Transcendent and Immanent

The Bible describes God as both transcendent and immanent. The former references the fact that He is above all, far outside our realm, vast and powerful without regard to humans or our trivial world. The latter refers to His very presence, His "here and now", His tender mercies and compassionate care for His own, His amazing grace. Biblically, both are realities. Humanly, that just boggles the mind. Now, the fact is that most of us prefer one side or the other. Some of us are in awe of His transcendence. He is so "out there", so "huge", so "awesome". Really, really big! Others of us are much more enamored with His immanence, the closeness of God. We prefer to think of Him as holding us in the palm of His hand, His arms of safety around us, His loving heart aimed toward us. Rarely do we put them together. But Isaiah is happy to do so:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins (Isa 40:1-2).

Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm rules for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young (Isa 40:10-11).

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, He takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are accounted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with Him? (Isa 40:15-18)

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; Who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness (Isa 40:21-23).

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to Him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isa 40:28-31).

Isaiah starts out with the immanence of God. He speaks of comfort and tenderness, of iniquity pardoned. He speaks of the shepherd who gathers the lambs in His arms, gently leading the young. Such immanence. Such wonder.

But He moves quickly from there to God's transcendence. This same Shepherd views all of Man as "a drop from a bucket", "dust", "nothing before Him". He is incomparable. We are "grasshoppers" to Him, and our highest rulers are nothing. That is indeed a transcendent God.

Isaiah doesn't stop there. He speaks of "the everlasting God", the one who created "the ends of the earth", the one who is unsearchable. All this is transcendence. Yet, in this transcendence (rather than in opposition to it), we find our confidence for the immanence of God. In His transcendence we find that waiting on Him produces strength (immanence), comfort, support. Transcendent and immanent. That merging of the two is rare, but quite a joy to see and experience.