| CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE | September 2003 |
God and Creation—Part 1
God, the Creator
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“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” |
THROUGHOUT ALL THE centuries the wise and the learned have endeavored to pry into the secrets of Creation and explain how the great universe came into existence—how, out of nothing, there came countless billions of worlds; myriad forms of life—plant and animal—and why so much law and order is displayed in it all. Try as they may, however, human philosophers have not been able to produce an explanation so simple, yet so profound and full of meaning, as that contained in the ten words of our text—‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’
AN INTELLIGENT SUPREME CREATOR
The truthfulness of these words is more universally acknowledged today than ever before. Even the great Professor Einstein, once agnostic, confessed in the later years of his life that his increasing scientific knowledge had led him to the conviction that there is an intelligence displayed throughout the universe which he was glad to acknowledge and honor. Einstein, together with other great scientists, was unable to accept the crude conceptions of God handed down to a credulous world from the Dark Ages; but despite this handicap to belief, they came to see unmistakable evidence of supreme intelligence in what they formerly spoke of merely as the works of nature.
“There is a God—all nature speaks; through earth, and air, and seas, and skies.” (Hymns of Dawn, page 292) ‘All nature’ does testify that there is a God, a supreme and intelligent Creator. The best commentary on this approach to an understanding of the great characteristics of God is the one found in the Book of Job, chapters thirty-eight through forty-one. Job was a servant of God, the God who in ‘the beginning’ created ‘the heaven and the earth.’ Calamity came upon him. He lost almost everything in life which contributes to happiness, including his health. His friends insisted that he was being punished for gross sins which he had secretly committed. Job denied this, yet was unable to understand why his God was allowing him to suffer.
This controversy between Job and his friends continues through many chapters of the book. Then, as the record states, “The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” (Job 38:1-3) The long series of questions which God asks Job bring out the many points which, because human wisdom does not know the answer, should help even the most skeptical to realize the truthfulness of David’s words, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”—Ps. 14:1
“Where wast thou,” God asked Job, “when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7) Job was a wise man, with much experience. He knew that the construction of homes and other buildings required planning. Foundations had to be laid, and securely anchored. Job was accustomed to celebrations when the cornerstone of a new building was laid.
Job knew that everything made by man required planning and skill. Houses and cities—and in our day intricate machinery, television, jet planes, and other modern marvels—do not ‘just happen.’ The earth, the home of all mankind, had been created without Job, or other men, having anything to do with it. He was not present when the foundations were laid. He had no part in the architectural design and measurements. Nevertheless, he knew it existed. This marvelous display of wisdom and design should help us to realize, as doubtless it did Job, that there must have been a Divine Architect and Builder with intelligence and power, far superior to his own.
THE LAWS OF GOD
Then the Lord reminded Job of some of the details connected with the creation of the earth. He asked, “Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, … and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?”—vss. 8-11
The marvels of the sea! How seldom we think of the miracle-working power of God in connection with the ebb and flow of the oceans’ tides! The tides, we say, are controlled largely by the gravitational pull of the moon. But what does that mean? What is gravitation? Sir Isaac Newton discovered the laws of gravitation, but who framed the laws and implemented them? There are times when heavy winds locally increase the height of the tides a few feet, and those living near the shore flee for their lives. Seldom do they realize that ordinarily they can dwell safely by the sea only because God has decreed, ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.’
Next, Job was asked, “Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place?” (vs. 12) Job, seemingly, was rather a prominent man in his community, one who exercised considerable authority, but he had no control over the rising of the sun. ‘Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days?’ Job knew that from the earliest days of his recollection the sun had risen and set without his having anything to do with it. He realized also that this was true of the generations before him. He knew that man at no time ever had any control over the movements of the sun, the moon, the stars, or the earth. This was far beyond the ability of man. This was the work of God!
“Have the gates of death been opened unto thee,” Job, “or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?” (vs. 17) Men and women of all ages have endeavored to peer beyond death, to know what lies beyond the grave. Apart from the revelation given to us in the Word of God, which assures us of a resurrection of the dead, no one has found the answer. Just as the mystery of Creation is explainable only in the light of the fact that there is a supreme, intelligent Creator, so the desire for life after death becomes a genuine hope only because the One who created life has promised to restore the dead to life. The several biblical accounts of the awakening of various ones from death are therefore proofs of the existence of God, the God who created the heaven and the earth.
Here is another intriguing question: “Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof? Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?” (vss. 19-21) What is light, what is darkness? The light of day replaces the darkness of night, but where does the one go, when the other takes it place? God asked Job if he knew the dwelling place of light, just where it stayed while its place was occupied by darkness. A foolish question? By no means! With all our modern scientific knowledge, no one has yet been able to give an adequate definition of light, or of darkness. Like electricity, which we know exists, but cannot clearly define, so are light and darkness. But God knows, for he created them. It was God who said, “Let there be light: and there was light.”—Gen. 1:3
The Lord continued to question Job, asking him about a number of things described by unbelievers as the ‘works of nature’—things which, to those who believe in God, are frequently overlooked as proof of his existence. We quote, “Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?”—vss. 25-29
The obvious answer to all these questions is that there must be a supreme, intelligent Creator who designed and created water, and who also planned the means by which it would reach the ground and give life to vegetation. Most of us have witnessed with pleasure the revival of plants, or of grass, when water is provided; but do we realize that these are miracles, made possible because all the elements involved were designed and made by God, who in the beginning created the heaven and earth?
How marvelous is the arrangement by which the water created by God reaches the dry places. As we know, it is by the evaporation of the water of oceans and lakes, the moisture ascending to form clouds which are distributed over the land, and which, by changes of temperature in the air currents, are caused to release their refreshing waters in the form of rain and snow. Reaching the earth, the water finds its way back into the oceans and lakes to continue the cycle. Scientific instruments of today tell us how all this happens, but the real power, or forces, which contribute to make it possible are still unexplainable.
Shifting the focus of his questions from purely mundane things to heavenly bodies, God asked Job, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”—vss. 31-33
The implied lesson in these questions is more striking today than it was to Job. Job was a wise man for his time, but astronomical knowledge had not advanced to the degree now enjoyed. Calculations now made possible by powerful telescopes have revealed the minute accuracy of time and distances involved in the movement of the heavenly bodies, giving evidence that they are held in their course, and at constant speeds, by the power and design of a supreme intelligence unexplainable by man.
Without going into detail as to the particular references to Pleiades, Orion, Mazzaroth, and Arcturus, the main point of the lesson is that neither Job nor we can possibly change the course of a single planet, sun, or star. Nor do we understand the governing forces which control ‘the ordinances of heaven,’ nor the manner in which their influences are felt in the earth. But God knows, for he created both the heaven and the earth, and designed their relationship to each other.
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