“To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 46:5 Mean?
God asks a rhetorical question that has only one answer: no one. "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?" There is nothing and no one comparable to God. The question itself is the argument—the moment you try to answer it, you realize no answer exists.
The three verbs—liken, make equal, compare—cover every possible form of equation. You can't find something similar to God (liken). You can't find something equal to God (make equal). You can't even find a useful comparison for God (compare). Every attempt to understand God through analogy fails, because analogies require shared categories, and God shares His category with no one.
This verse demolishes every human attempt to domesticate God—to reduce Him to a category we can manage, a concept we can contain, or a figure we can compare to something familiar. God is incomparable. The moment you think you've found something "like" Him, you've lost Him.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What mental image or concept of God have you been relating to? Is it big enough, or have you contained Him?
- 2.What breaks first when you try to compare God to something familiar—the comparison or your understanding?
- 3.How do you relate to someone who is truly incomparable? What does worship look like when all analogies fail?
- 4.If your concept of God is always too small, what practice helps you continually expand your understanding of who He is?
Devotional
"To whom will ye liken me?" God asks, and the silence that follows is the only honest answer. No one. Nothing. There is no comparison, no equivalent, no "God is basically like..." that captures who He is. He's asking you to admit that your categories can't hold Him.
This is simultaneously frustrating and liberating. Frustrating because the human mind works by comparison—we understand new things by relating them to things we already know. God defies that process. You can't understand Him by relating Him to anything else, because nothing else is like Him. Every metaphor eventually breaks. Every analogy eventually fails.
Liberating because it means God is bigger than your theology. Bigger than your understanding. Bigger than the box you've been trying to fit Him in. If no comparison works, then your current concept of God—however rich, however developed—is still too small. There's always more. He can't be contained in your mind any more than the ocean can be contained in a cup.
If you've been relating to a God-shaped concept rather than the actual God—if your prayers are directed at your idea of Him rather than Him—this verse shatters the idol. You can't liken Him. You can't compare Him. You have to let Him be incomparably Himself and relate to who He actually is, not who you've decided He is.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
To whom will ye liken me?.... Was it lawful that any likeness might be made, which yet is forbidden, Exo 20:4 what…
To whom will ye liken me - (see the notes at Isa 40:18, Isa 40:25). The design of this and the following verses is to…
The deliverance of Israel by the destruction of Babylon (the general subject of all these chapters) is here insisted…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture