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We're going to pick up in verse 12. There should be handouts in your bulletins. There'll be some of the main points on the screen if you want to follow along that way. Let's pray one more time and then let's dive into this. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and grace. I thank you for these words that you have given and recorded through the prophet Isaiah. May we behold your glory and may we be comforted. May we see how your glory ultimately is what brings us.

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God brings us hope and strength and peace. And may we turn our eyes to you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One of the things I was not prepared for, there's a lot of things I was not prepared for as a dad, but one of the things that I was not prepared for was all of the questions. And then the more kids you have, the more questions you have, and the more questions one asks, the more questions the rest asks, and pretty soon your life is a constant barrage of responding to questions.

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And for most of us, when we think about questions, I think we generally, for ourselves, think of questions as a way to get something. That may be information. We ask a question about what happened, or when will this be taking place? Or maybe we ask a question in order to get clarification. What do you mean by that? Or sometimes it's a question of permission. Am I allowed to do this?

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Can I borrow this? Can I use this? Or sometimes we ask a question in order to get a reaction. Do this all the time with the dogs, right? Who wants to go outside? Who wants to eat ice cream? Who wants to bite a child, right? I have all of these questions for the dogs. You get them all excited and you get a reaction from them, and it's great. And so for most of us, when we think about questions, we're thinking about getting something, right? Can I get some information? Can I get some clarification? Can I get permission? Can I get a reaction from someone?

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Somebody. But sometimes questions are not about getting, but it's rather about what the person asking the question is trying to give to you. And so sometimes questions are asked in order to give us some direction. Or maybe even to call us to ask action or to shift our perspective to cause us to think about things differently. And sometimes questions are asked to calm our troubled hearts. In Scripture,

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the first question that's asked is in Genesis, the third chapter. And God asks questions all throughout Scripture. And the first question He asks is to a man by the name of Adam, where He says, "Adam, where are you?" Now, this is a question God's not trying to get something from Adam. God knows exactly where Adam is. He knows exactly where Eve is. He knows exactly why they're not supposed to be where they're supposed to be and what they have done to elicit this reaction.

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But rather, He's calling Adam to consider what he has done and what has changed and to let Adam know that God knows that Adam is trying to hide something from God. Isaiah himself is no stranger to God's question. In Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 8, right after the words we read about the song of the angels singing holy, holy, holy, God will ask this question to Isaiah.

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Well, he doesn't ask it to Isaiah. He asks it just sort of in general. He'll say, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking, who will I send? Who will go for us?" And when God asks, He's not really just saying, "Does anybody have any good candidates? Can somebody bring to me some resumes of some gifted speakers or some talented prophets?" What He's doing is He's directing Isaiah. And so Isaiah responds, "Here I am. Send me."

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God's not trying to get something. He's rather trying to direct Isaiah to action. One of the most important questions, in fact, the most important question in Scripture is, "Who is Jesus?" And Jesus will ask this in Matthew chapter 16, and He'll start sort of generally by asking, "Who do people say that I am?" And there's all kinds of different answers. Some say you're a prophet. Some say you're Elijah. Some say you're John the Baptist. Come back to life.

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Jesus asks a very direct question. He says, "Well, who do you say I am?" Right? It's easy to answer for other people, but it's harder to answer for ourselves. And by asking that question, Jesus isn't just trying to get a declaration out of them. He's trying to focus their minds on what do they believe about this man they have been following for almost three years at this point. And in that focus, Peter responds that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

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And then sometimes questions. While they may direct us, sometimes they focus us. Other times they comfort us. In the midst of a storm where the disciples are questioning whether Jesus cares about them. In Matthew 8, Jesus asked this question, "Why are you afraid?" And he's not making fun of them, calling them a bunch of scaredy cats, or saying, "Why are you scared of the storm?" What he's doing is asking them to examine their hearts and say, "Why am I afraid?"

