Heb. 1:10 ... "You, Lord, in the beginning did lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your Hands."
The Bible opens in Gen. 1:1 with the proclamation that God created the universe, ("the heavens and the earth") and spoke into existence the laws by which all the countless systems and parts would be governed. To study the universe, therefore, or any subsystem of it, is to study the handiwork of God. This is the view that was always present in my mind as I taught physics and marvelled at how the laws which operate in nature can be expressed in precise mathematical formulae. The psalmist said, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands," (Psa. 19:1). When a scientist discovers a law, he is, in reality, finally uncovering to the enlightenment of man what was set in place by God eons ago. Again we read, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. ... For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast," (Psa. 33:6,9). Science, when it is true to its name, brings the human mind closer to the conviction that the universe was created and that the God of the Bible was its Creator. Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) was a German-born astronomer who did his work in England. He discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, proved that our solar system rotates about a center within our galaxy, and began the great task of methodically cataloging the location and identity of the myriads of stars observable in space. At the height of his illustrious career he wrote: "All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truth contained in the Sacred Scriptures."
Hebrews 1:10 is one of many statements in the Bible which remind us that God is the Creator of the universe, usually with an exhortation that we respond to His creative act with praise, thanksgiving, and concession to His ownership of what He has made. To be thus reminded should also have an humbling, sobering effect upon us, inducing us to bring our view of reality back into the proper perspective. It should also influence us to re-order our priorities and values. Although God submitted the world to man to occupy and use it, (Gen. 1:28-30), so that it is proper for us to exercise the claim of ownership to local portions of it, we should always be reminded that, in reality, we are never more than caretakers, or stewards, of what belongs to God. In no absolute or immutable sense do we actually "own" anything! Nor do we have any ultimate, superior, or inalienable right to lay such a claim to any portion of this world or its goods. Psalm 24:1 declares that "the earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it."
When we entered the world, none of us brought anything into it to add to what was already here; and when we leave it, none of us will be able to carry out with us one atom of its matter. "For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either," (I Tim. 6:7). The universe was created by God as a closed cosmological system, and no man can either increase or decrease the sum total of its matter and energy. Therefore, no one has any ultimate personal claim to anything in it.
The clarification of this world view should serve to decrease our lust for material things and the concomitant concepts of ownership and selfish gratification with whatever has come into our hands. Realizing that we are but stewards of what belongs in toto to God, we should find it much easier to use it according to the principles He has revealed to us in the Bible. These principles urge us to allow our relations with material things to be governed by such ideas as non-dependence upon them, the readiness to share our excess with those who have a deficiency, our glad willingness to commit a generous part of them to God's service in His church, and a deep appreciation for these things as manifestations of God's love and concern for us in entrusting them to our continuing use and good management.
