Isaiah 40:18-20

A man may try to make his own god. But an *idol cannot live. And it has no possible use. Its maker even has to fix it firmly in position. Otherwise it will fall.

• The *Lord God is spirit. He is not like the physical things that exist in this world. So any effort to represent him by means of a model is stupid. But it is also dangerous. *Idols of any kind turn one’s attention away from God himself.

• For Isaiah’s opinion about people who are foolish enough to trust in *idols, see Isaiah 44:9-20.

God rules the world

v21 You must surely know. You must surely have heard. Someone must surely have told you from ancient times. You must surely understand who made the earth in the beginning. v22 It is God who lives above the skies. In God’s sight the inhabitants of the earth seem as tiny as insects. God stretched out the heavens as one stretches a curtain. God spread the heavens like a tent in which to live. v23 God reduces the great rulers in the world to nothing. He makes the leaders of the nations to be like empty boxes. v24 They are like young plants that one has set out in the ground. They have hardly any roots yet. So when the *Lord sends a hot wind, the plants quickly become dry. They die, and the wind blows them away. v25 Nobody is like the Holy God. v26 Look up at the sky! God created all the stars that you see. It is God who leads them all out like an army. And he knows exactly how many stars there are. Because God’s power is so great, not one of them is ever missing.