Over the last few months, we’ve been studying the attributes of God found in Isaiah 40. This chapter of the book of Isaiah comes at a tragic point in history for God’s people. The once-unified nation of Israel had split into a northern and southern kingdom. The northern kingdom had rebelled against God and been taken into exile. The people of the southern kingdom--Judah--had been slightly more faithful to God, but had still been led astray by idols, even though they had watched their brethren in the north be taken into exile because of it. Even that hadn’t been enough to convince them to love God more than they loved their sin. Finally, the prophet Isaiah brought a message from God to the King of Judah, telling him that the southern kingdom would be taken into captivity as well. About 100 years later, the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, destroying the Temple in the process and carrying off most of the people to Babylon. I can’t even imagine the fear and sorrow the people must have felt when they heard this prophecy, but God did not leave them in their despair. He gave Isaiah a message of comfort to bring to his people: even in the bleakest of circumstance, they could trust in God’s character. In January, we saw how God comforted the people with his goodness: he is perfectly and completely good in everything he is and does. In February, we saw that he reassured them with his immutability: he never changes, so he is incomparably trustworthy. If we try to put our hope in anything else, it will surely disappoint us. This month, we’ll finish off our study of Isaiah 40 by looking at verses 12-20 and 27-31 where we’ll see how God encouraged his people with his self-sufficiency. We have hope because God does not have any needs, yet he chooses to enter into relationship with us and provide for us, even though we aren’t able to offer him anything of value in return.
God is self-sufficient in every sense of the word. He has always been and will always be. He does not rely on any other being or substance for his existence or satisfaction at any time. When he created all things, he did so out of the fullness of who he is as as an expression and celebration of his God-ness. He did not speak the universe into existence to entertain himself when he got bored, and he did not create humans to keep himself company when he was lonely. The community among the Father, Son, and Spirit is perfectly fulfilling, intimate, and harmonious. God lacks nothing. He is complete in himself. If he ever needed anything, that would make him incomplete, and therefore imperfect, and therefore not God.
This leads us to a logical conclusion: God doesn’t need you--or me--in any way or for any reason. And you may or may not realize it, but that’s actually really good news! It relieves us of the burden of trying to be “enough” for ourselves or others and failing. It also takes off the pressure of trying to please God to earn our salvation when, on our own, we can’t meet the standard of perfect righteousness required. We are not enough, but God is. God is enough, so we don’t have to be. That is astonishingly good news! News that God used to encourage his people in their distress in Isaiah 40. In the sections we’re going to be looking at today, we’ll cover two main ideas: first, God’s self-sufficiency is surpassing--no one else is self-sufficient like he is; second, his self-sufficiency is sustaining--because God is self-sufficient, we have everything we need.
Let’s start by looking at verses 12-20, where we’ll see how God’s self-sufficiency s surpassing:
12 Who has 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?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 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?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
19 An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.
God’s self-sufficiency is surpassing, and this section illustrates that for us in three ways. First, verses 12-14 remind us that all of creation is evidence of God’s self-sufficiency. Second, verses 15-17 tell us that even wealthy and impressive nations are nothing in God’s eyes. Third, verses 18-20 show us that idols are weak and worthless compared to God.
Verses 12-14 ask a series of questions that all anticipate certain answers that point us to God’s unsurpassed self-sufficiency. Verse 12 asks: who can measure creation? The obvious answer is that no one other than God can. This reminds us that God has established order in all that he created. His power is completely unmatched because he made and maintains everything that exists. Verse 14 asks, Has anyone measured the limits of God’s existence or given him advice that he needed to take? No. No one can quantify the limits of God’s existence, because he has none. He cannot be measured or contained. He is infinite in every aspect of his being. That means that all of his character qualities--his goodness, love, mercy, justice, power, and wisdom--have no limit either. No one can teach God new facts or expanded his understanding of any topic. He didn’t need to be taught how to be righteous or wise, because all good and wise things find their source in him.
The style of this passage--using questions to make an implied argument--is very similar to the end of the book of Job. Job was a righteous man, but God allowed complete disaster to come on him, which caused him to question whether God had mistreated him. Finally, God responded, telling Job that now he would ask the questions and Job would have to give an answer. What follows in chapters 38-41 of Job is a series of rhetorical, metaphorical questions similar to Isaiah 40: they point to God’s unsurpassed knowledge, power, and goodness. By the end of it, Job is brought low. He admits that he “uttered what [he] did not understand, things too wonderful [him] that [he] did not know” (42:3). He had seen God, and ultimately “despise[d] [him]self and repent[ed] in dust and ashes” as a result (42:5-6). These questions bring chastisement and comfort at the same time. God created all things and is the source of all righteousness and knowledge, so we have no grounds on which to correct him. God doesn’t need our advice or opinions, because our wisdom is foolishness to him. But, by the same token, we can rest and rejoice because God is the source of all good things, and he provides for us perfectly. This was the same message that God used to comfort his people through Isaiah, and it is a comfort for us too. Like Job, we need to confess our lack of understanding and also worship God for his surpassing power and wisdom.
