What Every Kingdom Needs

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm 19.1

It has been said that “nature abhors a vacuum.” I have not done any research to either confirm or contest that statement. But, even if it is true, I don’t think it really means much. Since I believe nature is under the authority of God, the abundance of things great and small that fill the universe is a more a reflection about the creativity and love of God, than evidence of mindless natural forces.

Yesterday we looked at Genesis 1.3-13 and say how God employed himself the first three days of creation in setting out the kingdoms he would rule. After all, what would have been the purpose of God being King over nothing? A King needs a kingdom, or kingdoms over which to exercise sovereignty. But after setting out the three kingdoms (The celestial kingdom [The vastness of the heavens], the kingdom of the seas and sky [the “waters that were under” and the “waters that were above”], and the terrestrial kingdom [the dry land we call “earth”]), and pronouncing each of them “good,” something was still missing.

You see, just as a King needs a kingdom, a kingdom needs subjects. Ruling over an empty, lifeless kingdom would be rather purposeless. And God certainly had a purpose in establishing his kingdoms, Psalm 19 tells us that the “heavens declare the glory of God.” But the testimony of the heavens would have been mute had they been empty. So on day four of Creation God set to work filling up the kingdom he had created on day one. A myriad of lights were called out and set in the heavens, stars and planets, galaxies and solar systems, each placed precisely where God appointed. And, giving attention to an important detail, God placed the Sun and the Moon in the sky in just the right position to maintain the rhythm of night and day for the earth. (Genesis 1.14-19)

The next day, day five, God filled the seas and the sky with the fish and the birds who are the subjects of those kingdoms. Life teemed in the seas, as creatures, from the microscopic to the mighty Leviathan, filled bodies of water as small as a tiny pond or small stream, and as great as the vast oceans. And huge flocks of birds, so immense that when they took flight they could all but darken the sky, filled the air. (Genesis 1.20-23) Like the cosmos, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the seas also have a testimony to declare, they too give evidence to the glory of God. (See Job 12.7-8)

On day six there still remained a kingdom void of subject—the kingdom of the dry land. And so on the sixth day God filled up the earth with “livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” (Genesis 1.24-25) And, in their turn, all these animals contributed their testimony to the glory of God. (Job 12.7,9) But, even though the kingdoms of days 1-3 were now full, God’s work of creation was not finished. There was one more creature God would fashion, and alone out of all the numberless subjects of his kingdoms, this creature would be made in the image of God himself.

Thus it was that on day six God created man, man who would be both God’s subject and his steward, one holding a royal warrant to exercise dominion over all the other subjects of God’s kingdom in the name of, and to the glory and pleasure of the King. (Genesis 1.26-28) Man, so tiny and insignificant that when he surveys the heavens, the moon and the stars, he wonders why God is even mindful of him. (Psalm 8.3-4) But it was God’s desire, and the King’s decision, that man should be but a little lower than the angels, and be crowned with glory and honor. (Psalm 8.5)

God the King, having completed the setting out and the filling up of his kingdoms, took a good look at all his handiwork, everything that he had made, and the sum total of it was that it was “very good.” (Genesis 1.31) Then the King declared that the next day, the seventh day, would be a Sabbath, a day of rest, before the life and the work of his kingdoms would go forward. Ever since this first week which witnessed the beginning of all things, the cycle has continued, six days to work and glorify the King, one day to rest and worship and consider and give thanks to the King of glory!