NOTES for Isa 40:18-31

In the biblical books, the expressions "image of God" and "likeness of God" often occur. On the other hand, the prophets said more than once that God has and can have no image, reminding people of the meaning of the second commandment of the Decalogue. Of course, this commandment refers in particular to sacred statues and sacred images, so widely spread among all pagan peoples both in antiquity and in modern times. But the issue, as we can see, is not only images of gods that have nothing to do with the One. The story of the golden calf comes to mind involuntarily: after all, the Jews demanded of Aaron that he "make" for them not some pagan god, but a metal image of the One who had brought the people out of Egypt. Yet this did not reduce at all the anger of Moses when he came down from the mountain.

Why is that? Perhaps because the image of the sacred bull symbolized Apis, or Baal, or someone else unknown, but only not the God of Abraham and Moses? And in the mass religious consciousness, unfortunately, neither Apis nor Baal ever rises to the God of Abraham. But the God of Abraham almost inevitably gets lowered to Apis. And then Yahwism turns into paganism covered with a monotheistic wrapper, the worst kind of paganism possible: open paganism, after all, does not claim to be the only true faith; it does not present itself as monotheism. But paganism born inside a monotheistic tradition demands the same attitude toward itself as toward what gave birth to it, deceitfully appropriating the worship owed to the God of Abraham. And under the appearance of a path leading to truth, it offers the worshiper a path into a spiritual dead end.

What the prophet Isaiah says was once formulated very simply by a four-year-old boy. He reasoned approximately this way: God created the sea, the sky, trees, and the human being. The human being made the car, the house, and the airplane. If God created such things, then He has intelligence and uses it. But what He made is very different from what I make; therefore His intelligence is stronger than mine. And how much stronger, I cannot measure.

The simplicity of children's explanations is something the Lord constantly calls us to learn. Is the text of the prophet Isaiah difficult? Of course it is; and when you are exhausted and weary, you are not thinking about the greatness of God, or about realizing that He has His own ways for you. It is hard to acknowledge that He is smarter, higher, and wiser than a human being, and to accept this fact not only with the head but with the heart. Yet simple and open observation of the world allows us to discern this fact and accept it.

In antiquity many knew and spoke about the God who is "unlike anything." In fact, the whole apophatic tradition proceeds from the understanding that God or the Absolute is so unlike anything in our world that He can be defined not by likening Him to anything, but by unlikening Him from everything and everyone. Of course, no positive definitions are possible in this case; only negative ones are possible. And certainly all this can be applied fully to the God of Israel. Yet there is an essential difference between the God of the Bible and the Supreme Mind or Absolute of Greek or Indian mystics. Neither the Supreme Mind nor the Absolute condescends to the human person, who is absolutely indifferent to them. But from the very beginning of the history of Yahwism, the God of Israel speaks with the human person, overcoming the abyss that separates Him from the human person, while remaining infinitely distant in His essence from the person with whom He communicates. So in what does the dissimilarity of which the prophet speaks consist? And in what sense, then, does the Bible say of the human person that he is created "in the image and likeness" of his Creator? Perhaps in the fact that every person is always in some way similar to every other person, possessing self-consciousness and free will? Yes, perhaps. But here, apparently, also lies the main dissimilarity between God and every creature. Everything created is in one way or another subject to certain laws external to itself that limit it. Everything created is natural, even if the creature has a spiritual principle, as for example humans or angels do. And nature is always limited; it is limited by definition, insofar as it exists according to laws that it did not establish for itself. Even a spiritual creature is limited: the self-consciousness and free will proper to every spiritual being are preserved, but the measure of this freedom remains incomplete. Full freedom is possible only when the one living determines for himself the laws by which he lives, and determines them fully and absolutely. But only God can possess such full freedom, for He Himself determines for Himself all forms of His own being. For Him there are no external laws with which His will would have to reckon, and His freedom is absolute. Here, apparently, lies the main difference between God and the created world. This difference will remain forever: even after transformation, creation will not cease to be creation; it will only begin to exist according to other laws. Only for God does no external law exist. And therefore no limits and no boundaries exist.

Reasoning on God's power and powerlessness of man became a common point for every believer. But few are the ones who think that this doesn’t only apply to certain critical situations, when man can really change nothing, but also the human life in general.

Man in this sense is a unique being. God created us "from dust ", as well as all other animals, but our unique and irreplaceable life is what makes us human (in certain translations it is generally called "soul"), we receive with this the " breath of life ", that God breathes to us "in nostrils".

So paradoxical at first sight, is this situation: "breath" is not ours, but life and personality are ours! It turns out that we men since the beginning had been created by God to live our own life, as all other animals, but life, borrowed to God. And He gives us this life in loan, but in such circumstances that we did not feel bound by too much strict conditions, didn’t have too many bans and so that we feel completely free as regards the received instructions.

Such freedom is given to us; reason why and such an idea of the loan of life to God does not even arise, even when we turn back to our Lender. Here is, it turns out difficult to just inhale profoundly, standing back to Him. Well then the breath begins to weaken, and life and forces to leave, even if we do not notice it suddenly. But in the critical situations, their insufficiency becomes immediately noticeable, and then we remember the One Who gave us and life and strength and freedom.

This question is addressed to the people of Israel by the prophet, each of us can refer it to himself, and besides particularly in such form: hast thou not known, hast thou not heard? Certainly, I know that it is God who created the whole world. But why have I decided that after that He "fainted and was weary"? It is said that on the seventh day God rested from all His works, but it is not said that He fainted. And no matter when this "seventh day" will be, the whole Bible speaks about the continuation of God's activities. He is the One who takes care of Adam, He warns Cain, He saves Noah and calls Abraham. Et cetera, et cetera...

And if He continues to act, how can I then be despair? Indeed, He is good, He loves and He is almighty. In any second everything in this world can change in a cardinal way, at any time can come true the Second Advent of the Christ, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Yes, it is impossible to predict clearly when it will be, for “there is no searching of his understanding”, but then it will still be.

Thus the prophecy about coming destinies turns into consolation for the very people to whom so many rebukes had been addressed. Their sins have now been atoned for, and twice over; in this connection it is usually recalled that under the Law a thief had to repay twice the amount stolen. Of course, far from all sinners were thieves in the literal sense, and theft is not the only vice. But that is unimportant at this point: no one has the right to exalt himself above robbers, for other sins, often considered “permissible,” are no better. Now, however, forgiveness comes, and with it the hope of a new, qualitatively different life in accordance with the Creator's will.

Quite naturally, after the promise of hope, the prophet begins to speak of the Lord's greatness, of how He cannot be compared with anything or even imagined. Here Isaiah's words are somewhat reminiscent of the closing chapters of the Book of Job, whose questions fall away after the Creator reveals His incomprehensibility to him. The situation here is different, of course: unlike Job, the people of Israel did not suffer without cause. Yet even now, when the sinners seem to have repented of their sins and at last to “understand everything,” the Lord again shows that both He Himself and His mercy surpass every degree of our understanding.