[It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a gauze curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;
Isaiah 40 answers a people who had begun to distrust God. This verse lifts their eyes to the One seated above the whole earth — and asks what image made by human hands could ever stand in for Him.
Where the verse sits
The chapter sets God against the idols His people had turned to. One summary of its flow:
Then comes the contrast between Jehovah and idols. Princes shall be brought to nothing. He is the Creator of the heavens. Why does Israel distrust Him?
The circle of the earth
The word "circle" describes the shape of the earth God sits above. One writer shows how unusual that claim was at the time:
The ancients believed that an imaginary giant named Atlas carried the earth on his shoulders. Job knew, a thousand years before Socrates, that the earth is balanced in space and held in orbit by gravity. "He hangs the earth on nothing" (Job 26:7) was his inspired statement. Egyptian philosophy was putting forward the "flat earth" theory. Meanwhile Isaiah stated that God sits above the circle of the earth and marks out a circle on the face of the deep. He was declaring that the earth is a sphere.
Creation itself rules out idols
The verse sits inside a challenge that opens and closes with the same question. Creation has borne witness from the beginning, so no one can plead ignorance:
If God is so great and man so small, the prophet challenges those who in their folly try to make a likeness of the living God. He opens and closes his challenge with the same searching question: "To whom then will you liken God?" Sad to say, neither riches nor poverty will keep men from this folly. The rich will set up an idol made of some lasting wood. But can such people plead ignorance? Have they not known? Have they not heard? Has there been no witness to the Creator from the beginning — from the foundations of the earth? Is there no witness to the One before whom the inhabitants of the earth are mere grasshoppers? What folly, then, to liken God to an image made by human hands!
Grasshoppers — and what that says about power
The comparison takes in the strongest men too — and then lifts our eyes higher:
And how feeble and insignificant men are. They appear as no more than grasshoppers. Their princes and judges are nothing and vanity, like stubble before a whirlwind. We may also lift up our eyes and look at the mighty creation beyond our little earth. He has numbered and named it all, and He upholds it too, so that not one fails. He who created them has no equal and cannot be likened to any other. We do well to think about this magnificent passage. This God of indescribable power and majesty has made Himself known to us in Christ as our Father.
Great and small are alike to Him
He handles the sky the way a person puts up a tent. One writer runs through that greatness and lands somewhere personal:
He "stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in" (Isa. 40:22). Even the stormy wind carries out His word (Ps. 148:8). The nations are counted as a drop from a bucket, and as the fine dust on the scales (Isa. 40:15). He rolled the mountains together and set valleys, seas and rivers in their places. He calls all the stars by name, so that not one is missing (Ps. 147:4). This is the God who loves me!
Because size means nothing to Him, no detail of a life is beneath His notice:
Great and small are only terms used among men. They cannot apply to Him "who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven," as well as "the things that are on earth." All are alike to Him "who sits above the circle of the earth." Jehovah can count the stars, and while He does so He can notice a falling sparrow. He can make the whirlwind His chariot and a broken heart His dwelling place. Nothing is great or small with God.
Summary
- Look up. The verse answers a people who had begun to distrust God. He sits above the earth, and He is not absent from it.
- No excuse. Creation has borne witness from the beginning, so no one can claim ignorance of the Creator.
- Idols shrink. No carved image can stand for the One who spreads the sky like a tent. It is folly to liken God to the work of human hands.
- Rulers shrink too. People look like grasshoppers to Him. Princes and judges are stubble before a whirlwind.
- Then come close. The God who stretches out the heavens notices a falling sparrow and lives in a broken heart. He has made Himself known to us in Christ as Father.