiver can comprehend; must be weighted with elements that will hold them fast in his mind; must be seasoned with a stimulus that shall provoke his appetite for knowledge. And now that, in the fulness of time, grace and truth are come by Jesus Christ, and in Him, the brightness of His Fathers glory and the express image of His Person, we recognise the perfection of the revelation by which He guides many sons unto glory, we yet are warned that the guide of our life is faith; and heaven itself, in which we trust to know more, and love more, and be conformed to the likeness more, in wonderful growths of the finite into the knowledge, love, and likeness of the Infinite, shall be a perfection of revelation, but even so a revelation of new vistas of perfection, of knowledge, love, and likeness. But glorious as this prospect is, and humble, prostrate, as we lie now on the threshold of the vision, we know that we have not come so far as we have come, but by a long series of dispensations and disciplines; a method, a law of enlightenment, that ages and generations, rising and falling nations, tested and discarded philosophies, have exemplified. God could have revealed the plan of Redemption, could have redeemed the world as soon as Adam fell, as He might have kept him from falling, or stayed the propagation of evil in the first generation: but He would overcome evil with good, and bring out the victory in His own way, preparing the world by the experience of vanity, disciplining the world by the struggle against the causes of misery, and at the last sending His Son.
3. How about the twilight, and those who wandered in it to their fall, before the Daystar arose? How about those who are sitting still in darkness? Does not He care? Are they not safer in His contemplation than in our perplexed hearts? But now that grace and truth are come;--eighteen hundred years ago He founded His Church, and for all that time she has been working; with some drawbacks that she might have overcome, but still working; and three-quarters of the globe are full of heathendom still, and seventy generations of souls have passed away under the cloud of darkness. Is not this strange? Is it all the effect of a neglect that, if it be unmodified by other causes, must be accounted nothing less than a failure of a purpose that assumes to be Divine? Here again we come upon a trace of law that is not to be broken. For fifteen hundred out of the eighteen hundred years of Christianity, one-half of the inhabited world was unknown to the other half; no revelation of God opened up the new world; it was left for discovery to human enterprise, under a guidance, active, certain, but by no means exceptional to the recognised movements of society; and when discovered it was full of strange languages, and of people so framed and disciplined as to have none of the special training by which the old world has been broken up for the reception of the seed of the Word; and when it had been claimed and appropriated and made intelligible and opened up, no part of the process seemed to be overruled for the rapid progress of Gospel light; no new miracles, no new manifestations; all had to be done line upon line, precept upon precept, with lisping voice and stammering tongue. If that ancient strange darkness is indeed evil--and who shall say it is not in the face of the true light?--surely there is some secret in the hand of the Lord that shall justify the delay, and shall vindicate the means in the day of victory.
4. But once more. We are told, and we know it in its measure to be true, that in the course of this world causes and consequences, multiplying and intensifying from generation to generation, do so mould the minds and thoughts of men as seriously to endanger the sense of personal responsibility, and practically to limit anything like free moral agency. We are told, in fact, that we are what our forefathers, our circumstances, our manners and customs, our teaching and religion make us, and scarcely anything more; and so, if we are vicious it is something over which we have no control that makes us so; or, if we are virtuous it is something for which we have no credit; and if we are betwixt and between, we are as God, if there be a God, let circumstances, heredity, the accidents of life, and the stream of family history make us. There is much truth in the statement of facts. There are at least two considerations to modify it: first, the influence of circumstance and cause is not unmixed; there is good as well as evil in the force that impels us; secondly, there is in every one of us, weak, wavering, as we may be, enough of freedom to determine our choice between the good and evil of the circumstance. Each man who has ever lived, and each action of his life, has contributed something; something that of course only the Divine knowledge can discriminate or appreciate, but which is a contribution to the course of this world for good or for evil, and so we have to do the same. God has great purposes to serve, and blesses what little we can consciously do towards the victory of His Son. When we look at the chart of human history, even for the six thousand years that the old chronology delimits for us, and see how great the expanse of ages, in which we know that there were human lives, making experience and influence, and yet whose experience and influence had, so far as we know, nothing to do with the existing conditions of modern society, and see how all that consciously constitutes what we know as modern society falls into a comparatively insignificant section of the chart; and if we take the map of the earth and stretch our compasses across the breadth and length of Christendom, and then look at the heavens, the work of His fingers, and the stars that measure His times and seasons for us, and beyond all that into eternity and infinity of energy; surely we must feel that we cannot limit possibilities or impossibilities, the measure of Goodness and Almightiness, by the line and plummet of our own intelligence. What is man that Thou visitest him? Yet Thou hast visited him, and made him lower than the angels to crown him with glory and power. (Bishop of Chester.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Isa_40:28. Hast thou not known? &c.
