Isaiah 40:21-31
Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The season of epiphany is all about revealing the identity and person and work of Jesus Christ. We see today in the Gospel reading a savior going out and freeing people as God's anointed. By casting out demons, preaching the gospel and healing the sick. We learn who Jesus is. And it culminates in next Sunday's story of the Transfiguration, where Jesus appears at the top of a mountain with Moses and Elijah. And the voice says, This is my Son, listen to him.
People have a lot of weird ideas about God.
This should be no surprise, you live in a culture where you get to hear all sorts of crazy ideas about God. You may read about them in books, you may hear people on radio, or online or in podcasts or whatever media you consume.
There's some strange ideas about God out there.
And that's actually no different than any time in history. People have always had weird ideas about who God is, and what he does. Ideas, not based on any sort of Revelation, but whatever it is, the culture suggests.
It's true today. And it was true in ancient Israel.
And one of the main problems that the book of Isaiah tries to deal with are the common problems with the understanding of who God is, amidst all of the craziness that the rest of the world thinks.
And so Isaiah, chapter 40, today helps to correct some ideas of who God is, and how he fits in creation, that the people of that time we're dealing with.
And oddly enough,
many of the ideas that our culture has about God, are pretty similar to the ideas that the ancient Israelites might have had. Because human beings haven't really changed. I know, not a big surprise, right?
Most of us, when we think about God on our own, we imagine God being a little bit like ourselves, just bigger and better. When you think about God,
most people have this image. It's the Santa Claus in the white robe, right? There's the big bearded man in the sky long and gray, and he looks down on the world.
That really isn't all that different from the old pagan ideas of Baal, and Asherah, that the ancient Israelites used to believe in.
And it's not all that different than say, the Greek gods with Zeus and Athena, and all of those things.
In fact, human beings have always imagined God, basically, as a bigger and better version of us, stronger, more powerful, but kind of like us in that way.
And Isaiah, his message to ancient Israel, and to us today is God is not like that.
So what I'd like to do is make a comparison, using Isaiah chapter 40. To compare the true God on one hand with the guy that may be, you know, best Zeus, right? If you can reach back into your elementary school Greek mythology lessons and remember, who is Zeus is, what I'd like to do is make a comparison between that old idea of Zeus and the true God, and see how that sort of fits in with the way people think about God and mix the two.
So let's take a look.
I think one of the best ways to understand who Zeus really is is not through all the mythology, but to take a look at the Iliad. The Iliad is has much more conversation back and forth between Zeus and the other gods and Zeus and the heroes. And so one of the things that we see in the in the Iliad, is that Zeus has limited attention.
In fact, I think one of my favorite stories from that is z
looses decided that in the Iliad that the Greeks and the Trojans, he has a favorite, he knows who he wants to win. And he's declared it from the beginning. And the other gods are not so happy about that. So what does Hera do? Hara goes in and dresses in her nicest clothing, she puts on her best perfume. And she seduces her husband, Zeus,
to distract him, so that the other gods can do stuff. And he is so distracted that he, well, eventually he falls asleep after enjoying her company. And then Poseidon can go out and fight at the head of the battle, and turn the tide against what Zeus wants.
Now, none of us imagine our God to be like that, right? He doesn't get distracted by pretty ladies and good smelling perfume.
But I do think sometimes we imagine him as having limited attention.
That is,
if he's paying attention in one place, he can't in another.
Or that may be if a whole bunch of people are praying about really important things, his queue fills up. And so it's the minor things that just don't get listened to. As if God has limited attention.
Or even
that you might get lost,
that you might not be seen by him.
And if God is just that bearded man floating in the sky, who's just a bigger version of us, it means that maybe he's looking in one place
and not another.
This is not how God works.
God does not have limited attention like us, he does not have a a narrow gaze, because God is not a bearded man floating in the sky.
He is the foundation of all being the creator of the heavens and the earth.
As it says, It is he who sits on the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings princes to nothing and makes rulers of the earth as emptiness.
God does not have limited attention for his creation.
He sees all things and knows all things.
And you're never outside of his sight.
Which can be a little scary when we sin.
But it's pretty great when we pray. Right?
Because there are some times when people think God isn't listening. In fact, I've had people come to me and say, Pastor, I just don't want to bother God with you know, this minor thing, right? I mean, he's really, he's a busy guy. He's got more important things to think about.
But that's not the case.
I once had a person, I scheduled a time to go visit with them. And it's always funny, when I go visit, they people often will have a burning question in their heart. And they'll say something to me, like, Oh, Pastor, I know you're busy. I don't want to bother you with and then they bring out this important question in their spiritual life. And I think you should have asked me that six months ago.
And this was one of those questions. I went to visit a couple and they brought me in and we did the chatting and we visited.
And they said that thing it was pastor, you know, I have this question, and I just didn't want to bother. I know you're busy. I feel like God doesn't listen to my prayers.
Right? That's a big question, isn't it?
Maybe God was too busy. Maybe he just didn't look on them. Whatever. That wasn't a minor problem. That was a big problem. And
the answer is course. God, here's all our prayer. He does not have limited attention. He does not have to go over to Ukraine because there's a war there and ignore the United's
dates. He does not go to the hospitals and like, okay, all of these people are sick, so I can't worry about the family over there.
He hears and knows, and responds to all things.
He listens to you.
