One of our sons is facing the famous 4^th grade "Mission Project" over the holiday. We’re going to need to be putting together a model of a typical California mission. We’ll be buying supplies, measuring things, cutting materials, gluing and painting. We’re going to be making a creation, a work of art. We’re much larger than the people that would go into our mission. What would seem a large distance to the miniature people is only a small distance to us. What would seem like a huge building stone to them will only be a sugar cube to us.

Keep this picture in mind as Isaiah goes on to paint a portrait of God in order to help us get a grasp on just how awesome and powerful our God is. God didn’t just build a mission project, He created the heavens and the earth.

The world’s oceans combined contain 321,253,800 cubic miles of water. That’s a lot of water! Yet God, in creating the earth, only needed to measure out the water in handfuls.

meted – measured

span – the distance between the thumb and the tip of the little finger, for us about nine inches.

The picture is that of measuring out the earth’s dirt in a little scoop or using a balance scale to measure out just the right amount of dirt.

This is a favorite verse of the apostle Paul. He quotes it in both Romans 11:34 and 1Corinthians 2:16.

directed – takan – to regulate, measure, estimate, ponder, balance, make even, level, weigh, be equal, be weighed out, test, prove. This is the same word that is used in verse 12, translated as "meted out the heaven with the span".

Sometimes we feel like we have to inform God about certain situations. We will even try to offer advice when we think that perhaps God needs a little help in figuring out how to handle our problem.

In the ancient marketplace, if the goods you were buying or selling were measured by weight, they would be weighed on a balance scale. The merchant would put the appropriate weight on one side of the scale and your merchandise on the other side. To prove that everything was honest, the merchant would usually blow on the side of the scale with the weight, supposedly blowing off the dust on the scale to show that you were going to make an exact transaction, no paying for dust! These great nations that surround us are nothing more to God than just this small, insignificant dust on a scale.

Lebanon is the country to the north of Israel, and was famous for it’s huge forests of cedar trees. If you were able to cut down all of Lebanon’s forests and kill all of it’s animals, you would not be able to present a sacrifice of a burnt offering that was actually worthy of God. We might use the "California Redwoods" to get the same idea.

Isaiah compares God with the idols that people worship instead of Him.

You don’t have to be wealthy to have an idol. We all can find ways of doing anything other than trusting God.

circle – you could legitimately translate this, "above the globe" (super sphaerum) as some of the ancient translations of this passage have it (John Gill). There is a hint of the world being round here. Be careful that you don’t swallow what some science teachers say, in saying that the Bible taught the world was flat. Not so.

All the great men of the earth. They’re nothing without God.

Those who rule nations can have a sense of authority and power about them. But all God needs to do is blow on them and they’re gone.

When we think of the billions upon billions of stars we get dazzled. The astronomers can only put numbers to them now. But God calls them all by name.

One of the Jewish commentaries of this passage (The Targum) translates this as, "because of the multitude of strength, and the power of might, not one is hindered from its order". It seems that this speaks of the natural laws of the universe by which all creation works.

O Jacob – though Isaiah is speaking to the Jews, I think it’s a pretty valid thing to insert your own name here. "O Richard", "O Debby", "O Dave"

Not only does God not get "faint", but He gives power to those who are "faint".

Have you been around any little ones this Christmas? It’s not uncommon for one of us "old folks" to be saying, "I wish I had a tenth of the energy that little one has!" Yet even the little ones get tired and crash.

wait – qavah – wait, hope, expect; to look eagerly for; to lie in wait for; linger for

renew – chalaph – to pass on or away; to change, substitute, alter, change for better, renew. It’s the idea of changing clothes, taking off the old stuff and putting on new ones. It’s taking our weakness and exchanging it for God’s strength.

mount up – ` alah – to go up, ascend, climb

There are three things mentioned here. And they go from the great to the ordinary. It’s a wonderful thing to fly like an eagle, but it can be down right ordinary to just walk.