Boing, boing, boing....
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. Isaiah 40:22
This verse has always held some fascination with me. Some people regard this verse as “proof” that the Bible proclaimed that the earth was round at a time when the common thinking was that it was flat. I guess you could say that, but that is not the most remarkable portion of the text. Some people also say that this verse shows us a God that is so high up that the people on earth look like little grasshoppers. I am less inclined to believe this as God is omnipresent and He is high up for sure – yet the whole of Him is contained in the atoms arranged into molecules that are then combined into a grasshopper. From the perspective we must seem to Him as cedars or towering behemoths of sorts.
It think that this verse has more to do not with our size but with our nature. God does sit enthroned above the circle of the earth and His ways eclipse ours in every direction of space, time, and eternity. Could it be that our movements, our loves, rebellions, plans, and kingdoms are so remote from His thinking, so puny that they could be considered somewhat animalistic? Maybe not even somewhat animalistic, but wholly animal in nature. God has created us as the pinnacle of His creation, but we do not need to take that fact and make us something that we are not. The hierarchy is not God, man, angels, animals, plants, and rocks. There is no adequate amount of space between the jump from God to man. None.
The Incarnation is made that much more interesting when we consider this. Far be it from me to just treat it as an intellectual exercise. What portion of my life is different now that I think this way?
This verse has always held some fascination with me. Some people regard this verse as “proof” that the Bible proclaimed that the earth was round at a time when the common thinking was that it was flat. I guess you could say that, but that is not the most remarkable portion of the text. Some people also say that this verse shows us a God that is so high up that the people on earth look like little grasshoppers. I am less inclined to believe this as God is omnipresent and He is high up for sure – yet the whole of Him is contained in the atoms arranged into molecules that are then combined into a grasshopper. From the perspective we must seem to Him as cedars or towering behemoths of sorts.
It think that this verse has more to do not with our size but with our nature. God does sit enthroned above the circle of the earth and His ways eclipse ours in every direction of space, time, and eternity. Could it be that our movements, our loves, rebellions, plans, and kingdoms are so remote from His thinking, so puny that they could be considered somewhat animalistic? Maybe not even somewhat animalistic, but wholly animal in nature. God has created us as the pinnacle of His creation, but we do not need to take that fact and make us something that we are not. The hierarchy is not God, man, angels, animals, plants, and rocks. There is no adequate amount of space between the jump from God to man. None.
The Incarnation is made that much more interesting when we consider this. Far be it from me to just treat it as an intellectual exercise. What portion of my life is different now that I think this way?
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