“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:9)
Astronomers have means of observing and measuring galaxies and planets. They can determine the parameters of our solar system. Yet the study of astronomy and all the facts and figures concerning the heavens above us are far and away more phenomenal than we can ever grasp.
And still there is a “third heaven” that astronomers cannot study or ascertain. This “heaven of heavens” (Deut. 10:14) is also referred to as Paradise (Luke 23:43). It is well above and beyond all the galaxies and planets and solar systems and stars that we can observe. It is the dwelling place of God, the resurrected Christ, and angels and saints who have passed and is only knowable to the extent that God has shared in His Word.
God uses this metaphor – “as the heavens are higher than the earth” – to describe the degree to which His ways, His thoughts, His plans, strategies, methods, and means are beyond our own. We should not be surprised, then, when circumstances trend in ways we don’t understand, for God manages everything from an infinitely higher perspective than we can ever begin to comprehend.
God who is utterly good and gracious showers His mercy freely to us who deserve His wrath. God who knows and sees all shares His truth with men who are blinded by sin that they may repent and believe in order to gain a true sight of God. God in His love provided an unsearchable remedy for our otherwise hopeless condition in Christ the Savior for all those who believe.
God created man from the dust of the ground. Only an omniscient, omnipotent God could accomplish such a feat, for that dust did not know how it might be made man. Likewise, sinful man cannot conceive how he might be restored to his Creator after such a dreadful fall in Adam’s original sin. Yet this mystery of restoration was in the mind of God eternally, long before He breathed life into that dust. The recovery of our lost souls from eternal death was accomplished in the mind and plan of the most high God long before Adam ever breathed his first breath.
Francis Rous said, “Man fell, standing by himself; but the Godhead now stably supports him, and leads him by God to God.”
God assures us that He knows and controls everything in His world at all times and at every level of activity, with both His own children as well as pagan political powers that appear to be in charge (Luke 12:7, Matt. 10;29, Ps. 33:15-17, Prov. 21:1). All God’s works and ways are to a singular end – to glorify Himself and His Son. He will accomplish all His purposes by the means He chooses to the outcome He desires. And He will do so because He is God.
Would you really want a god who was incapable or inadequate to perform all that he desired? Could you respect or adore a god who operated out of the same level of limited knowledge and world view that you possess? Of course not! A god whose thoughts and ways could be rivaled by mere man would be no god at all. That kind of god could be called into question. The purposes and agendas of a god that small would not be trustworthy, and we would have every reason to doubt such a god.
But the God of the Bible is so infinitely and eternally bigger and greater and beyond anything we can ever think or do, for He is Jehovah God, King of kings and Lord of lords. He operates from a vantage point that we have no understanding of. He possesses power sufficient to execute His plan perfectly, without threat from any force. For He is God.
This truth should be a source of comfort, blessing, encouragement, peace and hope for those who love Him. The fact that we can’t comprehend what He is doing should move us to exalt and adore Him, for He is God. He is not us.
Our charge is to trust Him, to believe that He is good, and that everything He does is good. We are to exercise our faith in those situations that we don’t understand and believe that He has everything and everyone just where He wants at all times. And though we have interim experiences that are unpleasant, confusing, and even sometimes painful from our vantage point, we believe in a God whose ultimate outcomes will be glorious.
Trust in the Lord. Submit to Him as the God of your heart, your mind, and your life without trying to completely understand or question His ways or means. Remember that He is God and you are not. Let that truth flood your heart with peace and bolster your faith in your God whose ways and thoughts are not your own.
- O Lord, Your glory is undeniable. You exhibited Your glory through Your Son, Jesus Christ. It is evident everywhere in the universe You created. And yet I can only apprehend so little of it. You will not share Your glory with another, apart from Your Son who shares in that glory being equally God. Your glory gives light to darkness, power to weakness, and salvation to sinners. Thank You for saving a wretch like me!
- Lord, in Your wisdom alone, You sent Christ to save. Help me not diminish Your glory, but let it be the joy of my heart, fixed and immoveable, as I bask in the truth that you have freed me from corruption and misery.
- Lord, help me look to You for everything I need. Lead me by Your Spirit to You. In Your Son, the God-man Jesus Christ, is the remedy for all my ills. He is my Refuge from misery, my Fountain of goodness, the Way to happiness itself.
Further References for Isa. 55:9
Ps. 103:11; Rom. 11:33; Ps. 36:5, 77:19, 89:2; Jer. 29:11
