Down with the Bigness?


The Bigness of God, that’s a thought to focus on. I really do not think that any of us have even an idea of just how big He is. I was talking with some guys that meet for coffee regularly on Thursday morning (you know who you are) and the question was raised about a part of Ezekiel 47 or not really a question just more or less a thought about this part of the scripture.

47 The River From the Temple 1 The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits (1500ft) [a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep.

Why is the water ankle-deep the closer you are to the temple? You would think that the closer to the temple you are, the further “caught up in God” you might be (deep end). Or the”water” would be at its deepest the closer to the temple you are. The scripture tells a different story though. 1500 ft from the temple it’s only ankle-deep. If you follow the progression back to the temple it’s just a trickle coming out from under the threshold. I think this points to the immenseness of God. God’s bigness, I think that his bigness eludes a lot of us. We have a cookie cuter idea of good that’s all nice and simple and we try to make that idea fit us. We try and make the idea and Gods grandeur fit into nice little molds of how we think he should be and how he should operate. We do this because that’s how we think. We are finite and our ways are limited (even though we like to think of them as limitless), but God is not. All it takes is just a touch of his glory to change things.

Mathew 9:18-22 (NIV

18While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." 19Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed."
22Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment.

This scripture says a lot about faith, the faith the woman had in the fact that Jesus was who he said he was , but I believe it speaks a great deal more about the bigness of God. The woman merely touched the edge of his Garment, only the edge. Now most of us picture this as her grabbing the very end of his garment with her hand and this amazing thing taking place with maybe some music in the back ground (movie version), but I think it was more like a graze of the finger across his garment. A touch that you or I would never know happened. And that’s all it took. Just that touch, everything for her from that point on was different for her because of the bigness of God.
The Titanic was said to be unsinkable according to those who designed it. It was a marvel of modern technological achievement. The ship was 882.6 feet long and 175 feet high. The ship displaced 46,329 tons of water. The Ice berg that it struck was “according to early newspaper reports the height and length of the iceberg was approximated at 50 to 100 feet high and 200 to 400 feet long.” So the Titanic dwarfed the iceberg in comparison. What they saw was “just the tip of the iceberg” 90% of the mass of an iceberg is below the surface. That 10% was powerful enough to sink the unsinkable. Only 10%, can you imagine a total out pouring of Gods glory? Would we be able to handle it? Moses ask god to show him his glory his very face, but God would only show Moses where he had been (while Moses was living). Moses caught a glimpse of where he had been just a small glimpse of where his glory had passed and from that left changed. So just a trickle from the temple turns into a massive river that no one could cross, just a drop of his glory creates an ocean

The point is that it takes only a small amount of his glory, say a touch of his garment or a trickle of water from his temple and people and things are changed forever. Some people are moved to tears by it while others are ready to taken on the wild sea. Irregardless of the reaction the source is the same. A small portion of him is enough to set a soul ablaze.