There’s a bit of a shift in verses 15-17, showing us how the greatest nations on earth don’t have enough power or wealth to impress God in the slightest. They’re like a tiny drop in a bucket or a bit of dust on a weighing scale. All the trees and wildlife in the fertile lands of Judah’s neighbor, Lebanon, would not be sufficient to make a pleasing burnt offering to honor God. It wouldn’t be enough, and all of it belongs to God anyway. We have nothing to offer him that isn’t already his. This is similar to Psalm 50:8-13, where God says to his people:
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
God doesn’t desire sacrifices because he needs them. Anything his people could bring him as a sacrifice already belongs to him in the first place, and it’s not as though he wants animal sacrifices to satisfy his hunger! Even if he did get hungry, he wouldn’t come to us asking to be fed!
Verse 18 is another one of those questions we immediately know the answer to. Who can be compared to God? Who is like him? No one. Yet, verses 18-20 show us that the people of Judah had traded God in for worthless idols built by human hands. They exchanged the Almighty God for images of wood or metal that were fashioned by craftsmen using skills and materials created for them by the one, true God. They even had to be careful to pick the best materials for their images so that their idol wouldn’t decay and they had to select good supports to keep them from falling over. They gave their worship and devotion to idols that were wholly dependent on them instead of trusting the God who needs for nothing and provides everything. He alone is worthy of our worship, because he is the one and only God, who is all-sufficient for himself and for us.
God commands us to worship him, not to meet his need, but ours. He doesn’t need our worship to build up his self-esteem, and it isn’t even something we can offer him as a gift. As his humble creations, we already owe him our worship. We are to worship God because our worship reminds us of who he is, and who we are in comparison. The command to worship is also a gift to us, because authentic worship of God is a joy and delight. We’re commanded to serve God, using our gifts to show God’s love to others in the world and spread the Gospel to those who haven’t heard it, but does God need us to serve him? No! He is perfectly able to accomplish his will on Earth without us. God doesn’t need us, but he uses us to accomplish his will for his glory and for our benefit. As the Spirit is at work in and through us when we serve God, our hearts soften, our desires change, and we become more like Christ. Jesus invites us to abide in him, and promises that he will dwell in us. Jesus is like a grape vine, and we are branches. If we’re separated from the vine, we’ll become spiritually dry and brittle until we eventually die. But, when we acknowledge our need of God and depend on him, we’re able to thrive and produce godly fruit (John 15:4-5).
Now, let’s take a look at verses 27-31, where we’ll see that God’s self-sufficiency is able to sustain us:
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Because of the exile, God’s people felt like he had turned his back on them and did not see what was happening to them or maybe even didn’t care that they were suffering. Here, they are reminded that the eternal God doesn’t grow impatient with his people or give up on them. He never abandons or ignores us. He is at work in the world for our good at all times. He takes the weak and weary and fills them with his own power at the right time. Even young, healthy people run out of energy eventually, but those who wait on God will not be disappointed: he will be their strength as they endure trials. Even as we grow in spiritual maturity, we will never have enough strength in ourselves to overcome trials and temptations on our own. We aren’t meant to. As we grow closer to God we will see more and more how weak we are and lean into God’s perfect provision, which finds its culmination in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
In Jesus, God took on our human neediness to meet our greatest need. He wrapped his divinity in human weakness and limitation: fully God, yet fully man. He “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). On the cross, Jesus took the punishment we deserved for our sin so that we could have the reward for his perfect righteousness that we could never have earned for ourselves. When we profess our faith in his death and resurrection, we are proclaiming our total dependence on him for salvation. As the Holy Spirit is at work in us, our sinful desires and delusions about our independence and self-sufficiency are slowly stripped away. We are emptied out to be filled with righteousness that can only come from God. We have to surrender ourselves to him daily and abandon the illusion of autonomy from God. And, it’s tough. It’s so easy to fall into self-reliant habits without realizing it, until, suddenly, you smack face-first into the wall of your limits and realize that you are not enough.
