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.
Isaiah 40:15-17
Across all the world’s countries, there are an estimated 45,000,000 active duty and reserve soldiers. There are thousands of planes, tanks, and rockets. It is believed that there are more than 12,000 nuclear weapons active and available for use. There is a degree of military power available to the leaders of nations that dwarfs anything seen before in human history. Great advances in science have combined with military technology to produce weapons even out of elements such as light and sound that would have seemed like miracles to people of an earlier age. Each time defensive weapons technology advances, new offensive capabilities are developed as well. Today our world has power beyond imagining, yet none of this is even measurable against the unlimited power of God Almighty.
Ever since the Garden of Eden man has been attempting to lift himself up to God’s level without God being involved in the process. That was what was behind the building of the Tower of Babel. Though God had commanded Noah’s sons and their descendants to spread over the world they instead chose to gather together and build a great tower that would be too high for even a flood to destroy. It was nothing less than an attempt to rival, if not to directly overthrow, God. Yet the best efforts of man apart from God are always doomed to failure. God confounded their language and ended their project. “So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city” (Genesis 11:8).
No matter what powers rise in this world, they are never a threat to the purposes of God. As Christians, we do not have to live in fear of what people may do. Our confidence is not in favorable circumstances or human strength, but in the God before whom the nations are “as a drop of a bucket.” When His will seems opposed and His purposes seem impossible, we can still trust Him and move forward in faith. Nothing is beyond His power, and nothing can prevent Him from accomplishing what He intends.
