Acts 17:24

God.

All the Indo-European equivalents for God are the same in their ultimate root as the word “day,” and signify the brightness of the sky. The Latin Deus, the Greek Theos, the Sanskrit Dyaus, the Welsh Duw, and even the English God, all come from the same root, signifying the brightness of the sky. This thought has been fixed in the term Jupiter, one of the oldest appellations by which God is known in Europe. Jupiter--what is it? The first syllable Ju is the same as the Welsh Duw, and means the bright sky. The remaining two syllables mean father. Jupiter is the Latin synonym for the Saxon Sky-Father. As one of our Aryan ancestors stood on the open plain gazing upward, and meditating on the Being behind all phenomena, the Reality at the back of all appearances, he gave expression, to the deepest instinct of his nature when he pronounced in articulate language the solemn word “Sky-Father.” (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

That made the world.--

God and the universe

1. “God that made the world and all things therein.” Here is an emphatic denial of all polytheistic and dualistic notions as to the origin and government of the world.

2. “God made the world.” Here is an emphatic assertion that God is distinct from Nature: it is a product of His plastic hand.

3. God “is Lord of heaven and earth”; so that “the lords many,” amongst whom the Greeks believed that the presidency and control of the universe are distributed, were but the idle creations of fancy. By these few words the apostle boldly pushed aside a whole host of errors to which the Athenians had given place in their minds, and by which they had been bewildered and injured. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)

The religious use of Nature

This must be distinguished from--

1. The mere scientific use, which stops with nature. He who handles it as so much matter to be torn apart with analysis and scrutinised with microscope or telescope, often makes the most irreligious use of it, forgetting the Artist in the work of art.

2. The mere sentimental use, which makes nature a nose of wax to be twisted into a mirror of human fancies, feelings, and passions.

3. The commercial use, which sees in nature but so many acres of woodland, or capacities for grain or grazing. Yet there is--

(1) A true science, which leads the way for religion to follow and adore.

(2) A pure sentiment, which penetrates the rare though hidden analogies with which God has crowded the natural and spiritual woods; there religion enters to admire and enjoy.

(3) And wherever the eye that measures value pursues its calculations the grateful heart may follow, saying, “Fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” The religious use of Nature, therefore, is something beyond science, or sentiment, or material value, but utilising everything that is real and true in each. There is scarcely a greater need than the realisation that God is everywhere.

I. The foundation for this realisation is in the teaching of the text concerning God’s relation to nature. He is “Lord of all things.” God is over Nature because He was before it and is in it. You cannot touch Nature without touching God. The right use of Nature so related to God must be a religious use.

II. The duty and privilege of this use is seen in the fact that the Scriptures teach that nature is designed to be a perpetual witness to the wisdom and power of God. Nature is God’s perpetual demonstration of Himself. The crime of idolatry was its first rejection of God in Nature and then debasing His character.

III. This duty and privilege becomes plainer when we remember that man was so created as to be the interpreter of nature. For this he was--

1. Placed at the apex of the pyramid, last and greatest master work.

2. Given intellectual faculties competent to understand Nature and its relations.

3. Endowed with a moral character capable of resemblance to the God revealed in Nature.

4. Made a spiritual being capable of communion with God,

5. It must therefore be his mission to be a reflecting surface for the glory of God in Nature.

IV. This duty, etc., is seen to be rational because nature is so much more to us with God than without him. Without God it is a congeries of vast and uncontrollable forces before which we shudder; with God an ordered system no less majestic, but under the control of a beneficent will. Without Him Nature is senseless; with Him it has a meaning even where we cannot fathom it.

V. Plainer yet seems the duty, etc., when we consider the appeals which God in nature makes to all that is best in us.

1. To our reverence. Best ideas of omnipotence are from God’s rule over Nature.

2. God seeks to elevate us by exhibiting in Nature the nobler types of life. Who can be thoughtless in a world packed with thought, careless when everything is replete with arrangement, idle where everything is busy, or frivolous where all is serious?

3. God appeals to the spirit of praise everywhere in Nature, which is again designed to fill us with gladness in and by our gratitude.

4. Even growth in grace is possible by Nature.

VI. A religious use of Nature is essential to a symmetrical Christian faith and life. (S. T. Scovel, D. D.)

Dwelleth not in temples made with hands.--

God’s temples

I. Heaven, where the spirits made perfect are before His throne.

II. The visible creation, in which He has never left Himself without a witness to His power, wisdom, and goodness.

III. The Church, in which the unknown God is a revealed God in the gospel of His Son.

IV. My heart, in which He desires to dwell by His Holy Spirit. (K. Gerok.)