“A Drop in the Bucket” – FBC Morning Light (7/22/2024)

Well good Monday morning to you. Hope you had a wonderful weekend gathering with God's people and worshiping the Lord together yesterday. Well today, on this Monday morning, our Bible reading is in Isaiah chapters 40 to 43.

You know, one of the most encouraging passages in this section of Isaiah is at the end of chapter 40. It talks about those who wait on the Lord, well, He will give strength and they'll mount up with wings as eagles and so forth.

But I want to focus on a couple of verses that appear earlier in that chapter, in verses 15 to 17. So have you seen those pictures that show, you know, like a picture from the edge of the solar system or the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, the edge of our galaxy?

And there's this little circle, very tiny circle, that shows up at a point in the Milky Way, in the picture of the Milky Way galaxy. And we're told this is where we live, you know, the planet Earth. And you can't even see it.

I mean it's just that tiny, it's just so small. So I thought about that when I read these verses in Isaiah 40. Verse 15 says, Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are as counted as the small dust on the scale.

This is God's perspective on the nations of this earth. I think this is the kind of perspective that those who love Christ and those who worship the God of the Bible, the one true God, need to have on life on this planet.

Okay, so look, I'm an American, and I believe that the United States is the greatest nation on the planet, and perhaps one of the greatest nations that's ever existed in history, in many, many ways. And yet, while I'm proud to be an American, and I think the U .S. is the great nation and all the rest of that, I have to keep in mind God's perspective on my nation, my country, and his perspective on it is just a speck of dust.

You know, he goes on to say, the writer here of Isaiah the prophet, he says, Look, he, the Lord, lifts up the isles as a very little thing. Lifts up the islands as a very little thing. Now, think of that, for example, in light of, say, the Hawaiian Islands.

You know, we're told that the Hawaiian Islands are the result of volcanic activity, that there was a time when all that was under the surface of the water, and then volcanic activity caused an upheaval in the earth's crust, and boom, you know, these volcanoes appeared, and what became islands.

Well, that would have been a great cataclysmic event, and perhaps that happened in the aftermath or during the time of the flood. I don't have those answers. But anyway, the point is, that which is such a great cataclysmic event that, you know, we could conceivably witness in our day, out in an ocean somewhere, is but a little thing for God to do.

It's nothing for him to lift up the isles. It's just a very little thing. He goes on to say, in verse 17, All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing, and worthless.

In other words, you know, we as human beings on this planet, whatever country we live in, whether it's the United States, or one of the European countries, or Australia, or one of the Asian countries, it doesn't matter.

I've been to very few countries outside the United States, but those that I have been in, the people there, they love their nation. You know, I went to Singapore several years ago, and the people that we interacted with, they loved their land.

They loved their nation of Singapore. They wouldn't want to move to the United States and live here for anything. They'd much rather live in Singapore. I get that, I understand that, and that's really kind of the way it ought to be.

But, as believers in the one true God, let's have God's perspective on the nations of the earth, that, you know, they are to him but a speck of dust. Now, on the one hand, that might make us feel like, you know, God doesn't care about the nations of the earth.

Oh no, au contraire, my friend. I mean, not at all. God does care about the nations of the earth. Specifically, he cares about the people of the nations. I'm gonna read later in Isaiah this week that the Lord sends his servant to be a light to the nations.

So, even though in terms of the significance of the individual nations, that they are as nothing before him, that doesn't mean God doesn't love the people, and God hasn't done something to bring about the salvation of the people of the nations of the earth.

Indeed, he has. But, let's have God's perspective. You know, we're in the middle of a political season. This last week, the Republican National Convention was held, and they did their thing, and then the Democratic National Convention is gonna do their thing, and there's gonna be all of this conflict and debate over the next several months about, you know, who's gonna make the United States greater?

Which presidential candidate, if he's elected, will make the United States greater than it's been in the past? And legitimate political stuff, I get that. But again, as God's people, let's step back and have God's perspective.

The nations are as a drop in a bucket. We serve a great God, an almighty, all-powerful, transcendent God who is above all. Let's praise him for it. Thank you, Father, for who you are. Thank you for your greatness, and thank you, Father, that we can trust you and we are your people, the sheep of your pasture, whom you care about and you love.

Give us your perspective on life and on our world, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Monday, and I hope you have a wonderful week. Lord bless.