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I'm with the creator of the wind and the waves, the one who can still them with a word. And this question is designed to bring them to comfort. And so something has changed in Isaiah the 40th chapter. And it happens between verses 11 and 12. And I think what has happened between Isaiah and Isaiah 40, between verses 11 and 12, is that somebody has asked a question. And we don't know this for sure, but what you find is Isaiah chapter 40

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changes. And we've moved from all of these statements about who God is and what He has done. In fact, the only question in Isaiah 40 to this point is the messenger saying, "What am I supposed to tell people?" And so it's all been statements from God about who He is and what He has done. But now it's all questions. It's a lot of questions from God.

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We find later on in this chapter that people are asking a question. They're asking, "Why hasn't God heard us? Is He ignoring us?" But I think the question their hearts are asking and maybe their words that elicit this change in the 40th chapter of Isaiah is this: Can God actually bring about what He has promised? Can God do what He says He is going to do?

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But this promise of comfort, a reminder that sin has a cost and points us to this promise that a day is coming when the Lamb of God will take away the sin of the world, a day of restoration. And then in the midst of a world that's constantly changing, generally it seems not for the better. We're directed to see God's eternal nature. And then last week we came to the center of what is our comfort, which is beholding God's glory. And in that we see that God is present

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He's not in the way, that He is powerful, that He has strength and might, and He is tenderhearted in His care, and He tends His flock like a shepherd. And so we might have some questions about that, and we might say those are some good words, but can God really do what He has promised to do? And God doesn't respond to this with a bunch of statements saying, here's a list of reasons. God instead responds with questions.

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It's not so God can get something from us, but rather so He can direct our heart, so He can focus us on what's important, and that He can encourage our souls. So the first question is, and the question that we might ask is this, how great is our God? And we'll pick this up in Isaiah 40, verse 12, and I'll go ahead and read that here.

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He says, "Measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance." Now, all of these questions that are asked here, even though it's sort of just what, it's a bunch of questions put together at one, right? Who is measured? Who is marked off? Who is enclosed? Who has weighed?

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What things have to do with measuring, right? Volume, distance, and weight, right? The size of the ocean, the distance of the heavens, the weight of rocks and soil that makes up our hills and our mountains. And my purpose this morning is not to focus on the water or the stars or the hills or the mountains, but rather on what God uses to measure these things. Look at what it says, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?"

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That's pretty easy for us to understand, right? Measure the waters in the hollow of a hand, right? We can take our hand, we can cup it, and we can fill it with an amount of water that's barely enough for us to get a tiny drink, right? If you put both hands together, you can get a little bit more water. But the picture here is that we serve a God who holds all the water in all our world, in the clouds and in the oceans and in the polar ice, and He holds it in the palm of His hand.

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Next, He has marked off the heavens with a span. Now, a span simply is this, like the length of your hand, like spread out your hand in that longest distance, pinky to thumb, that's a span, right? I'm kind of glad we don't use that anymore, right? It's like, well, how many spans do we need this cabinet to be, right? And it depends on who's measuring. But notice the picture here that the heavens, the stars, the sun, the moon, the earth, that God looks and measures, and we learn elsewhere in Scripture, sets up boundaries by simply going

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like this, holds out His hand. No tape measure, no ruler, no app where you can drop a pin here and a pin here, and it tells you how far between the two points that God simply holds up His hand. The dust of the earth in a measure of the dirt and the soil. It's like when you're cooking and somebody goes, "Hey, can you hand me a measuring cup?" Well, which one? Well, I need a one cup measure. That God looks at the dirt and the soil of our earth and goes, "Well, grab a measuring cup and put it in there."

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And the mountains and the hills in a balance. And the picture here is one of those scales, weights on one side while you're measuring on the other, and God holds it up with all of the mountains and the hills, and He is able to take the weight and see the weight of these things that are so great.

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The purpose of these different ways of measuring is not to say God has big hands that can span the universe and hold water in the hollow of the hand or suspend the scale, although it is true that God's power is great, but it's for us to see that power in a way that we can begin to understand, because we are not big enough and we are not strong enough.

