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What would
you say is the most important thing about you?
Your gifts? Your looks? Your academic accomplishments?
Your career? Your family? Your accomplishments?
Your contributions to society? How much you are
loved by family and friends? Your financial status?
I believe
it was A. W. Tozer who observed that what comes
into our minds when we think about God is the
most important thing about us. The most important
fact about a human being is not what he may say
or do, but what deep in his heart he thinks about
God.
Why?
Because what we think about God will determine
everything else that we think or do or become.
There is a spiritual law that says that we move
toward our mental image of God. We tend to become
what our conception of God is like. If our God
has no standards, we will have no standards. If
our God is cruel and uncaring, we will become
cruel and uncaring. If our conception of God is
pure and holy we will become pure and holy. If
our God is loving and kind, we will become loving
and kind. If we have no God, we will become godless.
One way
to think correctly about God is to learn about
His midot - His attributes. An attribute is something
true about God. It is whatever may be correctly
ascribed to God. It is whatever God has revealed
as being true about Himself. It expresses his
true nature and being. An attribute is not a part
of God. It is how God is. I want to consider the
attribute of the greatness and the infinity of
God.
Of all
that can be thought or said about God, His greatness
and infinitude is perhaps the most difficult to
grasp. Even to try and understand it is self-defeating,
for this kind of knowledge requires us to understand
something that we should realize we can never
do. Infinitude means limitlessness, and it is
impossible for a limited mind to grasp the Unlimited,
and for the finite mind to understand the Infinite.
The problem
is that we are trying to envision a kind of Being
who is altogether foreign to us, who is unlike
anything we have known in our universe of energy
and matter, space and time. "Here we pass
beyond our power of conception," writes Novatian,
"nor can human eloquence describe His greatness.
His greatness cannot even be fully conceived.
All mental effort is feeble. For God is greater
than the mind itself. If we could conceive of
His greatness He would be less than the human
mind which could form the conception."
We often
misuse the concept of "infinite." Infinite
does not mean a lot of; it does not mean much
of; it does not mean a great deal of, like when
we say a teacher has infinite patience with her
students, or an artist takes infinite pains with
his work. Properly used, the word "infinite"
can not be applied to any created thing. It can
be used of no one but God. He alone is infinite.
Everyone and everything else is finite. We speak
of "unlimited wealth" and "boundless
energy," but no wealth is unlimited, and
no energy is boundless, unless we are speaking
of the wealth and energy of God.
When
we say that God is infinite it means that He knows
no bounds. God, and all that God is, is without
any limits. When we say that God is infinite we
mean that He is measureless. Measurement is the
way created things have of accounting for themselves.
Measurement implies limitations and cannot apply
to God. Weight describes the gravitational pull
of one body upon another body. Distance describes
intervals between bodies in space. Length means
extension in space. Our conception of measurement
embraces mountains and men, atoms and galaxies,
gravity and energy, numbers and speed, but never
God. We can't speak of measure or amount or size
or weight and at the same time be speaking of
God. Isn't it obvious that all this does not apply
to God? It is the way we see the works of His
hands, but it is not the way we are to see Him.
Nothing in God is less or more, large or small.
He is what He is in Himself, without qualifying
word or thought. He is simply God.
Psalm
145 declares: Gadol Adonai - Great is the Lord,
and highly to be praised, v’lee-g’du-lah-toh ayn
cheker - and His greatness is unsearchable. One
generation shall praise Your works to another,
and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious
splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful
works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the
power of Your awesome acts, oo-g’du’lah-t’cha
ah-sap-reh-nah - and I will tell of Your greatness.
Let's
see if we can understand something about the greatness
of God. To help us, first let's consider the works
of man. Everything that man has built on the whole
world - all the ships, all the cars, all the trains,
all the buildings, all the houses and cities,
all taken together would not fill up a cube 500
miles by 500 miles by 500 miles. New York City
would be much smaller. But our beautiful Planet
Earth, about 8000 miles in diameter, contains
not 500 cubic miles, but 260 billion cubic miles
- about 500 million times larger.
And yet
Earth is tiny compared to the great glowing sun.
Our sun has a diameter of 780,000 miles compared
to the Earth's 8,000. There is room for over 1,300,000
of our Earths inside the sun! And our sun is not
the largest of the stars. Antares, a giant star
about 600 light years away, is almost inconceivably
huge. Its diameter is approximately 700 times
as big as that of the Sun. If Antares were placed
in the center of our solar system, its outer surface
would extend between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
- about 186 million miles from the core of the
Sun! Our huge sun is a tiny weeny little BB compared
to this great giant!
