“God Is Mighty”

“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.” (1Chron. 29:11)

Yet today it seems that God has some competition; “science & technology” is often presented as the answer to life’s problems. Technology will solve all our problems …  put your faith in science. Our grand accomplishments can seem to be almost “god like”. 

Science & technology can seem intimidating.  Have you ever seen an aircraft carrier or a battleship? The Battleship Missouri, on which the Japanese signed the official surrender ending WWII, was almost 3 football fields long (887’)  The Saturn V rocket that blasted Neil Armstrong to the moon was taller than the Statue of Liberty; it weighed over 6 million pounds, generating more thrust than the equivalent of 85 Hoover Dams….. woe, woe, woe.

We’re now talking about putting people on Mars, making robots that can do most human’s jobs, and “Artificial Intelligence” that can make Einstein look like a dummy. It reminds me of the scriptural story about the Tower of Babel, where the people said, ” Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” (Gen. 11:1-9) That didn’t work out so well. We can get pretty confident because of our accomplishments, yet reality has a way of smothering our delusions of grandeur. 

During WWII, Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet plowed into a powerful Pacific Typhoon east of the Philippines. By the time the tropical cyclone passed, three U.S. destroyers had been sunk with 775 of their crewmen lost. Halsey described how his ship, the mighty New Jersey would hang in the troughs and then slowly right herself, lurching and laboring to the tops of swells…..no one who has not been through a typhoon can conceive its fury …. the 70-foot seas smashed you from all sides.” The huge battleship looked invincible when docked in the harbor, but not when being smashed by 70 foot seas.

God’s nature can cause the greatest of man’s accomplishments to fizzle out. Weather can “ground”  the most sophisticated planes and rockets. We may boast of our great rockets, but if the weather is not clear, it’s staying on the ground. In 2010 the Iceland Volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, erupted causing prolonged closure of European airspace; 100,000 flights were cancelled due to the volcanic ash with over 10 million people affected”. The recent flooding in Vermont is the worst in almost 100 years…. the state capital is underwater.  It goes on and on.

Dave this is all very interesting, but what’s the point? The point is that God still rules the earth. Our greatest accomplishments and strengths are impotent when compared to the might of God. The only safe haven for the human race is in the embrace of Almighty God. We may think we are the kings of our domains, but it all can  collapse like a sandcastle when the tide comes in. Our only security is in the arms of our great and mighty Lord. 

“The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Is. 40:28-31)