“The carpenter stretches a line.
He marks it out with a stylus.
He fashions it with planes.
He marks it with a compass.
He makes it into a human form.
It has human beauty.
He sets it up in a shrine.”
Second Isaiah has the carpenter seem to be more efficient. This carpenter artist stretches out a line on a piece of wood. He uses a stylus or pencil to mark it off. He then planes it down and marks it with a compass. He finally carves it into a human beauty, before he sets it in a shrine.
“A generation goes.
A generation comes.
But the earth remains forever.
The sun rises.
The sun goes down.
The sun hastens to the place
Where it rises.
The wind blows to the south.
The wind goes around to the north.
Round and round goes the wind.
On its circuits
The wind returns.
All streams run to the sea.
But the sea is not full.
They continue to flow
To the place where the streams flow.
There they continue to flow.”
This is a stunning appreciation of creation. Generations of humans come and go, but the earth remains forever in a static flat world concept. The sun rises and sets every day. There was no thought that the earth was moving around a static sun. The wind blew in from the north to south and then around and around again. The wind, as we know, blows in various directions. The streams do run to the sea, and not vice versa. However, the seas never seem to fill up because there is osmosis. No matter what, the streams continue to flow to where they want to go, usually downhill because of gravity. Thus this poetic expression of creation uses the scientific assumptions of its day, not those of the later scientific age.
“You have made the moon to mark the seasons.
The sun knows it’s time for setting.
You make darkness.
It is night.
Then all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey.
They seek their food from God.
When the sun rises,
They withdraw.
They lie down in their dens.
People go out to their work.
They labor until the evening.”
Everything has a purpose. God made the moon to mark the seasons and the sun to mark the days. Thus there is night and darkness. The sun rises and sets which is perfectly correct with a flat earth concept of the world. The earth does not move around the sun. God makes the darkness. During this darkness, the animals of the forest can creep around, while the young lions can seek their prey that is food that comes from God. It almost sounds like the lions recognize God. When the sun rises on the next day, the lions return to their dens. Then the people go out to work until the evening time.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 