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This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world. If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts. This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.
Isaiah 40: 21-26
This is about God's power and yet it is interesting to look at how it is exercised.
Before I do that, it is important to remember the writers of this text had a different cosmology to the Newtonian one most of us cling to despite the massive changes that have taken place in physics over the last century, sometimes referred to as quantum mechanics.
These changes in cosmology are not necessarily a problem. They have happened before during the history of Christianity and do not invalidate the main points of the Jewish and Christian faiths.
At first glance, in this passage we have an all powerful God who exercises power over creation. But look closer, there is nothing about design - God sits above, stretches the heavens, makes rulers as nothing, brings out the host, numbers them. Just about anything but design.
This powerful God certainly interacts with creation, sometimes in ways which might not be welcomed. But this is not a God who is in control.
God lays the foundations; creates the environment in which creation evolves. God asks questions of God's creation. They are rhetorical questions, that draw attention to God. God is saying, don't lose yourself in creation, can't you see there is more to it than your immediate environment?
It is a call to transcend where we are and seek something else entirely. Is this the same call heard by atoms and molecules as they form the first life? The same call as that heard by single cells as they become multi-cellular?
The call is to know God. Things evolve, according to our modern cosmology, in order to discover God.
Similar questions are asked of human beings and various faith traditions have evolved to help those who will listen encounter God.
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