The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth – Isaiah 40:28 KJV
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth – Isaiah 40:28 NASB
The greatness and glory of God is not only revealed in nature but in His Names. Isaiah 40 is a rich treasure trove of truth linked with the names and titles of the Lord. Contained within the compass of its 31 verses, we are told of God, the Lord, the Lord God, the Holy One, the everlasting God, and the Creator.
Combine with these, some of the imagery which Isaiah employs, such as: the One Who sits on the circle of the earth, the One who summons the stars, the tender Shepherd, and the Omniscient and the Omnipotent One, and we begin to appreciate something of His glory and uniqueness.
All of these names and titles begin to express something of the character of God. Yet God is beyond defining or fully expressing in human language. It will require the language of heaven to worship Him properly.
The greatness and glory of His Names, however, are in contrast to the names, titles, and experience of the Servant of Jehovah in Isaiah 53. There we find Him viewed as “stricken, smitten of God and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). The Holy One was judged by men to be worthy of a cross and its curse, and to be under the judgment of God because of His own sin.
The prophet-evangelist reminds us that He was a Man of Sorrows; someone in Whom the nation saw nothing of “beauty” to attract them. He did not assemble around Himself the mighty and great of earth. So despised was He that the nation treated Him as a leper, the Old Testament symbol of the working of sin, hiding their faces from Him (Isaiah 53:3). Yet He was the “Holy One” of Isaiah 40.
Isaiah has revealed Him to us in the rarely used title as “the everlasting God.” When we come to Isaiah 53:8, in stark contrast, we read how that He was “cut off” from the land of the living. Violent, vicious, and vile men treated Him as a useless appendage to be cut off and removed for the health of the nation. The Spirit of God is careful, however, in reminding us that “He had done no violence, neither was deceit in His mouth” (Isaiah 53:9).
The Creator of Isaiah 40 was taken by His creatures and nailed to a tree. “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not” (John 1:10). He was not only “cast out of the vineyard,” but cast out of His own world, His own creation. The giver of life was judged by us as unworthy of life. The Creator of all was deemed by us as unworthy to exist in His own creation! In the words of Psalm 22, He was treated by men as “a worm and no man; a reproach of men and despised by the people” (Ps 22:6).
Consider
- There are only five times in Scripture where God is spoken of as “Creator.” Note the lessons linked with each of them.
- The title, “the everlasting God,” is only three times in the Scriptures. Look at the context and see how appropriate it is in each case.