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And as God's people face uncertainty, and in this text they are facing a major amount of uncertainty. Captivity is a long journey ahead of them. They are going to face opposition. It's a lot of burdens to carry.

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And they are looking at their lives and going, "God has made all these promises. Can He do it?" And God reminds them of who He is by saying, "Who else can measure the waters in the hollow of His hand? Who can measure the skies with the span of His hand?

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Who can weigh the hills and the mountains on a balance?" And so the first set of questions in this text focus us on the greatness of God, right?

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You may be facing uncertainty. Maybe the uncertainty of direction or of strength, but it directs us to God. And this brings us to our second question.

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All right, the first question is about ability. Can God accomplish what He has promised? The second question is not so much about ability,

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but it's about knowledge and wisdom and justice, and it is this: Does God really know what He's doing?

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Because I know some people who are strong, but not necessarily in a great way. Like, in college, my senior year, we moved from the dorms to a college apartment,

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and so there was two rooms. My roommate and I were in one, and another guy and his roommate were in the other, and this particular roommate that lived with us,

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he was just like a wrecking ball. He was strong like a wrecking ball. Like, day two of living together, he's trying to put something in a cabinet,

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and the door's not shutting, so he just goes and slams the door, and the cabinet door, you know, it's a cheap apartment cabinet, just breaks in half.

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Like, a week later, he's like, "Well, I've got to get rid of this frozen ground beef," and instead of throwing it in the trash can

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or taking it out to the dumpsters behind the apartment, he's there just, like, jamming it with all his might down the garbage disposal,

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and that was our first call to the plumber, right? The guy's strong, but he's, like, strong like a wrecking ball, and he wasn't unintelligent.

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He wasn't not smart. It was just that he had depended on his strength. Like, the only tool you have is a hammer.

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Everything looks like a nail, right? So it's just like, I'm going to exert as much strength as I can against this and see what happens, and he was like a wrecking ball.

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And so one of the questions is, "God really knows. We're doing sure he's great, and he's strong, but my problems are complicated."

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Does he know my situation? Does he know my struggle? I need strength, but I also need somebody who understands how to properly apply that strength.

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You see, God is strong, but not just in a way that accomplishes what needs to be accomplished.

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The other thing is, right, strength sometimes makes us selfish, right? If I have the strength to get whatever I want, right, what tends to happen?

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Is we begin to depend on that to follow our own desires. We sort of think, although we may not say it, right, "might makes right."

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And what we find is that while strong may not necessarily be smart sometimes, it's like a wrecking ball, sometimes strong can be very self-centered, and it's not necessarily good.

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And maybe the issue isn't selfishness, or just being like a wrecking ball, maybe the problem is that we're being manipulated.

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Right? No matter how much we like to pretend that we can do things on our own, we have people who influence us. Right? Teachers who mold and shape us.

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Advisors, people we go to and ask advice when we're in a difficult situation. And a lot of times, and we see it throughout our world, that there will be people who are important in places of power,

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and surrounding them are people who seek to manipulate them. And so, right, strong isn't just enough. Right?

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There has to be a way of understanding, a way of justice and goodness that goes with the strength, a strength that cannot be manipulated.

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We don't just need somebody who's strong. We need somebody with understanding, justice, knowledge, and independence.

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Now, look at these next questions. Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord? Or what man shows him his counsel?

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Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

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There is no one greater than God in strength. We saw that measured out in the previous verses.

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But notice there is no one greater than God in wisdom. There is no one greater than God in knowledge.

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He doesn't need to consult or advise. He doesn't need to Google anything.

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There is no one greater than God in justice. And just in case we don't get it, look what it says.

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Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding.

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This is not God being stubborn or refusing to lose. The point is that God does not receive wisdom, advice, and knowledge,

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but rather he is the source of all of these things.

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If the first question is strength, can God do this? And the answer is yes.

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The second question is does God know and understand and is he good and is he just?

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Because my situation is complicated and I don't know how to deal with it. And the answer is God does.

