He will feed his flock like a shepherd he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead those that give suck.
Isaiah 40 comforts a broken people by pointing them to God Himself — the One who measures the oceans in His hand. The surprise of verse 11 is that this same God stoops to carry lambs in His arms.
The verse sits inside a message announcing the coming of the Lord in power, and the Shepherd here is not a lesser rescuer.
"Say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with might, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him" (vv. 9-10). There can be no doubt that the One who came long ago and will come again is Christ. In a word, the same Jesus is not only Christ but Jehovah. First comes His coming in power. Next comes His full tenderness of heart, as One who takes pity on them because they are defenceless and exposed.
So a second question follows: could Jesus of Nazareth be this Shepherd?
It is clear from those Old Testament Scriptures which speak of the Shepherd that He is God the Creator. Take Isaiah 40 as an example... Can the lowly Nazarene, whom the people despised, really be this Shepherd? Can He be so great beyond measure, and yet so good and gentle, as this glorious Scripture describes? Well, in our chapter twice over He says, "I am the good Shepherd," and in so saying He declared that He was God.
Verse 11 and verse 12 stand side by side on purpose. The same God does both.
The sea lies in the hollow of God's hand, and His power restrains all its fierce rage. In the same way He held us and restrained us in those days... His hand upholds creation, but His bosom is the place of rest for His lambs. All creation must acknowledge His power. His bosom is open for the weakest of His lambs, and they know His love. And if He has restrained us by His mighty hand, it is that we might know the rest and the safety and joy of His bosom.
In Scripture the word "bosom" carries a settled sense, and it also comes from an everyday sight.
Used symbolically for the seat of deep affection. John speaks of the Lord Jesus as the only begotten Son "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18)... With a loose robe and a belt, people regularly carry many things in the bosom, even a lamb. Isa. 40:11.
The verse singles out the young of the flock, and the two clauses about them are not saying the same thing twice.
The prophet Isaiah likens God's people to a flock that God delights to feed. The lambs of the flock are the ones the enemy can scatter most easily. He gathers them with His arms of power and holds them close in His heart of love... The wolf may seek to scatter the lambs, but the great Shepherd of the sheep will gather them with His protecting arm. The enemy may seek to bring about their fall, but the Shepherd will carry them, and bring them home to glory at last.
This care for the slowest is not new. It showed when God brought Israel out of Egypt.
The royal Shepherd of Israel cares for the lambs of His flock... He cared for the weakest of the flock when He led His people Israel out of Egypt and through the sea. "Not a hoof was left behind." He gave food to them all, around their tents each morning, as they travelled through the empty, howling desert.
Commentators note that the shepherd care promised here was afterwards outdone by the Shepherd Himself.
In Isaiah 40:11 it is said of the Lord Jehovah that He feeds His flock like a shepherd and carries the lambs in His bosom. Here He Himself goes much further. He proves Himself the Good Shepherd by laying down His life for the sheep. No one else would do it. And if you could imagine another doing it, it would not count with God or for man.
- Behold your God. The Shepherd of verse 11 is the Lord who comes with might. He is the Creator, and He is the same Jesus who said, "I am the good Shepherd."
- The same hand. The hand that holds the seas in check is the arm that gathers lambs. His power restrains creation; His bosom gives rest to the weakest.
- Arm and heart. Lambs scatter most easily, so they get His arm of power to gather them and His heart of love to carry them home.
- Pace set by the weakest. He sets the pace by the slowest, those with young. The same care left not one hoof of Israel behind.
- Further than carrying. The Shepherd who carries went on to lay down His life for the sheep. No one else would give that care, and no other could count with God or for man.
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with [his] span, and grasped the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in scales?
Isaiah's chapter of comfort turns to questions no one can answer. Who has ever handled the oceans, the sky, the dust and the mountains as if they were small enough to hold and weigh? The questions are not there to crush us. They introduce the One doing the measuring, and who He is changes everything.
The chapter has just promised a Deliverer. This verse tells us who He is.
From verse 12 on, when we ask who this great and loving Deliverer is, we find He is no petty conqueror — not the kind the Rabbis imagined, or the kind Israel's earthly desires craved so long and so eagerly. He is the Creator. How strange that such a height of glory should be unwelcome! ... The Spirit of God first identifies the Messiah with God. He sets out what He is: the eternal, Almighty and only wise One, the Creator and Governor of all things, the Holy One, Jehovah of Israel.
Each image in the verse takes something we cannot handle and puts it in a hand that can.
God is so great that the mighty oceans lie in the hollow of His hand like a few drops of water. The expanse of the heavens, which has no limit for us, is only the span of His hand. The dust of the earth, the mountains and the hills are small things, weighed in His scales.
Our instruments were never built for work like this:
Every human measuring instrument falls short of the vastness and perfection of His works.
The words "measure," "scales" and "balance" are more than poetry. They say creation is exact — and Isaiah said it long before anyone could test it.
We have only been learning to find deeper truth than we were at all aware of in the prophet's challenge: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand ... and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?" What science knew anything about such measurement in the day when that question was asked? How many centuries has it taken to bring man's slow feet to where the prophet stood? But we can now see that we may take this as true in the fullest sense: God weighs and measures every bit of the earth's dust.
The same scales weigh the powers that frighten us.
We live in a day when nations rise up, assert themselves, and arm to the hilt to enforce their will. What are they in the presence of God? They are like a small drop that may hang on a fingertip when lifted out of a bucket of water. Or like the small dust left on the scales after someone removes the thing weighed in them — so small that no one pays attention to it. He counts the nations that look so imposing and threatening to us as "less than nothing, and emptiness." It is good for us to measure them by God's standards and not by our own.
The same hand that measures the seas also gathers lambs. The two pictures belong together.
People go into the edge of outer space at enormous cost, labour and risk. But God covers the whole of the heavens with the span of His hand. He holds the seas, with all their power and vastness, in the hollow of that same mighty hand. And that hand of power is the hand of love: "He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom." No wonder this precious chapter begins, "Comfort, comfort My people, says your God."
The image of the restless sea held in check has a personal use.
There have been times in our lives when we were self-willed and seemed impossible to tame, like the great sea... The sea lies in the hollow of God's hand, and His power holds back all its fierce anger. In the same way He held and restrained us in those days. We were in the hollow of His hand. We felt the restraint, chafed at it and tried to break free from it, but we could not... How shall we bless for ever that mercy which held us within bounds and kept us back from destruction?
- The hand measures. The oceans sit in its hollow. The sky is its span. Mountains sit on its scales. Creation is not too big for God; it is small in His grip.
- The hand is exact. Weights and balances say the universe is exact. God weighs and measures every grain of the earth's dust — and Isaiah said so centuries before anyone could prove it.
- The hand weighs nations. Armed powers that look overwhelming come out as a drop from a bucket — measure them by His standard, not yours.
- The hand belongs to the Deliverer. The One coming to save is no small conqueror; He is the Creator, and Scripture here ties the Messiah to God Himself.
- The hand carries lambs. The same hand that holds the seas gathers the weak into His arms. Power and love are one hand — that is why the chapter opens with comfort.