October 5

October 5, 2008

Like No Other: Celebrating
the Incomparability of God
a sermon on Isaiah 40.9-31
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

Every year at the Beeson Pastors School a noted scholar or preacher is invited to give daily lectures on scripture. This past July I enjoyed immensely the teaching of Dr. Walt Kaiser, a professor of Old Testament and president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dr. Kaiser spoke with enthusiasm about God: the holiness of God, the power of God. He inspired me to preach a series of sermons on some of the great passages of the Old Testament, and this is the first of those. They will not be preached one after another, but they will show up from time to time. He has pointed out the passages, but the messages will be my own.

Today’s text is a powerful word from the Book of Isaiah we need to hear. The prophet was preaching to exiles. This was after the fall of Jerusalem, when the Babylonians took many of the Jews captive to Babylonia. God’s people wondered where God was? How did this happen? And all those soul-searching questions you are familiar with if you have ever lost a loved one prematurely to death or lost your livelihood or been diagnosed with a terminal illness or been raped or abused or suffered the collapse of your world. They were in despair and confusion, and along comes Isaiah, and he tells them, “Your God is too small!” God, the One True and Living God, he is big. He is great. He is beyond your understanding and imagination. He is incomparable. God is big. But you think he is small. You need to look again. Behold your God!

I have an ancient computer at home. A media card the size of your thumbnail holds more information than the hard drive on that old thing. Not so long ago I put in a CD of some family photos I had taken and tried to look at one. What I got was a screen full of peach. In a few seconds I realized it was showing my picture, but the picture was so large, in megapixels, compared to the screen, that to show the whole picture at once, at that resolution, the screen would have to be bigger than our house. That screen of peach was one little tiny piece of my son’s eyelid. I could scroll around and see tiny segments of the picture, but not the whole picture at once. This problem with perspective may be similar to how we envision God. Our minds are like little screens plugged into tiny hard drives. God is infinite. We can never get all of God into our little minds. We see a screen full of peach (or green or whatever color—it’s just a metaphor), and we wonder: Where is God? Where indeed? All the things that seem so big to us, so powerful, so important … they are nothing compared to God. No scale or unit of measure is capable of comparing anything to God. It is not as if you can say, “God is ten to the fifty trillion trillion trillion power stronger than all the energy in the universe,” or “God is ten to the trillion trillion trillion trillion power wiser than all human beings put together.” Even such elaborate statements don’t do God justice.

The prophet in this passage makes some comparisons, but always with the idea that no comparison does God justice. The prophet merely wants us to see that our present conceptions of God are woefully inadequate. Whenever we start to fear that our problems or the problems of the world are too much for God, we’ve lost perspective. The prophet uses a little humor here, a little sarcasm. It’s like a slap upside the head to get us thinking straight again.

“Who has measured the waters in his hand?” God. No one else. Seventy percent of earth’s surface is water. Go to the beach sometime. Scoop up a handful of water. How much can you hold? Nothing, compared to the whole. Yet for God the whole is nothing.

“Who has marked off the heavens with a span?” God. No one else. We don’t even know how big the universe is. We know it is expanding rapidly. We know that Pluto is about 4 billion miles from earth. If we could travel at the speed of light, we could get there in about seven hours. But of course we can’t. It took the Voyager spacecraft launched by NASA in the 70s twelve years to get that far. [Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, p. 23] And that’s just our solar system. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is much bigger. And there are billions of galaxies in the universe. The universe is vast beyond our measure. But not God’s.

He measures the dust of the earth in a measuring cup. He weighs the mountains on a scale. Really? No, not really. It’s just a comparison. You think the world is big? It’s not big compared to God.
What about God’s wisdom? God may be infinite and omnipotent and all that, but does he know? Does he know what’s happening down here? Does he understand? Does he understand me? Can he figure things out? The prophet answers these questions with his own: Who has ever counseled God? To whom has God turned when stumped by a problem? Who taught God? Who explained things to him? No one. He is God. He doesn’t need to be taught. He doesn’t need advice. He knows. He understands.

Do you remember Job? Poor guy, he thought he had a valid complaint against God. He thought he could teach God something about justice. He wanted nothing more than the chance to argue it out with God. But when God spoke, Job was silenced. He recognized immediately how far beyond us God is. Who am I to tell God how to do things? God is wiser, more just, morally superior, incomparably better in every way. This is a humbling lesson to learn. It leaves us in a position of trust. We do not control God, so we have to trust him that no matter what happens, he is in control, working with a plan and a purpose, and he will be faithful to his promises and his people.

