December 28 2025, Sunday School Lesson

No One Is Like God

Lesson Text: Isaiah 40:21-31

Related Scriptures: Psalms 2:1-12; 33:1-22;83:1-18; Jeremiah 51:15-19; 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

TIME: about 740-680 B.C.

PLACE: Jerusalem

Golden Text – “ To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? Saith the Holy One” (Isaiah 40:25)

LESSON OUTLINE

1. Introduction – Isa. 40:21

2. God of Creation – Isa. 40:22-26

3. God of Hope – Isa. 40:27-31

QUESTIONS

1. In what tense are Isaiah’s first questions written? What effect does this have on the reader?

2. According to Psalm 113, why does the cosmos worship God?

3. How does God’s rule over the cosmic affairs of the universe affect His attendance to societal events?

4. In Genesis 2, what two crafts does God adopt to create humanity and the Garden of Eden?

5. How did Isaiah heighten the claims of the psalmist in Psalm 113?

6. What word does Isaiah use in 40:23 to allude to the earth’s state before God began to order the cosmos in Genesis 1?

7. What is Amos’s message, and to whom does the prophet proclaim it?

8. What did ancient Babylonian science believe about the stars and their celestial movements across the night sky?

9. What are laments? In which biblical books are they most common?

10. Why did Isaiah consider it foolish to trust in foreign military strength? In what or whom should the people trust instead?

ANSWERS

1. His questions of our understanding and hearing are carefully worded in the present tense. He does not ask us to scour our memory in an effort to muster a response. He invites us to listen attentively to his message of hope.

2. It is tempting to reason such cosmic proclamations come from a recognition of God’s transcendent attributes and authority over the universe. Yet, as the verses that follow illuminate, these praises resound because of what God does despite His loftiness.

3. He attends to the affairs of both the cosmos and society – one does not eclipse the other.

4. Here, God assumes two more crafts. In Genesis 2:4-7, God appears as a potter, forming humanity from the earth (cf. Job 10:9). In verses 8-9, God is the divine horticulturist planting Eden (vs. 8) and growing trees (vs. 9) for the humans He formed.

5. Here, Isaiah heightens the claims of Psalm 113. Whereas, the psalmist proclaimed that God raises the weak and poor to the status of princes, the prophet rejoices that God brings the wealthy and powerful to nothing.

6. The allusion Isaiah makes is clear. The chaos God brings the earth’s rulers to is the same that once described the world. In Genesis 1:2, the author uses the word to capture the chaotic state of the world before God began to speak things into order.

7. Whereas Isaiah’s words deliver comfort to Judeans suffer under Babylonian tyranny, Amos harbingers Assyrian captivity to Israelites blinded by their affluence.

8. Ancient Babylonian science attended to astronomical movements and patterns. Many in antiquity believed they could derive human fates from knowledge of the -8

9. Laments are a type of prayer or poem that occur in several books of the Bible, including Lamentations, the prophets, and Psalms.

10. They trust in horses, chariots, and horsemen because of their number and force (Isa. 31:1). But their decision is foolish. God is the only one worthy of hope. All others will fail.