treasure

i love my one year bible. I go thru phases of reading it because sometimes I just like reading things all the way through, not chopped up into little sections, but for right now, it's good. And I like it because I read more of the Old Testament than I normally would. Like this morning, I was reading Isaiah 40, and it was just so great. My favorite parts of the Bible are those where God is described as omnipotent, the creator of all, bigger than anything, without rival or compare. It's like he's being conceited, but he's not - just truthful. And it's also a good reminder of how small we really are and how we don't have the right to question him.



Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed out the mountains and the hills? Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who knows enough to be his teacher or counselor? Has the LORD ever needed anyone's advice? Does he need instruction about what is good or what is best? No, for all the nations of the world are nothing in comparison with him. They are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all. All Lebanon's forests do not contain sufficient fuel to consume a sacrifice large enough to honor him. All Lebanon's sacrificial animals would not make an offering worthy of our God. The nations of the world are as nothing to him. In his eyes they are less than nothing--mere emptiness and froth.

To whom, then, can we compare God? What image might we find to resemble him? Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains? Or is a poor person's wooden idol better? Can God be compared to an idol that must be placed on a stand so it won't fall down?

Have you never heard or understood? Are you deaf to the words of God--the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant? It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers! He is the one who spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and their work withers. The wind carries them off like straw.

"To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?" asks the Holy One.

Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by its name. And he counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away.