February 11, 2021
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. he will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
– Isaiah 40:28
Do you remember sitting out on the hood of a car, or in the bed of a truck late at night, staring up at the stars? If you can find a place way from the city lights, the stars seem to shine even more brilliantly, and their number become countless. Even though I had seen these stars many times during my teenage years, after college I had a chance to see them from the Southern Hemisphere, and the views were breathtaking. All the wonders of the heavens looking down from above, and me staring back at it all.
Yet, I’m reminded that Scripture tells us that God knows each of those stars by name, and put them in their place. The expanse of the knowledge of God is that amazing, God knows the name of the stars, and each of us, and knows them intimately. No matter how miniscule a detail, God sees each one of us, with the same importance.
When Isaiah wrote the words above, he was appealing to the people of Israel. People had lost sight of this expansive love of God for them. They had been through many trials and seen adversity. They were removed from their land, exiled and judged as unworthy. Some, separated from their families. They were a people who were beat up and ready to give up. Life had not been good, and so they began to question God, whether or not God remembered them, whether God has seen the plight of their current state.
We may not understand why bad things happen, or why they happen to good and devout people. However, with God’s infiniteness, there is truth, there is love, and there is reason for the faithful to put their trust and hope in Him.
Isaiah calls the people to look up at the stars and remember that God knows each of them by name, cares for them, and put them in their place. How much more, then, will God care for those who put Him first in their lives? Verse 26 might give us an answer.
26Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
God is still God even when we doubt, even when we are discouraged, even when we feel powerless, beat up, down-trodden. God, yes, is still God, always and forever.
Grace & Peace,
Sam