By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament, Samford University
Holy
Isaiah 40:25–31
Today we begin a series of six lessons on words and phrases commonly used by Christians. We will examine how some biblical authors use these words and allow what we learn to shape how we use them.
Today’s word is “holy,” which some Christians use to refer to objects or people with an almost magical quality. The term, however, has a straightforward meaning: something set aside for a special use.
Hence, God can make people or objects holy, but so can people. For example, food that people set aside for use in the temple is “holy” (Lev. 27:30), to be consumed only by priests in their service to God. Similarly, a holy person is someone whom God has selected for a task.
Sometimes the word “holy” (Hebrew kodesh) is used of God, in which cases our translators often render it “Holy One,” as in today’s passage. In these instances, “holy” refers to God’s incomparability: God is completely unique. He is distinct in every way from all other beings.
In their original context, the opening verses of Isaiah 40 were spoken to the exiles of Judah in Babylon. The setting is in the 6th century BC, perhaps between 545 and 539, the year King Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonian Empire.
In verses 1 and 2, the imperatives are plural as God tells the council of angels to announce comfort to the exiles. They have served the term of their punishment, and it is time for their restoration. The theme of God’s incomparability starts in verse 12, where God Himself speaks.
God is without equal as our Creator. (25–26)
In these verses, Isaiah is speaking. Compare verse 25 to verse 18 (remember, the words “you” are plural). The expected answer to the rhetorical question is, of course, “No one”: none can be compared to God; none is equal to the Holy One. Verse 26 asks the exiles to lift up their eyes to contemplate the stars (remember Gen. 15:5), which in some ancient cultures were gods. In some religious beliefs, these gods existed before the Creator God was born. God reminds the exiles that it is He who created the stars, which are not gods but luminaries in the sky. He calls them by name; each one exists because He brought it into being (Gen. 1:14–19).
God is without equal in His knowledge. (27–28)
By the time King Cyrus allowed the exiles (“Jacob” and “Israel”) to restore Jerusalem and the temple, two generations had passed. Infants who were born in 586, the year the exile began, were now grandparents.
Some exiles must have thought they were hidden from God, that is, God must have either forgotten about them or God knew about them but simply disregarded them. The Holy One reminded them that although they might “faint and grow weary,” the One who created the ends of the earth never would. The everlasting God knew them; God understood their plight.
God is without equal as our Sustainer. (29–31)
No mortal is immune from exhaustion, not even the young and physically fit. Isaiah uses the metaphors of flying, running and walking to remind the exiles that they have put their trust in a God whose strength never fails. It is He who renews their strength.
So it is with us when we think that we surely must be hidden from God’s sight and hence from His mind. So it is when we think we will faint from lack of strength to endure.
Through Isaiah’s comfort to Judah’s exiles, God reminds us that He who created us knows us and sustains us. Therefore, let us also wait for the Lord to renew our strength.
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