January 1: “Our Mighty God!”

DAILY BIBLE READING:

Genesis 1:1-2:25
Matthew 1:1-2:12
Psalm 1:1-6
Proverbs 1:1-6

BIBLE VERSE(S) FOR TODAY:

Genesis 1:16 (CSB) “God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night—as well as the stars.”

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY’S BIBLE VERSE(S):

As we begin this year and our Through-the-Bible-in-a-Year program, I couldn’t help but see the power of Genesis 1:16.

In Genesis 1, we read of God’s creative work. We read of how God created all things that we now enjoy.

In Genesis 1:16, we are told that God created the sun (“the greater light to rule over the day”) and the moon (“the lesser light to rule over the night”).

But, the end of this verse is almost like a last minute add-on. It’s like Moses (who wrote this book) said, “God created the sun and the moon – and, oh, I almost forgot, he made the stars, too.”

Genesis 1:16 (CSB) “God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night—as well as the stars.”

Read virtually any translation’s wording for this verse and they all make it sound as if the creation of the stars was such an insignificant thing that it almost got overlooked in Moses’ accounting of creation.

Why would this be? Are there so few stars that they are hardly worth mentioning?

Nope! That is definitely not true!

From the Scripture, we read that the writers of the Bible realized that there were a massive amount of stars above them.

In Genesis 15, Moses quoted God as saying that there were so many stars in the sky that Abraham couldn’t possibly count them.

Genesis 15:5 (CSB) “He (God) took him (Abraham) outside and said, ‘Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ …”

Listen to what the prophet Jeremiah said about the number of stars in the night sky.

Jeremiah 33:22 (CSB) “Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.”

Did you catch that? Jeremiah said that “the stars of heaven cannot be counted.” There are just too many of them!

Jeremiah said that around 2,600 years ago. We’ve had plenty of technological developments since then. Currently, the Hubble Telescope can see 13 billion light years away

So, have we been able to count all of the stars in space yet?

Nope! Not even close. The best that can be given is an astronomical number that is rounded off because we just can’t count them all.

“Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has approximately 100 billion stars in it” but if we look beyond our galaxy, “there are about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in space.”

Our minds are totally incapable of grasping that number. Essentially, the stars would equal every single grain of sand on planet earth.

With that thought in mind, let’s finish by going back to Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:16 (CSB) “God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night—as well as the stars.”

Do you know what those last 5 words of Genesis 1:16 tell us? That our God is so infinitely powerful that he spoke over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars into existence by the word of His power. Further, it took so little effort for God to create them that the existence of stars was simply an addendum to Moses’ account of the created order.

So, friend, never think that anything you are going through is too difficult for God. He’s more than powerful enough to watch over you as you go through this day. He is more than powerful enough to let absolutely nothing come into your experience without His permission.

Let that thought move you to thank Him and praise Him. And let it move you to release the anxiety you may have been battling. God can handle it. Enjoy your God today, friend, and rest in His infinite strength.