Grace Thoughts
Deep Magic – Song of the Supernatural – Chapter 5
Courtesy NASA
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So, how did He do it? How did God Create the Heavens? What is this Deep Magic of the Supernatural? Is it a trick? A slight of hand? A misdirection? No, it is real. All any of us have to do to prove what God has done is walk outside on a clear night and look up.
How Did God Do It?
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1
The Hebrew word for “declare” is sapar. It means “to number, enumerate, count, tell, announce.” It’s interesting that out of all the Hebrew words translated by the English word “declare,” the one dealing with counting numbers would be chosen by the Psalmist. Numbers are very important to God and, as we’ll see in this book, are part of His Deep Magic.
Many years ago I traveled with some friends to teach at a seminar. Our host lived far out in the country and we arrived after 10 o’clock at night. Clouds had hidden the night sky from us during most of the journey, but when we got out of the car at our journey’s end I was amazed at what I saw. As far as I could see thousands of bright stars lit up the night sky. I had never seen so many stars. It was that night I understood what the psalmist meant when he wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” The sheer number of the stars was overwhelming and the brightness of their combined light made it appear as almost daytime.
I was also reminded of what God told Abram thousands of years earlier:
“Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” (Genesis 15:5) Abram was not able to count the stars that night – and neither was I. The number of stars we can see with the naked eye depends on how close we are to city lights and other light pollution. It is estimated that in a typical dark sky, someone with good vision whose eyes have adapted to the dark could see a few thousand stars. However, at the time Abram looked at the dark sky without light pollution, he may have been able to see thousands more. He would not have been able to count the number of stars because the sky would have been filled with light.
The invention of the telescope thousands of years later opened up new possibilities for investigating the heavens from earth. Millions of new stars and galaxies have been discovered. The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 opened the unique opportunity to look into outer space from outer space. The Hubble orbits the earth at an altitude of about 350 miles and a speed of about 17-thousand miles per hour. It transmits more than 10 terabytes of new data each year. The Hubble pictures we have seen of the expanding universe are staggeringly beautiful and amazing – even more evidence of God’s Deep Magic.
In the late 1970s, a company began offering people the opportunity to name stars. I found that interesting in light of the fact that every star in the heavens already has a name.
He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. Psalm 147:4-5
Scientists are doing their best to guess how many stars are in the heavens, but God has already counted and named them. God is so far ahead of everyone. That’s because He is the Creator!
So, how did God Create the heavens and the earth? Magicians want you to be astounded by their magic, but usually do not want you to know how they do it. That’s because their magic is based on principles of movement, bound by the laws of physics. Not so with God. He Created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. There’s no trick here – just the awesome Power of the Almighty God.
A better question for us to ask first is “why”. Why did God Create the heavens and the earth? Remember that He Created Heaven to be home to His angelic host and for His Throne. Did God also create the earth for the angels or something or someone else?
The Deep Magic of God is well documented. He did not Create the heavens and the earth as a trick to confound or entertain the angels. God showed His Mighty Power openly for all to see and explained exactly how He did it.
The first sentence in the Bible tells us what God did: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The following verses explained how He did it.
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2
This may not be what you would expect to see from the God Who Dwells in Unapproachable Light and Rules from His Throne in Heaven surrounded by tens of millions of angels. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” We know from this statement that the earth existed, but it was without form and void. The Hebrew word for “without form” is tohu and means “a vast desert, waste and barren, a void place.” It is used 20 times in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew word for “void” is bohu and means “empty, void.” It is used only three times in the Hebrew Bible – always combined with tohu (Genesis 1:2; Isaiah 34:11; Jeremiah 4:23). The “face of the deep” includes the Hebrew words paneh and tehom. Paneh means “surface.” Tehom means “deep” and is used for the depths of the ocean as well as deep springs. The Hebrew scholars who translated the Bible into Greek used the word abussos (abyss) to explain the meaning of tehom. The “face of the deep” was the surface of the deep abyss at the beginning of Creation.
Many theories have swirled around Genesis 1:2 for centuries. One major theory is that the formless and void earth, along with the waters, were the beginning substances God used to create the world – like a potter using clay and water to form a thing of beauty. Another theory is that the earth was formless and void because of God’s Judgment. If the formless and void earth along with the deep waters were the substances God used at the beginning of Creation, then we can move on to verse 3 knowing two of the primary building blocks for what God Created. However, if the earth was formless and void and the Spirit of God was hovering over the deep waters because of God’s Judgment, then we will need to spend more time to understand what He Judged and why and how that played a role in the Creation of the heavens and the earth. We’ll look at that theory in detail in the next chapter – Behold The Darkness. Our purpose now is to focus on the Light of Creation.
Scripture references in this book are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.
“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
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Published by gracelifethoughts
Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
