I Can Because I AM - Part 2

The Omnipotence of God

I want to remind you that our goal in looking at the omnipotence of God is not simply a character study. Our goal is to believe with confidence and unerring faith every single word that comes out of God’s mouth. Before he gives such words he provides evidence for who he is that he can make such claims, whether those claims be for our protection, redemption, or a number of other wonderful promises. If we can truly see how “qualified” – so-to-speak – our God is, we will be more apt to trust what he says.

I have a fanciful imagination at times and when I play with my niece it really comes out. I tell stories and play games with characters larger than life – a magic fairy who is able to make all the flowers start singing. Or perhaps a tiny caterpillar who drinks a potion and gets bigger and bigger until he crawls easily from planet to planet!

The truth is our minds are fascinated with things outside our humanly finite box of existence. The seemingly impossible being done opens our eyes and mind to the possibility that there may be more than that box after all.

My niece is very aware that those stories are made-up. She learned early that stories that tell of things and people and deeds that she didn’t see or do in her daily life were “fiction”. They were fascinating to think about but, with each passing year, become less and less believable. She is told that a man flies through the air on his sleigh of reindeer and then slides down people’s chimneys to give presents to every home – every home in the world! – in the course of a few minutes right there at midnight. The day came when nobody had to tell her that Santa Clause was a fake. It’s pretty obvious. His deeds are impossible. Gravity disallows his flying reindeer. The space-time continuum (harking back to my Star-Trek days) disallows his speed. And simple physics disallows the big belly sliding down little chimneys.

And so we learn very early to distrust anything that is wondering outside our box of physical rules and laws. Good! God set up those physical rules and laws for a reason. Not everything is possible for us. We may watch a movie on how Superman flew around the world so quickly he actually reversed time, but please do not attempt to soar off of your roof in hopes of accomplishing the same thing. The physical world around us is not as subject to us as we may think. We should be – and generally are – taught these things while still very young.

But we should also be taught that though not everything is possible with us humans, everything is possible for God! The Creator has power over everything that His hands have molded into being. Because it is all we know, we tend anthropomorphize God a little too often. Anthropomorphize simply means – to give human attributes to something not human. In high school I had to read a book called “Watership Down” about a society of rabbits, each with separate and distinct personalities, desires, goals even religions. I will tell you what I would tell my niece: Rabbits don’t really do that, honey.

Regardless of what authors have told us down through the years, cats do not smile big and speak in riddles, hares and tortoises do not race each other to see who is fastest and a barn full of animals never plotted a mutiny against their owner.

In the same vein, God has never been frustrated by a tree that has fallen in the road. He has never missed a call from one of his children while talking to another. He has never been tired! Though He has been lied to He has never been deceived. His plans have never been foiled by one obstacle or another. His attentions are never too divided that he becomes neglectful: He is as aware of the tear on your cheek as he is the sparrow on the other side of the world that fell from his nest.

I am … and I’m not

Isaiah 40 has a very similar format as our main text, Psalm 113. In this verse He makes a beautiful promise to His people:

“He protects His flock like a shepherd;
He gathers the lambs in His arms
A carries them in the fold of His garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing.”

Isaiah 40:11

You could say that God was anthropomorphizing himself. He gave himself human attributes so that we could understand his love better. We can understand God’s concern when he compares himself to a shepherd who carries a sick lamb in own clothes, against his own chest. He “protects”, “gathers”, “carries” and “gently leads”. His people needed to see that with their own eyes and when they looked across their field at a David-like shepherd, their God came into view and they knew Him that much more intimately.

BUT God does not stop there because though he is a loving shepherd he is by no means just a loving shepherd! He is God! - and he quickly changes gears to assure His people that, unlike the shepherd they see traversing the hillside, the Lord is no such human!

“Who has scooped up the ocean in his two hands
or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger?
Who has put all the earth’s dirt in one of his baskets,
Weighed each mountain and hill?”

Isaiah 40:12

Matthew Henry said, “Though it was said, ‘He protects His flock like a shepherd,’ yet these condescensions of grace must not be thought of with any diminution to the trascendencies of his glory.”

In other words, though God stoops down low (as it says in our main text) to meet us where we are and compares himself to a lowly human to help our lowly minds understand his lofty character a bit better – this by no means lowers his power and glory one iota. The shepherd who protects his flock and holds him in his garment also has the power to scoop up the ocean in his hand.

