It’s God’s, Not Mine

One of the words we often associate with God is power. What a loaded word – and a word easily abused and misunderstood. We are currently in a season where we are constantly bombarded with ads on television and radio, signs, social media messages – from everyone running to be school board members to president. It seems like it is all about people wanting us to give them power. At some level, they want power in order to control me – again, for everything from telling me what books my children can read to how much of my hard-earned income ought to be put at their disposal.

Perhaps such realities led Lord Acton, in 1887, to say to Anglican Bishop Creighton the often-repeated words: “power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

But that is not a picture of what power looks like in the mind and heart of God. In Isaiah 40:12 ff., we hear God declare:

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
or as his counselor has instructed him?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding? (NRSV)

Those are impressive words. The phrase that always jumps out to me – admitting every phrase is majestic – is where Isaiah says that God “enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure.” Some translations say “bucket.” As the chief house cleaner at my house, I often wonder, “Where does all the dust come from?” It is a regular routine to keep it under control. No matter how well you dust this week, it is to be done all over again next week. 

Yet the all-powerful, one and only God, who “made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17) – why He can hold not only my dust, but the dust of the whole world in a bucket. 

But that’s not all. He can measure the waters of the world in his cupped hands, and mark off the spans of the universe in His outstretched hands. Or, as Psalm 90 reminds us, “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.”

He can weigh the mountains and hills on a scale. He has no need that I should teach Him anything.

Powerful indeed.

Yet in Isaiah 40:11 – the verse immediately preceding what I just read – Isaiah says, “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”

That imagery is an utter reversal of what we hear in our own culture about power – whether it be from politicians, corporate leaders, law enforcement, the judicial system, too many men insisting on being the all-powerful head of the house, and more than a few preachers and nonprofit leaders. Unlike us, our God, all powerful God, will put the dust bucket down, empty His hands of the waters of the world, and draw me into his bosom to feed me as a shepherd feeds his or her lambs. 

Little wonder Paul breaks out into doxology in Romans 11 and declares:

³³ O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?” ³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. (NRSV)

When I walk into a classroom, there is a sense in which I have some “power.” But I can only see myself as a co-laborer of God (1 Corinthians 3, 4) when I recognize that I am called to use that power in the context of knowing that it comes from and is on loan from God. That was also true for me when I served as a local church preacher. If I were the “lead pastor” of the largest mega-church in the world, it would still be true for me. It was also true for the 48 years I was Vicki’s husband and the years we raised two daughters to adulthood. Were I to run for mayor of my little town and win, it would still be true. Even if I launch a write-in campaign for president and win – it would still be true. 

Lord Acton was on to something, and as best I can tell, his point of reference for this comment was leaders from both the political and religious world. We would do well to think about his words. 

God’s power – the omnipotent God of the universe – leads Him to drop the dust bucket and feed His lambs.

That’s the model for you and me.

^{Image by Kev from Pixabay}