How Big Is God?
In Genesis 17 we find the story of a man who is called the Father of Many Nations. People of Jewish faith claim him as their father; the Muslims also claim him as their father. His name is Abraham.
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee,” (Genesis 17: 1-6).
Have you ever noticed that Abraham fell on his face? (See verse 3.) The charismatics aren’t the only ones who do it! That is called the power of God. Some call it being slain in the Spirit. When Abraham fell under the power of God, God promised to make him the father of many nations. Then He changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Before this God had spoken to him in Genesis 15:5 and said, “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
I want to ask you a question: How big is your God? Is He bigger than a breadbasket? Is your God bigger than your church? Bigger than your problems? Sometimes I walk through my house almost losing my breath thinking, “God! If only I could tell people how great You really are! Lord, isn’t there some way I can tell them You are a big God?”
Do you know what God was saying when He said, “I am the Almighty God”? According to Dake’s Annotated Bible, He was saying, “I am El Shaddai.” El means “the strong one,” and Shaddai means “the breasted one.” Dake’s Bible says this passage “reveals God as the Fruitful-One who was to multiply Abram abundantly; the Life-Giver who was to restore life to Abraham and Sarah who were as good as dead, as far as offspring was concerned.” You see, that term “the breasted one” means that God is sufficient for whatever you need. This God is the one who in the beginning said, “Light, be!”
Time magazine (12/27/76) wrote about God saying, “Light, be!” In a special cover story on stars, Time said, “Most cosmologists–scientists who study the structure and evolution of the universe–agree that the biblical account of creation, in imagining an initial void, may be uncannily close to the truth.”
The article goes on to say, “The universe, they believe, is the expanding remnant of a huge fireball that was created 20 billion years ago by the explosion of a giant primordial atom. The debris of the fireball, like the fragments of a titanic bomb, is still speeding outward from this cataclysmic blast, which started the process that produces not only stars and planets but also the complex structure of life. This startling concept, called the big bang theory, picked up its first substantial scientific support in 1929. […] Scientists can now envision a still expanding universe that began almost 20 billion years ago, extends for 20 billion light years and contains 10 billion galaxies each one an island of hundreds of billions of stars. Looking into the star-filled firmament, astronomers actually perceive a four-dimensional universe, one that has the added measure of time.”
Have you ever walked outdoors on a beautiful, starlit night, looked into the sky, and said, “Wow!” Have you ever thought, “God, You are out there somewhere! You said it.” Scientists are saying it looks like God said, “Light, be!” and it’s still going boom, boom, boom! When God said it He never took it back, and it is still expanding. This concept of God is more than the human mind can contain.
Abraham walked out of his tent and someone named God said, “Will you be My friend?”
Abraham said, “You mean me? You–Who made the stars–want me for a friend?” Abraham’s mind could not contain the bigness of this God, but he began to follow God by faith into a land he didn’t understand. Abraham is an illustration of the fact that you can only take God by faith.
Have you ever looked out at the stars and asked, “God, how could You know about a personal need in my life? How can You be concerned with my problem? I mean, aren’t You busy with the booming, banging, expanding universe?”
Isaiah says, “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” (Isaiah 40:12). What kind of hand does God have? He meted out heaven with the span of his hand. Can you begin to realize the size of what we’re dealing with when we wonder how big is God?
You may have shaken your fist at the heavens and said, “If there is a God, why doesn’t He answer my prayer! Is there a God? Where are you, God?” In the Psalms, David says, “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down” (Psalm 104:19) and “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handvwork” (Psalm 19:1). That’s how big my God is! Even the scientists are believing it!
Abraham stood looking up into the stars, and he believed that this God who spoke to him was able to give him a baby boy. Abraham was an old man. He was past the age of having children. Sarah was old, also. And yet he believed that his descendants would be as the myriad of stars he stood gazing at. God had said, “So shall thy seed be” (Genesis 15:5). Twenty-five years passed by, and yet Abraham believed God–more than he believed Sarah, more than he believed that he himself was an old man. By this time he was almost 100 years old. He kept looking up into the stars and remembering what God said in His promise. He is El Shaddai–the breasted one, the all-sufficient God. By faith Abraham saw a little son playing at his feet. He even talked to his servants about his boy.
They probably said, “Poor Abraham…but be nice to him, he’s our boss. We don’t want to lose our jobs…”
But one day they thought Sarah was looking a bit strange. Then they heard a sound coming from her tent. It was a cry! Could it be a baby?
At last, Abraham’s son, Isaac, was born. And do you know what the name Isaac means? It means laughter! Guess who got the last laugh!
Because of his faith, Abraham made the best-seller–he got into the New Testament as well as the Old Testament. Have you noticed that faith people keep making best-sellers? Paul said of Abraham, “As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). That nonexistent thing was Isaac. Abraham kept seeing him running around by the eyes of faith–but it was 25 years before he got to hold his son in his arms. Abraham did not weaken in faith when he discovered the impotence of his own body. No unbelief made him waver or doubt the promise of God. He grew strong in faith and gave praise and glory to God. The secret of it was that he kept saying, “Thank you, God, for my baby boy.”
Just look up at the stars and ask yourself, “How big is God?” Is He bigger than your crutches? Bigger than a wheelchair?
One Christmas Eve the pastor of a large church in New York City was busy preparing his Christmas sermon. This church ran a home for emotionally disturbed children, but most of the children had gone home to be with their families for Christmas. On Christmas Eve the governess of the home came to the pastor and said, “Tommy is upset because he has no place to go for Christmas, and he won’t get out from under the bed. Can you come and talk to him?”
The pastor went into Tommy’s room. Since the little boy was under the bed, the pastor sat down and began talking to the cowboys and Indians on the bedspread. He began saying, “You know, Tommy, the Christmas carols are going to be beautiful. This is going to be a wonderful Christmas…”
There was no response. He had to hurry; it would soon be time for him to deliver his Christmas sermon.
Finally the pastor got down on his hands and knees and looked under the bed. All he could see were two big, blue eyes. Tommy was eight years old, but he looked only five. The pastor scooted on his stomach until he was right next to Tommy, and he just kept talking. “You know, Tommy, we’re going to have a wonderful Christmas dinner. All the children are going to sing…”
He ran out of anything to say, so the pastor just lay quietly under the bed next to Tommy. In a few moments a tiny hand grasped his and held on.
The pastor said, “You know, Tommy, it’s cramped under here. Why don’t we get out?”
Without a word both of them slid out from under the bed and stood up, Tommy still holding tight to his hand. And the pastor thought to himself, “I just got my Christmas sermon.”
Hasn’t God dealt with us just like that pastor dealt with Tommy? He first called to us with his miracle of creation–the stars and the heavens, the mountains and the oceans. He pleaded with us to enjoy the universe that He created. When we wouldn’t listen, He drew closer through the prophets and lawgivers–holy men of God who spoke to other men face to face. But it was only when a baby named Jesus was born that God stooped down and crawled under the bed. He got close to us and showed His love to us; then He was able to lift us up from that place of despair. He is big enough to rule the mighty universe; yet small enough to live within your heart.
Look up at the stars with the faith of Abraham and say, “God is big enough to take care of my problem and He is small enough to crawl under the bed and hold my hand.”