Isaiah 42: Cosmic God
Friday, December 9, 2022
The Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still. (Exodus 14:14)
These are comforting words for those of us who long to lay all our needs in the merciful hands of God.
Today’s reading from Isaiah contains several songs. Verses 1 to 9 is The Suffering Servant and verses 10 to 17 is a song of victory sung for The Warrior God. Verses 18 to 25 remind us that only God can save when circumstances are bleakest. All of this tells us that sometimes situations and people are too difficult to handle. All of this speaks us that there are times when we must take our burden to this God who loves us and who wants us to love in return. It also reminds us that God is both servant and warrior and that despite turmoil and strife, this God tells us: I have taken you by the hand and kept you.
God’s form of justice – whether it be bellicose or pacific – is the ultimate force which trumps all others. Those engaged in darkness will disappear even though they may now hold sway. The vengeful God pouring out the heat of his anger becomes the loving, suffering servant God who takes on all of our burdens. This God is so great and so powerful that control of the universe lies in the very hands that created it. This God is cosmic.
We let God know that we wish to enter into this cosmos as God’s full and whole children when we enter into this suffering servant-ship with God. This might seem like a role too wonderful and too frightening to take in. When fear and anxiety invade, when this cosmos seems too large and too terrible to imagine, we only need remember: The Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still. He has taken you by the hand and kept you.
We are created and loved by a cosmic God. Let us enter fully into this relationship now.
Investigate facts about the Cosmos at the National Geographic site at: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey/
Adapted from a reflection written on November 16, 2009.
Images from: https://mashable.com/archive/10-cosmos-facts-that-are-out-of-this-world
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