Sermon by Eliezer Roque Cisneros
for General; Youth Group; Kids
Part one of the Series: "The One and Only"
Themes: Soli Deo Gloria; Astronomy
Relevant texts: Jeremiah 31:34–35; Genesis 1:16; Numbers 24:17
For centuries Man has imagined the stars and cosmos as the abode of the gods. But YHWH made even these
Notes
this series aims to build critical thinking skills along with a sense of wonder for the created and unknown world.
Intro
Genesis 1:16 ESV
And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
There is very little we know about our universe, but what little we know, all of it glorifies the Creator God.
God is SO big
The bigness of the universe
• How big our planet is compared to the drive from Grand Junction to Denver
• How big the Moon is compared to the same drive
• how big the distance is from earth to the moon compared to size and scale
The Gravitational force of earth compared to if the same scale objects were in the same proximity
• as objects get larger and more massive, Einstein theorized that space and time distort around objects of such mass
• Think how dense the earth must be to create gravity strong enough to have a moon 240,000 miles away
God is SO powerful
The absolute control and mastery of God over the stars in the sky
English Standard Version Chapter 38
31 “Can you bind the chains of vthe Pleiades
or loose the cords of vOrion?
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth2 in their season,
or can you guide vthe Bear with its children?
33 Do you know wthe ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth
God could undo the very constelations
He could change the how the seasons look with nothing but a whim. god is so powerful!
When god wants his people to take a covenant seriously, he’ll remind them that he’s the real deal.
Amos 5:6–8 ESV
Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel, O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth! He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name;
God is so BEYOND
The three heavens
2 Corinthians 12:2 ESV
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.
• evidently, paul knew someone, probably a prophet of his time, who was taken in vision to a place beyond human and empirical limits
• This third heaven is referenced elsewhere in the bible but we don’t often talk about it, which is a shame because the implications of a place like this is out of this universe
• Raise your hand if you know what road to go east
• west
• north
• south
• What road do i take to go into the sky? into space? into the unknown?
• heaven is the unreachable, untouchable place where for millenia, men knew they could not go on their own.
• there’s a place even more inaccesible than that.
The heaven of Heavens
Psalm 148:1–6 ESV
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
The words in Hebrew are not “highest heavens” they are Shamei Hashamiem. Hebrew didn’t have superlative endings for its words so they used a grammatical construct. Something of the Somethings.
• Blue of the Blues
• Holy of the Holies,
• qodesh haqqodashim
• Most Holy Place, the holiest place. of all places that are holy—the one holy compared to them
King of kings is the same construct, and arguably translates better into english
• king of the Kings
• Melek Hamelekim
• Like saying, as kings are to common folk, god is to kings,
• as holy things are to normal ‘secular’ things, the most holy is to other holy things, the sabbath, marriage, the bible, god’s name, you name it: the most holy place makes those other holy things look common by comparison
Shamei Hashamiem is literally, the same rhetorical device. A heaven of the heavens. What heaven is to earth dwellers, this place is to heaven dwellers. If anything lives in the stars, this place is their heaven. it makes the heavens we see look like common dirt by comparison.
God is so beyond
And this is the God that we worship
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