Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
God does not think like you and I do, nor does He act like you and I do. God's ways are higher than our own. We must understand that our ways and our thoughts will always be lower than God's and His ways will always be higher than ours.
Easier said than done, though. It's difficult accepting that there is someone who will always be better than we could ever be. To accept this requires a great relinquishing of our own pride and self absorption.
We would do well to understand this verse's context. Isaiah 55:8-9 comes from the prohpecy of Isaiah, and it is in a chapter about inviting the thirsty to come before God. The chapter begins with God saying, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters" (Isaiah 55:1a). God promises those who come before Him believing He is God will see that His words shall not come up empty and every thing God desires will be accomplished (Isaiah 55:11). In the middle of this great chapter, God says, "Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts" (Isaiah 55:7a). God is not just calling people to come to Him. He is also calling them to come away from their sinful thoughts; come away from themselves. A prominent sin in everyone's life is the sin of pride; when you think you have enough in you or in the world that you don't need Jesus. God crushes that mindset in this chapter, when He says very clearly, "my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9b).
So what are the implications of God's ways being higher than our own? The first implication is this: Since God's ways are higher than ours, nothing we do can ever be greater than what He's done. If we think, "Jesus may have done it this way, but I think it would be better if we did it this new way," we'd better think again. God's thoughts are always higher than our own. If we are tempted to look at God's thoughts as they are written down in Scripture, and think, "See this is good, but I think we could add something in here to really spice it up," we should stop ourselves in those tracks. Jesus warns about those who add to Scripture when He says, "Be careful" and "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6). These people added to the Scriptrues and it caused chaos and confusion amongst believers, but Jesus says His words alone are pefect and fully sufficient. There's no thought we can have that could be greater than the perfect thoughts of God. Why would we consider presenting people with something lesser than something that is perfect?
Here's a second implication from this verse: God's ways are higher than any of the earth's ways, so we should follow God alone. This world has nothing to offer us, other than lies and pleasures that always come up short. Everyone who lives by the ways of the world is wicked. In Ecclesiastes it is written, "The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead" (9:3b). If we follow God, whose ways and thoughts are perfect, our lives will have meaning and purpose. We should not follow anyone who speaks less than what God speaks. Anyone who builds their life on God will prosper, but everyone who builds on someone else's ways and thoughts will fade away and perish (Matthew 7:24-27). There is no god greater than the God of the highest heavens, so serve Him alone.
Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome in power
Our God, Our God
- Chris Tomlin
Sources
- The Bible (New International Version)
- Our God: by Chris Tomlin
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