Do you know of anyone? Do you know?
That’s the context for 2 of the 3 questions Paul poses in his doxology and taken from Isaiah 40:12-13.
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” (Romans 11: 34-35)
How much do all the mountains and hills weigh? The estimate weight of the highest mountain, Everest, is estimated at 357 trillion pounds. So people do try and answer the question but they cannot be definitive enough, no one knows.
Paul quotes from Isaiah because he wants to show that the salvation plan of Christ is beyond understanding. How can the Jews be saved? How can the Gentiles be reached? How can your ‘Israel’ your family turn to Christ? It may look impossible for you. The context Paul reaches into is that of Israel being exiled in Babylon losing hope because of the force of this nation. God speaks through Isaiah to say that the nations are small in the hands of God.
God is not a glorified man. He is not a better man than us. He is above and beyond us.
The 3rd questions appears to be from Job 41:11 where in the setting around the sea-serpent known as Leviathan who no one can master, God shows that He does exactly that. He doesn’t need any help from us. We cannot give Him any resources for anything that He needs. He is self-sufficient. Therefore, God owes us nothing! It doesn’t matter how good we can be in order to get something from God it will not work. He will not be moved by any bargaining tool we use. We must understand His grace. His grace to save Jew, Gentile, our ‘Isreal’!
We don’t know enough to explain God.
We don’t understand or can interpret enough to tell God what to do.
We have not done enough for God to seek our advice.
The day you know the answer to the weight of every mountain and hill in the world is the day this may change.
Missions Paul 