First Presbyterian Church of Inglewood
Telephone numbers: (310) 677-5133 Fax (310) 330-8342
Electronic mail: PRESBYTS@SBCGLOBAL.NET
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Rev. Dr. Harold E. Kidd
Isaiah 40: 25 - 31
“HE CALLS THE STARS BY NAME”
“To whom will you liken Me, Or to
whom shall I be equal?” Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, And see
who has created these things. Who brings out their host by number; He calls
them by name, By the greatness of His power; Not one is missing. Why do you
say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel; “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just
claim is passed over by my God?”
Isaiah 40: 25 – 27
May the Lord bless our understanding
of these words. God speaking to His people through the prophet Isaiah is
reminding them in this text that He is Creator and Sustainer of all life. The
God who made the firmament, Who made the deepest oceans and all that lives in
the oceans, the God who put the stars and galaxies in place, is the very one
who cares for our soul.
In 1995, the Hubble Deep Field Study
space probe concluded that there are billions of galaxies, each containing
billions of stars. And by one estimation of the universe, there are more than
10 stars in the universe for every grain of sand on the earth. Telling us that
the deep reaches of the universe are far vaster than our mind and imagination
to comprehend.
Yes, “The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the earth is His footstool.” “From everlasting unto everlasting God
is God, and there is no other who is God’s equal. So, when we stop to consider
all that God has made, then we must confess that the earth is but one tiny
island amidst a vast ocean of galaxies, constellations, stars, and planets.
Yet, each night without fail, God
said to His people through the words of the prophet, “I bring out their host by
number, I call them by name...by the greatness of His power…and not one is
missing.” How many times have you and I
put our keys down and could not find them, misplaced our wallet, purse,
eyeglasses, a watch or some other keepsake piece of jewelry, and became unglued
for a minute because we could not find it.
A couple of months ago I was in the
office here, talking to a friend on the phone, so engaged in the conversation,
and at the same time looking for my cell phone. A while walking around in the
office, mind you, talking on the phone, and looking for my cell phone. “Lord,
now where did I leave that cell phone.” And when my mind caught up with my
body, the cell phone was up to my ear in my hand. Lord, now you have arrived
when you are having one of those senior moments. Praise God! So if we kind of get a little disturbed, a
little anxious when we misplace something … what about God?
God saying to the children of Israel
and to us, that in the midst of billions of galaxies, and billions of stars,
and billions of planets, “Not one of them is missing.” “I call them all by name.” You mean God’s got
a name for every star and every planet and every galaxy. God is sharing this
revelation with Isaiah and us, because God wants us to understand that there is
no one in this earth whom God does not know or has forgotten, intimately.
If
God, can keep up with every star in the universe, call it out to shine
and light up the heavens by night, and not one of them is ever missing, then
surely He knows each of us by name, who you are, where you are, and what is
going on in our lives, in the greatest of detail.
“Isaiah, I know your every thought
you are thinking, I know your every fear, I am acquainted with every hope in
your heart, I know the exact number of hairs on your head, I know the smell of
your scent, I know your strengths and your weaknesses, I know every freckle or
mole that’s on your face. I know things about you Isaiah that even you don’t
know. And I know them because I am the God who created you.”
“Isaiah, if none of my stars come up
missing in the nightly roll call, and there are billions of them, then surely I
see and am well acquainted with you in all your ways. Believe Me, Isaiah, when
I tell you that I am God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires are known,
and from whom no secrets are hid.” God knows every detail about our lives. Now
the background of this text is that God knows that His people need a word of
comfort. Amen. Given the changing circumstances of life, God knows that
sometimes we need a word of correction, and sometimes a word of encouragement;
sometimes we need a word of warning, and sometimes a word to strengthen our
resolve. Then there are those times when what is needed is a word of comfort.
He is the God of all comfort. Jesus
said of His Father, “And He will not leave you comfortless, for he will send
the Holy Spirit to dwell within you.” The Southern Kingdom, Judah, still had
100 years of trouble before the fall of Jerusalem, and then 70 years in exile
under Babylonian captivity. God foresaw that the social, economic, and spiritual
condition of His people would get far worse before it got better.
God made this declaration of His
knowledge and care for His people, because He could read their hearts in the
midst of their difficult living conditions (vs. 27), “Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel; My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is
passed over by my God?” So that while professing Him in public, God could see
in their hearts that some were doubting Him in private, because of the
circumstances in their lives.
Life does have ways of causing us to
question the goodness of God, the nearness of God, the fairness of God, the
justice of God, the attentiveness of God.
Life will press us to doubt God knows or is aware of what we are going
through. Life will seek to contradict what God has said to us in His word.
Therefore the word: “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these
things, who brings out their host by number and calls them all by name.”
And so in Isaiah 40, God tells Isaiah
to speak tenderly to His people with words of comfort. When life seems to be
falling apart, when we are in the soil of our adversity, God has a way of
sending us a word of comfort. Our situation may not be all that we’d like or
hope it to be, but with God we can find a source of comfort in the midst of it.
Pastor Bill Crowder tells the story:
“In my early years as a pastor, I served in small churches where finances were
often tight. Sometimes, he says, our family finances felt the weight of that
pressure. On one occasion, we were down to the last of our food and payday was
still several days away. Sound familiar? While my wife and I fretted about how
we would feed our kids in the next few days, our doorbell rang. When we opened
the door, we discovered two bags of groceries. We had not, he says, told anyone
of our plight, yet our provider God, had led someone to meet our need.
As the great architect of the
Universe, “who calls the stars by name; and not one is missing,” God is
constantly watching over us, caring, providing, directing, protecting, a
reminder that in times of hardship and difficulty, we have someone in God Who
knows and cares. Jesus said, “Your Heavenly Father knows the things you have
need of before you ask Him.” Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your cares
upon Him, because He cares for you.”
Yes, like the stars, He calls us by
name.
“Have you not known? Have you not
heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither
faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the
weak, and to those who have no might, he increases their strength. Even youths
shall faint and be weary. And young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be
weary; they shall walk and not faint.”