The Birth of the Cosmos
Isaiah 40:21–31
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. “To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
A couple of years back, I did a sharing at cell group on the glory of God reflected in His creation and in science —the universe itself (see infographic below). Yesterday we wondered at the vastness of the universe and the infinitely bigger Creator and Designer, we declared with King David, “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge (Psa 19:1-2).” Two major deaths happened in the month of March this year, big names in their fields, evangelist Billy Graham, a devout Christian, and physicist Stephen Hawking, a famed agnostic/atheist. Many lamented both persons; and famous deaths like these remind us all of God in control of our time here in this contingent firmament, He is creator after all, He determines our time and everything else’s in His sovereignty, in this we pray with the psalmist, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psa 90:12).” Stephen Hawking is an interesting figure, despite being an avowed atheist, his work actually vigorously supported a premise in an argument for God’s existence, that time and the universe began to exist (Gen 1:1), prior to the Standard Model of the Big Bang for centuries, people thought the universe existed forever until Belgian priest and astronomer Georges Lemaitre, and German-Russian physicist Alexander Friedman independently discovered the equations for a universe with a beginning, and corroborated with the redshift discoveries of American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Whatever begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, the universe has a cause and it has to be beyond it (God), and from this simple argument we can deduce some of God’s basic attributes, metaphysically necessary, uncaused, non-material (Spirit), beginingless, timeless, spaceless, personal (agent), and unimaginably powerful, Christian philosopher William Craig concludes the argument, “therefore, there exists a Personal Creator of the universe, who, sans the universe, is timeless, spaceless, beginningless, changeless, necessary, uncaused, and enormously powerful. And this, as Thomas Aquinas laconically remarked, is what everybody means by God”, and all these attributes, by and large, the Bible affirms, and so with the prophet Isaiah we “lift up our eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing” (v. 26). What’s infinitely more exciting is that this powerful cosmic being is good and He loves us, enough to empower and strengthen us to excel in our daily life, to honour and glorify Him. God is simply awesome and let us delight in our relationship with Him (Psa 37:4).
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. “To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
A couple of years back, I did a sharing at cell group on the glory of God reflected in His creation and in science —the universe itself (see infographic below). Yesterday we wondered at the vastness of the universe and the infinitely bigger Creator and Designer, we declared with King David, “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge (Psa 19:1-2).” Two major deaths happened in the month of March this year, big names in their fields, evangelist Billy Graham, a devout Christian, and physicist Stephen Hawking, a famed agnostic/atheist. Many lamented both persons; and famous deaths like these remind us all of God in control of our time here in this contingent firmament, He is creator after all, He determines our time and everything else’s in His sovereignty, in this we pray with the psalmist, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psa 90:12).” Stephen Hawking is an interesting figure, despite being an avowed atheist, his work actually vigorously supported a premise in an argument for God’s existence, that time and the universe began to exist (Gen 1:1), prior to the Standard Model of the Big Bang for centuries, people thought the universe existed forever until Belgian priest and astronomer Georges Lemaitre, and German-Russian physicist Alexander Friedman independently discovered the equations for a universe with a beginning, and corroborated with the redshift discoveries of American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Whatever begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, the universe has a cause and it has to be beyond it (God), and from this simple argument we can deduce some of God’s basic attributes, metaphysically necessary, uncaused, non-material (Spirit), beginingless, timeless, spaceless, personal (agent), and unimaginably powerful, Christian philosopher William Craig concludes the argument, “therefore, there exists a Personal Creator of the universe, who, sans the universe, is timeless, spaceless, beginningless, changeless, necessary, uncaused, and enormously powerful. And this, as Thomas Aquinas laconically remarked, is what everybody means by God”, and all these attributes, by and large, the Bible affirms, and so with the prophet Isaiah we “lift up our eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing” (v. 26). What’s infinitely more exciting is that this powerful cosmic being is good and He loves us, enough to empower and strengthen us to excel in our daily life, to honour and glorify Him. God is simply awesome and let us delight in our relationship with Him (Psa 37:4).
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