"It is I who made the blacksmith"

We’ve been having the wrong argument about technology and AI.

For too long, many sincere people of faith have treated technological innovation like an invading army—something to resist, critique, or reluctantly accommodate as if the God who spoke galaxies into existence is somehow caught off guard by man’s creativity.

But look at this insightful passage in Isaiah 54:16: “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a tool fit for its work….” Not “I permitted” the blacksmith. Not “I tolerated” the blacksmith. God says he is the one who created the blacksmith. The furnace, the hammer, the molten metal taking shape—all of it traces back to the same creative intelligence that designed the human hand capable of holding the hammer in the first place. God is the one behind all innovation.

This changes everything.

Think of this; When God booted Adam from the Garden, he told him, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread.” But here’s what should stop us cold: bread didn’t exist yet! Think about it. No millstones. No ovens. No delicious sour dough recipes. God referenced a technology that existed only in his mind, and it was only a matter of time until man discovered it.

Proverbs 25:2 tells us, “God delights in concealing things; scientists delight in discovering things” (The Message). Every innovation like AI is a discovery, not an invention. We don’t create from nothing—only God does that. We excavate. We uncover. We stumble upon patterns God wove into the fabric of reality before the foundation of the world.

Yes, AI like any technology can be twisted toward destruction. The same fire that bakes bread can burn cities. The same knife that slices that sour dough bread can take a life. But the potential for misuse doesn’t make the knife itself evil. God creates the blacksmith knowing full well the tool might be turned against him. He does it anyway. That’s not divine naivety—it’s staggering confidence in the redemptive arc he’s written into history. All of us can use AI to help others flourish.

We are, as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “sub-creators.” Made in the image of God, we can’t help but make things ourselves. So perhaps it’s time for people of faith to stop treating technology like a threat to be managed and start recognizing it for what it is: a gift to be stewarded, a revelation to be read, a conversation with the God who said, “See, it is I who created the blacksmith.”

He’s not surprised by artificial intelligence. He’s not pacing heaven, anxious about what humans might invent next that might catch him by surprise. He’s the one fanning the coals—the coals for good...for human flourishing in your mind. He’s been waiting for us to discover what he already knows.