Event: Call to Prayer 2021
God is incomparable and Holy
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? (Isaiah 40:18)
When in primary school we had a competition in our class – who had the coolest trainers. Every week somebody would turn up with new trainers that were cooler and brighter than the rest of the class. We would spend more time inspecting our trainers than we did looking at our books, but one day, our worlds were turned upside down when Mark Kitchen turned up with a pair of Nike Airs. We had never seen such trainers that contained amongst other things a built-in pump that allowed him to push air into pockets within the shoe that apparently allowed him to jump higher – our minds had been blown (ironically, so did the air balloons within his trainers within a few weeks)! At the time, we all ogled his sparkling white trainers in complete jealousy as we recognised that what we had on our feet just did not compare.
Though I am now older, and sadly I must leave the cool trainers to my children, I often recognise the same tendency in my heart of wanting something bigger and better. It seems to be hard-wired into our hearts as humans – we are always striving for more. We buy a car, but we quickly recognise that there are better cars out there. We redecorate a room in the house, but we quickly start thinking of the next room. If we’re honest, in the darkest and most sinful parts of our hearts we can even feel the same way about the best and most wonderful gifts that the Lord has given us. It’s as if nothing will truly satisfy as we search for something more … or something different.
Today’s verse is both encouraging and terrifying as it draws our attention to another truth about God. He is incomparable!
He is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth who does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable (Isaiah 40:28). At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation (Jeremiah 10:10b). Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth (Psalm 113:5-6)? God is completely incomprehensible in His greatness and nobody can come close to Him or can be compared with Him. We see this especially in His holiness as Revelation 4:8 tells us, ‘And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
This truth about God is totally terrifying to us sinful created human beings who are as un-holy as could be. It should make us tremble and shudder as we recognise the cosmic hell-future trouble that we are in. We can but shout as Isaiah did “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).
Yet, at the same time, this truth is also full of hope. We have already noted that our hearts yearn for something more and different, something that this world cannot give us. Could it therefore be that our hearts are yearning for this Holy God?
The Bible teaches us that our hearts are not satisfied until we find God – there is a hole in our souls that can only be filled by the holy and eternal God who incomparable and incomprehensible. He is the one who created us, and it is in Him we find our homes. Let us therefore draw near today to our Holy God, through Christ our mediator, recognising that He is what our hearts are looking for. Nothing else will ever compare, forget the Nike Air trainers or anything else this world can give, we can draw near to the incomparable and holy God through Christ Jesus!
We can hope in God because He is incomparable
Questions
- In what ways is God different and better than all we see on this Earth?
- How does the Holiness of God both terrify and bring you hope?
Further Reading
- Isaiah 6, Psalm 96
Prayer
- Use Psalm 96 as a basis for prayer
- Pray that the Spirit would open your eyes to see how incomparable God is.
- Pray that holiness would be a characteristic of the Church in our country.
- Pray that the Spirit would show people how fleeting and non-satisfying the pleasures of this world can be.