Welcome to Day #21 in the Isaiah 40 Series!

Isaiah 40:21  “Do you not know?  Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?  Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

“Let’s start at the very beginning- a very good place to start.”  From the beginning, from the foundations of the earth… has it not been declared, have you not heard, do you not know?

Isaiah 41:4 says, “Who has performed and accomplished it, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last.  I am He.” 

As you slow down and start reading verses and chapters more than once, and even marking some key words, it is such a delight to encounter simple, yet profound, discoveries.  This happened the other day as I was instructed (via my precept bible study) to mark the words “declared and proclaimed” in the latter chapters of the book of Isaiah.

Look at all these verses!

Isaiah 41: 22, 23, 26  In general these verse reveal that men and idols are not able to declare and proclaim what will take place.

Isaiah 42:8-9 “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.  Behold, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

Isaiah 43:9 In this verse the question is asked, “Who among them (the nations) can declare this and proclaim to us the former things?”

Oh, how I love these following verses.  They are the kind that, in a good way, cause you to just shut right up- in light of His authority and truth.  “And who is like Me?  Let him proclaim and declare it; yet, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation.  And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place.  Do not tremble and do not be afraid; have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?  And you are My witnesses.  Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock?  I know of none.  Those who fashion a graven image (an idol) are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame” (Isaiah 44:7-9)

Isaiah 46:9-10 “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is not other; I am God, and there in no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'”

Isaiah 48:3, 5, 14, 16 all continue with the declaring and proclaiming theme.  Verses 5 and 6 in particular addresses this theme as well as its correlation (or should I say, its contrast) with idols.  “Therefore I declared them to you long ago, before they took place I proclaimed them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’ You have heard; look at all this.  And you, will you not declare it?  I proclaim to you new things from this times, even hidden things which you have not known.”

With all this declaring and proclaiming I think that God is saying something to this effect,  
Hi there, you- created in My image.  Don’t you know I am God?  I know what happened, what is happening and what is going to happen.  I am the One who knows it- who declares and proclaims the former things and the things to come.  I am God. Your idols cannot do what I can; they are inferior.  Make no mistake about it.  I have always been and always will be.  You can trust My Word.

Deep Breaths:

1.  Memorize Isaiah 40:21

2. See Isaiah 45:19, 21, 23 Take some time to read these verses and see what light they shed on this topic.

3. Remember in Isaiah 40:1 how we saw that God speaks?  Read Genesis 1 and make a list of all the times God speaks in that chapter.  What is your response to this?  Take some time to declare and proclaim your praise to the Lord, the Creator.