Sunday Spice #17: The Heavens Declare

There are many things about this creation that point to its Creator. Not unlike a house points to its architect and its construction crew. Our homes did not just appear. There was a plan, a design, an effort to manufacture, assemble, and build. So also, this world, this sky, this universe, and the heavens are not any less the strongest of indications that a Master Creator and Builder has been at work.

Psalm 19 says that “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”

In this episode of Sunday Spice, we will celebrate the Creator and the order He has established. Our attention to His breathtaking detail draws from us the awe that is due Him, the praise that is worthy of such a Creator, and by expansion the obedience to His mandates that flow from His expectations.

It doesn’t take much to notice the order of the creation around us. Consider the consistency and predictability of such things like the various seasons, ocean tides, and solar orbits of the planets. We order our schedule and our very lives around when the sun rises and when it sets.  The entire planet has so much predictability, especially as we consider a globe that’s rotating on its axes where on the northern side of the planet there is summer weather while on the southern side of the planet, there is winter weather.

There is a tempo and a rhythm about this creation built into nature itself and we are suspended in this genius design. We find ourselves dependent on how it is arranged and how it functions. As is referenced by the verse in Psalm 19 “day to day utters speech, night to night reveals knowledge”. Every single day there is a speech given through creation that announces the glory of God; every single night knowledge of Him and His handiwork is revealed.

In Romans chapter 1 we see God’s wrath against ungodliness where people have made a decision to suppress the truth, God has made it plain to those ungodly people that both He and His expectations can be known. Known how? “Because God has shown it to them.” And how exactly has He shown it to them? What is invisible about God, his eternal power and divine nature, are clearly perceived (get this) “ever since the creation of the world, through the things that He has made.” On this basis, God concludes that creation takes away the excuses that people have to justify ungodly behavior and to live as they please. As invisible as God is, His creation is not only the best evidence of His existence but points to His claims as the final judge.

All this natural order that is folded into creation is a message from God Himself. It’s a gargantuan memo that says that He is God and there is none other, that the earth you live on is not only geniusly designed but compassionately provided with you and me in mind. It includes resources on which you can draw to provide for your own: natural systems and patterns set in motion by God Himself that expose not just scientific realities but the righteousness, the mercy, and the expectation that God has for the human race.  And we humans are also the fruit of His creation handiwork.

Unfortunately, the predictability of the sun’s setting and its rising, the various expressions of the four seasons, and the next solar eclipse announced by astronomers in advance of its appearance are overlooked or taken for granted and often in the name of self-aggrandizement. This is His planet, and we get to live on it. The more we try to evict Him from His creation, or turn creation into something more worthy than He is, or pretend He doesn’t exist and disregard the significance of the message expressed through His creation, the more God “gives us up.”

Romans chapter 1 is clear on this. When we exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, we can find ourselves “given up” to lusts and impurity; to a debased mind; to dishonorable passions. We can find ourselves going against the very nature that reminds us every day of His creative genius, His eternal power, and His divine nature.

When disregard of the Creator God and His righteous decrees is the decision of those who do not consider it fitting to acknowledge God, who not only practice compromised lifestyles but give approval to those who do, the warning of Scripture predicts a penalty for their error.

It is not unlike the idea that if I jump off a ten-story building, nature itself, the nature God put in motion, will judge me. And then one day, I will stand before nature’s God, where I will give an account and will be subject to His final decree.

If that Day is as serious as all that (and I believe it is) then it behooves us to bring ourselves to the utter submission of the savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. It must be our highest priority while we live on this earth. There will only be one hope on Judgment Day. That hope is Jesus Christ, His work on the cross, and our receiving by faith that work on our behalf.

Creation and nature itself is a witness that we should acknowledge and follow the dictates of the immortal God. But the ultimate witness is when He sent His Son who died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

I’m Tammy Reneé, and this is Sunday Spice. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed are the people who take refuge in Him!