Doing all Things

Advent Day 18

Second Wednesday in Advent

December 14, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 45:6–7 (NRSV)

⁶ so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. ⁷ I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.

Theme: Doing all things

Reflection:

This is a passage which gives us a fragmented glimpse into what God is like. As humans we have a very limited comprehension of God—because any attempt to fully know God, is an attempt to cut God down to human scale. We hear in God’s own words, in this text, a sense of the full breadth of God. And frankly, what we hear is difficult to comprehend.

Even if we understand the meaning of all the words, their scope eludes us. (I had to look up the meaning of weal—it has two very different definitions. The first is: ‘a red swollen mark’; and the second is; ‘that which is best for someone’.) I presume the author of this text meant the second one, implying that God does the full range of things from that which is best for someone to that which creates grief.

Reading this passage in The Message translation (a translation that attempts to help us understand, in contemporary English, what the original listeners heard) gives additional insights into God’s nature:

Isaiah 45:6–7 (The Message)

⁶ So that everyone, from east to west, will know that I have no god-rivals. I am God, the only God there is. ⁷ I form light and create darkness, I make harmonies and create discords. I, God, do all these things.

We simply don’t have the scale and depth to understand how God can do all things. My own theology teaches that God does not deliberately set out to hurt us, but that because we are given free will, we do have occasions where things go wrong or we are deeply hurt. It is difficult to reconcile a God who does all things with a God that doesn’t set out to hurt us. I don’t have an easy answer.

In Advent, we hear many things we don’t full understand, but ultimately have to accept on faith. We hear of a baby being born to a woman well past child-bearing age; we hear of a woman who conceives by the Holy Spirit, and we hear of angels announcing these births. None of these things can be discerned with human logic. Perhaps this passage from Isaiah is just one more passage that reminds us of God’s greatness and our smallness.

May your Advent devotions give you a glimpse of the God, who is so great that we can’t comprehend God, and so loving that God’s own Son is sent as a gift to us.

Prayer: All powerful and omnipotent God, keep me humble by continuing to remind me that you depth and breadth exceed my comprehension. Amen