Behold Your God!

At Prayer Gathering this past Wednesday, we read Isaiah 40 together, asking God to speak through his Word to draw us into prayer.  And what a powerful message the Lord delivered to his people!

Isaiah 40 moves through major themes, such as the promise of future deliverance, the frailty of humanity, and the glorious majesty of God in all his stunning attributes.  In the end, the chapter strikes a fine balance of the greatness and goodness of God (vv 28-31):  the Lord is the eternal Creator with limitless power and wisdom; AND this great God is attentive to his vulnerable people, giving strength, comfort, and joy.

Especially striking for me were the many declarations of God’s match­less character in vv 12-26.  The Magnificent Creator “measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span.”  Compared to his supremacy, “the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales.”  God “sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.”

Particularly stunning is v 17, “All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.”  Take that in; sit with this fact for a moment:  “Less than nothing.”  And Isaiah isn’t just talking about some tiny, obscure population group, but “all the nations”—all humanity!

God’s good purpose here is to help us feel small.  And we need that therapy.  In our 21st century hall of mirrors, we desper­ately need the reality check of Isaiah 40:  You and I are profoundly small compared to the Sovereign Lord; we are not at the center of the universe!

But is it insulting to say humanity is “less than nothing”?  If you find it that way, be warned:  the Enemy is whispering in your ear with lies about your supposed grandeur.  If you find it that way, cry out to our Great-and-Good Father to help you look up into his face.

The point is not to disparage humans, but graciously to drive us to our knees in wonder and awe-struck praise for a God who is great beyond descrip­tion!  God does this because he loves us.  In fact, it would be profoundly unloving of him to let us drift away in self-admiration and lose touch with reality.  Give thanks for God’s glory and grace!