Thought #8

(God of Creation)
(Nehemiah 9:1-6)

Text: 1 Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them. 2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God. 4 Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God. 5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

Some Initial Remarks I would like to begin a study in Nehemiah chapter 9. I would like to focus on that great Levitical prayer we find in chapter 9. Within it we find much instruction, no doubt we will be here for a few weeks, so unsaddle and let's dig in! Some initial thoughts; Nehemiah is the last of the historical books, although within it's history (which is about 24 years) we find great prophecies being fulfilled; particularly the prophecies of Zechariah, and especially of Daniel concerning the building of the wall of Jerusalem in troublesome times. Our focus though will be on that great prayer in chapter 9. Even more particularly the God who is described in that prayer.

The Law has been read for the last seven days as the nation kept the Feast of Booths. The nation of Israel is now lamenting over their sins and the sins of their fathers. A great revival is sweeping through the remnant their in Jerusalem.

The Description our Great God:
You find it in verse 6 ~
"Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein and thou preservest them all..."

Notice how God is described!

1) He is LORD alone. He is Jehovah alone, He is the One Lord, He is the One and Only Self Existent God. There is no god before him, there is no god after him. He is Y@hovah!

2) He is the Self Existent One who created all things. Notice if you will the list;
     a) He created heaven. He created the sky, the sun, the moon, all planets, the entire universe.
     b) He created the heaven of heavens. He is the creator of His seat, the abode of God and all His Holy angels.
     c) He created the host of heaven. Every being you will ever find in heaven, God created. None will be their who the Self Existent One did not create.
     d) He created the earth. Not only created it, but created it out of nothing, he did not come along and find a mass, and work with it, but the Self Existent One created it out of nothing.
     e) He created all things upon the earth. You find something on earth and God created it.
     f)   He created all things that are in the sea.   You find any animal in the sea and Jehovah is the author of it's life.
     g) He created everything you will find, look to heaven Jehovah created all those things, look to the heaven of heavens Jehovah is the One who created it all. Look to the earth or her seas, it is Jehovah who created it all!
     h) No only is He the creator of all things, but all things draw their life from Him. He "preservest them all".
In every way possible we find that Jehovah is here described as the Great Creator, the Self Existent One who created everything, and now all created things draw their life from Him. The entire universe is not running on "auto", but being sustained by the hand and power of God. We find that no matter where we look we will find only the work of His hands. He is indeed LORD alone, and the creator of all things!

Application

I would like to draw two main conclusions:
1) It is impossible to believe the Bible and believe in evolution. I do not say this to anger you but to boil it down to simple facts. You can not believe that God has made all things, yet man has evolved from some other thing God made. Then this "evolved" man becomes a new thing, and along the way he (somehow) develops a soul. What you really believe is that man is not created by God, he is not created in the image of God. You deny the scriptures, your view of God is pagan. For words can be no clearer than the very first description we find here in this Levitical prayer. He is the One and only Self Existent God, who created all things!

2) Jesus is the very Self Existent One we are talking about. Jesus is that Creator who in the beginning spoke all things into existence. Jesus is God.
(John 1:1) "1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." Words can get no clearer, all things were made by Christ!
(Colossians 2:9) "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

If your gospel declares Jesus Christ to be anyone other than Jehovah, anyone other than the second person of the blessed God-head, you have believed a lie. You worship not the God of creation, but the god of your imagination. Repent and turn to that Great Creator ~ Jesus Christ, you will find not only is He the God of creation, but He is the God of re-creation.