Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
Isaiah 40:21
I sense exasperation from Isaiah when he uttered the above words. Like he was in disbelief that his audience was unaware of what he was saying about God. What was he saying? He was speaking about God and the many ways He reveals His unique attributes that make Him who He is. Despite this book written over 2500 years ago, we can use these same words of Isaiah to remind us of what we already know and have heard about God. For it is in remembering who He is and what He can do that we are able to rest in Him, believing and trusting in His absolute power to see all, know all and intervene globally and personally in our lives like none other can.
He is The Master
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
Isaiah 40:22-24
Do we not know? Have we not heard that He is The Master who watches over all from His home above? Do we allow what we see and hear from our earthly leaders to cause us to panic and think that God is absent and unconcerned about what is happening in our world? Have we forgotten that all worldly powers begin and end with Him; that not one rules any longer than what God desires? Despite beliefs that they are invincible, He can knock them down whenever to remind us who really is in control.
He is Incomparable and Intimate
“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Isaiah 40:25-27
Do we not know? Have we not heard in more ways than one that there is none other like our God? Haven’t we experienced for ourselves the Creator’s intimate touch in our own lives? Are we not cognizant that how He works in one’s life may differ from how He works in another’s life? Can we not see that despite being a part of the herd, we are lovingly and personally cared for as if we are the only sheep in the pen? Or are we caught up in looking at what we perceive as greener pastures elsewhere, coveting what He has provided for others and failing to see what He is doing just for us in our own lives?
He is The Everlasting Source
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40: 28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard that all we need comes from the Everlasting God? What and where we lack can be found in and through Him because He never lacks. When we are down and out, weary, overwhelmed, weakened by the season we find ourselves in, we can turn to Him to be the inexhaustible Source of all we need to get up and keep going. And not just keep going running on fumes but rising fully replenished to be able to run and soar because we put our hope in Him and not self or others.
If you didn’t know, now you know. If you hadn’t heard, now you have. And if life has caused you to momentarily forget these truths, prayerfully this devotional post will cause you to once again consider who God is, what He can do and lead you to experience a fresh hope in Him!
Considerations 