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(this transcript has been lightly edited for readability)
Well, when you are going through a moment like this, where your life seems out of control, and you really don't know what is going to happen next and what the future will be like, or as people have been talking about, what will be the new normal? Where do you go for peace? Where do you go for comfort? Where do you go for rest?
Well, there's a passage in the Old Testament that answers that. The moment when God's people were facing scary and difficult things, and God calls the prophet Isaiah to bring a word of comfort to His people. And Isaiah says, "What should my message be?" And God says, "Say to them, 'Behold your God.'" In our language: Tell them, "Here is your God."
And now hear these words: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens with a span? Who has enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord or what man shows Him counsel? Whom did He consult and who made Him understand? Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him. They are counted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom then will you liken God or what likeness compare to Him."
Here's what you have happening: The prophet understands that when circumstances are bad, it's very easy for us to forget, because of what we are facing every day, the stunning, expansive, mind-boggling, heart-rattling, knee-weakening glory of God. And so you feel as He says, "I want to show you what your God is like," you feel that He is stretching the human language to its furthest elasticity to have us capture God. He says, "Who can hold the waters of the universe in the hollow of His hand?"
Think about that. Go pour water into the palm of your hand and see how much water can stay there without dripping. Imagine someone so immense, so glorious, he could hold the waters of the universe in the hollow of His hand and nothing would drip out. Who could put all the nations in a bucket and weigh them on a scale? Someone who has never ever needed a teacher or a counselor or a guide.
And then He says this: "Who would you compare God to? Who is like Him?" It is a rhetorical question. The answer is, no one is; there is nothing like God. Now here is the point: Comfort is not found in good situations. Comfort is not found in an easy week. Comfort is not found in your health. It is not found in your control. It is not found in your food. It is not found in your friends or family. It is not found anywhere in the created world, but there is huge comfort in knowing this all mighty God, this one that is so immense and so grand that it is impossible to compare Him to anything is your father by grace. And so you have reason to rest today.
No, we don't know what is going to happen. I know there is a massive debate about what is the best course of action in this moment, but we know this thing: That there is one who sits on the throne of the universe who is great and glorious beyond our ability to describe. That one is now connected to you by faith and He loves you, and He cares for you, and He unleashes His grandeur and glory for your good.
Where is comfort? Comfort is found in beholding your God. May you do that, not just today, but every day because when you look at life through the lens of His glory, guess what? Life looks different. May you do that.