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Right? He's not influenced by outside. He doesn't need to ask for counsel or wisdom, but he is the source of all of these things.

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Maybe as you've driven, you've seen that little warning on your mirrors that say objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.

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Right? It's true. It's frequently true of life, right? Trouble and difficulty to us appear big and they appear close.

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And the message of comfort in this chapter is to behold God's glory and doing that, it puts all of those other fears and worries and struggles in their proper place.

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And that's what's addressed next. All right, the first question is God can. Secondly, is God not just able to, but does he understand how everything

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works? And the answer is yes. And so look at what he says next. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as dust on the scales.

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Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

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All the nations are as nothing before him, and they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

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And so if you were to ask the question, who can compare to God, which is where this text is going, as we'll see in further weeks, we may say no individual can compare to God.

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And so here's the question. No individual can compare to God. But what about a collection of individuals?

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What if a bunch of people got together, pooled their strength, their knowledge, and their wisdom, now would they be able to compare to God?

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What about a country? What about a nation? And remember, these people are facing the mightiest nations of their day, and they've seen them rise, fall, and they are conquered.

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And God is stronger, yes, but sometimes we get distracted by the appearance of what seems close, rather than the reality of God's closeness.

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For example, if you want to see how this works in our hearts, read through the book of Exodus, where God raises up Moses.

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Eighty years of preparation brings him, at 80 years old, to free his people, does so through an increasingly impressive display of God's might,

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standing against the gods of Egypt. The people leave. The Red Sea splits in half. God's judgment is poured down upon the Egyptians.

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They worship on the other side. They're given water, and they're given food. And what happens to these people who have seen the power of God

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at every little trouble and every little problem? They're like, "God, did you bring us out here to die? We've ran out of groceries.

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We're going to starve. We've ran out of water. We're going to die of dehydration. Here comes an enemy army. What are we going to do?"

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And the problem that they face and the same problem that we face is that we're looking at all of these things rather than looking at God.

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And so we're called to behold. We're not called just to behold God, but behold the strongest things we can imagine in comparison to Him.

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That's why it says, "Behold, the nations are like a drop from the bucket."

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In these statements, we find our fears, and in this case, the fear of national or political or military power put into the proper perspective.

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In size, right, a drop from a bucket. In resources, Lebanon here is known for its trees throughout Scripture.

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The cedars of Lebanon used in construction of the temple as mass for sailing ships.

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He says, "If you were to take all the cedars in Lebanon and all the animals that encompass those forests and build an altar out of them,

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it wouldn't even be close enough to be good enough for God."

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And he says like this, "In comparison to the greatness and power of God, these nations that we fear, these powers and groups of people

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that seem to stand against us in God." What does he say? He says, "All the nations are nothing before Him."

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He says it three times, right? First of all, he starts with nothing. And then, right a little further, what does he say?

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"They are accounted by Him as less than nothing." And what that means is you've got to add something to it to get to nothing.

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And then he says they are empty. Right? The picture, and in these questions, verses 12-14 and in the statements here in verses 15-17, we're directed to focus on God's greatness.

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And when that happens, we're comforted by God's greatness, His knowledge, His wisdom, His justice, and facing the fact, as we see in these verses, there is nothing to fear.

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And it's not just in this sense. We'll see it next week as we move into the spiritual side of this. And so the question is this: What now?

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It's easy to say, "Don't be afraid." It's another to actually not be afraid. You can say, "Don't be scared all day long." It doesn't do anything.

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First of all, what we find in this is a call to humility. Like, we like to think that we have the answers

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and the ability, and we like to depend on ourselves. So a bunch of years ago, we were cleaning out some of the stuff

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of the church, and there was this old metal file cabinet that was big. It was heavy. It was rusty. It had been empty

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the entire time I had been here. And so at that time, a little pre-Facebook popularity of Facebook Marketplace.

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So what you did is you put stuff on Craigslist for free, and then hope you didn't get attacked when they came to pick it up.

