Describing the indescribable . . . explaining the unexplainable . . . or, as one songwriter so aptly put it, trying to fit the ocean in a cup . . . that’s Isaiah’s task this morning in the fortieth chapter of his prophetic writing. There’s a shift in the overall tone of his prophecy. After 39 chapters of “the wages of sin is death” the Holy Spirit directs the prophet to comfort God’s people (Isa. 40:1). The comfort is first introduced as a voice in the wilderness crying, “Prepare the way of the Lord” (40:3) . . . and is then declared to be found in a consideration of the greatness of our God . . . in trying to fathom the unfathomable . . . in trying to relate to a God that is, quite literally, out of this world!

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with Him? . . . To whom then will you compare Me that I should be like Him? says the Holy One.  (Isaiah 40:18, 25 ESV)

That our God is a big, big God is evident from the prophet . . .

Behold the Lord GOD comes with might . . . It is He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers . . . Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might . . . 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.  
                                                                      (Isaiah 40:10a, 22a, 26, 28 ESV)

Big? Yes! Awesome? Kind of! Higher . . . loftier . . . more powerful than I can imagine? I’m thinkin’! So how does a “grasshopper” find comfort in this?

Tucked away in this portrayal of the Mighty Creator . . . slipped into the prophet’s defying challenge to compare an incomparable God . . . is a comparison . . .

He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.   
                                                                                        (Isaiah 40:11 ESV)

Like a shepherd . . . hmmm . . . The everlasting God . . . the Almighty Creator . . . will, like a shepherd, gather His own in His arms . . . He will carry them . . . He will gently lead them.

How does Jesus not come to mind? Everlasting God come in flesh. The Almighty Creator come as the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11) that He might lift them up in newness of life . . . the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep that they may know Him (John 10:14) . . . that they might know, by His grace, something of this big, indescribable, incomparable God . . . and in that, find rest in His arms . . .

Comfort? Yeah. Renewal? I’m thinkin’ . . .

. . . 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.   (Isaiah 40:31 ESV)

For His glory . . .