Isaiah 42

Isaiah 42:3

"A bruised reed He will not break
And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;
He will faithfully bring forth justice.

I have to admit, these statements seem kind of contradictory to me.  The final one says God will bring justice, which would mean condemnation of all things wrong, regardless of severity.  But then it says that things that are somewhat wrong, not doing as intended, He will not condemn.

Maybe this bothers me because I recognize I am one of those bruised reeds or dim wicks.  I deserve to be destroyed, but He isn't doing it, and that makes me feel it's wrong.  Even though it's sparing me to improve, I find I either don't want to, or don't know how.  So why doesn't He get it over with?

Isaiah 41

Isaiah 41:26

Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?
Or from former times, that we may say, "He is right!"?
Surely there was no one who declared,
Surely there was no one who proclaimed,
Surely there was no one who heard your words.

Who can prophecy about things to come?  What is their source?  What do they see, and how?  Are they predicting things that will happen very soon, merely based on analysis of what has come before?  Or are they just guessing, and hoping they're right?  Or do they make predictions so far out that no one will know or remember when they come true?

God works differently.  He knows what will happen because He is outside time.  Past, Present and Future are all visible to him at once, even easier than us looking at multiple screens on a computer.  When God chooses for something to happen, it will, and no one can truly predict the future without His guidance.

Isaiah 40

Isaiah 40:22

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

This verse begins to give an idea of the scale between God and us.  It's not the true scale, because there is no such thing, but it gives us something to start from.  How little do grasshoppers appear to us?  We may notice them, but they aren't usually a worry.

Also, He is the one who created this world, and everything we observe.  To him, they are a small place to inhabit, and His domain extends well beyond them.  Still, they give us somewhere to exist, and that pleases Him.  But none of it is necessary for Him.

Isaiah 39

Isaiah 39:8

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good."  For he thought, "For there will be peace and truth in my days."

Hezekiah had recently recovered from a near-fatal illness.  He has God alone to credit with his still being alive.  Yet come the news that he has sealed the fate of his descendants and people, his only thought is for himself.

Why did he not plead with God, the way he did when he was dying?  Is it any less a tragedy that his kingdom will be destroyed, and his family taken to a far land?  If he had begged God for mercy, would it have made a difference?

Isaiah 38

Isaiah 38:7

"This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken:

God is giving the king a sign, to prove that what He has said will be true.  However, no one asked for a sign.  God is providing this on His own.

Normally, when a sign is asked for, God is either angered at the display or unbelief, or He gives it quickly.  However, here He does it without request.  I assume this is either anticipatory, where the king was going to ask, or as a special display of His power.

Isaiah 37

Isaiah 37:19

and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

What people make, people can destroy.  We do not have the ability to create, only to shape.  That shaping can take many forms, some of them unique, but that is all we can do.

One type of shaping is destruction.  We can break apart what is there, even try to put the pieces back together.  But we can not make something out of nothing.  Only God has that ability.

Isaiah 36

Isaiah 36:18

Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying "The LORD will deliver us."  Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

This question is very obvious.  Of course no god has been able to rescue its people from Assyria.  Their gods didn't exist, and therefore had no power.

The God of Judah, however, is different.  He has the power that others lack.  They were just made-up playthings of stone or wood or some such.  The one who made the universe, however, has all the power, and only He can decide who will conquer Judah.