GOD’S POWER THE COMFORT OF HIS PEOPLE
Isa_40:28. Hast thou not known? &c.
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A softer tone one might think better adapted to the despondent; but this great interrogation seems as if the very thunder had taken in charge God’s defence and man’s elevation. The terms by which God is described are not what may be termed the gracious designations often employed to describe Him. It is not the Father, the Redeemer, the gentle One; it is the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth; as if Divine comfort were not a sentiment only, but arose out of the majestic, dominant, mighty, and grand in the Divine nature.
I. “Hast thou not known?” This is not a new revelation; it is an appeal to memory—a strong point in all the Divine pleading. Our memory should be as the prophet of the Lord in our life; recollection should be inspiration. Let a man be faithful to his own recollections, and it is impossible he can long be despondent, weary, and slow of heart to lay hold of the great work and discipline of life. It is the preacher’s strength that he has to speak directly into people’s hearts.
II. Is God all-mighty?
1. Then do not fear for the stability of His works. What guarantee have we that the summer is coming? God’s Word (Gen_8:22). We work because God is. This is very humbling in one of its aspects, because we have nothing to do with all that is highest and grandest in the creation. We are to do the servant’s work; but no employment is menial if it be accepted from God’s hand, and wrought out according to the measure of His commandment and the inspiration of His call.
2. Have no fear about the realisation of His promises. It is difficult to see how certain promises are to be realised. God keeps our hands off His promises quite as surely as He keeps them off His stars; He asks that their fulfilment be left to Him. It is God’s heart that comes down with His signature; because of His moral attributes, all that He has promised shall be fulfilled.
3. Do not imagine you can escape His judgments. His lightnings find us out. You have evaded Him now fifty years, and you think you can do it fifty more; but you cannot. There are many oxen that are being prepared for the slaughter when they little think it.
4. Be assured that the throne of right shall stand upon the ruins of all wrong. You cannot kill evil with the sword; its abolition is a work of time: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness” (Psa_2:1-5). There is a poor outlook for those who are going to fight God!
III. God is not only powerful, but also all-wise. “There is no searching of His understanding.” Infinite strength would terrify us, but infinite strength under the dominion of infinite mind recovers us from the shock which comes of immeasurable, unwasting strength. The forces of Nature are not lawless; behind them all is God’s mind.
1. The darkest providences have meaning. Let us keep within our little sphere, and live a day at a time, and interpretation will come when God pleases and as He pleases.
2. God’s plan of salvation is complete and final. We shall waste our strength and show how great is our folly by all attempts to improve the method of redemption and recovery of the world. Is there a blade of grass we can improve, looking at it as God made it? Then, why seek to improve His method of salvation?
3. Our individual life is all understood by Him. We are often in shadow; it is enough that God knows our life, and that His wisdom is pledged as our defence. View the mysteries of life atheistically, and they become terrors; but regard them as under the control of a beneficent Power, and an eye of glory opens in the very centre of the gloom.
4. We have a guarantee of endless variety in our future studies and services. God is ever extending our knowledge in reward of the endeavours we are making. Monotony depresses and enfeebles; He will ever have something new to communicate to the mind of His servants.
