"– he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth –" (v. 5)

For Reading and Meditation:     Isaiah 42:1-9

What is the first thing we learn about God as we open up the Scriptures? It is His might and omnipotence. The Bible never argues that there is a God; everywhere it assumes and asserts the fact. Majestically the opening verse of Scripture says: "In the beginning God –" Its paramount concern is not to persuade us that God is, but to tell us who God is and what He does. The first thing we see Him do in the Scriptures is to act creatively. I love the story concerning a group of researchers who set out to discover what really happened when the earth was created. They spent months gathering information and feeding data into a computer. Finally they hit the printout key and waited. Soon a message appeared with these words: "See Genesis 1:1. " Many think the only reference to God's creative act is the one which appears in the first two chapters of Genesis, but the truth is woven inextricably into the very texture of both the Old and the New Testament. One example of this is found in our text for today. We cannot have a right conception of God or contemplate Him correctly unless we think of Him as all-powerful. He who cannot do what He wills and pleases cannot be God. As God has a will to do good, so He has the necessary power to execute that will. Who can look upward to the midnight sky, behold its wonders and not exclaim: "Of what were these mighty orbs formed?" A great and powerful God brought them into being simply by saying: "Let them be." This kind of God can have my heart anytime.

Father, I sense that the more enlightened my understanding the more my soul responds to that enlightenment with thanksgiving, adoration, and praise. Enlighten me still more, dear Father. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.