SABBATH THOUGHT 2026-05-16—HOW GREAT THOU ART
May God bless you on His Sabbath day!
For thousands of years, beginning with Adam and Eve, mankind has known spirit beings exist and nations once identified with one or more gods. Surprising as it may be, it was the Most High God who assigned the various nations to spirit beings:
DEUTERONOMY 32:7-8 “Remember the days of old,
consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he
will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: 8 When the Most High
divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children
of Israel [sons of God].
Many translations say the nations were separated “according to the number of the children of Israel” but that makes no sense whatsoever because Israel did not even exist in “the days of old,” which likely refers to the Tower of Babel or even earlier. Other translations state it was “according to the number of the sons of God,” a clear reference to gods. However, those gods did not rule as the Most High commanded:
PSALMS 82:1-7 [The Most High] God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods. 2 [God says,] how long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 3 Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked. 5 They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are unstable. 6 I said, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. 7 But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”
God expected the gods who ruled over earthly nations to enforce righteousness and justice but they were wicked instead. Still, there was no question that people were acutely aware of the existence of spirit beings, both good and evil, as evidenced in several biblical accounts[1]. In the last 300 years or so, knowledge began to increase and scientists started questioning how mankind and the universe came into being. There is nothing wrong with investigating how everything came into existence but, in reality, they wanted to disprove the existence of an eternal Creator God.
Before Edward Hubble, scientists theorized that the universe was a stagnant collection of galaxies that had just existed forever and had no beginning. Edward Hubble, however, completely upended that theory when he mapped the light emitted from galaxies and discovered that everything was moving away—the universe was expanding. The only possible conclusion, then, was that everything contracted back in time to a single point from which everything expanded. One scientist derogatorily called it the Big Bang Theory, a name that stuck.
Based upon Edward Hubble’s work, the creation was estimated to have occurred some 14 billion years ago. But the idea that the universe did not instantly appear 6,000 years ago caused many theologians great concern. Over time, however, much of Christianity came to accept the possibility of the Big Bang but there was a problem. What the scientists did not emphasize was that their equations fell short of defining the source of the Big Bang because their math did not work when matter (and time) was compressed into a small, superheated pinpoint. In simple terms, thet could not describe the primordial energy source for the Big Bang mathematically so their proof against the existence of God was incomplete.
What was important to them was that literally nothing and no one existed before the Big Bang—not God or even Space itself. Let me repeat that. They thought that SPACE, the volume in which the universe exists, originated with the Big Bang. The scientists were happy because that also meant that God did not exist either.
In an ironic twist, the same scientists bent on disproving the existence of God ended up proving the opposite. In particular, Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose showed mathematically that the Big Bang resulted from what they called a singularity, a speck of pure energy that exploded as the Big Bang. But Stephen Hawking was surprised and not a little bit unhappy because he not only explained that the Big Bang originated with a singularity but also showed the singularity existed in a pre-existing volume of what is called Space. Everything in the universe was the result of an unimaginably small, compressed point of energy—a singularity—that exploded inside a pre-existing empty Space! In simple terms, he showed that Space existed PRIOR to the singularity; it was not CREATED by the Big Bang. The only possible conclusion, then, is that the singularity itself was created because Space existed prior to it!
This was so conclusive that several notable scientists recanted their anti-God beliefs. Sadly, Stephen Hawking spent the rest of his life trying to prove that Space could not exist prior to the singularity in ways that did not contradict his major landmark work but his wild proposals led to loss of credibility and a fair amount of criticism whispered among the scientific community.
The Most High God is GREAT. As Scripture says, He is far above all of the Creation[2]. Physical humans, and likely created spirit beings as well, certainly cannot imagine a Life without a beginning. And that is the incredulous result of the work of Stephen Hawking. His math showed that an infinite space existed PRIOR to the Big Bang; it was not created by it. Whether or not someone believes that the universe was created 6,000 years ago or is the result of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago is unimportant compared to the spectacular realization that Space is infinite and, as Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose proved, preceded Creation. If they were correct that Space was created in the Big Bang, it would have proven that God did not exist.