Some
427 light years away is another giant star, the
red giant known as Betelgeuse. It is in the constellation
of Orion, which is mentioned in the book of Job
(Job 9:9): God makes the Bear, Orion and the
Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; He does
great things, unfathomable, and wondrous works
without number. Betelgeuse may be even larger
than giant Antares. Its diameter may be 800 times
greater than that of the Sun. Try to picture this
great gas giant, which would start from the core
of our Sun, extend 93,000,000 miles to our Earth,
go beyond Earth to Mars, go beyond Mars, part
way to the orbit of Jupiter. It is as much as
300 million times greater in volume than our Sun;
a difference in volume much like a beach ball
compared to a large stadium!
Our closest
neighbor star outside of our solar system is Alpha
Centauri, 4 light years away. It takes light,
going 186,000 miles per second, over 4 years to
go to Alpha Centauri, the next closest star. In
one year light can travel 6 trillion miles. It
would take you driving in your car at a good speed
about 30 million years to drive to Alpha Centauri!
And yet in comparison with the vast expanses of
space, Alpha Centauri is extraordinarily close!
The farthest
light in the sky that is visible to the naked
eye on Earth is the Andromeda galaxy. This cluster
of stars orbits in space some 2.5 million light
years from us about 625 thousand times farther
than Alpha Centauri!
Speaking
of galaxies, the most recent estimates are that
there are somewhere around 200 to 400 billion
stars in our Milky Way galaxy. We now think that
there are a hundred billion galaxies in the universe,
with untold trillions upon trillions upon trillions
upon trillions of stars.
Most
galaxies are three thousand to three hundred thousand
light years in diameter and are usually separated
by distances on the order of millions of light
years. The largest galaxies can have more than
a trillion stars each and be more than a half
million light years across!
Nearby
Alpha Centauri, and the rest of the vast Milky
Way galaxy, and the much more distant Andromeda
galaxy are relatively close to us. They are not
the outer rim of the universe. We think that the
farthest objects that we have been able to detect,
powerful quasars, are 15 to 20 billion light years
away. The universe is so huge that it is impossible
for the human mind to fully comprehend it.
And yet
all these huge stars are so spread out in the
vast reaches of space, they are as thinly scattered
in the universe as if one should go wandering
around the Earth and find a pinhead every 20 miles
or so, or if one should pour one quart of water
over the entire surface of the Earth and have
the water molecules evenly distributed.
Yet the
Scriptures teach that God is bigger, greater,
larger than the scope of the entire universe!
The universe is finite and that God is infinite.
He not only fills the universe but is larger than
the universe.
The Almighty
God, speaking to us through the prophet Jeremiah,
asks three questions: “Am I a God who is near,”
declares the Lord, “And not a God far off?”
Answer: Yes, He is near. He is everywhere! Second
question: “Can a man hide himself in hiding
places so I do not see him?" declares the
Lord. Answer: No - there is nowhere you or
I can hide from this Almighty and all-knowing
and all-near God. Third question: “Do I not
fill the Heavens and the Earth?" declares
the Lord (Jeremiah 23:23-24). Answer: Yes
Lord, You and your presence fill this entire immense
universe!
God is
everywhere present throughout the universe, but
He is bigger and greater than the universe. King
Solomon prayed at the dedication of the First
Temple, which was a special house where the Shechinah
- the Dwelling Presence of God was manifested
on Earth: Will God indeed dwell on the Earth?
Behold, Heaven and the Highest Heavens cannot
contain You, how much less this house which I
have built! (1 Kings 8:27).
The Creator,
speaking to us through the prophet Isaiah, again
declares the same truth about His greatness: Thus
says the Lord, "Heaven is My throne and the
Earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you
could build for Me? And where is a place that
I may rest? "For My hand made all these things,
thus all these things came into being," declares
the Lord (Isaiah 66:1-2).
The author
of Psalm 113 also understood the greatness of
God: The Lord is high above all nations; His
glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord
our God, who is enthroned on high, who humbles
Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven
and in the Earth? God is greater than the
Heavens and the Earth. This great and high Sovereign
is so much greater than the all the peoples of
the world! He is so much vaster than creation
that He has to lower Himself to look upon the
universe!
Man and
all his works, everything that he has made, including
New York, are so small, so insignificant compared
to this great God, that man and all His works
are regarded less than nothing and meaningless.