Are you beginning to see what the prophet is saying? Are you getting excited? God is like nothing else in all creation. He made everything else. Nothing compares to him.

What are the things you worry about? The economy? War? Terrorism? Crime? The moral decay of society? God is bigger. The nations are a drop from a bucket compared to God. Think of all the great empires the world has seen: The Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, Byzantium, China, the Islamic empires of the Middle Ages, the Mongols, the Ottomans, the European powers, the British empire … consider the power these empires had in their day. Remember the best of the best, the elite rulers who made them great: the Pharoahs buried in the pyramids, Alexander, Caesar, and all the rest. Some thought they were gods. But where are they now? What remains of their glory except their fame and a few piles of stones? These giants among humanity who controlled the fate of millions, God blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

It is one thing to say that here. Do you think the prophet would have said it to Jews sent by Hitler to the death camps? Think he would have said it to Christians sent by Stalin to the gulag? Think he would say it to Christians today in North Korean concentration camps or Chinese prisons? Think he would say it to persecuted Christians in Orissa, India, which has seen so much religious violence against Christians in the past few months? Think he would say it to a Catholic bishop brought up on charges by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for the crime of advocating traditional marriage? Do you think he would say it to you, whatever you circumstances and problems are? I know he would! After all, he preached it to a bunch of exiles who had lost everything and were in danger of losing their faith. Some did. But the prophet said, “No, no. God is bigger. You cannot even compare God with all these things. Even what seems strongest to you is nothing next to the power and wisdom of God.”

Before I get to the best part, I have to go back to the funniest part. The prophet has a good laugh poking fun at idols. Again he is asking: To what will you compare God? Nature is small compared to God. Human wisdom is small. The nations are small. Ah, what about idols—the gods people make for themselves? We human beings are very good at inventing things to put our trust in. In those days, people made their own gods out of natural materials. I want to quote Kaiser here because the way he says this cracks me up:

Isaiah has lots of fun offering advice. First of all, one should choose wood that will not rot. It would be devastating to have your deity come down with the rot or termites; it’s just plain embarrassing! Oh yes, please get a craftsman who is skilled; some could not make a god if their lives depended on it! One more thing: nail that baby down! To come into your place for devotions in the morning to find your god dashed to pieces on the floor, as the Philistines did at Ashdod (1Sam. 5), is really disturbing, especially if you did not bring Elmer’s Glue to the worship services of your idol! Surely what one needs in an idol, or in any homemade god, is stability. So nail that idol down firmly and securely. [Kaiser, The Majesty of God in the Old Testament, p. 33].

Hillarious! Absurd! The only thing more absurd is the way people still make idols today. Of course we don’t craft them the old fashioned way. We are too sophisticated for that. But if our trust is not in God, it is in something as pathetic as any of the stone or wooden idols of the prophet’s day. If our identity is not rooted in God and his Word, it is rooted in a lie of our own invention. If our hope and our strength do not come from the living God, we might as well be asking favors of a block of wood. There is God … and then there are all the lesser things we invent or find and then put in his place. The trouble is, none of these things compares to God. So don’t miss the real thing! Only God is worthy of your worship, your whole heart, your life. Only God.

Now for the best part: God is incomparably glorious, incomparably powerful, and incomparably wise … and yet … he cares for you like no one else.

Behold your God! He comes with might, and his arm rules for him! His reward is with him and his recompense before him! And … don’t miss the next part: “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” God cares as no one else does, as no one else can, because he is God.

The prophet asks, “Why do you think God doesn’t know your trouble? Why do you think God doesn’t care? Haven’t you heard? Don’t you know? The Lord is the everlasting God. He doesn’t get tired or want to give up. In fact, he gives strength to the weak. Even strong, young people get tired, but not God. Those who wait for him will renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.”

That’s God. That’s the kind of love he has for you. You can see it so clearly, so beautifully in the cross. God is so far beyond your understanding. How can Father, Son, and Spirit be three persons yet one God? I don’t know, but they are. And how can God believe that you are worth the price he paid on the cross? I have no idea, but he does. He loves you that much. Such a strong, powerful love. Such a gentle love. Such an unexpected and amazing way to love you, the cross.

Take another look. Consider and see. Your conception of God is too small. God is like no other. He is beyond all comparison. He is worthy of your trust, your love, and your life. Behold your God! Amen.

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