The Majesty of God in the Old Testament

A Guide for Preaching and Teaching

Walter C. Kaiser

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9780801032448
• eBook ISBN: 9781441201072
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

This new book by a trusted Old Testament scholar directs the student and pastor to an aspect of biblical truth often lacking in contemporary preaching and teaching: God's unsurpassed majesty and greatness. Kaiser suggests that a key way to recapture this important doctrine in the pulpit is through the preaching of the Old Testament--itself an oft-neglected or mishandled discipline. By expositing ten great Old Testament passages that are rife with evidence of God's majesty, he shows how today's preacher might address this deficiency. He also shows how such exercises as word studies and historical/archaeological studies can be used to help pastors make the Old Testament relevant to their congregations.

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MAGNIFYING THE INCOMPARABILITY OF OUR GOD

ISAIAH 40:9–31

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Introduction

Every passage that has been chosen as a text for teaching and preaching from the Old Testament in this book can be enhanced by the teacher or preacher if some of the special studies that probe its depths of meaning are carried out in connection with its use in the classroom, pulpit, or private study. In Isaiah 40:9–31, the repeated emphasis on the fact that God cannot be compared to any person or thing gives us one of the greatest teaching texts in the Bible on the incomparability of God in his person and his acts.

Such teaching passages (sometimes called “chair passages,” or in the Latin, sedes doctrine)[1] are excellent opportunities to focus on key aspects of the theological and doctrinal teaching of the Scriptures. Therefore, in preparation for preaching on this passage, we will pause to examine the centrality, significance, and importance of this teaching in the Old Testament. Fortunately, we are helped by a seminal study from some years ago that will stand for a long time to come.

A Special Study: On the Incomparability of God

In 1966, E. J. Brill published a landmark book by C. J. Labuschagne entitled The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament. In a most remarkable way, it highlighted those qualities of our God that set him apart from all pretenders and claimants to the name of our God. It also emphasized those attributes of God that are most characteristic and fundamental in describing and affirming who he is. Moreover, it drew attention to God’s uniqueness and singularity in a polytheistic world. Over and over again, the cry went up from those who had met this Lord that he is beyond comparison, just as those on Mount Carmel did during the days of Elijah, when they cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!” (1 Kings 18:39). No one could be compared with God, and no one was on his level in any way at all!

Labuschagne studied the various ways in which God’s incomparability is expressed. First, there is the negative expression: “There is none. . . .” A good example of this is 1 Samuel 2:2.

“There is no one holy like the LORD;

there is no one besides you:

there is no Rock like our God.”

In Exodus 9:14, this same type of negation is used as the Lord declares that he will send the ten plagues on Egypt and Pharaoh “so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.” The same affirmation, set in a similar formula, can be found in Deuteronomy 33:26; 2 Samuel 7:22; 1 Chronicles 17:20; 1 Kings 8:23; Psalm 86:8; and Jeremiah 10:6, 7. Modifications of this formula can be found in Deuteronomy 32:31; 2 Chronicles 14:11; 20:6; Isaiah 46:9; and Jeremiah 10:16. Though the truth is stated in negative terms, the fact remains that God is in a class by himself with no competitors.

A second formula uses the rhetorical question, “Who is like . . . ?” The Lord himself asks this question in Isaiah 44:7 (“Who then is like me?”) and in Jeremiah 49:19 (“Who is like me?”). This same question appears in the meaning of a number of names such as Micah, Michael, Mishael, Micaiah, and the like. In these names the interrogative “Who?” is the Hebrew particle mî, and the “as” or “like” is the Hebrew particle represented in English as c, ch, or sh followed by the divine name taking the form of El, or [Y]ah. Seven psalms and ancient songs of Israel use this same rhetorical question. They are: Psalm 35:10 (“Who is like you, O LORD?”); 71:19 (“Who, O God, is like you?”); 77:13 (“What God is so great as our God?”); 89:8 (“O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?”); 113:5 (“Who is like the LORD our God?”); Exodus 15:11 (“Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?”); and Micah 7:18 (“Who is a God like you?”). In addition to these hymns and songs, we also find Elihu saying in Job 36:22, “Who is a teacher like [our God]?” And Moses asks in Deuteronomy, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deut. 4:7) and “For what god is in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?” (Deut. 3:24). Note that the comparison is not between the gods of the other nations and Yahweh, but between Israel, who has such a great God as her Lord, and the other nations! These are the greatest questions a mortal could ask. But the answer to each one leads to the realization that nothing, indeed no one, compares to the living God revealed both in the Old Testament Scriptures and later on in our Lord Jesus Christ.

A third way of expressing such incomparability is found in other rhetorical questions besides the one that asks “Who is like . . . ?” The reason for this is that the Old Testament delights in using rhetorical questions to designate absolute power, distinctiveness, and outstanding uniqueness. One form of such a question stresses the humbler position of the one asking it in comparison to the Lord himself. For example, Solomon declared in 2 Chronicles 2:6, “But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him?” Likewise, David had offered the same humble judgment as he, too, contemplated building the house for God in 2 Samuel 7:18: “Who am I, O sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” David repeated the same sentiment as he gathered the materials to ready the building of the temple that Solomon would take up on his father’s behalf. He decried in 1 Chronicles 29:14, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?” Something of the same sentiment underlies Psalm 8:4: “What is man that you are mindful of him?” (cf. Ps. 144:3; Job 7:17; 15:14; 40:4). Even when this formula is expressed contemptuously from the mouths of mockers, it still shows how exalted God is beyond all other comparisons. For example, Job disrespectfully inquires, “Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?” (Job 21:15). Job would shortly find out who this incomparably great God is, and he would quickly shut his mouth and remain silent before God. In the same way Pharaoh would learn a similar lesson after he mockingly asked, “Who is the LORD [Yahweh], that I should obey him and let Israel go?” (Exod. 5:2). No different was the king of Assyria’s commander, who blurted out, “Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD [Yahweh] deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” (Isa. 36:20; cf. 2 Chron. 32:14). But Moses knew the answer, for in his song in Deuteronomy 32:39 he recorded God’s announcement, “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me.”

