THE INFINITE POWER OF GOD

 

                           

                                                     Can you count the stars?

I sat bolt upright in my bed “What was that!” There was a brilliant flash followed a second later by an explosion that shook the bed.  I scrambled to the window and leaned out. The sky glowed orange red. I whirled down the stairs to my sister Betsie ’s room. She was sitting up in the bed. I groped toward her in the darkness and threw my arms around her. Together we said “war”.

We knelt down and for what seemed hours we prayed for our country, for the injured, for the queen. And then incredibly Betsie began to pray for the Germans, up there in the planes. I looked at my sister kneeling beside me. “Oh Lord” I whispered, “listen to Betsie not me, because I cannot pray for those men at all”. It was then that I had a dream.

I saw the Grote Markt half a block away as clearly as though I was standing there. Then as I watched an old farm wagon pulled by four black horses came. To my surprise I found that Betsie, father and I were sitting in the wagon. We could not get off the wagon and it was taking us away-far away and we did not want to go.“Betsie” I cried jumping up, “I have had such an awful dream”.

I felt her arm around my shoulder. Let’s go and make coffee. Over coffee I told Betsie what I had seen.  Betsie ’s finger traced a pattern on the wooden sink. “I don’t know” she said softly “but if God has shown us bad times ahead, it is enough for me that he knows about them. Sometimes he shows us things to tell us that this too is in his hands”. Later when Corrie was too scared to sleep, God said to her “Go to sleep Corrie, I will be awake the whole night “(The Hiding Place, 2006)

Isaiah 40 was written to encourage Jews who were captives in Babylon. Isaiah seeks to remind them how great their God really is.  Verse 10 speaks of His ruling arm, “see the sovereign Lord comes with power and he rules with a mighty arm”. Then in verse 11 God is pictured as a shepherd with little lambs in his arms carrying them close to his heart. Holding one close to the heart is a picture of great tenderness and affection. God is both tough and tender.

In Isaiah 40:12 Isaiah speaks of God in human terms so that we can partially understand who He is and what He does. God can hold all the water in our universe in the hollow of his hand. He has measured out heaven with the span. A span is the distance between the tip of the little finger and the tip of the thumb. God holds the dust of the earth in a basket. He knows how heavy the mountains and the hills are. He weighs the island as though they are fine dust.

The great creator of the universe does not needs any counsel (vv.13-14). And yet we sometimes feel we have to instruct him on the better way to do things.  When we cannot see our way, we think that he too cannot. The nations are compared to the little dust left on the balance scale when everything is removed. The greatest nation compared to God is like a drop of water in a bucket. God accounts the arrogant and proud nations as nothing and worthless.

To whom then will you liken God? (vv.18-20). These Jews were Nebuchadnezzar’s servants, crushed together in the Babylonian plain. Possibly there were disturbing questions in their mind. Is there a God? Is this all within his plan or has God forgotten us? All around them men were worshiping different types of man-made gods. How do these gods compare to God? They have no comparison at all, because they are only the work of men’s hands.

In Isaiah 21 he describes God as the One who sits above the circle of the earth. How could Isaiah possibly know that the earth’s shape was a circle? He probably didn’t know, but the Lord who spoke through Isaiah did know. The people of the earth are like grasshoppers. When people have political power (princes) or legal power (judges) it is easy for them to think of themselves as gods! Here the Lord sets things straight- all he needs to do is to blow on them and they will wither.

Then God says “see those stars, I am their Shepherd. I know and call all of them by name.” There are billions of stars in the universe, the astronomers are still counting and classifying them. It is staggering to know that God can number and name them all. This would remind Israel of the Lord's promise to make its descendants as numerous as the stars (Exodus 32:13). When the promise was first made to Abraham, he was told to look to the heavens (Genesis 15:5), just as Israel is told to do now.

God fulfilled the promise made to Abraham. To this day he calls the stars out at night and the whole universe is kept by his word. You can fully trust him to keep his word. The Great Shepherd of the stars who unfailingly keeps them, knows you by name (John 10:3) and promises to keep you until in his appointed time ( Heb. 9:27, 2 Tim. 4:6) after fulfilling his purpose (Acts 13:36) you leave this world.

To a people who had been in exile for a long time, it would be easy to doubt God’s greatness and goodness “my way is hidden from the Lord’?” v.27. These words reveal unbelief in God’s ability to know all the details of their lives, or doubt of God’s love and concern for them. They show self-pity, bitterness and frustration that develop when people think they are neglected by God. It’s easy to think that the God is not watching or interested in what we are going through.

Isaiah repeats the same question he had asked in verse 21 “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” the Lord is the everlasting God, creator of the ends of the earth” v. 28. These people know there is a creator, but this does not seem makes a difference in everyday life. How easy it is to believe in the infinite power of God and at the same time to feel that He is unable to meet our needs! Those who really believe these truths about God should live as if God is really there.

God gives his own strength to soar above everything in life. He does not allow them to lose inherent strength or suffer exhaustion because of the troubles in life. That strength once received is renewed as they wait on him. When they are young, they mount up with wings like eagles, when they reach middle age they run without getting weary, when they get old age, they walk and do not faint.

There will be moments in the spiritual life when we feel as if we're soaring above all. There will also be moments, probably more frequent, when we feel as if we're running. But most of life consists of walking. Our Shepherd in the days that we mounted up with wings like eagles is going to be our Shepherd when we walk and we shall not faint. This is Israel’s incomparable God, a Shepherd, a Creator, a Governor, but He is also our God.

The awesome of the starry heavens ought to comfort our hearts and increase our faith against any obstacle. These verses are designed to get us to see our problems no matter how large against the background of our incomparable God. God is not only the Creator but also the Preserver of all things, the heavenly bodies, nations, and individual men. The trials and pressures of life, no matter how severe, are never an indication God has forgotten us or is unconcerned.

We must learn to rest in God’s Sovereignty and trust that whatever happens, the Everlasting God is in charge.  We shall not clearly understand what he is doing because his thoughts transcend ours (Isa.55:8-9) and his ways are far above our comprehension. We can choose despair as we focus on the storms and lean on our own understanding, or we can choose the comfort of God as fully trust in Him and His promises. Which choice will it be?