An On the Journey Devotional
Key Verse
“To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?” (Isaiah 40:18)
Have you ever felt like your problems were bigger than God? Not in theory — most of us would never say that out loud. But in practice, in the quiet hours when worry tightens our chest, we act as if the thing looming over us is more real than the God who made us. Isaiah 40 was written for exactly that moment.
The exiles in Babylon had reason to wonder whether God was big enough. Babylon was the superpower of the ancient world. Its gods seemed to be winning. So Isaiah asks a string of questions designed to shatter that smallness: Who has measured the oceans in the hollow of his hand? Who has weighed the mountains on a scale? Who taught God his strategy? The answer to every question is the same: no one.
Then Isaiah does the math. The nations — mighty Babylon included — are “a drop from a bucket,” dust on a scale so light it does not even register (v. 15). The Hebrew word for the nations as “nothing” is ayin: absolute zero. This is not diplomatic language. It is God putting the world’s powers in proportion. And if that is what the nations amount to, what about the things we build with our own hands? Isaiah’s portrait of the idol-maker in verses 19–20 is almost funny — a craftsman overlays wood with gold, fastens it with chains so it will not fall over, and then bows down to it. A god that needs to be propped up is no god at all.
The chapter then lifts our eyes. God sits above the circle of the earth. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. He calls every star by name, and not one goes missing (v. 26). That last detail is the one to sit with. A God who keeps track of billions of stars is a God who keeps track of you. His power is not impersonal. It is attentive.
We may not carve statues, but we shrink God in subtler ways — when we treat him as a concept instead of a person, or when we quietly assume the forces shaping our lives are more real than he is. Isaiah’s remedy is simple: look up. When our problems feel enormous, it is usually because our view of God has grown small. This passage does not minimize what we are facing. It puts the One we are facing it with back in full view. That changes everything.
Cross-References/ Further Reading
Romans 11:33–36 — Paul’s doxology echoes Isaiah’s rhetoric about the unsearchable wisdom and counsel of God.
Psalm 147:4–5 — The psalmist affirms that God counts and names the stars, paralleling Isaiah 40:26.
Acts 17:24–29 — Paul’s Areopagus address draws on Isaiah’s critique of idolatry and the God who needs nothing from human hands.
Jordan Lange
Program Development & Staff Training Administrator
