To whom then will ye liken God? GOD IS INCOMPARABLE

Isaiah 40:18-26

To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?   The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. 

He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. 

Have ye not known?

Have ye not heard?

Hath it not been told you from the beginning?

Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 

That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. 

Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. 

To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. 

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. 

To whom then will ye liken God? - Since he is so great, what can resemble him?

What form can be made like him?

The main idea here intended to be conveyed by the prophet evidently is, that God is great and glorious, and worthy of the confidence of his people. This idea he illustrates by a reference to the attempts which had been made to make a representation of him, and by showing how vain those efforts were.

He therefore states the mode in which the images of idols were usually formed, and shows how absurd it was to suppose that they could be any real representation of the true God.

It is possible that this was composed in the time of Manasseh, when idolatry prevailed to a great extent in Judah, and that the prophet intended in this manner incidentally to show the folly and absurdity of it.

This extreme point which can never be reached by objectors to the doctrine of the Trinity is the point of incomprehensibleness, not the point of impossibility.

The doctrine, though incomprehensible as to the manner, can never be proved impossible as to the fact.

The same may be said of the Deity, or any of His attributes, e.g., Eternity, Omnipresence.

Here are a few points on the resemblance to God.

1.   The Creator is distinguished from every creature by being self-existent.

No way of accounting for the origin of anything except by supposing something which never had an origin. It was an ancient inscription in a heathen temple, "I am whatsoever was, is, or shall be; and who is he that shall draw aside my veil?"

2.   The existence of a Creator is a necessary existence. This should prepare us to find God inscrutable. To depict an Archangel, one has but to remodel himself; but how begin to depict God, the Uncreated?

Hence the vanity of all attempts to explain or illustrate the Trinity in Unity.

3.   If we could produce an exact instance of three in one, we should have no right to point to it as at all parallel with the union in the Man was made in the moral image of his Maker. It is the image of the nature which the text says it is impossible to find. Still some use may be made of illustration.

Is it possible that there may be three persons in the Godhead, consistently with that unity which Scripture unreservedly ascribes to the Divine Being?

Observe man's constitution.

All confess he is made up of a body and a soul. Apart from seeing this union effected, we might have thought it impossible. It is a union of quite different natures. Why should he not unite two things of the same nature, e.g., two spirits? If with two, then with three; the possibility does not depend upon the number. Thus we admit the incomprehensible, but we disprove the impossible.

The foregoing illustration shows no unmindfulness of the truth that we cannot find a likeness to the everlasting God. It shows from what is possible in created being the unreasonableness of pronouncing a certain constitution impossible in the uncreated Being.

"Wonderful Being! Who has only to tell what He is to make Himself more inscrutable."

The whole of Christianity falls to pieces

if you destroy this doctrine. If this doctrine be false, Christ Jesus is nothing more than a man, and the Holy Ghost a creature of quality.

That truth cannot be a barren speculation which may not be believed or disbelieved without affecting the Christian character.

Reflect upon prayer

 Prayer must be prescribed and regulated by the doctrine of the Trinity. It is a false god whom man worships, if he adores Unity in which there is no Trinity. The heathen bows down before a stock or a stone, the Socinian before a Godhead in which there is no Son and no Holy Spirit. Without a Trinity, man must save himself; with a Trinity, he is to be saved through Christ.

 Our duty

Whilst no likeness can be found to the invisible uncreated God, we are to study conformity to the image of His Son. Resemblance to Christ is the nearest approach to resemblance to

The passage suggests:

That the greatest things in the material world are nothing to God. The ocean, the heaven, the earth

 (Psa 33:8-9).  Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

That the greatest minds in the spiritual universe are nothing to Him He is uninstructible:

The only being in the universe who is so. He is absolutely original: the only such Being. We talk of original thinkers; such creatures are mere fictions. He being so independent of all minds:

1. His universe must be regarded as the expression of Himself. No other being had a hand in it.

2. His laws are the revelation of Himself. No one counselled Him in His legislation.

3. His conduct is absolutely irresponsible. He is answerable to no one. He alone is irresponsible, and He alone can be trusted with irresponsibility.

That the greatest institutions in human society are nothing to Him. Nations are the greatest things in human institutions. Nations, with their monarchs, courts, armies—Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome—these are great things in history. Islands

(Isa 40:15-17) Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

CONCLUSION.— How great is God!

The Moslems cry in their prayers,

Allah hûakbar!—"God is great."

Let us as Christians Cry out for all to know

"There is," nothing great but God"