13 Mine hand hath also laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens. I call unto them and they stand up together.
I’m beginning to understand that one of the reasons Isaiah is
so hard to understand at times is because he uses so many pronouns (or at least
it’s that the way in the translations), that you can easily lose track of who
or what they are referring to. This and the next verse are a good example of
what I mean.
The first part of the verse seems somewhat self-evident. The
Lord is creator of heaven and earth. This seems to be continuation of the idea
in verse 12. The Lord is the beginning and the end; he created the heavens and
the earth. In other words, He is all-powerful, etc. He created all these things
with his right hand, which is a symbol of his power, or his covenant hand. Then
it gets interesting. “I call unto them
and they stand up together” (emphasis
added). In a commentary I have been referring to in my studies of these Isaiah
chapters, Isaiah Made Easier, David
J. Ridges says that these pronouns refer to Israel, and that the last part of
verse 13 actually goes with the beginning of 14. However, I think it’s more
likely that the verse 13 pronouns refer to the obvious antecedents, the heavens
and the earth just mentioned in the same verse. I think the Lord is drawing a
distinction between the rebellious Israel and the rest of God’s creations that
“stand up together” when He calls. These other creations obey the Lord’s call,
or His word. And they all obey
together. Israel, on the other hand, “heardest not” because their “ear was not
opened” when His prophets called (vs. 8). Isaiah has been telling Israel how
rebellious they are, but the Lord has mercy and will not forsake them in the
end. Now he is reminding them that the Lord has all this power, and Israel
seems to be one of the few of God’s creations that doesn’t obey Him. Helaman,
chapter 12 deals with this very subject and expounds on it nicely. The whole
chapter is the complete idea, but verses 7 and 8 draw the same distinction
between man and God’s other creations that Isaiah draws here. Even the dust
obeys God, but men don’t. Therefore dust is greater than man, because it is
more obedient than man.
- Helaman 12:8
