Genesis 1:16 - Homiletics

The celestial luminaries.

I. Display the DIVINE WISDOM . "The heavens declare the glory of God" ( Psalms 19:1 ). M . Comte believed they declared no other glory than that of Hipparchus, Kepler, Newton, and their successors. Newton agreed with the Hebrew poet ( vid . Expos. on Genesis 1:16 ). The astronomical argument in behalf of theism has always been impressive, if not absolutely conclusive. Certainly, granting the Divine existence, nowhere does God's glory shine out more conspicuously; and perhaps the attribute which most imperiously arrests attention is that of wisdom . This would seem to be the aspect of the Divine glory which a contemplation of the midnight heavens discovered to the writer of Psalms 104:1-35 . ( vid . Psalms 104:24 , which is introduced after a poetic version of the fourth day's work) and of Psalms 136:1-26 . ( vid . Psalms 136:7 in the same connection; cf. Proverbs 3:19 ; Proverbs 8:27 ; Jeremiah 51:15 ). Many things about the orbs of heaven evince their Creator's wisdom: these specially—

1. Their formation , as explained by the highly credible teachings of physical astronomy.

2. Their varieties—consisting of sun, moon, planets, comets, nebulas.

3. Their motions : in elliptical and parabolic orbits.

4. Their dispositions : the suns, moons, and planets in systems; the stars in constellations, clusters, galaxies.

II. Attest the DIVINE GOODNESS . Displayed chiefly by the threefold purpose the celestial orbs were designed to serve:—

1. To give light upon the earth . Even the stars could scarcely be dispensed with without a sense of loss. Feeble as their light is, owing to their immense distance from the earth, they are yet invaluable to voyagers and travelers ( Acts 27:20 ). Still less could the moon ' s light, so pale and silvery in its whiteness, be spared. The night without its chaste beams would be shrouded in thick gloom, while with them an air of cheerfulness is imparted to the darkened earth. And, of course, least of all could the sun be wanted.

2. To distinguish day and night . The beneficence of this arrangement appears by reflecting on the inconvenience of either of the other two alternatives, perpetual day and perpetual night. The disadvantages of the latter have been indicated; those of the former are scarcely less numerous. The alternation of darkness—

3. To mark times and seasons . That the different seasons of the year are somehow connected with the celestial bodies is perhaps all that the Mosaic narrative can be made to teach. But we know them to be dependent on the earth's revolution round the sun. And the fact that God has so arranged the earth's relation to the sun as to produce these seasons is a signal proof of the Divine goodness. Another is that God has so fixed and determined their movements as to enable man to measure time by their means. Without the help of sun, moon, and stars chronology would be impossible.

III. Proclaim the DIVINE POWER . More than any other science, astronomy enables us to realize the physical omnipotence of the Deity. Imagination becomes bewildered by the effort to represent the quantity of force required to propel a globe like our earth through the depths of splice at the immense velocity of 65,000 miles an hour. What, then, must be the strength of that arm which, in addition, hurls Jupiter, equal in weight to 1400 earths, along his orbit with a velocity of 29,000 miles an hour? And not Jupiter alone, but suns immensely greater, at rates of motion that transcend conception. Well said Job ( Genesis 26:14 ). Yet, perhaps, the Divine power is as much evinced by the perpetuation of these celestial masses and movements as by their first production. Not only has God made the sidereal firmament, with its stupendous globes and amazing velocities, but he has so established them that since the beginning they have kept on their mystic paths without rebellion and without confusion ( Psalms 147:5 ).

IV. Reflect the DIVINE BEAUTY . Perhaps glory is the better word. The counterpart of glory in the Creator is beauty in the creature. The celestial luminaries were approved as good, doubtless, for their uses, but likewise for themselves, as being of incomparable splendor. "God hath made everything beautiful in his time" ( Ecclesiastes 3:11 ). Nothing that God does make can be otherwise than beautiful; and by their splendor, their order, their unity, they seem to mirror forth the majesty, and purity, and oneness of him to whom they owe their being.