God is revealed in nature

God’s covenant with Abram

• 15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

• But Abram said, Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?

• Then Abram said, Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!

• 15:4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

• 15:5 Then He brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them. And He said to him, So shall your descendants be.

• 15:6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Job• Job 31: 35 “Oh that I had one to hear me! Here is my

mark. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me, that my prosecutor had written a book!”

• 38:3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

• 38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. (Q1)

• 38:5 Who determined its measurements? (Q2) Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? (Q3)

• 38:6 To what were its foundations fastened? (Q4) Or who laid its cornerstone, (Q5)

• 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy (Q6)?

• 38:8 Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb (Q7)

• 38:9 When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band (Q8);

• 38:10 When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors (Q9);

• 38:11 When I said, `This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!' (Q10)

• 38:12 Have you commanded the morning since your days began, And caused the dawn to know its place, (Q11)

• 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, And the wicked be shaken out of it (Q12)?

• 38:14 It takes on form like clay under a seal, And stands out like a garment.

• 38:15 From the wicked their light is withheld, And the upraised arm is broken.

• 38:16 Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? (Q13)

• 38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? (Q14)

• 38:18 Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? (Q15) Tell Me, if you know all this.

• 38:19 Where is the way to the dwelling of light? (Q15) And darkness, where is its place, (Q16)

• 38:20 That you may take it to its territory, That you may know the paths to its home (Q17)?

• 38:21 Do you know it, because you were born then, Or because the number of your days is great? (Q18)

• 38:24 By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth? (Q21 + 22)

• 38:25 Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, Or a path for the thunderbolt, (Q23 + 24)

• 38:26 To cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, A wilderness in which there is no man; (Q25 + Q26)

• 38:27 To satisfy the desolate waste, And cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass? (Q27)

• 38:28 Has the rain a father? (Q28) Or who has begotten the drops of dew? (Q29)

• 38:29 From whose womb comes the ice? (Q30) And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? (Q31)

• 38:30 The waters harden like stone, And the surface of the deep is frozen.

• 38:31 Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, (Q32) Or loose the belt of Orion? (Q33)

• 38:32 Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? (Q34) Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? (Q35)

• 38:33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? (Q36) Can you set their dominion over the earth? (Q37)

• 38:34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That an abundance of water may cover you? (Q38)

• 38:35 Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, And say to you, `Here we are!'? (Q39)

• 38:36 Who has put wisdom in the mind? (Q40) Or who has given understanding to the heart? (Q41)

• 38:37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? (Q42) Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,

• 38:38 When the dust hardens in clumps, And the clods cling together? (Q43)

• 38:39 Can you hunt the prey for the lion (Q44), Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions (Q45),

• 38:40 When they crouch in their dens, Or lurk in their lairs to lie in wait? (Q46 + 47)

• 38:41 Who provides food for the raven, When its young ones cry to God, And wander about for lack of food? (Q48)

Chapter 39….. • Final question “Shall the one who contends with

the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it”

• Job answers “Behold I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth.”

Stars • How many stars are there?

Many

How many stars can you see at night?

1000

Galaxies • What is a galaxy? A large gravitationally ground system that consists of stars, stellar remnants, gas and dust.

Planets Stars Nebulaes Galaxies Universe

• How many galaxies are there? There are 150 billion galaxies….• In our galaxy…………. there are about 200 billion

stars.

• So how many stars are there? 10 sextillion

• 10^21 (10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000) 10 million, million, billion stars

That means,

• The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand of all the beaches of the planet Earth

• Everybody on Earth could own a trillion stars....twice

• If you were to count one star per second you would be there for two thousand, five hundred years.

• Stellarium

• Psalm 147:4 “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.

• 147:5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.

• Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

• Luke 12:7 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

• John10:14 “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep”

Distances to stars

• Did you know? It would take 5000hrs or 208 days to reach the

Sun, our nearest star, travelling at a top speed of 30000km/hr.

It would take 154 800 years to reach the second closest star (Alpha centauri) travelling at a top speed of 30000km/hr

There are many stars millions and billions light years away

Calculations • Distance from Earth to Sun = 150 million kms Time = Distance/speed Time = 150 000 000km/ 30 000km/hr = 5000 hrs (or 208 days) • Alpha centauri is 4.3 Light years away Light travels 300 000km/sec. Therefore one light year is

300000kms x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365.25 Distance of one light year = 9.467 x 10^12 (9 trillion kms) Distance of Alpha Centauri = 4.3 x one light year Time = 4.3 x one light year km / 30000 km/hr

= 154800years

Earth’s rotation and orbit • Average rotational speed = 40075.1601km/24hrs

= 1669.8km/hr

• Earth’s speed of orbit Average orbital speed29.78 km/s or 107,200 km/h

You’re a small part of a large universe • Isaiah 40:22 It is He who sits above the circle of the

earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

• The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me—a small disk, 240,000 miles away. It was hard to think that little thing held so many problems, so many frustrations. Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, and pestilence don't show from that distance. Frank Borman, Apollo 8, 'A Science Fiction World—Awesome Forlorn Beauty,' Life magazine, 17 January 1969.

• It suddenly struck me that the tiny pea, pretty and blue object, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small — Neil Armstrong

• [Psalm 8]• 8:1 O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who

have set Your glory above the heavens!• 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained

strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

• 8:3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

• 8:4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?

• 8:5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

• 8:6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

• 8:7 All sheep and oxen--Even the beasts of the field,• 8:8 The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the

paths of the seas.• 8:9 O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

• Psalm 33 • 33:6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were

made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

• 33:7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses.

• 33:8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

• 33:9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.

Your in perfect alignment • In the early expansion of the universe there has to be a close

balance between the expansive energy (driving things apart) and the force of gravity (pulling things together). If expansion dominated then matter would fly apart too rapidly for condensation into galaxies and stars to take place. Nothing interesting could happen in so thinly a spread a world. On the other hand, if gravity dominated, the world would collapse in on itself again before there was time for the processes of life to get going. For us to be possible requires a balance between the effects of expansion and contraction which at a very early epoch in the universe’s history has to differ from equality by not more than 1 in 10^60.

• For the non-numerate that it is the same as aiming at a target an inch wide on the other side of the observable universe, twenty thousand million light years away, and hitting the mark!

• Novendecillion – 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000