Author: Pastor Paul A. Bartz
God has not made the stars to be of use for man just now that he has begun to reach into space. In Genesis 1:14-15 we read about the immediate purposes of the stars for the very first human beings. They were to separate the day from the night, and tell us the signs and the seasons (this does not mean astrology, as other passages point out). In addition, the stars are to give light on the earth. While the light which we see from the stars does not seem to be very much, we have learned that there are many wavelengths of light, many of which we do not see. These wavelengths of invisible light account for as much, if not more, of the light energy from stars that we can actually see. If you think that the stars are a small and unimportant part of the creation, imagine the night sky with out them!
In Psalm 148:3 we see that the stars have not only been made for man. Here we read that the stars are to praise God. Such a statement assumes that the stars are able to praise God. For this reason, this and similar passages have often been explained in figurative terms. But we also read in Scripture that it is not only our voices which praise God, but our whole beings and everything that we do. The science of radio astronomy has learned that powerful radio signals are emitted by stars. When these radio signals are turned into sound, the result is a sort of lilting, pleasant music – often similar to the song of various whales (see verse 7!). The stars are singing God’s praises! There is an important lesson here for us about the universality of the praise of God in the creation. But there is also another lesson for us here. We should be careful about deciding too quickly that certain passages are figurative. What we do know about the creation, even with the help of Scripture, is much less than what we do not know. Evolutionists forget this and think that they know so much about the world that they can rule God out.
In Matthew 2:1-2 we see an example of how the stars glorify God and Jesus Christ in a way which humans can see. The important point is that all of the praise of God, like His actions in the creation, are centered around His mercy in our salvation in Christ Jesus. Even the praise of the inanimate created things centers on the work of Jesus Christ. This is an important point for creationists to make in their churches. We are not turning creation into another means by which God’s saving grace comes into our lives when we point out how closely interrelated the Biblical teaching of creation and the work of Christ for us really are. And we must point this out because the link is Biblical, and because Christian teachers and pastors who want to allow for evolution believe that they can throw out parts of the Bible like creation without doing harm to the proclamation of Christ and His saving work.
In Revelation 5:12-14 we read of the praise which Christ is worthy to receive, and why He is worthy to receive this praise. In verse 12 we see that He is worthy to receive praise because He was slain. He gave up His life on the Cross in payment for our sin, for the redemption of all of the creation from the power of sin, death and the devil. The praise of Christ centers on His work of Salvation for us. In verse 13 we see that every created thing gives Him praise because of this. This shows us how God’s grace and our salvation is the center of everything in the Bible. And the fact that this praise comes from every created thing, including the created things in space, shows how Christ is the very center of everything. Without Him there was nothing made, and without Him there is no salvation!
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