Many of us through the years who call ourselves Christians have heard of our Sovereign Lord but we actually do not know him. We go through the motions but do not understand what it really means to bow before Him nor have we totally submitted ourselves to him. Just as many have walked and talked with Jesus only a few really knew and believed in him. We see this in Matthew 9, which talks about the great faith of a couple of people. While the first part of the faith story was taking place among a crowd that was almost crushing Jesus, a women “thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.” What about all the people who were gathered around Jesus? But “30 Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me? 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Then Jesus healed the synagogues leader’s daughter. We also have to ask where is the immediately gone of this healing power. They were not just walking and talking but they believed. Luke 18:8 “Jesus said when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Yesterday I asked if you would read Isaiah 40. It is really important for us to understand who our God is. Isaiah 40:9 “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor? 14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding? 15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.17 Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.18 With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him? 19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. 20 A person too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot; they look for a skilled worker to set up an idol that will not topple.”
We also see this in the journey of Job’s suffering, even though Job 1 “was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil,” God allowed satan to torment him. At the end of this journey God said that Job had spoken the truth about Him. Near the end God said, 7 “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Then God proceeded to question him. Just before this Job “answered the Lord: 4 “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. 5 I spoke once, but I have no answer— twice, but I will say no more.” 6 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: 7 “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Page after page question after question God compared himself to man with questions like 40:9 “Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like his?”
Then Job in humility said this to the Sovereign Lord. Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” We too must come to making the same statement in humility before our Sovereign Lord. Most of us have heard of the Lord God Almighty but most of us do not know him nor have we seen him s we live in a day where people Judges 2:10 “knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.”
Join with me in praying that we will also see the King as Isaiah saw. Isaiah 6:5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Simeon also said in Luke 2:28 “Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” Peter also said, 1 Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
