“To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me that we may be alike?”
-Isaiah 46:5
Ultimately, he cannot be compared to anything, because he is not equal with anything or anyone. This is something we might know in our heads, but we need to pause and just meditate on it in our hearts. We think about love. There is no one whose love is anywhere close to God. His love is so much greater, higher, wider, more wonderful than even the closest love we could imagine in this world. We think about people in our lives who love us, and we think, “Well, God loves us like that person.” Not true. His love for us is so much greater than that person’s love could ever be. Yes, that person’s love might be in a tiny way a small reflection of God’s love for us, but no one’s love for us in this world can even begin to compare to God’s love for us.
Isaiah 46:5 Praises God for His Grace
God cannot compare to anyone or anything, for He is utterly unique.
That’s his love. His mercy is the same way. His grace is the same way. They’re incomparable. His power, we think about pictures of power and strength around us in the world, and we think, “Wow, that’s strong!” That’s when we need to realize the power of God is so far beyond the power, strength of anything, anyone in this world. Incomparable. His holiness, his justice, his wrath, his mercy; all of these characteristics, attributes of God, are incomparable. There is no one like him.
This is really what it means for him to be holy. It doesn’t just mean he’s perfect and pure without sin; he’s obviously that. That’s part of his holiness, but his holiness means that he is alone in glory and power and splendor and might and love and grace and mercy. There is no one like our God. Let your mind and heart, in a fresh way, be awed today by the incomparable God and worship him as such. Let’s worship him through prayer.
Isaiah 46:5 Reminds Us that There is Nothing like God
God, we praise you as the one who has no equal. Your attributes are infinitely greater than what we can even imagine. That our attempts to compare you with people or things in this world don’t even begin to touch the depth of who you are. We praise you, O God, there is no one like you. We confess together, there is no one who compares to you. Your love is greater than we can fathom. Your mercy, your grace, your power beyond what we can imagine; and so we bow our heads and our hearts in awe of you, in worship of you.
We praise you for who you are. We praise you as the incomparable God over all creation. God, we stand in awe of you. We fear you. God, we glorify you. We pray that you would make your glory, as the incomparable one, known in and through our lives, and our families, and our churches. God, show yourself through us to be the one who has no equal. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
