Day Four
Gen. 1:14-19
On the fourth day, God made the sun, moon, and stars.
Notice that He is said to have made them for times, seasons, days, and years. God had a specific purpose in mind when He established the rotation of the earth and its revolution around the sun, and the moon around the earth. There was no need for that invisible force we call gravity to hold things together before, but now that He made these, He had it planned so that everything would work together perfectly.
If the earth were tilted just a little more toward or away from the sun, life could not exist. If the earth were just a little closer to the sun, it would be way too hot; just a little further, it would be way too cold. Also, if the moon were just a little bigger or closer, tides would be so violent life might not be sustainable; and yet if it were a little further away, or smaller, the tides which keep water from becoming too stagnant wouldn’t exist. Everything works together so beautifully, so perfectly, that the odds of all of it coming together are astronomically small.
Donald B. DeYoung, in a couple books on astronomy and the Bible, explores this and other issues in a very understandable way. To summarize one point, when God stretched out this great expanse, He could have set the light from stars in a way that would let us see many more stars than we could ever imagine. In other words, He may not have only started light coming from those stars at the moment of Creation. Instead, God may have stretched out the light so that it was only a short distance from our planet. Another option is that the speed of light was faster back then. The rest is rather complex for this work, so for more in depth study, I highly recommend DeYoung’s work. But, I do want to add one other technical note, as far as science is concerned.
Astronomers have found that a sort of hum is observable in space, using the most modern technology. Job 38:7 speaks of the morning stars “singing together.” Now, it could be that this was simply a poetic way of saying that all of God’s Creation sings His praises. However, I don’t think so. I think the Spirit-led author of Job used it as poetry, but that God inspired that phrase to be used because of the low hum emitted by the Universe. Just like us, the writer saw through a glass darkly. So, there were certainly things he didn’t totally understand.
He knew, however, that God’s amazing creation was present throughout the universe. And, God knew one day, we would come to recognize that “low hum,” and those who believed would glorify Him for His mighty works when it was discovered. What an incredible, powerful, and mighty God we serve!
From the scientific, and back to the poetic, realm, the vast distances also demonstrate God’s incredible power and might. The distance between worlds, as mentioned before in relation to Mars, is amazing enough. The speed that traffic on a city street goes, it would require half a year of constant driving to reach the moon. Our own sun would require two long lifetimes. The distances are phenomenal, the void in between fathomless.
And yet, the One who made it all displays that and then some – all the stars in space – for sinners like us. This, too, is part of what I mean when I say that He loves to show off His handiwork. Not just to show it off. But, so we can get a glimpse of how awesome He is, how incredibly loving, and how able to help us with anything we need.
It’s all so incredible to consider. It can even be eerie, to fathom no sound able to be heard, because there is no air for it to travel through. The firing of rocket engines, the pounding of astronaut boots as they walk in space or on the moon. Even the sound of an explosion would be absent.
And yet, God hears, even if our ears cannot hear. And, He understands, and loves, and works His wonders in such mighty ways that we can only dream. For He knows, the whole universe is in His hands.
And, with no light, no way to see on the dark side of the moon, nothing to run into but tiny dust specks, and not even those for billions of miles at times
Yet there is. For our Heavenly Father is there, in all those empty reaches of space and of our own, less expansive hearts, working, tirelessly moving in our lives, to draw us closer to Him, to cover those empty, empty times, those times when there is no encouragement, nothing but despair and loneliness, with the three most fabulous things imaginable. To fill our hearts as He fills the emptiness of space with his presence, and to satisfy our hearts, with those three simple words. I love you.
Had he not let us know He made this vast expanse, it would have been more difficult to understand that He could fill all those gaps. But, he did. And, He can.
