[Part 2 of 4]
The material creation is a fundamental of our worship.
Another mind-bending truth about the material creation is what the Bible says about the material creation as a reason for our worship:
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker (Psalm 95:6).
Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water (Revelation 14:7).
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11KJV).
These passages from Scripture provide us with a phenomenal understanding of the creation as a motivation to worship. They are perhaps pointed up best by the concluding chapters of the book of Job. After Job and his commiserating friends plumbed the depths of their contemporary philosophy and theology about how and why God works the way He does, God finally stepped in to deliver the definitive and final word. One would expect God to reveal the reasons given to the reader at the beginning of the book: Satan’s test of Job’s faith in God. Instead, God rehearses the marvels of His creation. When the wonders of the material creation are laid before Job by the Creator Himself, Job could only reply, "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.' I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:2-6). [Photo: The Patient Job, Gerard Seghers, National Gallery, Prague]
Job “saw” God in the greatness of His creating and sustaining power, and he was driven to repentance. And repentance is every true child of God’s first act of worship. Because of our familiarity with modern science and our constantly being impressed with the wisdom mankind has to explain how the creation works and the power we can obtain and use in the causes of both war and peace, we sometimes fall into Job's error: Because we know a lot---and have opinions about even more that we think we know---we tend to think that given a few more years, we'll know just about everything significant regarding the material creation. The unified "theory of everything" is just beyond our grasp. Then we will know what God knows. "Knowing what God knows"; if that sounds familiar, you might be recalling Satan's tempting Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden "fruit": "God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil"(Genesis 3:5 NLT). We know the tragic result of their buying that propaganda. Humankind's first act of repentance should be ask God's forgiveness for our foolish pride.
The psalmist moves us from Job's repentance for pride to creating a proper sense of awe for our Creator:
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast (Psalm 33:6-9).
Certainly the material creation ought to compel us to worship as it compelled the ancients. However, it is critical to understand that the creation itself is never the object of worship. It is the Creator alone who is worthy of our worship. The apostle Paul described what happens when a culture turns from glorifying the Creator to glorifying the creation:
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (Romans 1:20-25).
Humble and wise people will always be moved by the wonder of God's material creation, and it will compel them to worship---not the creation, but our Creator.
[Part 3 next week: "The Material Creation Is a Fundamental of our Work"]
Dean Ohlman is the host of RBC Ministries website: "The Wonder of Creation." You can read more of Dean's writing at the RBC site: http://www.wonderofcreation.org/
