Isaiah 40:20, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures a man so impoverished that he has no costly oblation, yet who still chooses wood that will not rot and seeks out a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved, topple, or fall. That careful selection of durable timber and skilled labor to fashion a stable, immovable carving is set forth as belonging to the contrast between man-made idols and the Creator. It exposes the foolishness of trying to make an image of God, for a powerless, perishable object made and maintained by human hands cannot be compared with, matched to, or made to represent the living, incomparable Creator. His power, understanding, wisdom, and sustaining might over all creation exceed all human measure, so no crafted likeness can stand beside Him.

The wider setting shows finite beings cannot comprehend God but can only speculate about His way and works. No one has measured the waters, meted out heaven, weighed the mountains, directed the Spirit of the Lord, or taught Him judgment and knowledge. The nations are as a drop of a bucket and small dust of the balance, as nothing and less than nothing and vanity before Him, to whom then will any likeness be compared. He sits upon the circle of the earth with its inhabitants as grasshoppers, stretches out the heavens as a curtain, brings princes to nothing and makes judges as vanity, blowing upon them till they wither as stubble. He created the host of heaven and brings them out by number and calls them all by names by His mighty power so that not one fails; the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not nor is weary and there is no searching of His understanding; He gives power to the faint and increases strength to them that have no might, so that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint.

To liken God to a made thing by representing the Creator by a creature and associating a manufactured object with the worship of God joins in the same sin even when done by a poor man, and is forbidden by the second commandment. That commandment prohibits worshiping the true God through any creature or image and forbids making any image to be likened to the Creator. The message about God as Creator in the passage to which the verse belongs is written in nature, which reveals His creative power, and the Sabbath is its appointed memorial. The powerless, perishable idols men make stand in contrast to the incomparable God whose might sustains all creation.

The chapter to which the verse belongs is comfort for true believers amid God's judgments and the calamities coming upon the world, and part of promises and assurance for the latter days, showing that the Creator gives strength and comfort to His people. The verse warns not to trust in men or make flesh an arm but to make the Lord alone the trust. It warns that the Lord will not be trifled with, calls His people to diligent earnest work of repentance, and promises strength given to His own people.