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"God and Man"
Matt Holt
So often the hymns of the Faith help us to focus our attention on the wonderful attributes of God. We are reminded that God is a mighty fortress; He is immortal, He is invisible, and He is wise. Perhaps a proper question to ask then is in light of these facts is, “what is our perspective, both of God and of man?”
In Isaiah Chapter 40 I believe we see an eloquent and beautiful exposition of the proper view of God and man. In verses 6 & 7 we see that in our flesh we are like grass that withers, but contrasted with this in verse 8 is the Word of the Lord that endures forever. Verses 12 – 14 introduce a series of questions that actually serve to answer the thought of just how majestic our God is. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured Heaven with a span, And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?”
Contrast this description of God with that of the nations in verses 15 – 17. “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.” Verse 17: “All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.”
God is described in verse 22 as “He who sits above the circle of the earth,” whereas the earth’s inhabitants “are like grasshoppers.” God stretches out the heavens like a curtain while the princes of the world are brought to nothing. “Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will whither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.”
As one ponders the vast difference between God and man as highlighted in Isaiah 40, it would seem there is no way to bridge the gap. However, God deserves all praise, for this is certainly not the case! The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ makes it clear that He did bridge the great divide caused by our sin through His atoning death on the cross and His resurrection! Isaiah 40 ends with hope too. For while man is weak, and he will from time to time as verse 30 says utterly fall, when he waits upon the Lord, his strength will be renewed, he will mount up with wings like eagles, he will run and not be weary, he will walk and not faint.
Like perhaps many of you, my gaze has been riveted on the Olympics this past week and the marvelous performances of the athletes in Beijing. However, much of what I have seen has been a celebration of the glory of man, and not of God. Those who are fortunate enough to have been able to attend the games would do well to go to a grave in the city of Weifang that until 1991 had remained unmarked. There they would find a memorial headstone made from Isle of Mull granite with words from Isaiah 40:31 etched upon it.
The grave holds the remains of Eric Henry Liddell, Scottish rugby player, Olympic champion, and missionary to China. Eric’s name is familiar to many from the movie “Chariots of Fire,” which told the story of his victory in the 400 meters at the Olympic Games in Paris, France in 1924. Eric refused to run the 100 meters, one of his specialty events, because the heats were on Sunday. Instead he ran the 400, a very different race for which he had not had much time to prepare prior to the games. Right before he ran he was given a slip of paper which quoted 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor Me I will honor.” Eric went on to not only win the event, but to do so in world record time.
While the movie ends with Eric’s victory in 1924, his true race was yet to come. He served as a missionary in China from 1925 to 1943, eventually dying in a Japanese prisoner camp in 1945. It is said that Winston Churchill approved a prisoner exchange, and Eric being a famous person was on the list, but he gave up his spot so that a pregnant woman could go free instead. You see, Eric had everything in its proper perspective, including the fleeting adulation he had received for his victory in Paris. May God help us to have the same perspective.
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