God who owns the earth
Psa
24:1,2 The
earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who
live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon
the waters
When
I was young I used to make model aeroplanes. Mostly they were plastic
and they would hang by threads from the ceiling of my bedroom. They
were mine and I took great joy in them. I eventually made a large-span
glider. It took hours and hours to make. Every piece pinned on a board
and then glued together, covered in tissue that was then shrunk and
‘doped' to make it hard. That was a special plane. Hours of effort
had gone into that one. One of my sons and his wife recently just
moved and were sorting out things to get rid of. There was an old
video player. “Oh, we don't want that any longer,” he says. “We can't
throw that away,” she says, I saved up months to buy that,” and recounted
how she had saved and saved to get it when she was younger. It held
memories and had lots of sentimental value. It was hers and she'd
earned it. It meant something.
David
understood ownership; he understood that the world belongs to God
because He made it. Scientists can jump up and down in excitement
over their latest speculation, but they can never know. What
ever the mechanics of the world coming into being, the Bible again
and again, unashamedly declares that the Lord made it. Listen to this
echo from Proverbs: “I
was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the
horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea
its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when
he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman
at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always
in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”
(Prov 8:27-31). What an amazing picture of the Son working alongside
the Father as together they brought the world into being. It's theirs;
it belongs to them because they made it!
Again,
when I was a child I bred beautiful black and white Dutch rabbits.
I started out with two and ended up with a lot more. Nobody disputed
my ownership of all of them. Whether or not God has a hand in making
each individual person (and there are Scriptural suggestions that
He does) this is His world and everything and everyone on it belongs
to Him. Because He is God He has absolute rights over it. If He wanted
to He could wipe out every foolish little person who thinks too much
of themselves and denies Him, but He doesn't. He loves this world
and wants to give every such person (and we were all like that) a
chance of understanding He's there for us, and sometimes it seems
to takes a lot to get the creature to realize the Creator is for them
and loves them – and sometimes they leave the earth still not realizing
it, despite all He's said and done for them.
I
recently came across a well-known writer, commenting about a very
famous atheist-philosopher (who will remain nameless) and who is dead
now: “For 70 years he entertained us….. but as for conveying wisdom
he might never have lived.” What a terrible indictment. This so-called
philosopher had written volumes but now all consigned to this condemnation
and why? Because he had never allowed the evidence of this wonderful
world to permeate his pride and so he never met the Creator. This
is God's world and how we respond to that truth determines how we
will be assessed eternally (Rom 1:18 -20).
If we worship the Creator and His co-creating Son, we become elevated
to sonship and greatness. If we refuse we are consigned to the scrap
heap of fading memories.