He is the one who by his power made the earth.
Jeremiah 51:15-16 NET
He is the one who by his wisdom fixed the world in place,
by his understanding he spread out the heavens.
When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar.
He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons;
he makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.
He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it;
These two verses come amid a long prophetic message against the nation of Babylon. God would be repaying them for all that they had done, and were yet to do, to Judah, Jerusalem, and the temple. These two verses describe the creator God who would punish them. And the following two verses contrast him with the worthless idols that Babylon worshiped. Idols that God would destroy.
God is the one who, by his power, wisdom, and understanding, is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He could have done it all in an instant, a week, or over a vast expanse of time. But regardless of how long he took and the process he used, God is our creator.
The power required to produce this universe is unbelievable and well beyond any human ability. The wisdom and understanding needed to design a universe from scratch, whose complexity we are only beginning to understand, is amazing. Could it all have been by chance? I find that even harder to imagine.
When Jeremiah wrote this, the causes of storms, with their accompanying thunder and lightning, were unknown. We can explain them today as natural processes and understand the mechanics behind them. They are no longer the mystery that they would have been to Jeremiah.
But God produced these so-called natural processes, which function according to his design. So, in the storms, the lightning, the thunder, and a myriad of other natural processes, we can still see the hand of God at work.
The more I learn of God’s creation, the more I am in awe of the one who made it all out of nothing by his power and wisdom. Our God truly is amazing.
Our God is truly Amazing
Indeed He is