Commentary on Selected Verses in Isaiah

                                Isaiah 40:17 (KJB)

This verse, read in context, cannot mean any of God's creations. God's creations are certainly more than nothing. When God said, "All nations before Him are as nothing," He had to have been speaking about pure evil. God spoke about those nations that have idol worshipers in them, which are all nations.

Humans must have the idea of nothing in order to be able to tell the difference between something and nothing. Nothingness, by itself, cannot be known to be nothing. Humans must be aware of both something and nothing at the same time in order to obtain the idea of nothing. God must have meant that the people of all nations have feelings of dread within them that at times makes them aware that they also possess a spiritual death within them that causes them to practice sin and evil, such as a love for money and power over others, which, in turn, causes them to realize that they are being reduced toward nothingness. But also at times humans become aware that they possess a spirit within them that was created by God. Genesis 1:27 (KJB). Thus all humans possess an internal consciousness of something and nothing.

But this verse goes even further when it declares that God judges all nations as being "less then nothing, and vanity." Vanity must mean whatever happens to be less than nothing. How can anything, including the idea of nothing, be less that nothing? This happens to be a concept that is impossible for humans to grasp. Yet, in light of Lucifer's rebellion against God, vanity can be described as an excessive pride which God reduced to an absolute nothingness. This happens to be exactly that which God did to Lucifer. God stripped Lucifer of all the goodness that He had put into his system, and He exiled him to earth as a totally empty and evil being called Satan. God even had Ezekiel write "and never shalt thou be any more" which has to be a condition that is less than nothing. Ezekiel 28:13-19 (KJB). Yet, Satan retained a negative consciousness which is totally evil and destructive. In God's positive creations, the consciousness of something and nothing and of the passage of time constitutes reality, and yet, a negative consciousness which can only be "less than nothing" below reality can influence human reality to practice sin and evil which is wholly destructive. To even God's positive consciousness, this condition happens to be a complete mystery. II Thessalonians 2:7 (KJB).

When God judged that all nations are "less than nothing, and vanity," He had to have meant that the people of all nations have been influenced by the Devil to rebel against God and seek independence from God's authority, which only tends to reduce them toward an absolute nothingness. Isaiah 41:29; Romans 1:18-32 (KJB). But even though the negative consciousness of devils is a mystery even to God, He has devised a perfect plan to return the spirits of all humans to faith in Him as their Savior who sacrificed Himself in their place and rose from the dead to purge them all of sin, evil, and spiritual death. God will save some of His living humans by His grace, and He will save all others when He appears to them in the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God will purge all sin, evil, and spiritual death from His entire creation, cleanse it all with the fire of His wrath against evil, and He will recreate it all to be wholly righteous and pure. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:5; I Timothy 2:3-4; I Timothy 4:10 (KJB).