Finding Comfort Mfano

Greater Than Your Pain

Isaiah 40:12-17

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD, or instruct the LORD as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?  

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing."

I can still remember, like it was yesterday, a mission trip I took when I was in high school that required us to travel on the remote Baja 500 trail. We were halfway into Baja, California between a small town on the Pacific Coast called Guerrero Negro and the border town of Calexico, right along the shores of the Gulf of California.

We had stopped to camp for the night. The sky was without a cloud. And as the sun went down the most amazing sight I had ever seen emerged. With no ambient light to obstruct the night sky, slowly but surely billions of stars began to appear. And by the time it was completely dark, the sheer volume of stars and the brilliance of that night sky was literally overwhelming. 

For ancient Israel, seeing a night sky like I did on that mission trip was the norm of everyday life. The awe and wonder of such a vast array of stars stretching beyond the imagination would be a natural reference point for them.

That’s why Isaiah continues to reinforce God’s overwhelming grandeur and power by comparing Him to the known creation that would have inspired awe in the hearts of his readers. He asks a series of rhetorical questions comparing God to the vastness of creation to get the reader to think about who could possibly be like God. He wants you to consider… 

• The enormity of the ocean is just a drop in the hollow of God’s hand. 
• The infinite vastness of space God measures by the breadth of His hand. 
• The world itself is but dust in a basket to God. 

Isaiah’s point: The God who is your comfort, is far, far greater than all and has no equal. He’s beyond anything you can imagine. All the things that inspire awe and wonder cannot even be compared to Him. He is incomprehensible.

Which is why Isaiah goes on to remind you that no one taught God. No one is His counselor. His knowledge and understanding are not things He has attained from someone else.  

He is the sovereign, infinite, eternal, self-existing God.

And to further make his point, Isaiah pivots to what we would consider powerful forces in our lives or in our world: the rulers and nations of the earth. We might be awed by their power and authority, but they are literally nothing to God. Less than nothing.

The point? Regardless of what you are going through right now, God is greater than it all. What you may see as huge and overwhelming is nothing to Him. His understanding of your situation is much deeper than yours, and His power to protect and lead you is greater than any force in heaven or on the earth.

Take a few minutes right now and place whatever hurt, anxiety or distress you have in the palm of His hands. And meditate on the greatness and vastness of God because He wants you to find comfort in that.