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And so we put the file cabinet on Craigslist for free. A guy emailed me. You go back and forth.

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He comes to get it. And I had put in there, because we were kind of busy, like you need to be able to move

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this, load it, take care of it yourself. He says, "Yeah, I've got it all set. I'll take care of it." The pictures and

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measurements in the advertisement, and the guy shows up to pick it up, and he's obviously outclassed by this

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file cabinet. Like he may have been able to fit inside the file cabinet if he took the drawers out, or at least a couple of

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drawers out. He's outclassed by the weight and the size, and he's underestimated the size of the file cabinet. He's

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overestimated his strength. And so I go out, and I go, "You need some help?" And he goes, "Nope." And so he struggles, and he

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struggles. It's our story. Right? Here we are in our fears and our worries, and we're still depending upon

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ourselves. And this text is a call to see God for who he is, and to see us for who we are. It's a call to

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humility, to behold God's strength, to behold our strength, and to say, "God is the one upon whom I depend." Now, we're

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not very good at that, and neither was this guy. So he finally gets the cabinet outside, and it was his

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girlfriend who drove him there, because of course she did, and he had the smallest car that I have ever

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seen. We're talking like, this file cabinet is taller than five feet. And I look at it, because at this

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point, like it's like, you just can't look away, and I go, "I don't think that's going to fit in the back

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of your micro car." "Oh yeah, we'll make it fit." And so they start by, they fold down the passenger seat,

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they fold down the back seat, open the trunk, but the problem is, it's too big to slide in through

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the trunk. And so he goes, "I'm just going to put it sideways across the back seat." I said, "I don't

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think that's going to work. I got this." And so he just like starts shoving the file cabinet into this

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car, and it's like, it's obvious it's not going to fit. So you know what he starts doing? Instead of going,

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"Man, maybe I should wait. Maybe I should go get a truck. Maybe I have a friend. Maybe we can strap

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it to the roof of this car." He just starts slamming the door as hard as he can, hoping that there's

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some give in the file cabinet. And there's not, 'cause it's steel. Now there's some give in the door, and his

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girlfriend's over there going, "You're going to break my car." And he just keeps slamming it harder. And it's

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real easy to look at that and go, "Man, that guy's an idiot." I mean, he was. But how often do we do

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the same thing? Right? The thing that's not working, we just keep doing. We keep depending on ourselves. The

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help has been offered, and we're still focusing on what we can do and on what we can accomplish. We

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don't just need humility. We need repentance. We need to stop, and we need to say, "This is not

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working." Something has to change. And we need to stop trying to make it work and turn to God. Repentance

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and a change of heart and mind and behavior. And I wish I could tell you this car situation had a happy

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ending. Now, it had an ending, and the car didn't have any armrest anymore because it kept slamming the file

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cabinet into it. And I just kept looking at it going, "Why are you fighting so hard for a rusty file

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cabinet? Is it worth it?" But that's the question for us as well. Why are we fighting so hard to do it

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ourselves when it's obvious that it's not working? Right? There needs to first be humility, the ability

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to say, "God is great, and I am small," and secondly, repentance to say, "This is not working. Something has

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got to change." And in humility and in repentance, you find God calls us to comfort and courage and peace, because

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you see your problems and your brokenness in the light of God's greatness, and you realize there is

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one who can help, that you are not on your own, and you are not without help, and you can move forward in

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obedience because you know the one who marked off the heavens with a span. You are able to rest and to sleep

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at night because you know the greatness and the goodness and the incomparable nature of God, because

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we have behold held him, and we have seen ourselves, and we have responded in humility and repentance and the

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result of that is comfort, courage, and peace. Father, we come. Sometimes our hearts are full of anguish,

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sometimes they're full of fear, and sometimes they're full of uncertainty. May we behold you as you are,

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and may we behold ourselves in light of that glory, and may you move us to humility, and may

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you bring us to repentance, and may you let us rest in your grace, and in your goodness, and in your power.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand, and we are going to sing for his glory and our