Presumption

Keep your mind vigilant and always aware of this, one of the human mind’s most common and dangerous follies: presuming something about God that is not so – just because our minds cannot imagine that he is as big as he is. Oh, a million volumes could be filled with all the times I’ve done this. And truth be told, the bible itself is full of characters who presume that God is like a man and that there is some kind of boundary to his power. Yes, he is powerful, but there must be things God can’t do. And when a task is too great for us we assume it is too big for God, as well.

Moses did exactly that. Because he and all the children of Israel were complaining of hunger, God said that he would give them all meat every day for a month until they were sick of it. Moses didn’t believe God. He said, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you promise them meat for a whole month! Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea would that be enough?”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Is there any limit to my power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!”

Later in the chapter He sent a wind that carried enough quail for the people to eat for a month.

Now, it could be easily debated that we really should give Moses a break. If he were in the quiet solitude of Mount Horeb watching over the flock in the cool of the day as he was a couple years before when he first met God in the burning bush, maybe his response would have been different. But he was in the wilderness with millions of complaining, hungry people all looking to him to do something about it. Also he was having problems in his own family. The next chapter tells the story of his own brother and sister stirring up rebellion because they didn’t like the woman Moses had married!

I have had many days in these younger years where I have sat in my home with my new, loving husband and young, healthy son and thought what the old-timers have said for so many years, “God is in his heaven and all is right in the world!”

But one day my boy will be older and will make his own choice for God. What if he chooses the wrong one? What if disease strikes my perfect little family? What if money is scarce? What if friends are gone? What if depression hits? What if the burdens of life are piled on my back one boulder at a time? When God speaks his promises of protection and provision to me will I, like Moses, see the many impossibilities of those words?

The truth is, Moses’ (and my own) problems did not affect the omnipotence of God at all. And in seeing all the impossibilities of God’s promise, Moses then spoke in ignorance, “Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, that wouldn’t be enough!” Yes, it would. There’s more than enough fish in the sea to feed everyone in the world, but even if there wasn’t God could create more fish with just a word! Or He could have given Moses 3 fish and multiplied it to feed the multitude.

We know He could because His Son did the same thing later on in the Book.

Tough Questions

God asks questions that demand we throw out our finite expectations when dealing with Him.

In the book of Job we have another example of a man who is walking through the midst of the troubles and horrors of his life. His home, livelihood and servants were either stolen or destroyed and then came the worst – his children. All ten of his children were killed at once when the house they were in collapsed. While Job grieved his many losses he was then struck with boils – large, messy sores from his head to his toes.

When his three friends came to visit him they couldn’t believe what they saw – they couldn’t even recognize him. They each cried and tore their clothes and threw dust on their heads. They sat with him on the ground for 7 days before anyone spoke a word “because they saw that his suffering was very intense.”

That’s pain. That’s misery. Whether his friends really try to comfort him is up for another debate at another time, but they certainly don’t seem to be helping Job out very much. Nevertheless, early in the conversation with his friends, Job is still well aware of the power of God:

“God is wise and all-powerful.
Who has opposed Him and come out unharmed?
He removes mountains without their knowledge
Overturning them in His anger.
He shakes the earth from its place
So that its pillars tremble.
He commands the sun not to shine
And seals off the stars.
He alone stretches out the heavens
And treads on the waves of the sea.
He makes the stars; the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades
And the constellations of the southern sky.
He performs great and unsearchable things, wonders without number …
Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my judge for mercy …
For He is not a man like me
That I can answer Him,
That we can take each other to court.”
(9:4-10, 15, 32)

But as time goes on and he hears more and more “comforting words” from his friends, his attitude changes a bit. Perhaps because God refrains from replying to him just then, Job forgets that “He is not a man like me that I can answer Him”. In fact, amidst the many profound things that he reminds himself of periodically, he also starts saying things about God that are simply not true:

“From the city, men groan;
The mortally wounded cry for help,
Yet God pays no attention to this crime.”
(24:12)

"You [God] have turned against me with cruelty;
You harass me with Your strong hand.”
(29:21)

“His [God’s] anger tears at me,
and He harasses me.
He gnashes His teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with His eyes.”
(16:9)

God’s answer to all of these accusations? The Message bible puts it this way, “Why do you confuse the issue? Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?”

Job refuses to answer God and just says, “I’m speechless, in awe – words fail me. I should never have opened my mouth! I’ve talked too much, way too much. I’m ready to shut up and listen.”