Isaiah 40:15-17: Who has measured the waters
in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the
heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of
the Earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains
in a balance, and the hills in a pair of scales?
Answer: Only the Infinite Creator, El Gibor,
the Mighty God!
All
the nations are like a drop from a bucket and
are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
He lifts up the islands like fine dust (isn’t
New York an island?). Even Lebanon is not enough
to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
All the nations are as nothing before Him, they
are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.
In fact Isaiah tells us that reaching the point
of nothingness would be a vast improvement!
Regarding
the Son of God, Rabbi Paul wrote: He who descended
is Himself also He who ascended far above all
the heavens, that He might fill all things
(Ephesians 4:10). Somehow King Messiah, the Lord
Yeshua, is also bigger and vaster and greater
than our entire universe!
God is
great, greater than the universe. Why does El
Shaddai, this Almighty God, still care for small,
little corrupted-by-sin mankind? 3,000 years ago
King David asked the same question. When I
consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
what is man, that You take thought of him?
Because
just as the Creator is infinite regarding measurement
and size, all the other attributes of God are
also infinite.
He is
infinite in wisdom: Psalm 147:5: Great is our
Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding
is infinite. He designed the elegant mathematical
and physical laws that are woven throughout the
universe. He knows every hair on your head, every
sparrow that falls, each of the trillions of stars
by name; He knows every atom and subatomic particle.
He knows every prayer that is prayed by every
human being, every word that is said, every deed
that is done, every thought that we think!
He is
infinite in power: Wise Job declared to the Lord:
I know that You can do all things, and that no
purpose of Yours can be thwarted (Job 42:2).
Jeremiah knew this too. Ah Lord God! Behold,
You have made the heavens and the Earth by Your
great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing
is too difficult for You! (Jeremiah 32:17).
He is
infinite in His power to save: The Lord’s hand
is not so short that it cannot save; neither is
His ear so dull that it cannot hear (Isaiah
59:1). There is no person beyond His saving reach,
no situation too difficult for Him to rescue.
He is
infinite in time and eternity: Moses wrote in
Psalm 90: Before the mountains were born or
You gave birth to the Earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, You are God
(Psalm 90:2). He is eternal, without beginning
and without end. The Song-writer of Psalm 102
adds: Your years are throughout all generations.
Of old You founded the Earth, and the heavens
are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish,
but You endure; and all of them will wear out
like a garment; like clothing You will change
them and they will be changed. But You are the
same, and Your years will not come to an end
(Psalm 102:24-27).
Human
beings, nations, angels, can be great and powerful,
but not good. But, the Greatest One is not only
infinite regarding size, space and time, but He
is perfect regarding His moral attributes.
He is
infinite in righteousness: At the end of his long
and amazing life, our wise teacher Moses declared
to Israel in Deuteronomy 32:3-4: I proclaim
the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our
God! The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His
ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without
injustice, righteous and upright is He.
To those
who violate His righteous standards, the Most
High is infinite in judgment: Hebrews 12:29: Since
we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably
with reverence and awe, for our "God is a
consuming fire”. Ultimately, the Eternal God
will consume absolutely everything and everyone
that is wrong, evil, bad, and unrighteous in the
least degree.
He is
infinite in His ability to atone: Romans 5:20
The Law came in so that the transgression would
increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded
all the more. However sin may abound, it still
has its limits, because sin is the product of
finite beings. But where sin increased, God's
grace abounded all the more. His grace is not
only amazing, it is abounding! Thank God for His
amazing, abounding grace!
He is
infinite in love: His love is measureless.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. God's love has
no bounds because it is not a thing, but part
of His essential nature. His love is something
He is. God is love. Because He is infinite, His
love can enfold the whole world and have room
for a million worlds beside. How wonderful to
know that we have a God whose love is limitless!
He is
infinite in His love, all encompassing in His
patience, boundless in His goodness, unending
in His mercy. There is no end to His life, His
existence is infinite, His power all powerful,
His justice is everlasting, His omniscience is
without end!
Out of
this infinite wisdom and strength and love, He
made us in His image, so that we are like Him,
so that we are valuable and precious to Him. And,
He not only created us, but redeemed us when we
became alienated from Him.
The only
rational and reasonable response to the greatness
of the Three-In-One God from each one of His creatures
is to love Him; fear Him; serve Him, and to tell
His other creatures who are so confused, to do
the same!
[This
message comes from A.W. Tozer’s excellent and
inspiring book, The Knowledge of the Holy,
and also Alfred Rehwinkel's book, The Wonders
Of Creation.]
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