Issue 870 – Power – October 2, 2022
When touring a park recently, I saw this peaceful-looking park path. A small stream, perhaps a foot and a half wide and less than a foot deep, meandered through the area and under the bridge.
In a few places, the stream widens into shallow wetlands filled with cattails, frogs and the occasional puddle duck. It makes for a very pastoral scene (if you are unfamiliar with the term, pastoral can refer to any peaceful scene involving animal husbandry or country life, not just the pastor at your church.)
Not far away, I saw a small sign and went to investigate. It warned about the dangers of sudden high water and dangerous currents. This tiny peaceful stream can become a swirling torrent of danger when heavy rains occur.
That is the power of water. For all the power of water and the other natural elements, the power of their creator is far greater.
The LORD God created everything that exists out of nothing but His Word. All the power in all the elements of nature is insignificant compared to Him.
He is the sovereign ruler of the universe, and every power of nature bends at His will.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Psalm 135:6-7
He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. Psalm 147:15-18
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?
Daniel 4:35-36
Our God is not only powerful; He is personal. The power of the elements is not random; it is all under His control.
Theologian John Frame writes in his “The Doctrine of God”:
“Jesus emphasizes that this divine control extends to the smallest details. He teaches us that our heavenly Father not only makes the sun rise and sends rain (Matt. 5:45), but also feeds the birds (6:26), clothes the lilies (6:28-30), accounts for the falling of sparrows, and numbers the hairs on our head (10:29-30; Luke 12:4-7). And he demonstrates his unity with the Father by calming the sea at his own command (Matt. 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-39; Luke 8:22-25).
“So the biblical view of the natural world is intensely personalistic. Natural events come from God, the personal Lord. He also employs angels and human beings to do His work in the world. But the idea that there is some impersonal mechanism called “nature” or “natural law” that governs the universe is absent from the Bible. So in the notion of an ultimate “randomness,” as postulated by some exponents of quantum mechanics…It is plain that in the view of the biblical writers any impersonal objects or forces [gravity, electricity] are only secondary causes of the course of nature. Behind them, as behind the rain and the hail, behind even the apparent randomness of events, stand the personal God, who controls all things by His powerful word.”
When we ponder the natural world’s power, remember to praise the name of the one who created it and controls it.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
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