The Majesty of God
(week 13/02)
Olubi Johnson
The majesty of God speaks of his infinite power, wisdom and wonderful character all wrapped into one. A revelation of God’s majesty in all of its awesome fullness will cause you to have a great fear or reverence of God and at the same time great faith in His love and omnipotence. This will remove any fears and doubts in our minds about either God’s willingness or ability to perfect that which concerns us in every area of our lives.
The form of God and the form of a servant
The form of God we are most used to is his human form as manifested in the Lord Jesus when He was on the earth. However this is not God’s original form that reveals the fullness of His majesty.
To appreciate this better suppose you were to meet the President of the United States at an informal gathering, say in a restaurant somewhere, and he was introduced to you whilst wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt or some other casual wear. It is possible that you leave that restaurant with the impression that Mr. President is a very amiable person, easy-going and quite an ordinary person.
However, were you to go to the White House, and request to see him, it would be a very different matter indeed! And suppose you came to the White House on a day when the President had just arrived from one of his trips abroad and you saw him alight from his helicopter on the lawn with the guard of Marines standing at attention, the red carpet treatment and the White House band playing, ‘Hail to the Chief’. You now see him in his glory as President of the United States and leader of the free world! You would surely have a different response to him, especially when you realize that his favour or disfavour could make or break you! If the President of the United States were to take a liking to you and invite you to come and visit him…! It probably means that God has really had mercy on you!
When you see the U.S. President in his informal, ‘laid-back’ setting you could fail to appreciate who he really is and what resources are available to him in his position. However, when you see Mr. President in his glory, you would really appreciate who he is, and the way you would relate to him will be very different- different from the way you would have related to him in the restaurant.
In the same way most of us only have a picture of God in his servant form, i.e. as the man Jesus. Consequently we find it difficult to picture His omniscience and omnipotence.
We need to realise that Jesus was originally in the form of God before He took on our human form.
Philippians 2:5-7 (KJV) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
That original form of God is astronomically bigger and more powerful than any thing we can imagine in this physical realm. What is God’s form like? How big is it relative to man? We find the answers to these questions revealed by the Holy Spirit through the scriptures.
What is God’s form and how big is God?
Man was made in the image and likeness of God so even though God is a spirit each person of the God head has a definite shape and form.
Furthermore each person of the Godhead has a definite image, likeness and shape:
Genesis 1:26 (KJV) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
John 5:37 (KJV) And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
So each person of the Godhead has spiritual (just like we have physical) members: a head, arms, legs etc. since man is made in the image and likeness of God. So God is a person with a definite image and shape: He is not a cloud or just some intangible influence. For instance the person of the Holy Spirit is described in Ezekiel 8: 2:
Ezekiel 8:2-3 (KJV) Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
However, in God’s form the size of God’s spiritual body is astronomically larger than that of man. We get an insight into the size of this God’s form in Isaiah 40:12-17
Isaiah 40:12-17 (KJV) 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? Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
In this passage of scripture, the Lord gives us a clue as to just how big He is relative to the things he has created. The passage is deeply pregnant with meaning. For example, in verse 12, the scripture says that the measure of the heavenlies, the first heavens (the earth’s atmosphere and outer space) and the second and third heavens, relative to God are no more than the distance between the tip of His thumb and the tip of His little finger of the same hand, when the palm is splayed out. In a man, this distance is about nine inches.
Therefore God’s ‘nine inches’, so to speak, is the distance between the earth’s atmosphere through the second heavens where Satan’s kingdom operates and into the third heavenlies where divine activity takes place!
In verse 15 of the passage also, the scripture says that all the nations of the world, all the peoples and kindred and tongues, all their achievements – all are a single drop of water in a bucket relative to the ‘bigness’ of God! Furthermore, all the continents of the world (the isles) are considered as a ‘very little thing’ compared to God’s size!
Again in Isaiah 40:17, the scripture makes clear the fact that all the nations of the earth are less than nothing relative to God.
The passage continues by speaking against those who make and bow down to graven idols as their gods. Such people are insulting the greatness of the only true God. This is why one of the Ten Commandments delivered to Israel forbade the making of graven images. There is nothing that any man can fashion that can remotely begin to compare to whom God is!
Order of Magnitude of God’s size revealed in the heavens
The Bible says in Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God: they give us an indication of how big, wise and powerful God is:
Psalm 19:1 (KJV) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
There is a pattern that is consistent in all creation, which is exemplified by the solar system. All the planets of our solar system revolve about the sun. Similarly, some of the planets, Earth for example, have one or more moons which revolve around these planets. All the planets also revolve around their own axis. If we consider this at the sub atomic level, we find also that this same pattern of lesser bodies revolving around a greater body is consistent. Atoms are made up of electrons and other particles which revolve around a charged nucleus.
Therefore the pattern of the heavens is replicated in the molecules of every substance in creation, be it cloth, cement, wood, or any other. Everything is made up of tiny particles that are revolving or oscillating around a central nucleus, and that sub-system also is revolving around something bigger than it, and so on, until we reach the planetary system. So everything in creation, no matter how complex, is made up of a basic system of lesser bodies, be they electrons, or, planets, which revolve around a larger body.
The Lord gave us a personal revelation of the degree of orders of magnitude of the planet earth relative to Himself. To God, the planet earth is no bigger than an electron is to us. So to God our planet is revolving around a nucleus, which is the sun in our particular solar system. Our solar system, with all its planets and stars, He said, is to Him like one atom is to us, in His creation called the universe.
There are billions of galaxies with solar systems like ours, which form the created universe. Now, the created universe is not just physical. At the lowest level is the universe which man has been able to perceive by sending out spacecraft and space probes and from which man has received signals. All of this is merely the first heavens.
There is also the second heaven which surrounds the first heavens as another spherical region; and then there is the third heavens another spherical region which surrounds the first and second heavens. It is this third heavens that is of the order of magnitude of God Himself. The basis of this revelation is found in Scripture:
2 Corinthians 12:2 (KJV) I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
Psalm 115:16 (KJV) The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
The parable of the sower, according to the Lord Jesus, contains in it all of the principles of the mysteries of God:
Mark 4:11-13 (KJV) And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
In Mark 4:20, those in the kingdom bring forth fruit, 30-fold, 60-fold, or 100-fold. These three levels of fruit bearing correspond to the Outer Court, Holy Place and Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle of Moses:
Mark 4:20 (KJV) And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
Now, the Scripture says the invisible things of God are understood by the created, physical things we can see:
Romans 1:20 (KJV) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Now it is a scientific fact that the diameter of the physical universe, the first heavens, is a sphere whose radius is presently (since the universe is still constantly expanding) of the order of 1030 meters (i.e. 10x10x10x10 …… 30 times; 1 billion is 10x10x10 …… 9 times).
So in the manifold wisdom of God, we see that the first heavens or outer court of God’s creation is a sphere of radius of the order of 1030 m, the second heavens corresponds to he Holy Place of God’s creation, a sphere of radius of the order of 1060 m, which completely surrounds the first heavens while the third heavens correspond to the most Holy place of God’s creation of the order of 100100 m, which completely surrounds the first and second heavens.
Therefore, relative to man, God is of the order of 10100 times as big as man. That is why our planet, Earth, is to Him like an electron or a smaller elementary particle, is to us, or smaller, and so the Scripture says all nations are before Him as nothing and counted as less than nothing.
In our next article we will see how this revelation of the majesty of God causes us to have faith in God’s sovereignty.
