Isaiah 40:18-26 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

The degradation of the Divine.

The holy indignation of the prophet is aroused as he sees the Godhead so pitifully presented to the mind, so shamefully represented to the eyes of men. He has in view the power and majesty of the Supreme One, and places in contrast the creatures of human imagination, the fabrications of the human hand. We have the degradation of the Divine—

I. AS IT APPEARED TO THE HEBREW PROPHET . He beheld:

1 . The power and the majesty of God , shown in

2 . The utter folly of the heathen in their way of presenting Deity to their minds; attempting to fashion an image which should bear no resemblance to the Lord ( Isaiah 40:18-20 ), as if anything that the hand of man can fashion could bear the smallest resemblance to, or be in any way fitted to suggest the idea of, the Majesty of heaven; the practical and the common issue of such idolatry being the actual acceptance of the graven image as constituting the very object of worship. We may regard the degradation of the Divine—

II. AS IT APPEARS TO US IN OUR OWN TIME .

1 . We have the true thought of God , as revealed to us by Jesus Christ—that of a Divine Father conferring on us our being and our powers, visiting us with constant loving-kindnesses, divinely interested in our highest well-being, interposing to restore us to his love and his likeness, giving his own Son to redeem us and his own Spirit to renew us, disciplining us with fatherly care, and rejoicing in our filial affection and obedience with parental joy.

2 . We have the degraded thought of God which men still entertain.