“Who alone stretched out the heavens.” Job 9:1-9

“He stretches out the north over the void.” Job 26:7

“Can you, like Him spread out the skies?” Job 37:18

“It is He…who stretches out the heavens like a curtain.” Isaiah 40:22

“Who created the heavens and stretched them out.” Isaiah 42:5

“Who alone stretched out the heavens.”Isaiah 44:24

“It was my hands that stretched out the heavens.” Isaiah 45:12

“Who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth.” Zechariah 12:1

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the scientific community go bonkers over some new theory like “The Expanding Universe” I just want to say “well, duh.” At least 8 times in scripture God is described as having S T R E T C H E D out the heavens. With His own hands He took the universe and E X P A N D E D it out. Stuff got further and further away from other stuff. And if it’s still getting further and further away, wouldn’t that mean that the light we’re seeing from stars now actually started traveling toward earth when that star was much closer to us? I’m neither a scientist nor a mathematician so if there’s someone out there with some real knowledge on this stuff that could explain it to me that would be great.

In the mean time, I know this at least. The question Job asks in chapter 9 immediately before his expanding universe statement is of far more import than the question of starlight and time, “How can a man be in the right before God?”
I know there’s more surety in the proclamation he makes right before his expanding universe statement of chapter 26, “How You have helped him who has no power! How You have saved the arm that has no strength! How You have counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!”

I know that the same God of Isaiah’s expanding universe who brings out the stars by number, calling them all by name and ensures not one of them is missing, that same God who tends the stars tends His flock like a shepherd, gathers the lambs in His arms, carries them in His bosom, and gently leads the mommas with young (40:11,26).

I know it is the God of Isaiah’s expanding universe that gives me breath and spirit, who formed me from the womb, He also created the heavens, and formed the earth (42:5, 44:24, 45:12). And the God of Zechariah’s expanding universe? He is the God who saves. Who pours out a spirit of grace upon His people “and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on ME, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him (12:1,10).”

Friend, have you ever mourned for the piercing of the God of the expanding universe? Has His spirit of grace been poured out upon you allowing you to plead for His mercy? The very next chapter in Zechariah proclaims that on the day that you do a fountain will be opened unto you to cleanse you from your sin. THAT my friends is the only answer to Job’s all important question, “How CAN a man be in the right before God?”