#DailyDevotion You Ever Get Dressed Down By The Almighty?

Isaiah 40:21-27²¹Don’t you know? Didn’t you hear? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Don’t you understand how the earth was made? ²²He is on His throne above the circle of the earth, and those who live on it are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the sky like a curtain and spreads it like a tent for people to live under it. ²³He reduces princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth worthless. ²⁴Hardly have they been planted, hardly have they been sown, hardly has their stem taken root in the ground, when He blows at them and they wither, and a whirlwind takes them away like straw. ²⁵“Is there anyone you can compare Me with and who is equal to Me?” asks the Holy One. ²⁶Look up high and see! Who made these? Who brings out their army by number? He calls them all by name. Because He is so strong and powerful, not one star is missing. ²⁷Jacob, why do you complain? Israel, why do you say, “What happens to me is hidden from the LORD; my God fails to treat me fairly?”

Have you ever been put in your place by the LORD God Almighty? This section from Isaiah sounds a bit like when the LORD came to speak to Job and his friends. What and who is man that he can talk back to God and accuse him of anything? Yet, we sure like doing that sometimes when we aren’t getting our way. When it appears we’ve done everything right in our own eyes and we wonder how can God treat us like this. Certainly we haven’t done anything that deserves whatever we are going through at the moment. I’m certain Israel and Judah felt that way. They were righteous and justified in their own eyes. Even those who had not turned from the LORD to idols probably felt that way, as they were worshipping on the high places (instead of at the temple in Jerusalem). Nevertheless, no matter righteous and god-fearing we may be, we are still just creatures of God with no claim on him based on anything in ourselves.

So the LORD makes his case here that he has the right to do as he pleases.“²¹Don’t you know? Didn’t you hear? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Don’t you understand how the earth was made?” The LORD God calls them to account. I think I may have addressed my own kids this way after giving them detailed directions and they didn’t follow through. Certainly Israel should know if they were studying their Torah (first five books of the Bible). We may with our best science dig into creation and how it was made to our benefit yet we will never really get beyond the LORD made everything by his almighty Word. He created everything from the quantum level (the smallest we got so far) to the seemingly expanding universe (and other universes if they exist) and keeps it all going.

Everything is subject to the LORD Jesus Christ. The nations and their rulers are nothing to him. He blows on them and they are gone. He made the stars and the sky and marshals them all. There is no god like him. We complain like Israel, “What happens to me is hidden from the LORD; my God fails to treat me fairly?” Yet, we act as if God doesn’t see us sin. Then we complain as if he doesn’t see us in trouble. The LORD Jesus Christ doesn’t treat us unfairly. If you want to see what injustice looks like, look to Jesus Christ crucified. He’s the only one treated unfairly. He does know what you are going through and he went to the cross to fix it. You just need to be patient in faith to see its fulfillment on the Last Day.

Heavenly Father, by your almighty Word, our LORD Jesus Christ you created and sustain all things. Grant us faith to trust you when times are tough so we may see the ushering of your kingdom in Christ Jesus on the Last Day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.