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St Johns Deepcar 9 November 2008
Isaiah 40:21-31
We saw last week that the message of comfort to God’s people in the midst of exile
begins with ‘Behold your God’.
In this chapter the prophet is focusing on the greatness of God. In the verses we have not
read he contrasts the greatness of God with the comparative weakness of the nations that
had so often threatened God’s people. He also contrasts the greatness of God with the
impotence of idols made by human craftsmen.
In verses 21-24, he speaks of the God who has created all things, who stretches out the
heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; he speaks also of the God
who outlasts all the empires that ever have been and that ever will be – who brings
princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. I remember the lines of
the poem about these ruins in the desert – “my name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look
on my works ye mighty and despair”.
We have been fortunate enough to live through a period of history when tyrants and
empires have come and gone – think of that amazing period at the end of the eighties and
at the beginning of the nineties. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall; the
amazingly easy overthrow of Ceaucescu in Romania; the defeat of apartheid and the
transition to majority rule in South Africa. On this Remembrance Sunday we remember
too the collapse of the Third Reich that was supposed to last a thousand years. He brings
princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One;
and he invites us to look up to the heavens. Here we need to remember the context of
Babylon. Babylon believed that the stars were gods, that they had control of our destiny.
They believed in astrology, star signs and all that nonsense. And God says “how can you
compare the stars to me! I created all these; I count them, I name them. They have no
power. They are part of all that I have made.”
To us the heavens are perhaps threatening in a different way. The view of the universe
portrayed by modern science is amazing and awesome, and can intimidate us – but it
declares the awesomeness and greatness of the God who created it!
This picture is called the Hubble Deep Space Field. This is a picture of a small section of
the sky – about the size of one tenth of the diameter of the full moon – near Orion. It
would be empty to the naked eye. But with a million second exposure from the Hubble
Space Telescope you see all this. They think there are about 10,000 galaxies in this
picture. If we go to the second picture you see that as we magnify we see more and more.
The size and scale of this Universe is mind-blowing. Each of those fuzzy shapes is a
galaxy. We are on a planet that goes around our star the sun. The sun is in our galaxy the
Milky Way. All the individual stars we see with the naked eye are part of our galaxy. The
Milky Way that we see is looking through the plane of our galaxy. Our galaxy contains
about 100,000 million stars. And in that picture are 10,000 galaxies – reproduce that
density across the whole sky and there are 50,000 million galaxies out there each with
millions of stars.
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him, says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who created these? He who brings out their host
by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he
is strong in power not one is missing.
The nearest star Alpha Centauri is 4 light years away. It takes light 4 years to get from
there to here. (24 million million miles). If we ever got there it would take radio signals 4
years to get back. 8 years for any sort of conversation between here and there! And
another 8 years for the next piece of conversation. The most distant galaxies in the picture
are thought to be about 12 thousand million light years away. The light from them started
its journey 12 thousand million years ago – more than twice the age of our sun.
The Universe is huge – it is huge in distance, it is huge in numbers of stars, it is huge in
the time that it has been around. Therefore the God who made it is truly awesome.
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him, says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who created these? He who brings out their host
by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he
is strong in power not one is missing.
I wonder how you react to the size and scale of the Universe. Does it make you feel
small? Does it make you feel insignificant?
Isaiah 40 says of God (v 22)
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like
grasshoppers.
Later Isaiah 40 speaks of a God who cares for us, as we will see.
But first I want to suggest some reasons from the scientific view of the Universe as to
why we should realize that we are not some insignificant by-product of a Universe that
doesn’t care about us.
I became a committed Christian at the age of 16. I was already interested in science. I
wondered then why there were so many stars, why the universe was so big, why the
Universe was so old.
The astonishing answer is – to make us! To make you and me. Let me explain.
The Big Bang at the beginning of the universe only produced the two lightest elements,
hydrogen and helium. It did not produce any of the interesting other elements that you
and I are made of – Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen., Iron and so on. They were made in the
first generation of stars that were formed. Inside stars nuclear reactions take place by
which small atoms like hydrogen and helium join together to make bigger elements like
carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and the rest. The process also releases huge amounts of energy
– same process as a hydrogen bomb- and the source of the sun’s energy that sustains life
on our planet.
Life can only form on planets containing those heavier elements. How does that happen?
Only after some of the first generation of stars blow up in a gigantic explosion called a
nova or a supernova, and scatter all those heavier elements out into space. Out of that
material a second generation of stars are made and also planets like ours that can support
and develop life.
The atoms that you and I are made of were created inside stars! As John Polkinghorne
has written
We are all made of the ashes of dead stars
Why is the Universe so old? Because life can only form on second generation stars and
planets.
Why so many stars and so far apart? Because supernovae have to be rare. Only 4 have
been seen in our galaxy in the last 1000 years. Supernovae are so violent that they are
seen in broad daylight, and we can see them in galaxies other than our own. If they were
too frequent, and too close to us, they would wipe out all life.
John Polkinghorne again
If life is to be possible, the world has to be about as big...as we actually find to be the
case. The reason for the necessary size is that a world much smaller would
have run its course before life had time to appear. It takes about eighteen thousand
million years to make men, both because the evolution of complex life takes time,
and also because it can only get going at all in the second generation of stars and
planets. This realization gives a surprising twist to our contemplation of the
immensity of the universe. Without all those trillions and trillions of stars we should
not be here to be dismayed by them.
So – are we insignificant chance by-products in an immense universe? Are we just
primeval slime on an obscure planet?
Many scientists (including those who would not call themselves Christians) recognize
that we are much more significant than primeval slime.
1) stars and space necessary to make us
2) in us the Universe has become aware of itself (and its creator)
3) We are far more complex and wonderful than any star !
A star is big – but it is actually very simple. A star is big – but it doesn’t know that it is!
Polkinghorne again
when someone looks through a telescope ‘ the most significant thing in the
known
universe is still immediately behind the eyes of the astronomer’.
And that thing is the human brain.
Truly we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
So faced by the awesome size and history of the Universe should we feel insignificant?
No – because we have a great and awesome God who has made all of this with His
purposes for us as the driving force. Isaiah knew that 2,500 years ago.
The great and awesome God who made you also is awesome enough to care about you
and to care for you
Listen again to verses 27 to 31 of Isaiah 40.
So we see a great and majestic universe; therefore we have an even greater and more
majestic Creator God. A God big enough to deal with this universe. But also a God big
enough to care about you and to fill you with His strength and His love. Our God does
big picture – but he also cares about the detail. As we continue through this series on
Isaiah to behold our God, we will see that God’s greatness lies in his care for us, and in
his willingness to become a suffering servant for us. We have sung “How great Thou
art”- great in creation, but also great in sending his Son for us. You can rest upon him
and his care for you – and He will uphold you and renew your strength.