Space is big. Really big. Even if what we call Space is a limited expanse, it would have to exist within something else that is even larger. Borders only exist if there is something beyond them. Eventually, the ‘box within a box’ analogy must conclude with an infinite, boundless ‘box’. What is important about the boundless ‘box’ is that it is the abode for God. Anything less would mean God is contained inside something else, so the only place befitting of the eternal Most High God to dwell in is an infinite Space. This means there are now two impossible-to-rationalize descriptors of the greatness of God: 1) He has no beginning, and 2) He lives in an infinite expanse called Space that also had no beginning.
Whatever someone thinks or says about God, it can never truly describe His greatness. Our words can never encapsulate His eternity or infinity. Consider the well-known hymn, How Great Thou Art. As a question, it cannot be answered and as a statement, it cannot be imagined. Notice the words of Moses that describe the eternity of God and Isaiah that describe the infinite expanse of His Kingdom. There are no greater words to describe God that are so far beyond human understanding than eternal and infinite[3]:
PSALM 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
ISAIAH 9:7 Of the increase [greatness] of His [empire] and peace there will be no end [infinite], upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Most translations say government but the Hebrew literally means empire and the word increase means greatness. But the most interesting word is end. It means extremity, the farthest point or outermost edge of something. Surprisingly, it is translated infinite in Job 22:5 in the KJV. I doubt that infinity was truly expressible in Hebrew; it is a modern concept that is best understood with calculus, a form of mathematics invented by Isaac Newton in the 17th century about the time the KJV was written. Isaiah wrote that the Empire of God is infinitely expanding. I suspect that was intentional because he likely could not grasp a realm of infinite size so he described it as an ever-expanding one. The words eternal and infinite certainly befit the Most High God but humans are incapable of wrapping their minds around them.
King David once attempted to describe the greatness of God in Psalm 104 but he did so by referencing the physical world. What is amazing is that 3,000 years ago David understood what Edward Hubble discovered only in the last hundred years:[4]
PSALMS 104:1-2 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, 2 who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain [expanding universe].
God not only created everything but IS everything because it all came from Him:
ISAIAH 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Imagining the eternal existence of God who lives in an infinite Space is an impossible task but so is comprehending His power. It cannot be compared to physical strength or simply described as some extensible use of His Spirit. The universe that exists within the infinite expanse of God’s dominion came into being by His WORDS. That is worth repeating. God SPOKE the Creation into existence:
JOHN 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word [Jesus Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
People have described “the Word” as the ‘spokesman’ of God. What an insult. The Word was and is GOD. He did not simply recite from a script the words of creation; He is the very essence of power such that His words MADE all of Creation:
COLOSSIANS 1:16 For by Him [Jesus Christ] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
God put a desire for “eternity in their [mankind’s] hearts”[5] and that is seen in man’s desire to bring it about without God. They want something to come from nothing so they can say how great they are. The non-believing scientists who want a Creation without a Creator are a sad lot just as their foolish postulations that opposable thumbs prove man evolved from apes.
Three things, for me, define God. One, it is not simply the ability to create life or to have eternal life—it is a Being that IS life because there was never a beginning:
JOHN 5:26 “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,
Two, it is not just the ability to project power; it is a Being who IS power capable of producing something from nothing. God can manifest His thoughts and words into REALITY. The words “Let there be …”[6] brought forth into existence the THOUGHTS of God! Who can truly grasp that? The thoughts and words of God ARE the only reality that is and ever will be:
ISAIAH 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’
Three, it is not just the ability to create a universe; it is a Being who exists in an infinite and eternal expanse in which the universe—the heavens—was created:
GENESIS 14:22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor [Creator] of heaven and earth,
Several Bibles translate Possessor as Creator. The phrase “I am … the Beginning and the End” of everything proves that God is the CREATION because it is the realization of His THOUGHTS:
REVELATION 21:6 And He [God the Father] said to me [John], “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End [of everything]. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
The universe filled with galaxies is massive but it does not come close to the expanse called Space that is infinite and mostly empty … for now. For such a Creator, the universe that now exists is of such little consequence that He will THINK it out of existence and THINK in a new one:[7]
ISAIAH 65:17 “For behold, I [God] create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
This new universe will never cease expanding, eternally filling the infinite expanse of the domain of God! Who can imagine? But then that is why people struggle to tell of His GREATNESS—He IS the unimaginable:
1 TIMOTHY 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
May God’s grace and peace be upon you!
Steven Greene
https://sabbathreflections.org