Daily Devotional | Wisdom at Creation

On Christmas Day 2021, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope. This successor to the Hubble Telescope cost $10 billion and took nearly a month to arrive at its destination a million miles from earth. The creators of the telescope hope to show earth-bound humans images from the earliest stars in the universe. We can be certain that this new perspective will take our breath away.

In Genesis 1, we are told that God created the stars and the entire universe, with nothing more than the word of His mouth. He spoke, and it came into being. Just like that—poof! Space was empty, and then God filled it. Proverbs 3:19–20 tells us that God laid the earth’s foundations by using His wisdom (v. 19). He set the heavens in place with His understanding (v. 19). And His knowledge created the oceans, rivers, and waterways (v. 20). It is impossible for the human mind to completely understand the mysteries of these things. Yet God created all of this with only His words and by His wisdom.

Worship of astral deities was common in the ancient Near East. The “gods” of the sun, moon, and stars counted many people among their followers. The Bible is clear that the heavens are nothing more than created things meant to display God’s wonder and wisdom. We in the modern world may scoff at the idea of worshiping the stars, but we have the same problem as people in the ancient Near East. Many still do not worship the God who made the heavens, instead putting our faith in more sophisticated idols. And yet God’s wisdom, through which He created the universe and that culminates in the death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son, still calls out to us, beckoning us to a relationship with Him. 

>> Tonight, step out in the dark and do a bit of star gazing. Consider the “works of His hands” and all that God has created. Let that moment become a time of praise to our Creator.

Pray with Us

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge . . . their voice goes out into all the earth” (Ps. 19:1–4).

BY Dr. Russell L. Meek

Russell Meek teaches Old Testament and Hebrew at Moody Theological Seminary. He writes a regular column on understanding and applying the Old Testament at Fathom Magazine, and his books include Ecclesiastes and the Search for Meaning in an Upside-Down World and the co-authored Book-by-Book Guide to Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary. Russ, his wife, and their three sons live in northern Idaho.