Isaiah 40:15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold… I. THE GREATNESS OF GOD AND HIS WORKS. II. GOD CONSTANTLY GOVERNETH THE WORLD WHICH HE HATH MADE. And as all creatures from the highest to the lowest have their subsistence in the power of God, so they are each of them noticed by His eye and governed by His providence; that is, by the immediate energy of His own power, or by agents which are under His direction, and who cannot act but by His power. That care of the Supreme Being, by which this general order or stated course of things is preserved, may not unfitly be called a general providence. Consider the great extent of it. It taketh place not only in the frame of the universe, the regular motion of the vast bodies which compose it, by which we have spring and harvest, summer and winter, day and night; not only in the fruitfulness of the earth, and the state of the several kinds of animals which inhabit it, and the manner in which the kinds and the individuals are preserved; but in human affairs likewise. But it is particularly pleasing to observe how minutely this providence of the Supreme Being descendeth, even to the notice and direction of the smallest and most inconsiderable things. Our Saviour, and this according to the justest philosophy that ever appeared in the world, representeth His Heavenly Father as clothing the lilies of the field, and as feeding the ravens; and argues from this, that if He attends to these things, which are comparatively of the smallest account, surely His providence will not neglect His creatures of a nobler order (Luke 12.). Thus, though God is so great, "He humbleth Himself to behold things which are done in heaven and upon earth," and takes notice even of the lowest orders of creatures, and of every individual. For, besides that general order of causes and effects which He hath established, and maintaineth from age to age, there are plain footsteps of a particular providence regarding individual persons. By the interpositions of providence things are so governed and conducted that His purposes are pursued and carried into execution; and manifold are the means by which this may be effected. How important the events which arise out of things which appear to us purely accidental! III. These reflections naturally lead our thoughts to THE HAPPINESS OF THE SUPREME BEING IN HIS PERFECTIONS AND WORKS, a subject, indeed, as little to be comprehended by us, as we can find out the Almighty unto perfection. Yet we cannot avoid the thought how high, and in all respects perfect, the felicity of the first cause of all things must be; and love to God will make a right heart rejoice and exult in it. Nor let it be objected, that in the universe there is much irregularity, and many evils and sufferings. For what to us hath the appearance of irregularity may be, nay, assuredly is, necessary to the harmony of the whole; and part of a design which was the best and worthiest which could be framed. As for those sufferings which the subjects of a moral government bring upon themselves, they are as necessary as that government itself; which is indeed the glory of God's creation, and without which, and those orders of creatures which are made to be the subjects of such a government, the universe must have been nothing to what it is now. An universe without angels, without men, without any such orders of intellectual and moral beings, what would it have been? But the glorious Head and Regent of that vast body, which is all harmony, all order and beauty, and in which no part of the grand design hath failed, or ever can fail, what happiness must He taste! Concluding reflections — 1. If our minds are rightly impressed with a sense of the Divine greatness and majesty, how little must what we are apt to call great upon earth appear in our eye! 2. Let us in all things meekly and affectionately submit to the supreme Ruler; in humble obedience to His laws, and in unreserved resignation to His providence. 3. Let us put our trust in God. (J. Duchals, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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