Isaiah 55:8-9

Isaiah chapter 55. We of course have been, we spent the past two months doing a series through Proverbs chapter 16, and now we are gonna spend the next three months or so doing a series on the character of God. And we're not so much gonna pick like a specific attribute to do every week, but we're just gonna pick a verse that focuses on who God is. And so, as we do this, we're just going to be thinking week after week about who God is. And tonight, we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9. We read this, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Now, there's three things I want to, three points that I have here, and the first one is this. This passage teaches us that God's thoughts and ways categorically transcend ours. God's thoughts and ways categorically transcend ours. In other words, they're not just incrementally better. They're categorically distinct, right? God is not a God who's like us, just bigger and better. He's God. He's in a category all by himself. He says here, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. God's saying, I don't think like you. I don't act like you. I'm different than you. In fact, God's thoughts and ways so transcend ours that it says, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts. Right, so it's not just like, you know, our most brilliant idea is sort of like a little hill and God's thoughts are like a high mountain. No, the picture here is of a whole different realm of belonging. God's thoughts and ways are like the heavens high above and ours are like the earth beneath." Now, what exactly are God's thoughts and ways? When we think, we're usually trying to figure something out. We're processing our options, we're trying to come up with an answer, or we're recalling something to bring it to the forefront of our mind. But God doesn't think like that. He's omniscient. He perfectly and exhaustively and instantaneously knows absolutely everything there is to know. He knows all that is, all that was, all that will be, even all that could be. Right? So God doesn't have to think to figure things out. He already knows every answer that there is. He doesn't have to think to recall things, because all knowledge is on the front of his mind continually. In fact, I think scripture even teaches us that God is timeless. So I don't even think we should conceive of God as having a stream of consciousness in the way we do. He doesn't exist in a succession of moments, so he doesn't think in a succession of moments either. So when this verse speaks of God's thoughts, it's almost like a metaphor, and I think what it really refers to is God's own internal plans and purposes, which flow from his infinite knowledge and wisdom. And then when it speaks of God's ways, I think it means the putting into practice of those thoughts, of those plans and purposes, as God reveals himself and acts in history to bring those purposes to pass. And so the point is that God's thoughts and ways transcend ours in quality, consistency, and perfection. Everything that God thinks and does, it's not tainted with sin. It's never inconsistent with his own character. And everything that he does, it goes beyond human expectation, even human dreams. He is the God, as Ephesians says, who does exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. And what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, These are the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. And so, before we go to the second point, I just want us to consider a point of application here. You know, when we're faced with something we don't understand about God, when we're faced with a situation we don't understand, perhaps it's suffering, perhaps you feel like Job, you know, why is this happening? I think the fact that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways, I think it should teach us that our greatest need in that moment is not an explanation, but a revelation of the glory of God. So, like a little boy who's being taken to the doctor for his first round of shots, You know, he doesn't need to sit down with a textbook to explain, you know, the science of immunization. He needs a hug from his mom and the affirmation that she still loves him. And like Job in his suffering, you know, our greatest need is not for God to come and explain why. It's for God to come and remind us of who He is and that His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways. They are as high above us as the heavens is above the earth. And we need to be humbled before the reality of a God who transcends our ability to comprehend and who thinks and acts far more wondrously than we could possibly fathom. All right, so God's thoughts and ways categorically transcend ours. Second point. This is especially evident in the freeness of God's mercy. And I want you to look for a minute about at the context, the surrounding context here in Isaiah chapter 55. Look at verses one and two. It says, come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food." And then jump down to down to verse 6. It says, "...seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. You see, this is a context in which God is beckoning sinners to come to him for mercy. He's telling people utterly bankrupt of any righteousness of their own to come, buy, and eat without money and without price. He's telling wicked and unrighteous people whose ways and thoughts have been vile in the sight of a holy God to return to him. And instead of wrath, they will receive compassion. And instead of punishment, he will abundantly pardon. Think about that. This seems unthinkable. What fugitive would turn himself in expecting pardon? What criminal would come to the judge seeking compassion? And yet God answers that by saying, for my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways. As the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. He's a God who loves, forgives, and shows mercy in a way that transcends anything we would ever expect and even beyond our ability to understand. You know, one of the things that I often hear people say is that the problem with our society is that people just think God's all love and they don't recognize His holiness. And I want to say to that, no, they don't. It's true that people don't recognize God's holiness, but they don't believe that God is all love either. And that becomes immediately clear the moment that one of these people who in their, you know, proud heart, who have blinded their sin, the moment they actually begin to feel some conviction about sin. Notice what happens right away. They go instantly from thinking, well, of course God would love me, I'm a good person. They see their sin and they think, there's no hope. They fall into despair. They think God could never love someone like me. And that's when I take them to this verse and I say, your problem is that you think that God is too much like you. His thoughts are not your thoughts. His ways are not your ways. He is high above that. That's the whole point. He is a God who shows mercy. He is a God who loves with a love that we cannot describe, that we could never expect, that we cannot even imagine. And he's a God who gives his own son to suffer and die for the very vile sinners who murder him, who hate him, for people like us who shake our fist against God and yet he loves us, yet he beckons us to come to receive mercy freely. That's who God is. And that brings us to the third and the final point, which is this. the purpose of this text is to call us to faith and worship. Right? Because even as believers, we need to be refreshed in the reality of God's mercy, and we need to continue to grow in our confidence in the forgiveness that we have in Christ. And you know, I don't think that the mercy that God shows us is ever going to fully make sense on a human level. I mean, it will never make sense to us. Why would God show me such mercy? I mean, from a human thinking, we cannot just wrap our mind around that. But the good news is that we can be sure that he does because he's demonstrated his love and displayed his mercy through the cross of Christ. And secondly, he's declared that to us in his word. And that's why I think it's so significant that if you look at the next three verses right after the ones that we've been looking at, look how it focuses on the Word of God. Verses 10-12. So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." This God who thinks with thoughts above us, who acts in ways above us that we can never understand, yet he sends forth his word to declare his mercy and his grace, to declare who he is. And this is the result when we hear that word, and by the grace of God, we believe it. And we realize this is a God who loves us like that. This is a God with a grace further and beyond our capacity to understand. Like this picture of breaking forth into singing, the trees of the field clapping their hands, going out in joy, being led forth in peace. That's a picture of what happens when by faith, we realize that this is a God who is so much greater than we ever would imagine or expect. And yet by his word, we know his love for us in Christ. We know the grace that we've received. And how else could we respond to this other than in worship? just worshiping Him for who He is and what He has done for us in Christ, worshiping Him because His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways, but as the heavens are high above the earth, so are His ways above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. Amen. Let's pray.