1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, 2 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,560 Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn 3 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:21,840 Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm 4 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:26,000 Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one 5 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:42,280 Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. Today's 6 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: verse can be found in Isaiah chapter forty, verses twenty 7 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: six and twenty seven. Lift up your eyes and look 8 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: to the heavens who created all of these, He who 9 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: brings out the starry host one by one and calls 10 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: forth each of them by name, because of his great 11 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: power and mighty strength. Not one of them is missing. 12 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:07,960 Speaker 1: Why do you complain, Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, 13 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 1: my way is hidden from the Lord, My cause is 14 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:16,480 Speaker 1: disregarded by my God. I spent many summers at our 15 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: Christian summer camp, and what I enjoyed most about those 16 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:24,760 Speaker 1: summers were not the programs provided, were the lessons learned. 17 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 1: What I enjoyed most of all was lying in the 18 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 1: grass looking at the stars in the night. I would 19 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: sit there for hours, marveling at the beauty of the 20 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: night sky, looking at the starry host all displayed before me. 21 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: I often felt the immensity of God's presence. Christian theology 22 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: often talks about God's transcendence. God's transcendence relates to God 23 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:57,920 Speaker 1: being beyond our understanding or comprehension. God is always bigger 24 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: than what we think or dream. The transcendence of God 25 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:06,800 Speaker 1: is often connected to God as the creator of heavens 26 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: and earth. This is part of what Isaiah reveals. Lift 27 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: up your eyes to the heavens? Who created these? He 28 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,040 Speaker 1: who brings out the starry host one by one and 29 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,679 Speaker 1: calls each of them by name. Now there are two 30 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: things about this verse that are important. Firstly, this verse 31 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:31,720 Speaker 1: occurs directly after Israel's Babylonian exile. Israel had spent fifty 32 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: years in Babylon, and in that time they had become 33 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: familiar with the Babylonian belief, particularly that the stars were gods. 34 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:47,200 Speaker 1: The Babylonian people worship the stars above them as God's 35 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: over them. And so when God asks who created these 36 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: stars and calls them out by name, God was declaring 37 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:00,360 Speaker 1: God's Self as the lord over all of creation, over 38 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,240 Speaker 1: all of the Earth and all of the heavens. No 39 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 1: matter where you are, no matter what nation you're in, 40 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: no matter what stars you look to, there is no God, 41 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: but Yahweh. And so the stars at night declare the 42 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: grandeur of God. The heavens declare the glory of God, 43 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: says the Psalmist. But more importantly, the stars show God's 44 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: own intimate involvement with the world. God sustains the creation. 45 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 1: God says, I call out the stars one by one. 46 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 1: God says that his great power and his mighty strength 47 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: upholds them. Not one of them is missing. Now it 48 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: doesn't describe but one time act of creation. God is 49 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: engaged with the cosmos. Each night, God brings out the 50 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: stars one by one, calling them by name. J. K. 51 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: Chesterton has this wonderful reflection where he says that quote 52 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: it is possible that God says, every morning, do it 53 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:11,960 Speaker 1: again to the sun, and every evening, do it again 54 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:17,159 Speaker 1: to the moon end quote. In other words, the stars 55 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: exist not as some automatic process, but as an intentional 56 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:26,840 Speaker 1: and loving act sustained by the God who created them. 57 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,560 Speaker 1: The heavens declare the works of God, not as an 58 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: artist who created but then stepped back, but as a 59 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: lover who was constantly involved with the world that God made, 60 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: calling into existence that which belongs to the center of 61 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:50,680 Speaker 1: God's heart. God's transcendence is always paired with God's imminence, 62 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:55,359 Speaker 1: which means God being near us. So while the stars 63 00:04:55,400 --> 00:05:00,839 Speaker 1: above declare the immense creative grandeur of God, Isaiah says, 64 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:06,599 Speaker 1: they also show the nearness of God. God's nearness, though 65 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: isn't limited just to the stars. God's involvement in the 66 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:15,360 Speaker 1: world pertains to our own lives. After all, if God 67 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:17,880 Speaker 1: is so in love with the stars that God would 68 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: sustain them, and say, every evening, shine and gain, how 69 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:26,599 Speaker 1: much more are we sustained, we who are made in 70 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:32,159 Speaker 1: God's image. After disclosing God's lordship over all of creation, 71 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: as they had turned to the people of Israel and asks, 72 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: why do you say, oh Jacob, or complain, Oh Israel, 73 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 1: My way is hidden from the Lord. My cause is 74 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: disregarded by my God. There were many reasons why Israel 75 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 1: may have doubted God's care for them. Didn't they exile 76 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: itself testify that God had cast them off, that they 77 00:05:56,440 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: were disregarded and no longer God's beloved people. Isaiah Chapter 78 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: forty marks a specific turning point in the book. The 79 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: people who had experience and exile were no longer questioning 80 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:14,480 Speaker 1: whether God existed, but whether God cared for them. And 81 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: so to that question, Isaiah says, look at the stars. 82 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: Just like God calls the stars, God calls us by name. 83 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 1: God calls us, and God sustains us in full and 84 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: complete knowledge of who we are. And just as God 85 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,320 Speaker 1: sustains the stars, so God sustains you. Each and every 86 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:41,360 Speaker 1: day holds an invitation to turn ourselves to the Lord 87 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: and find in Him our deepest life and our fullest satisfaction. 88 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:50,920 Speaker 1: Isaiah continues, have you not known? Have you not heard? 89 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,880 Speaker 1: That the Lord is everlasting? The Lord is the creator 90 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 1: of every corner and every creature of the earth. And 91 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:03,200 Speaker 1: because God's soul lives everything that God made, you can 92 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: be confident that you are never disregarded by God. You 93 00:07:08,279 --> 00:07:12,440 Speaker 1: are never outside God's loving concern. God calls you by 94 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: name and unholds you with God's mighty head.