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Bible Study · The Nature of God
Before God comforts His frightened people, He does something surprising: He shows them how great He is. Isaiah 40 answers fear not with a pep talk but with a vision of the Almighty -- the God who holds the oceans in a cupped hand, weighs the mountains on a scale, and needs no one to teach Him anything. When you see this God, your biggest problem shrinks to the size of a drop hanging on the rim of a bucket.
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?"Isaiah 40:12 (KJV)
Part 1
Isaiah 40 opens a new movement in the book. The first thirty-nine chapters ring with warnings of judgment; now the tone changes entirely, and God begins to comfort His people.
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."Isaiah 40:1 (KJV)
But before God promises deliverance, He reminds His people who He is. That order matters. He does not first say, "Here is how I will rescue you"; He first says, "Look at Me." Comfort that is not rooted in the greatness of God is only wishful thinking. So the chapter turns our eyes upward before it turns them forward.
Isaiah prophesied in the days of Judah's kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1), roughly the eighth century before Christ. In his lifetime the empire of Assyria loomed as an unstoppable war machine; it swept away the northern kingdom of Israel and besieged Jerusalem itself. Beyond Assyria, Isaiah saw farther still -- to the day Babylon would carry Judah into exile (Isaiah 39:6-7). From a human vantage point, God's people looked doomed, crushed between superpowers. Chapters 40 through 66, often called the Book of Comfort, speak into exactly that fear. And the first word of comfort is not a battle plan -- it is the immeasurable greatness of God.
Part 2
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" Isaiah piles up four pictures, each turning something vast into something God handles with ease:
This is poetry, not mechanics. Isaiah is not describing how creation was physically made; he is declaring God's incomprehensible greatness. What overwhelms us is effortless for Him. As another psalm puts it, "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names" (Psalm 147:4).
"Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" It is a rhetorical question, and the answer is: no one. God has never attended a school, never needed advice, never improved His understanding. The "Spirit of the LORD" is God's own mind and being -- and no one stands over God to instruct Him. Paul later quotes this very verse: "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" (Romans 11:34).
"With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?" Again the answer is nobody -- no angel, no prophet, no elder, no heavenly committee. Everything God knows originates within Himself, for He is the eternal source of all wisdom. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). Wisdom does not come to Him; it comes from Him.
"Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." Picture carrying a full bucket; a single drop clings to the rim and falls. Do you stop and worry over it? That is the empires of history before God. When a merchant weighed goods, a fleck of dust resting on the scale was too slight to bother brushing off -- that is how much the world's power weighs against the Almighty. And the "isles," the distant coastlands and continents, He lifts like "a very little thing."
Part 3
The Hebrew words behind the King James English sharpen every picture. These are the very tools of a workman and a merchant -- and God wields creation with them as easily as a craftsman handles his instruments.
The cupped palm, a handful. The same hand that a man dips into water for a single drink holds all the oceans of the world.
The span from the thumb to the little finger of a spread hand -- about nine inches, half a cubit. God measures off the heavens with a hand's breadth.
Literally "a third" -- a measuring vessel that held a third of a larger unit. All the dust of the earth is to God no more than a scoop in a cup.
A hand-scale and its pair of pans. Mountains and hills are simply objects God sets on the balance and weighs.
Mar, a drop; deli, a bucket or pail. The mightiest nation is the runoff drop clinging to the rim after the pail is filled.
The coastlands and islands -- to the ancient mind, the far edges of the world. God picks up the very ends of the earth like a pebble.
Part 4
Verses 13 and 14 press one truth from every angle: God's wisdom is entirely His own. He was never taught, never advised, never corrected. There was no moment when God learned something He had not known before, and there is no being in heaven or earth who could add a single thought to His understanding. He is not the wisest mind among many; He is the fountain from which all wisdom flows.
This is a quiet but glorious comfort. It means God has never been caught off guard by your situation. He did not need to think it over, ask for a second opinion, or revise His plan when trouble came. "There is no searching of his understanding" (Isaiah 40:28). The One who directs your life has never once been surprised, never once been stumped, never once needed to learn. His counsel stands, and it stands alone.
When Paul reaches the summit of his teaching on God's sovereign mercy, he lands on these very words: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!... For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" (Romans 11:33-34). The only right response to a God this great is worship.
Part 5
We confess with Israel that there is one God: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD" (Deuteronomy 6:4). And the God whom Isaiah describes -- the One who measured the waters and weighed the mountains -- is the very God who was manifested in flesh in Jesus Christ.
The New Testament says the whole creation was made by Christ. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible... all things were created by him, and for him" (Colossians 1:16). And Paul states the mystery plainly: "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). The Creator of Isaiah 40 and the Christ of the Gospels are not two persons -- they are one God.
So the same hand that cupped the oceans in Isaiah 40 later reached out on the Sea of Galilee, and the wind and the waves obeyed: "Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). The disciples asked, "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Isaiah had already answered: this is the God who measures the waters in the hollow of His hand. He did not cease to be the infinite Lord when He took on humanity; rather, "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16), revealing Himself in the man Christ Jesus while remaining the boundless God Isaiah described. The Almighty who holds the seas is the same Lord who held little children in His arms.
Part 6
Israel was frightened. Assyria looked unstoppable; Babylon would one day conquer Judah. From where they stood, God's people seemed hopeless. And into that fear Isaiah says, in effect: look at your God instead of your circumstances. If He created the oceans, if He measured the universe, if the mountains are pebbles to Him, why would He struggle to rescue His people? The whole point of God's greatness here is not to make us feel small and afraid, but to make our giants look small and God look near.
Isaiah lets the truth land with three questions worth asking of your own life:
The answer to every one of them is no. And so the chapter presses on to its great conclusion:
"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."Isaiah 40:28 (KJV)
"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)
Isaiah's goal is not merely to inspire awe; it is to strengthen faith. The God who keeps His covenant is infinitely greater than every obstacle His people face. The One who never grows weary is the One who gives strength to those who wait on Him. Measure your trouble against your God, and take heart.
Part 7
Name the thing that frightens you, then set it on the scale beside the God who weighs mountains. Which is heavier? Let the comparison shrink your fear.
When the "what ifs" rise, respond not by analyzing the threat but by rehearsing who God is: He measured the seas, He needs no counsel, He never faints.
God has never been surprised or stumped by your life. "There is no searching of his understanding" (Isaiah 40:28). Rest in a wisdom higher than yours.
Renewed strength is promised not to the frantic but to those who "wait upon the LORD" (Isaiah 40:31). Bring your weariness to the God who never tires.
Hide These in Your Heart
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span...?"
Isaiah 40:12"Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance."
Isaiah 40:15"For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?"
Romans 11:34"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible."
Colossians 1:16"The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary."
Isaiah 40:28"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles."
Isaiah 40:31Search Your Heart
The Next Step
Jesus didn't simply call people to learn. He called people to follow Him. Discover what the Bible teaches about repentance, baptism in Jesus' name, receiving the Holy Spirit, and walking in new life.
"Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Acts 2:38 NKJV
Turn from sin and surrender your whole heart to God.
For the remission of sins -- every New Testament baptism was in His name.
The promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off (Acts 2:39).
Want to know what the Bible teaches about salvation?