For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah.
God says this to people He has just invited back. He tells the wicked man to leave his way, and He promises to pardon in abundance. Why so generous? Not because of anything in the sinner, but because God's mind stands so far above ours.
The verse begins with "For," tying it back to the offer of mercy in the line before. One commentator hears God answering the mind that wants to earn its blessing:
God's thoughts and God's ways are far above man's legal thoughts and ways, even as the heavens are higher than the earth.
Left to ourselves we would keep the offer small and repay only those who have been good to us. The verse denies that instinct.
How far above and beyond the thoughts in the narrow heart of man, who would limit God's grace to a select few! We would show favour to those who have shown favour to us. But "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." It was "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God." Surely we have reason to say, "His thoughts are not as our thoughts, neither are His ways as our ways."
The gap is not that God knows more facts than we do. The two minds have different centres. And God had His thoughts long before human failure gave Him anything to react to.
Nothing suggests that existing circumstances forced God to bring in His own thoughts. On the contrary, all that we refer to was in the mind of God before the failing ways of man were ever seen… This must always be so. Man's thoughts circle around himself, while God's thoughts centre in Christ, the Son closest to His heart. From the earliest days God spoke against the thoughts of man, that they were "only evil continually"; while we read that God's thoughts towards us are abundant and wonderful… but they have been expressed in a blessed Man.
Isaiah has just described a servant who suffers, is rejected, and dies. The verse explains why such a plan sounds strange to us.
This whole magnificent prophecy speaks of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of the glorious results that flow from it. All of it stands completely against human thoughts and ways. Christ, when He came, had nothing about Him that appealed to human thoughts and ways. The opening verses of chapter 53 say so. What was true in Him is just as true of all God's ways, and of the thoughts He expresses in those ways.
Naaman shows the clash most clearly. He was an army commander with leprosy. He expected a ceremony, and the prophet sent word to wash in the river Jordan seven times.
As he turned away in rage, he said, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper." We all have our own ideas as to how God should work. But He has said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways." How blessed to come to the end of ourselves, and give up "I thought" once and for ever! The soul only then begins to truly learn.
The same principle governs whom God picks up. Take Saul, who approved of Stephen's death:
Man would never have chosen him to be the most self-denying, hard-working, and effective worker the Lord ever raised up in the gospel… But how often it is so in the ways of sovereign grace! It is ordered this way so that no human being might boast in the presence of God; but let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
Verse 7 asks the unrighteous man to drop his thoughts. Something must take their place.
Then He brings in the word of God as corrective, and as that which replaces these thoughts of man. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth… so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth." The word of God is given instead of the thoughts of men.
- Because — the verse gives a reason, not a rebuke. God pardons in abundance because His thoughts are not the small, earn-and-repay thoughts of men.
- Centre — the two minds differ at the root. Man's thoughts circle himself; God's circle Christ, and they did so before human failure appeared.
- Cross — a rejected, dying Servant proves it. Nothing in Christ's coming appealed to human taste, and God's ways match His Son.
- Surrender — Naaman's "I thought" is the real obstacle. Give it up for good, and the soul begins to learn.
- Replacement — God's word takes the place of our thoughts. It comes down from heaven like rain.
For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God says this to people He has just invited to come, to seek Him while He may be found, and to return for pardon. The word "for" ties the height of heaven above earth to that offer. Does the verse humble us, comfort us, or both?
The height of God's ways is not an abstract fact here. It is the reason attached to the promise of pardon in the verse before. One summary of the chapter puts the links in order:
Isaiah 55 is the call to repentance, but it is an invitation in grace. In principle, whoever thirsts can come… Pardon is abundant, for God's thoughts are above ours, and His word never fails to produce its results.
The gap has a cause. God's thinking has a different centre from ours.
This must always be so. Man's thoughts centre on himself, while the thoughts of God centre on Christ, the Son of His bosom… From the earliest days God spoke against the thoughts of man, saying they were "only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). But God's thoughts towards us are abundant and wonderful (Psalm 40:5)… "Your thoughts are very deep" (Psalm 92:5). They are eternal in their conception, and their full display will take an eternal day. Yet God has expressed them in a blessed Man.
People come to this chapter with fixed ideas about how to earn forgiveness. Those ideas are exactly what this verse measures:
God's thoughts and God's ways are far above man's legal thoughts and ways, even as the heavens are higher than the earth. God's blessing, like the rain, comes down from heaven; as with the rain, so with His word, it accomplishes the end for which it is sent.
That gap changes what a guilty person can say to God.
…the very greatness of the sin is urged as the reason for pardon from Him whose thoughts are not ours, any more than our ways are His. He can well afford it, because of the cross that gives the believer boldness. Man's sin is too great for anyone but the God who saves through Christ dead and risen.
The same principle shows in the people God calls to serve Him.
Man would not have chosen the one who became the most self-denying, hard-working, and effective workman the Lord ever raised up in the gospel… But how often it is so in the ways of sovereign grace! "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD" (Isaiah 55:8). God orders it this way so that no flesh should boast before Him.
The test of this verse comes when God's method offends us. A leper named Naaman had already decided how his cure should look:
He turned away in rage. Then he said, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God… and cure the leper." We all have our own ideas about how God should work. But He has said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55:8). How blessed to come to the end of ourselves, and give up "I thought" once and for ever! The soul only then begins to truly learn.
If His thoughts are that far above us, how do they ever reach us? The chapter answers in the next verse.
In verse 10 God likens His word to both rain and snow. They both come down from heaven. We do not have to reach up for them. They are beyond our reach, but God sends them down… The earth depends on the rain and the snow, and we depend in the same way on the ministry of the word of God.
The word does more than come down. It takes the place of something already there:
Then He brings in the word of God as the corrective — as what takes the place of these thoughts of man.
- Because — the verse gives a reason, not a riddle. Pardon is abundant because His thoughts run higher than ours.
- Centre — our thoughts circle back to self. His thoughts centre on Christ, and that explains the distance.
- Reversal — we treat the size of our sin as a barrier to mercy. It becomes the plea for mercy, because only God can deal with sin that great.
- Surrender — Naaman's "I thought" is the sentence this verse ends. Real learning starts where our own method dies.
- Rain — what is too high for us to climb to comes down. God sends His word like rain and snow, and it does the work He sends it to do.