The Transcendent God - II

Isaiah 55
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Let us take a moment and meditate on this statement. God is again speaking through his prophet Isaiah. He is "reasoning together" with his people, as the Old King James puts it.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

To what, exactly, is he comparing the earth? To the celestial heavens. No doubt he refers to the night sky, something with which the ancients were more familiar than most of us moderns.

How much higher are these "heavens" than the earth? How far away are they? The distance, my friends, is beyond comprehension. If we take just what we can see with the naked eye (and relative to the entirety of the universe this is not very far) it is still mind-boggling. Probably the most distant object observable by the naked eye is the Andromeda Galaxy which happens to be the nearest galaxy to ours. The Andromeda Galaxy is approximately 2.5 million light years away--just a short putt from us on this golf course known as "Universe." Travelling at 186,000 miles per second it would still take us 2.5 million years to get there.


Think about how much "higher than the earth" that is. That's how much higher God's thoughts are than our thoughts, God's ways than our ways. That's the comparison God makes to try to demonstrate to us the transcendency of his nature, his being. Thinking about this it is easy to see why we should never "liken" him to anything in creation. To do so only diminishes his glory.

Prayer: Our great Father, we ask that you humble us, that you forgive us for elevating ourselves, our wants, our desires, our thoughts, beyond what they really are, and at the same time esteeming you less than what you are. Help us to be in awe of you and to submit to you in every detail of our lives. As we grow in our knowledge of you, magnify yourself in our eyes. Show yourself mighty, we ask, in behalf of your own great name. Amen.