And we know that because our Savior Jesus Christ promises that through him, all of your prayers are presented to the Father, our Great High Priest brings everything to Him.
And God promises to hear.
He promises to respond and answer every prayer.
Whether you feel like they're being heard or not,
whether your heart is overjoyed or sad,
in all circumstances, your prayers go to the Father.
Now, he may or may not always say yes.
But know that he is there, and he hears and he cares.
Another way that our understanding of God sometimes is limited, is that we think of God as if he is limited in action.
Zoo Zeus in the Iliad, he is limited to the in the things that he can do, because he is can only be in one place at a time.
He can be up in up with Hara, or hanging out with the gods. But then he can't be down around Troy.
He's off galavanting are having fun, his eyes aren't on a place where he is he wants to do stuff.
He can only be in one place at a time.
And while we don't think of God, like the Greek god, Zeus, if we do think of him as that man, bearded man floating up in heaven, sometimes we think that God's action in the world is limited.
Because if he's up there looking down, it means he's not down here, in control of all things, and doing things.
It means that his fingers only reach down and touch in one spot or another, and that he's limited in his ability to intervene in creation.
And we know that that is not true.
God is not limited in the amount of multitasking he can do.
I certainly am limited in the multitasking that I can do. I have one of those brains that once I switch from one task to another, the previous task is as if it never existed.
And my poor wife knows that because I walk around the house going, where did I leave my even though I set them down 30 seconds ago? Of course, she's always got the answer, because she's so much smarter than me.
And
God isn't like that, right?
He can be doing all things in all places, isn't a man floating up in the clouds, who just sort of reaches down every once in a while, which is how we know that Jesus Christ can be present in every congregation, in every sanctuary, all across the planet earth, all at the same time.
Because we're not the only place that has Christ's Body and Blood with us today, right?
There are hundreds of 1000s, maybe millions of congregations that are gathering together where God has come to be present in a unique and amazing way.
That isn't limited in action. It's not like he can have 100,000 pieces of his body and blood. And then he says, Wait a second, I'm full. You'll have to wait till next week. Right?
He couldn't be here in this place. With us doing things by his mind and his power, and there is no limit to it.
And that's the same wherever you are.
That you don't leave God's protection when you go home. You don't leave his area of activity when you're out at work. And
he is always there.
With you, he is always there to guide and protect and be with you.
And you can't leave that.
God isn't like Zeus, or the bearded man in the sky. He's unlimited in his ability to act in the world.
And even more than that He is unlimited in his power to act in the world.
The Zeus is quite limited. In the Iliad, even though he is more powerful than all the other gods, he spends a lot of time threatening them to try to get them to do what he wants. And there's in one book, there is a long thing about how if they all teamed up against him, he could still fight them all. And even if they they had the strength of them all, they couldn't lift the things that he can lift,
which is really kind of petty for God, right? But no one accused Zeus, of not being petty.
We don't imagine God to be like that guy that threatens the other gods into obedience.
But sometimes,
when we imagine the bearded man in the sky and the white robe,
we act as if creation is sort of running on its own. The natural world just sort of happens. And every once in a while God intervenes. And that sometimes
things happen that are out of his control.
And we do that often to try to get around the bad things that happen in creation.
As if God could not be there with his power and his action. When a car accident happens,
or cancer,
or tragedy, and
sometimes we say that God withdraws his hand over us, or no, that wasn't God, that was Satan.
And that's what the Israelites are kind of thinking at this time.
That maybe God isn't everywhere doing all things. When he says, Why do you say, oh, Jacob and speak, oh, Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord and my right is disregarded by my God. Have you not known Have you not heard, the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, he does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young man shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
God is in control of everything.
Even Satan, right?
God is there in all things. Now you might think, Wait, wait, wait, God is there in the bad stuff too.
But which is worse, God being in control of everything,
or not being in control of everything.
Right? We want a God who can be there with us in the tragedy, who we can say, I know that this is part of your plan to bring me to the resurrection, and that there is nothing that can take me out of that plan, not even Satan, himself.
And the best way to know that even Satan is under God's control is to realize that without Satan,
Jesus's death and resurrection wouldn't have happened.
Right?
All Satan would have had to do to win
was just not do anything.
Not tempt Judas to betray Jesus, not go into his heart and cause the him to take the blood money, not act with the Pharisees and tempt them to react against Jesus. If he had just backed off and said, I think I'm gonna go over to Asia instead.
None of it would have happened.
But the devil is God's devil.
And even he was part of the plan to bring Christ to the cross, to put him in the ground and raise him from the dead.
Even that was under God's control.
Which means that we can trust that when these bad things happen
They are still part of God's plan to bring us to eternal life. And they're still part of a loving father, providing for his children.
That nothing can take us out of that. No act of Satan is no spiritual force. No tragedy can pull us out of God's salvation, and out of his power.
So we can be sure that God will bring us to this resurrection, and we will not be lost.
People have weird ideas about God, whether it's the old gods, Baal and Asherah, or Zeus, or the floating man up in the sky,
but they're not at all the true God.
It's good for us to notice and understand that our God is not like us. He's not a bigger and better version of us. He is so powerful and so mighty, and so unlimited. That it really kind of hurts our brains to recognize it.
But it's good.
It's only that God can save us the way we need him to.
In Jesus name, Amen.