The Immensity Of God

THE IMMENSITY OF GOD
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to return to the Junior High School that I had attended as a youth. The first thing that I noticed is that it had shrunk in size. The halls that were once so wide and spacious were now rather narrow. The ceiling was now so low that I could reach up and touch it. What had happened? Had the building really shrunk? No. It is that I had grown. That is the way it is with almost everything. The older and the bigger and the smarter you get, the less things impress you. It is that way with everything except God. With Him it is the complete opposite. The older you get in the Lord and the more you come to know Him, the bigger He becomes. In his Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis tells us of a meeting between Lucy and Aslan, the Christ figure of his story. “Aslan,” said Lucy, “you're bigger. “That is because you are older, little one,” answered he. “Not because you are?” “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance,
And the hills in a pair of scales?

13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?

14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge,
And informed Him of the way of understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. (Isaiah 40:12-15).

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is He who sits above the vault of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (Isaiah 40:21-22).

Isaiah was a man who was in tune with the majesty and the holiness and the immensity of God. This was not due to any lack of growth on his part. He did not consider God to be great and awesome because he was only a primitive and inexperienced man. To the contrary, the Hebrew of Isaiah is of the highest literary quality.

Isaiah was in awe of the majesty of God because he had been an eyewitness of that majesty. At the outset of his ministry, Isaiah had partaken in an experience to which few can lay claim. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4). Can you imagine anything more profound than to be in the presence of the Creator of the universe? Isaiah was filled with a holy terror. Yet it was not a terror that drove him away, but only one that attracted him to the throne. The Apostle John had a similar experience. John also saw a vision with the Lord seated upon His throne and attended by angels. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” (Revelation 4:8). Do you see it? The song has not changed. John hears the same song that Isaiah heard seven hundred years earlier. The reason for this is that God has not changed. He is the same God who was and who is and who is to come. He is the same today.