Another form of a rhetorical question expects the answer, “None.” The expected answer to all comparisons of incomparable acts by our Lord is: “None but Yahweh alone!” Thus Isaiah asks five questions in Isaiah 40:12 as to who compares to God in his power over nature. There are none who can compare! And in verses 13 and 14 he asks five more questions to see if there are any rivals to God in his wisdom and understanding. Again, there are none (cf. also Deut. 3:24; Prov. 30:4; Job 34:13; 36:23; Eccles. 8:1b). This type of question is exhibited in a large number of passages in the Old Testament. These questions may point to God’s unrivaled actions in the past or to deeds that only he can perform (cf. Exod. 4:11; Lam. 3:37).

One more way this type of question can be asked is, “What does x have in common with y?” Thus Jeremiah inquires, “For what has straw to do with grain? . . . Is not my [God’s] word like fire . . . and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:28–29).

Finally, the writers of the Old Testament used verbs to denote possible similarity or equality. For example, the verb meaning to “be in a row,” “be on a line with,” or “be equal with,” in Psalm 40:5 is best translated, “none can equal you,” or “no one can be on a level with you.” Likewise, Psalm 89:6 says, “For who in the skies can equal Yahweh?” or who “can be on a level with Yahweh?” Again, in Isaiah 40:18, the prophet asks, “To whom, then, will you compare God? What likeness will you put on a level with him?” And in Isaiah 40:25, the question is still worth asking: “To whom [then] will you compare me, that I should be like him?” (cf. Isa. 46:5; Ps. 89:6).

It is clear that nothing stands on a par with or in any way rivals or challenges the magnificence and magnitude of the God whom the prophet Isaiah presents in 40:9–31.

Now let us apply this collection of expressions of unrivaled magnificence as background understanding or appreciation to the study of our first passage.

An Exposition of Isaiah 40:9–31

The best place to start when preparing to teach or preach on a passage is to locate the focal point, or what Haddon Robinson calls the “big idea” of the passage. Invariably, this will be found in a key verse, phrase, or (in a narrative portion) an epitomizing speech or quotation from the lips of one of the speakers in the story. In this prophetic speech passage, the prophet uses the rhetorical question in verses 18 and 25 to ask, “To whom, then, will you compare God?” and “To whom will you compare me?” It is always from the focal point that we are able to derive the topic or subject title for our lesson or sermon. Here it will be: “Magnifying the Incomparability of Our God.”

We note that the literary form of this text is poetical verse rather than prose. For English readers, this also can be seen from the way the English text is set in indented form in many versions. We will not pause here to set out for inspection all the characteristics of Hebrew poetry, but certainly the reader can detect a different feeling as he or she reads this text as opposed to the preceeding chapter of Isaiah.

In this poetical form, we note that there are three distinctive strophes. Verses 18 and 25, with the repeated rhetorical questions we just noted, easily mark the second and third strophes (which may be thought of as poetic paragraphs). These questions act as headings, or to use the technical term, rubrics, for what follows. In Egypt, headings in a similar type of work would have been inked in red, hence our current term rubric, which is derived from the Latin word for red. The first strophe is not as easily identified, but if verses 9–11 act as an introduction to what follows, giving the topics to be covered, then verses 12–17 would appear to form the first strophe.

Now that we have determined that there are three strophes that carry out the focus or big idea of this passage (which unusually in this case also double as the rubrics in vv. 18 and 25), we must ask how the writer unfolded his thesis or focus. One of the best ways to determine the answer to this question is to ask which of the six interrogatives best fits this text: Who? What? Why? Where? When? or How?

After trying all six of these interrogatives, I find that “What?” fits best. True, the text also asks “To whom?” will you compare God, but more is raised here than competing persons. One is being asked to match up multiple topics and situations to the magnificence of the one true living God!

Now I need a homiletical key word that names the element common to each of the strophes. This word must be a noun, for we are going to name something. It will also be a plural noun, for there usually is more than one paragraph, strophe, or scene in a teaching or preaching pericope (i.e., a block of text, in which all the verses deal wi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Magnifying the Incomparability of Our God
• 2. Magnifying the Greatness of Our God
• 3. Magnifying the Word of Our God
• 4. Magnifying the Wonderful Name of Our God
• 5. Magnifying the Pardoning Grace of Our God
• 6. Magnifying the Holy Spirit from Our God
• 7. Magnifying the Awesome Character of Our God
• 8. Magnifying the Glory of Our God
• 9. Magnifying the Grace of Giving from Our God
• 10. Magnifying the Holiness of Our God
• Endnotes
• Author Index
• Scripture Index
• Subject Index