DO YOU NOT KNOW? HAVE YOU NOT HEARD?
This is the rhetorical question that Isaiah uses in Chapter 40 as he makes a dramatic shift from proclaiming judgment to bringing assurance to his listeners. As Isaiah’s audience meanders through adversity and exile, he reminds them that the incredible power of God will reverse their fate and reshape their destiny.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. (v21-23)
The rhetorical question implies that God’s nature, his power, and his supremacy are intuitively understood by an earnest seeker. Similar to the question that one would ask a person who awakens from a prolonged coma or gets released from a lifetime of incarceration, this question reminds us that if we are truly attuned to the universe around us, God’s presence and his work are unmistakable. As wide as the heavens and the world are, the finger of God controls it all and nothing happens without his knowledge. The rulers of this world owe their authority to him and can be brought to naught in an instant. Isaiah goes on,
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom…….Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. (v28-31)
The same God who is transcendent beyond belief, is also amazingly immanent in our lives. He extends his strength to take away our weariness and replaces our weakness with strength. Along the Psalmist, we can truly say,
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…..My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalms 139: 13-16)
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