CONCLUSION.—
1. What is our relation to this Dread Being, whose power is infinite, and whose wisdom is past finding out? We are either loyal subjects of His or rebels in His realm. Everything depends upon our relation to the Cross of Jesus Christ. Nature itself is but a mocking mystery apart from the Cross, which reveals our sin and God’s plan of salvation (Joh_1:29).
2. Those who are rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins have the freedom of the City of God. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in God.” God waits to gather us into His infinite strength, and to make us wise with perfect understanding.—Joseph Parker, D.D.: City Temple, pp. 349–356.
THE UNWEARIED GOD
Isa_40:28. The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.
A great contrast between God and all His living creatures on this earth. They all need rest, but He has no need of it, for He is never weary. We shall find this declaration full of comfort; but before we consider the senses in which it is true, we shall do well to remember that we are plainly taught in His Word that there are certain things of which God is weary.
I. THINGS OF WHICH GOD IS WEARY.
God is weary,
1. Of the obstinacy of sinners (Isa_43:24).
2. Of the backsliding of His professing people (Jer_15:6).
3. Of heedless praises and hypocritical prayers (Isa_1:11-14).
4. Of our cruelty to each other (Exo_3:7-10; Exo_22:22; Isa_7:13).
II. THINGS OF WHICH GOD IS NOT WEARY.
1. He is not weary in continuing and preserving His creation. The extent of this task; the multitude and minuteness of its parts. Neither its vastness, nor its complexity, nor its duration have availed to weary Him. We rest sometimes by changing the mode of our activity, but there is no cessation possible in God’s work (H. E. I. 362–365, 3174–3176).
2. He is not weary of caring for His people, supplying their temporal wants, guiding their affairs, removing unknown hindrances out of their way, solacing them in sorrow, strengthening them against temptation, educating them for time and eternity (P. D. 2908).
3. He is not weary of hearing prayer. This is a special labour, additional to the work of preservation, and even to the care of His people. Remember the multitude of the prayers that are constantly ascending to Him. The folly of many of them! Yet still He listens to us!
4. He is never weary in punishing sin; never so weary as to desist from it. There are cases in which we leave incorrigible offenders alone—we will not trouble ourselves any more about them; but it is never so with God. Not because He loves punishment, but because He loves righteousness. To a tender heart it is always a pain to punish; yet God, whose tender mercies are over all His works, age after age requites all who do wickedly.
5. He is never weary of pardoning penitent sinners. How many He has pardoned! How often He had to pardon every one of those who are now “the spirits of the just made perfect!” How often we have tried His patience! Yet He still waits to be gracious; He does not say, “Here comes another sinner; drive him away!” nor, “Here comes that sinner again; refuse him access to my throne.” He is as ready to pardon now as He was when Christ hung on the cross. He looks upon sins, not only as crimes, but as diseases; and, like a physician, is ready to minister to every plague-stricken one. Come, then, to Him now (H. E. I. 2285–2286, 2328–2339).
This view of God should—
1. Awaken our admiration of Him. It is good to admire His works; better to admire Him (Psa_104:34).
2. Strengthen our trust in Him. Our human friends fail us, but God will never fail us (chap. Isa_26:4-5).
3. Deepen our love for Him. He is unweariable, not in strength merely, but in affection. His love outlasts that of many mothers (chap. Isa_49:15-16).
4. Lead us to endeavour to imitate Him. “Religion consists in imitation of God” (Which-cote). We should never grow weary of any work for Him which He permits us to do. [1327]
[1327] On Saturday, September 30, 1770, Whitfield preached his last sermon on this text: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Before he went out to do so, a friend, observing how ill he looked, said to him, “Sir, you are more fit to go to bed than to preach;” to which he answered, “True, sir;” but turning aside, he clasped his hands together, and looking up spoke:—“Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of Thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, seal Thy truth, and come home and die.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 40:28 heard . . . understood: Cp. 40:21. •…
40:28 heard . . . understood: Cp. 40:21. • the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth: Creation reveals God’s power and wisdom. He is also the Creator of the age to come, a world of righteousness, justice, and peace (45:8; 48:6-7; 65:17-18). • He never grows weak or weary: God is not susceptible to human limitations.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.