Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. Isaiah 40:15
Perspective can be tricky. If you look at a smaller item in the foreground compared to something much larger beside it but considerably farther away, they can both appear the same size, or the much smaller item can seem larger than the one which is more distant. If you hold a pen or pencil at arm’s length, it will appear to be more or less its actual length. But, if you bring it much closer to you, it will seem to stretch from floor to ceiling! Obviously, the writing instrument did not grow, only the way you perceive it.
The way you see everything in your life boils down to perspective. If a situation occupies an inordinate amount of space in your thoughts, it can begin to appear much bigger than it really is. Keeping something that close in front of your face, your eyes, your thoughts, allows it to grow into a monster situation instead of just being the situation that it is.
Another thing that can influence your perspective is your focus. When you choose to focus on something, it tends to become larger and more significant just because focusing on that thing puts every other thing out of focus. That is one of the many reasons the Word of God tells you not to worry about tomorrow — if you focus on tomorrow then you miss out on today. Then when tomorrow does finally get here, your focus has shifted to the next tomorrow so it did absolutely no good to worry about tomorrow yesterday. That is obviously a very confusing and unfruitful way to approach (or shall we say “look at”) life — you miss what is right in front of you by always trying to focus on what is not even there!
Let’s get to the bucket. Your problems and trials of life can seem so huge when that is all you see and all you think about and all you are focused on. They become larger than life and can consume you. What is needed is some perspective. For instance, in the overall scheme of things, how big is this situation really? It might seem insurmountable from your current perspective, but take a step back or hold it at arm’s length and get a fresh perspective.
Our verse today is about perspective and specifically about anything compared to the Lord. If you put the Lord in His proper place in your life (front and center, first place) then everything else will begin to take on its relative size and importance compared to the matchless splendor and awesomeness of the Lord God Almighty!
To drive this point home, the Lord uses the example of the nations of the world. What if your problems were that gargantuan — you had entire nations against you. All of the might and power of the strongest nations of the world. That would be an enormous problem for sure. But our God is bigger, incomparably bigger. The picture we are given here is a set of balance scales. Honest weights and measures were very important in Biblical times (as they should be today!) and having something on one side or the other that did not belong would “tip the scales”. There would naturally be a miniscule amount of dust on the scales but not even enough to affect the balance. That’s how small all of the nations of the world are (and any problem you might face) compared to the Lord — no more than a drop in a bucket!
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