Consequently, when the prophet places together as synonymous statements:

"To whom will ye liken Me?" and "Make Me equal?",

it is evident that he does not admit the possibility of either comparison or equality. We

may take it therefore as a settled truth, God can have no equal. The Hebrew word

sharah `to be equal' means to be even, to level, and so `to countervail' or be equivalent

(Esther 7: 4), and while it is used as a synonym by Isaiah for the word `compare' which

is the Hebrew mashal, yet comparison is not to be excluded altogether from the concept

of equality as the translation given in Prov. 3: 15 and 8: 11 will show. It is evident

that the only answer to the question of Isa. 46: 5 `To whom will ye . . . . . make Me

equal?' is "With NONE". God is and must be incomparable.

There is, however, the testimony of the N.T. to be considered before this great

question can be considered as closed. The Greek word translated `equal' is the word isos

or its derivatives (apart from the word used in Gal. 1: 14 which means an equal in age).

The basic meaning of isos seems to be equivalence `the same as', as for example the

statement concerning the heavenly Jerusalem that `the length and the breadth and the

height of it are equal' (Rev. 21: 16). In mathematics, we use the word `isosceles' of a

triangle, two of whose sides are equal, and this equality must be absolute, the slightest

addition or subtraction being intolerable. When the day labourers complained `thou hast

made them equal to us', it was because every one received just exactly one penny, neither

more nor less. When Peter confessed that God had given the Gentiles "like gift as (He

did) unto us" (Acts 11: 17) he used the word isos. On two occasions the Saviour is said to

be `equal' with God. Once by His enemies, who denied the rightfulness of His claim,

and took up stones, signifying their conviction that His claim was blasphemous

(John 5: 18), and once by the Apostle who in an inspired passage testified of the same

Saviour that He `thought it not robbery to be equal with God' (Phil. 2: 6).

We are consequently presented with a problem. The prophet Isaiah makes it clear that

there is no one who can ever be `equal' with God, the Apostle Paul as emphatically

declares that equality with God was the Saviour's normal condition. As there can be no

discrepancy permitted where both utterances are inspired, there is but one conclusion

possible. Isaiah and Paul speak of the same glorious Person, as we have already seen

that Christ of the N.T. is the Jehovah of the O.T. Israel were reminded that at the giving

of the law at Sinai, they heard a voice `but saw no similitude' (Deut. 4: 12) and were

enjoined to make no graven image or `the similitude of any figure' (Deut. 4: 15, 16, 23,

25). Yet the same Moses is said to have beheld the similitude of the Lord:

And again, the Psalmist looked forward in resurrection to beholding the face of the

Lord, and awaking in His likeness (Psa. 17: 15). The word `apparently' (Numb 12: 8)

indicates visibility. The Hebrews word mareh being a derivation of raah `to see'. It is,

nevertheless, stated soberly and categorically, that "No man hath seen God at any time"