The Lord that Stretcheth the Heavens

I’ve probably read this verse dozens of times, but it never occurred to me to look at what tense the verb was in.

In Isaiah 44:24, God is recorded as saying, “I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.”

I’ve so often looked at that and placed the context back in Genesis 1. But doesn’t scientific research tell us that the universe is expanding, that stars are moving away from each other?

The word “stretcheth” is a present tense verb. God is still stretching out the heavens. The prophet Isaiah would not have been able to observe this phenomenon in his time; indeed, the phenomenon has only recently been given great attention (Hubble’s Law, inflation, redshift, etc.). Isn’t it amazing that over two and a half millennia ago, a prophet of the Lord would have recorded words that modern science would prove to be true? Perhaps scientists may not recognize the means (“the Lord … that stretcheth”), but the end is certainly observed (“stretcheth the heavens”).

The verse also states that the Lord alone is spreading out the Earth, another phenomenon directly observable in modern science: continental drift.

Now, I realize that one could argue, “No, we know that magma flows move the continents,” or that dark matter somehow has something to do with universe expansion. So I ask, if I throw a ball at a target, which sets a machine in motion which in turn drops someone into a pool, who is responsible? I was aloof, away from the tank, but the means by which I interacted were observable.

Could God not be stirring up the magma? Could He not be doing something similar with dark matter? After all, it is more than coincidence that His activities (stretching the cosmos and the earth) were recorded for us millennia ago and are now directly observable and verifiable. Blind faith would not be so falsifiable, and when subjected to observable science, we see that the Bible is a lamp unto our feet, not an invisible bridge upon which we tread blindly in fear.

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