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What’s so impressive about God’s power anyway?
Job 38:2-7 + 40:1
Then God spoke out from the raging winds.
“Who is clouding clarity by speaking words with no knowledge?
Stand up before me like a man. I will question you, and you will answer to Me.
Where were you when I made what the world sits upon?
Answer me… if you understand how.
Who defined and set its width, height, and depth? You must know!
Who measured the whole earth as easily as you would use a measuring tape?
What exactly does the world rest on? Who made it?
Who set the foundation that all foundations rest upon, while stars were singing together?
All the while angles were cheering in joy?
Will the one who finds fault with the Almighty correct Him?
Well?! Let he who accused God, answer Him…now!”
Philippians 2:8
God as human, was obedient to death, submissive even to death on the cross.
After some time on the internet, I was able to compile the following approximated information.
Light travels 186,282 miles in one second.
(One hundred eighty-six thousand, two hundred eighty-two)
So, light travels 5,878,499,810,000 miles in a year.
(Five trillion, eight hundred seventy-eight billion, four hundred ninety-nine million, eight hundred ten thousand)
The Universe is approximately 100 billion light years in diameter.
So that would come out to be 5,878,499,810,000,000,000,000 miles in diameter. (five sextillion, eight hundred seventy-eight quintillion, four hundred ninety-nine quadrillion, eight hundred ten trillion) (100,000,000,000 x 5,878,499,810,000)
There are over 100,000,000,000 – 200,000,000,000 (That’s billions) galaxies in the universe.
An average galaxy is calculated to contain hundreds of billions of stars.
It is calculated there are 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in the universe.
(one hundred sextillion)
God made it all, and by only talking no less.
I am… unimpressed.
He commands the dawn, and tells it its place.
He knows where light comes from.
He knows where dark dwells. (Job 38)
I am unimpressed.
God goes on for four chapters, about all these overwhelmingly mighty things He did. He makes stars move, and made really, really big creatures, that are…really big and stuff. Then, after over 100 verses of this, He commanded Job to answer for himself, and – Job repented.
I wouldn’t have.
I would have said “I am unimpressed.”, and so would have only succeeded getting myself into deep trouble ticking off the most powerful being in all existence. However, it is true. I’m not impressed.
I am no more impressed with God creating the universe, than I would be with Superman picking up a single grain of sand. If Superman did such, triumphantly espousing his power in that tiny grain sitting in the center of his outstretched open palm… I wouldn’t care.
Since God is omnipotent, there is nothing He can do with that power that can impress me. God can do anything. Nothing is difficult for Him. It’s all effortless for Him. God is power. So…so what? I am not impressed that God is God. That would be the same as being impressed by the fundamental nature of any “thing”: light being light, green being green, hot being hot. Of course a circle is round. That fact does not overwhelm me.
Matthew 9:36
When Jesus looked out into the crowds of people, His heart was moved with a loving pity that yearned to help, because He saw they were like weary and scattered sheep…that had no shepherd.
John 11:33+35
When Jesus saw Mary crying, and everyone standing around with her crying,
Jesus was overcome with empathy, and being very troubled…
…Jesus wept.
John 11:35 is already profound enough, but remember this, I am talking about the same being from the first half of this devotional. I am talking about God. So, you must read it, and understand it in this way…
God. Cried.
Why would God cry? He can do anything! He knew He would raise Lazarus from the dead in only a few moments! So why would God cry? It was because He had empathy, but why would God have empathy? For the only reason possible when dealing with the absolute of all powers… because He chose to.
There is no one, no power, and no thing that can make God do anything. God can do anything He wants with His power, and what is it exactly that God has chosen to do with it?
Love us – – – unimaginably so.
Philippians 2:6-7
Jesus is God, but He did not exploit that even in the least.
Quite the opposite, He instead made himself nothing.
Jesus willingly embraced being human, willingly embraced being a servant.
What does God decide to do? He decided to not be God. He chose to become human. Why did he do that? What was His purpose in giving up His Godhood, and humbling Himself to the infinite degree necessary to become a single speck of a human in all of the universe?
To die.
Christians pass over that little factoid with far too much ease.
God…died.
Stop! No, don’t allow your mind to just flit over it again. Think of it. Parse it out. Analyze it. Dissect it. Then don’t relent until your eyes go wide in shock! God died! God is immortal! God died. God is infinite! God died. God cannot be killed. God died. No weapon can scratch God’s flesh, yet He was whipped to shreds, nailed to a cross, and suffered agony until God experienced death.
Death is not something God would ever have had to experience in all of His infinite existence… excepting that He chose to. Oblivion is the fundamental opposite of God. This is because oblivion is the opposite of existing. Nothing that does not exist can be infinite. Infinity goes on forever. Death ends infinity. Death ends existence. Death brings oblivion.
Ah, but not anymore…
Isaiah 53:4-5
He took our pain and the burden of our suffering.
He was brutalized by God: stricken, afflicted.
He was pierced for our faults.
The punishment meant for us was instead given to Him.
So instead of that – our deserved punishment – we received peace.
His mortal wounds healed our own, saving our life.
You see, God, a being who is immortal, became mortal and died, so that we, beings who are mortal, can become immortal and live forever.
God did that for us, not because He was forced to, or had to, or needed to…but because He chose to. I am being repetitive here because it is of the utmost importance you and I fully assimilate the idea that God can do whatever He wants. There is no authority above Him that He is subject to. Nothing can ever make God do anything.
So how do you make something that is immortal die? How do you wound the indestructible? How do you make finite what is infinite? I don’t know, but when God as Jesus became man, and died, that’s exactly what He did. He chose human humility, and the ultimate ignoble experience a god could possibly endure: death. Then, as the grand finale, He defied death and walked out of the tomb as easily as He could have ignored the rules to humanity all along.
Yes. All along. Remember in the garden when He was being arrested?
Matthew 26:53
Do you really think that I can’t just ask God,
and He would immediately send more than twelve legions of angels to me?
He was going along with it all along. You see, it is not what God can do that impresses me. It is what God can do that He doesn’t do that I am overwhelmed by. God is a being that can do whatever He wants. Yet, God contains the uncontainable. God restrains the unrestrainable. God has the ability to make the very impulse of His will whatever reality He so chooses. Think of it, what would humanity, (or if you are brave and honest enough – “you”) do with the power to do anything so desired? Yet, a God that can do anything… somehow stops Himself from doing everything.
God controls God.
Considering He used that control to “ungod” Himself and become human, just so He could submit to death, in order to beat death, so He could give us eternal life with Him, because He continually chooses of His own free will to love us…that is God’s most impressive power.
______________________
I have recorded audio versions of this, and my other devotionals, in formats that both do, and do not have background music. They can be listened to at…
SoundCloud.com/777arkV
I am an author, theologian and philosopher
I hope to be a teacher and a public speaker.
You can find information about me, my 1st book,
and much more that I’ve written at my website…
777arkV.com
Please note – If Bible verses are not specifically noted as being taken directly from the King James Version, I paraphrase all Bible verses that I use. The primary reason for this is in putting a verse into my own words I clearly expose how I read and understood the verse myself. Please always take the time to compare my understanding of a verse with the verse itself from your preferred translation of the Bible.
© 2015 Mark Vicari – All Rights Reserved
