Isaiah 51:12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass
I’ve been privileged to hike the Grand Canyon on numerous occasions. I’ve hiked North Rim to South Rim, the South Kaibab, Bright Angel, and the Supai Trail. Grand Canyon is an amazing place. You can literally observe ground one vertical mile below your feet. Most of us have no idea what that looks like unless we have been to the Grand Canyon. I remember observing the Kaibab Plateau years ago and seeing these huge rocks way down at the bottom. I thought, “Those must be the size of a bus. Those are big rocks.” Then, I looked through my binoculars and saw some ants scurrying down there that were actually people, and by comparison I realized that those rocks were not the size of a bus; they were the size of a sky scraper. They were mammoth, huge. There was no way for me to know how big they were unless I saw them related to something else, like a hiker.
Isaiah 51 is God addressing people who were following correctly but were in the minority. Isaiah 51:1 says, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” He is talking to people who had been invaded and people who were in the minority both in comparison to the invaders and to their own people who had forgotten God. These were people who were following righteousness in difficult times and were in the minority for doing so.
God addresses both history and the future. In verse 2 He says, “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him.” Israel was a chip off the old block. God says, “Look to the rock from whence ye were hewn.” This is not specifically God. It is the man whom God used to bring forth this incredible family and nation. He also points to the future. He says in verse 3, “For the LORD shall comfort Zion.” So, it is about what God has done and what God will do.
He says to these people who were discouraged, in the minority, and could not see God’s dealings in their lives, “Remember what I have done in the past and be confident of what I will do in the future. You are a chip off the old block and I am going to take care of you.”
What follows is a series of comparisons. A comparison of their problems, not to themselves for that would be overwhelming, but to their God. For instance, verse 6 says, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” He says, “Don’t compare your problems to yourselves. Compare your problems to your God. The problems of this earth will consume as will the earth, but not my righteousness and my salvation.”
In verse 8 He says, “For the moth shall eat them up like a garment.” We have all lost good garments because moths have chewed on them. He is talking about the reproach of the foolish and that their day is coming. It continues, “The worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.” Their time will come, but mercy will endure.
Then the most poignant of all is verse 12 which says, “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made of grass.” He is saying, “Who are you to fear when I am the one who provides.” In verse 13 He reminds us that fear is a function of forgetfulness. He says, “Thou forgettest the LORD…and hast feared continually every day.” So, fear is just forgetting. What is it forgetting? It is not forgetting yourself, but forgetting your God. In short, the size of your problem is relative to the size of your source.
To whom are you looking and seeking? In whom do you find your strength? My problems are big to me but they are not big to God. Any problem is a problem because of its size. If it is a small problem, it is an annoyance, not a problem. A problem to me might not be a problem to you. A problem to your six-year-old may cause you to wish you had those problems again, but if you were six again, those problems would be just as big to you as they are to your child. The size of your problems is relative to the size of your source. So, no matter the size of your problem, it will never exceed the size, power, and knowledge of God. Verse 15 says, “But I am the LORD thy God.” He is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. Assyria has a big army; I have a bigger. Egypt has a big army; I have a bigger. Babylon has a big army; I have a bigger.
In verses 21-23 God basically says, “Therefore I will. Because I am who I am, I will do what I do.” Verse 22 says, “I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling…but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.” In other words, the tables will turn.
Friend, I don’t know what your problem is today, but the main problem is not so much the problem you perceive, it is the way you perceive it in the first place. Are you acknowledging God in your life? The same ethic that helps you to be proud of yourself and to forget God is the same ethic that will lead you to despair when it becomes clear that your problems are bigger than you. Are your problems bigger than you? Of course, otherwise they wouldn’t be problems. Are they bigger than God? No! The size of your problems is relative to the size of your source.