That’s a wall I’ve been running into a lot myself lately. I think God has definitely been preparing me for this talk over the last few months in order for me to be able to teach it honestly. He knew that I really needed to be stripped of my delusions of self-sufficiency. Recently, I’ve been struggling a lot more with chronic pain caused by endometriosis and migraines, which has made me feel weak and ineffective. It’s also made me acutely aware of how much I need to grow in the area of controlling my words and actions when I’m under stress. It’s shown me how much faith I put in “Dr. Google” instead of in the Great Physician, and how quickly I turn to worthless entertainment and social media for distraction when I feel defeated. I am not enough to truly meet my own needs, much less all the needs of my husband, my son, or other people I care about. Partly, it’s because I still struggle with my sinful nature that is selfish, but it’s also because I wasn’t created to be “enough” for myself or anyone else. And neither were you. You and I are limited because we were created for dependence on God, the only one who is truly self-sufficient.
So, how do we respond to the knowledge that God is infinitely self-sufficient and we are not? Since God doesn’t need us, should we relax and do whatever we want? Since we’ll never be “enough,” should we just stop trying? No. Here are three ways we should respond to God’s self-sufficiency: we must embrace our limitations, strive for interdependence with other believers, and cultivate a posture of constant prayer.
Our limitations are a blessing designed to show us our need for the Father, so we need to respect them. God gives us enough of his strength to make it through what he has called us to do each day, but not more, lest we would become over-confident and forget our need of him. We can’t all have careers, families, and friends while also keeping up with household tasks, eating healthy, home-cooked, whole foods at every meal, working out every day, spending a couple hours praying and reading the Bible every morning, serving in every ministry at church, and also getting 8 hours of sleep every night. Our situations look different, our needs are different, and God has not called us all to serve him with the same gifts in the same ways. Maybe you need to cut some things from your schedule because you’ve overestimated your capacity. Maybe you’ve been a little too “comfortable” and “self-sufficient” recently and need to look for new ways to serve God and others with the abundance you’ve been given. When you feel your neediness, thank God for the reminder that you need him, and thank him for always providing what you need. When you recognize your abundance, ask God to show you where it is needed most, and rejoice in the opportunity to show his love to others.
We were also created for interdependence with fellow believers. We were not meant to thrive on our own, but to prosper in community. While we cannot completely meet one another’s needs, God does use us as instruments of his provision in one another’s lives. We need to invest ourselves in the life of the Body of Christ in our local church and be rooted here. We are called to live as brothers and sisters who bear our burdens together and build one another up in the faith. We must have the humility to ask for and accept help from others, and have the love and compassion to joyfully offer it to one another without resentment or judgment. God has given each one of us unique strengths and limitations that we must honor. We shouldn’t be proud of how much we have to give, or ashamed of how much we need to ask for compared to others. In Christ, we are able to give and receive with joy and an open hand, thankful to God, who has provided it all.
Finally, because God is self-sufficient and we are not, prayer is our lifeline. It is our humble, worshipful declaration of our total dependence on God. When we pray, we bring our needs before him, not because he doesn’t know them or needs insight on how to direct our life, but because we need to be reminded that he is always in control. We confess, acknowledging that God is the one most offended by our sins, and also the only one who is able to transform our sinful desires to righteous ones. We worship him, rejoicing in his mercy and compassion. At any time of day or night, prayer reorients our hearts toward God. We behold him in his almighty goodness. We see ourselves and are brought low by our sin-stained frailty, yet lifted up because we have new identity as children of God in Christ.
“You are not enough” isn’t exactly a popular idea or a catchy slogan. It’s not something you’re going to see on a cute, rustic sign or a pretty coffee mug. In fact, I’ve seen a swell of messages supporting the opposite idea. recently, particularly among women--even Christian women. We love to repeat to one another “you’re enough” like a mantra that’s meant to affirm us when we feel defeated and to ease our minds when we feel unfit to meet the demands of our lives. This message has a well-intentioned desire to relieve us of the unrealistic burden of trying to “have it all,” and that is a good desire. But, “you are enough” is a bankrupt gospel. It does not have the power to save. It is not the message we need to hear to release us from our slavery to sin and give us new life. Only the actual Gospel can do that. If you remember one thing from tonight, I hope it’s this: you are not enough, but God is enough. Christ is enough. We are reconciled to God, and can rest in the truth that God is able to perfectly sustain us out of the abundance of who he is because he is surpassingly self-sufficient. We have hope because God does not have any needs, yet he sent his Son to give us everything we need to be reconciled to himself as a sacred gift for us to enjoy with him forever. Let’s pray:
Father, thank you for giving us this time together tonight, and over the last few months, to come together and behold you for who you are. Thank you that you are good, you never change, and you are self-sufficient. Thank you for using your Word to reveal yourself to us, and for sending your Son so that we can be your children and enjoy your presence forever in eternity. As we break into groups now, let our conversations be uplifting and honoring to you. Please use this time of discussion to draw us to yourself and deepen our sense of community with one another. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.