Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 40:17-18

"All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" — Isaiah 40:17-18 (ASV)

All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare to him?

Now, children of God, do not miss the meaning of this passage by saying that it relates to the heathen. True, it does; but not to them alone.

When the heathen liken God to idols of wood and stone, they scarcely act worse than some of his people do; for, sometimes, we do not even think as well of our God as we do of ourselves.

You, being evil, are constantly supplying your children's wants, yet you doubt whether God will supply yours. You liken him to an ungenerous father, or to a forgetful and faithless friend, one who changes with the wind.

Oh, dear friends, have you not likened him this way? If so, let the rebuke to the heathen be also a rebuke to you.

This is what the heathen do: