Thursday, November 8, 2012

Poets Admire Nature: Prophets Look to the Creator

"Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods" (Galatians 4:8)

It is possible to spend a lifetime admiring God's handiwork without acknowledging the presence of God whose handiwork it is. Nature cannot lift men to God nor serve as a ladder by which he may climb into the divine bosom.

The heavens and the earth were intended to be a semitransparent veil through which moral intelligences might see the glory of God (Psalm 119:1-6; Romans 1:19, 20), but for sin-blinded men this veil has become opaque. They see the creation but do not see through it to the Creator; or what glimpses they do have are dim and out of focus.

With what joy the Christian turns from even the purest nature poets to the prophets and psalmists of the Scriptures. These saw God first; they rose by the power of faith to the throne of the Majesty on high and observed the created world from above.

Their love of natural objects was deep and intense, but they loved them not for their own sakes but for the sake of Him who created them. They walked through the world as through the garden of God. Everything reminded them of Him. They saw His power in the stormy wind and tempest; they heard His voice in the thunder; the mountains told them of His strength and the rocks reminded them that He was their hiding place!

The nature poets are enamored of natural objects; the inspired writers are God-enamored men. That is the difference, and it is a vitally important one!

~A. W. Tozer~

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