When God is Big, Everything Else Becomes Small
When God is big, everything else becomes small.
Isaiah 40, my favorite chapter in the Bible, focuses on the “bigness,” or the greatness, of God. God is great, because his power, splendor, majesty, wisdom, strength, glory, mercy, peace, grace, and love surpass, overwhelm and envelope existence and eternity.
This is part six in a series on Isaiah chapter 40. If you missed any of my other posts, see my FB entries on 10/25, 10/18, 10/11, 10/5, and 9/28. This series will also continue through November.
Isaiah 40 proclaims the greatness of God, first reminding us that each of us, our rulers, all nations, and even the entirety of creation are small, insignificant, and even inconsequential, in comparison to God. Not flattering facts for my ego, yet truth so resplendent and potent, it has the power to level mountains, and any distraction, distortion, or any disorientation, that might blind me to the enormous reality of God.
When God is big, everything else becomes small.
However, throughout the ages, we humans have had a very difficult time trying to understand the Almighty. In our flailing efforts, we often create false notions of God, because the truth about Him is far beyond our ability to grasp or imagine.
In 2012, John and Helen Taylor drove 1626 miles on one tank of fuel, with an impressive 84 miles per gallon. On that trip, they not only broke the world record, but they remind us that fuel efficiency matters, and our efforts to improve it are important in an ever-shrinking world.
However, as incredible as that was, the best human engineers can’t even conceive of a car that can drive a trillion miles without refueling, a number so vast, it is beyond our understanding. A car that can drive 1,000,000,000,000 miles without a refill vs. one that can drive 1626 miles, isn’t even a helpful comparison. That is the dilemma we run into when we try to comprehend God.
Due to our desperate need to ‘right size’ the awesomeness of God, if we aren’t careful, we can, and often do, create idols, in the place of God. An idol is not only a false representation of the true nature of God, but is something we have been strongly admonished not to create, not only in the Ten Commandments, but also in many other places in scripture.
In ancient times, people worshipped idols, trying to appease the unknown, things they could not comprehend, or things that they feared. Idols also represented false values or concepts that were or are held deeply in our hearts, in a place reserved for God alone.
Isaiah 40:18-20 states, "To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter."
I throw no rocks at anyone in this regard, as I am all too aware that I also live in a glass house. I recognize my own tendency to downsize God, into a smaller ‘god’ that I can understand, instead of the real God who at times upends my world. Thankfully, dear ones, God loves each of us so immensely, that he came into this world and died to not only free us from our sins, but also that we might truly know Him.
Isaiah 40 also reminds me to have an increased compassion for the atheists, agnostics, and those who attempt to approach God by other means. Without God having revealed himself to me, I would still be in a similar search in an often confusing universe. To be clear, I don’t have all the answers to the mysteries of existence, but I live each day in a personal relationship with the One who does.
When God is big, and when I am blown away by Him, and His incredible and amazing love, the world, and those around me look very different. When God is big, I realize that we are all fellow sojourners on earth, and compared to God, we are tiny, and as such, we would be wise to be careful and even protective of the way that we treat each other.
When God is big, I mean really really big, everything else becomes small.
I hope it is as helpful for you as it has been for me, to savor the amazing truths offered each of us in Isaiah 40. This week, as our nation votes, we would do well to approach the great and amazing God with tremendous humility, and at the same time, with an equal sense of humility as we approach each other.
Dear Brother or Sister in Christ, or friend along life’s journey, as we face a brand new set of challenges and opportunities, and an important week in the history of our nation, let us approach it with prayer, and an extreme sense of humility, as we remember,
When God is big, everything else becomes small.