But after God asks him more questions in the same vein, Job gets down to the heart of the problem. “Surely I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (42:3)

Again, God’s ways are so far above ours. In our pain or discomfort or whatever situation we find ourselves in, we question God and when we don’t hear a response we make up the answers ourselves. We presume things about our God that are not so. We think of Him as any other man. Job presumed God to be a cruel betrayer. It was the only way for Job’s limited mind to explain his hardship. But in the reality of God’s infinity, His real reasons were far higher than Job could ever understand.

Words Without Knowledge

And, in His own good time, God asks some questions of His own. Questions that silence Job and remind him of the power of God.

“Who is it that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer Me.
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set or who laid its cornerstone
While all the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”
(38:2-7)

And while I print here only 6 verses, there are 3 chapters worth of questions, all with the same answer, “Not me, God!” All of the questions demanded that Job compare his own ignorance with God’s omniscience and his own weakness with God’s omnipotence.

While I quoted verse 2 earlier from the Message bible, the NIV (above) says the same thing but with three words I’d like to bring out: “Words without knowledge”. Job admits this in chapter when he says to God, “I spoke of things I don’t understand!”

Again, His ways are so far higher than our ways. His thoughts atmospheres over our own thoughts. Heavenly thoughts and human minds don’t meld together very easily. This ignorance leads to complaining and complaining never fixed anything. (How many times have you said that to your children?)

In our pain, in our sadness, in our discouragement and doubt let us endeavor to keep our mouths shut.

Not in prayer: “I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies!” (2 Sam 22:4)

Not in song: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” (Psalm 150:6)

Not in self-encouragement: “Why are you downcast, O may soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:5)

But let us be silent in our ignorant complaints. Job refused to keep silent and said, “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul!” (7:11)

As we’ve seen, he regretted that later, “I am unworthy – how can I reply to You? I put my hand over my mouth.” (40:4)

Too many times we have spoke of things we don’t understand, as well. We spew false accusations or insinuations about God in the false belief that He is a man that he can be accused by us mere humans. But once we see Him for ourselves and hear the truth about his great deeds and power – let us close our mouths and repent.

God never told Job why he had to go through everything he did. It was enough that Job knew that nothing was outside God’s attention and scope of power. All things are done under His watchful eye and set about my His purposeful hand.

Like we saw before with the Apostle Paul, it didn’t matter that he didn’t see a way out of his pain, or ever knew the “why” of his trials – it was enough that he knew in whom he believed.

Complaining vs. Prayer

A quick note on the difference between complaining and prayer may be in order here. I believe the main difference between the two is the audience. Charles Spurgeon once said, “We may complain to God but not of God.”

Psalm 42:2 says, “I poured out my complaint before Him.” We are able, free and encouraged to pour out our hearts to God – in His presence, not anyone else’s. Charles Spurgeon again puts it so nicely, “Note that we do not show our trouble before the Lord that he may see it, but that we may see him. It is for our relief, and not for his information that we make plain statements concerning our woes: it does us much good to set out our sorrow in order, for much of it vanishes in the process, like a ghost which will not abide the light of day.”

Fringes

The bible is full of illustrations of the power of God (a list is included at this end of the chapter). David said, “I lie awake thinking of You, meditating on You through the night.” (Psalm 63:6) What a good habit to get into. Reminding ourselves and others of the power of God to do all the things He has said He would do increases our faith in Him and His promises.

But always keep in mind one little thing that Job noticed:

“He spreads out the skies over empty space;
He suspends the earth over nothing.
He wraps up the waters in His clouds,
Yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
Spreading His clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
For a boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven quake, aghast at His rebuke.
By His power He churned up the sea;
By His wisdom He cut Rahab to pieces.
By His breath the skies became fair
His hand pierced the gliding serpent.
And these are but the outer fringe of His works
How faint the whisper we hear of Him!
Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”
(26:7-14)

It becomes our duty, our help and our fortress to remind ourselves of God’s power but always know that because of these earth-trapped, limited minds we can only truly understand the very “minor things” of God’s power, as the NLT puts it. But I do prefer the NIV (and others): “Outer fringes”. That word brings to my mind an ornate persian rug. Following that analogy, Job says that we can not possibly see the entire, beautiful, complex designs – only the outer fringe of it. But what beautiful things even that outer fringe promises for us. We may not see and know the limitless possibilities of His power – we may not see the grandiose art of the rug – but we know the Designer.

And knowing Him demands we throw all of our expectations out the window and prepare ourselves for something far above what we could ever dream up.

“How faint the whisper we hear of Him,
Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”