The Creation of Man


"Thy hands have framed me and fashioned me together round about…
Thou hast fashioned me as clay." (Job 10:8, 9)

"And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I'm lonely --
I'll make me a world.

And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That's good!

Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.

And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.

Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That's good!

Then God himself stepped down --
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.

And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas --
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed --
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled --
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.

Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.

Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That's good!

Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I'm lonely still.

Then God sat down --
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I'll make me a man!

Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image;

Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen."
(Poem by James Weldon Johnson from his book, "God's Tromebones")

We know that the body we live in, we did not make, and could never have made it.
We try to attempt to understand how our body works.
Our body is an amazing creation of God.

We live in a miracle house.
Our body is made up of 30 million million cells, which are living, and yet are too tiny for the eye to see.
They are so tiny that 64 million cells fit in a cubic inch.
Yet each of these cells holds the undiscoverable secret of life.
All living organisms originate in an unbelievably small cell of protoplasm,
one hundred twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter.
Protoplasm is the basis of all life and doubtless is the most mysterious combination
of chemical elements to be found.

We know that our bodies began with the union of a male cell and a female cell.
Dividing, this cell formed two; the two cells formed four; the four cells formed eight, and so on.
But why should they form a body, and why this particular type of body?

In each of these cells are infinitesimal chromosomes.
There are 48 chromosomes in every human cell.
Each chromosome contains thousands of nearly sub-microscopic genes.
These genes are the custodians of hereditary from generation to generation,
containing all the characteristics of the future body.
One has the color of the hair.
Another has the shape of the ear or eye.
Another has the nose, and so on.

So, as the cells multiply, these tiny workers see to it that a wondrously, fashioned body,
much like its parents, is developed, ready to be born and live its own life.

This is a lot of mystery.
Science cannot account for these subtle processes; but the Bible does:

"For Thou didst possess Thyself of my reins,
Thou didst we meet together in the womb of my mother.
I thank Thee in that fearfully was I made distinct.

Wonderful are Thy works, and my own soul is observing them intently!
My substance was not hidden from Thee – when I was made in secret,
when I was skillfully figured in the lower parts of the earth.
Mine unfinished substance Thine eyes beheld, and in Thy book all the parts thereof were written,
the days they should be fashioned!
While yet there was not one among them." (Psalm 139:13-16)

"Thy hands have framed me and fashioned me together round about…
Thou hast fashioned me as clay." (Job 10:8, 9)

Man's origin is a ministry, and the mystery is with God.
Think about man's birth.
Why is the forming body expelled at exactly 9 months, to begin its separate existence?
There is no answer other than God: "the days they should be fashioned."

These 30 million million cells are all living organisms, and as such, they must be kept alive.
But how does that happen?
Food must be carried to them every moment; therefore the blood:
"The life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11).

What a tremendous statement!
This is marvelously scientific!
How did the the Bible know that fact when science discovered it only some 325 years ago?
(If credited to John Hunter rather than Harvey, only 180 years ago).
Here is proof indeed that the Designer and Creator of the body is also the Author of the Bible.

The average man has about 4 quarts of blood in his body.
And in them are some 25,000,000,000,000 red cells.
And each red cell has countless millions of millions of molecules of hemoglobin.
When we eat food, the plasma, the blood proper, grabs the food it needs to carry to the body cells.
So, through the cooperation of many mysterious processes in the most marvelous chemical action
known to man, the body is nourished and its life, and health, and energy is maintained.

Consider the miracle ear.
With a delicate three-bone mechanism receiving the sounds transmitted to it by the eardrum,
this unique mechanism passes them through a water-like fluid to some 24,000 nerve-wires
that pass every delicate shade of sound – about 11,000 variations of wavelength or pitch
– on to the brain: this is an engineering achievement utterly unapproachable by man.

Consider the miracle eye.
Much like a camera with its adjustable aperture to regulate the amount of light.
It's lens is marvelously capable of instant focusing on turning from a close-up book to objects miles away.
The retina, serving as its sensitized film is a mechanism that far out does anything man can ever make.

Who engineered these rapid adjustments, from the foot-away look to the faraway view,
from the most intense light to the comparative darkness?

How are we able to stand erect?
By strength of our muscles?
No indeed!
I read of a man with a strong physique who would fall over backward but for his support.
He was slugged at the base of the brain, injuring his balance.
We would also fall over had not our body been endowed with a balance system.

Think about how we got started.
We got started by two life cells uniting, then multiplying and multiplying.
But why did they assume the form of a human body, following the pattern of the centuries?
Why a spinal cord and a brain?
Why arms and legs?
Why eyes and ears in their proper place?
Why do your eyes see and your ears hear?
Then, having grown in our teens to between five and 6 feet, why didn't our bones
keep on lengthening?
How did we get stopped?

How does our heart beat so persistently, and with prescribed regularity?
And yet, the heart takes no timeout for repairs.
At the rate of 72 beats a minute, doing work of lifting 2 pounds 1 foot, every 24 hours.
Our heart does the work involved in lifting 100 tons 1 foot.
Think of it!
Unbelievable!
It would utterly wear us out, yet our heart has been doing it daily for years.

How do we keep breathing ceaselessly – 18 to 22 times a minute – without thought or conscious effort?
Who keeps the bellows working?
Why aren't we afraid to lie down and go to sleep, lest they forget or quit their job?

How is it that our skin being porous for it is simply full of pores from which water exudes freely
as perspiration, and yet doesn't absorb water and we don't become waterlogged when taking a bath?

How are our teeth formed and fitted into their sockets so firmly, each suited to its task,
the front teeth sharp for cutting, the back teeth with grinding surfaces?
Think about their hard ivory coating, the hardest in the animal realm?

How can we swallow food?
It is not by gravitation for some animals have to swallow upward.
Have you considered the intricate muscular equipment that is required?
And how is it that your food does not route itself and go down your windpipe?
How can you draw upon your lungs for breath to speak almost at the same instant you are swallowing?

Are we aware that our body requires certain strong, concentrated drugs?
Their manufacture is entrusted to special ductless glands.
(Science has detected at least eight.)
Some of these drugs are very strong poisons.
If the supply were to fail we would sicken, and perhaps, even die.
If they were over-produced we would kill ourselves with an overdose of poison.
What assures us of an even balance of production?

Now I'm not attempting a treatise on the human body.
I'm certainly not capable of doing that.

I am simply setting forth these startling facts about ourselves in the realm of the physical
with the purpose of alerting our minds to possibilities that are equally as amazing in the spiritual sphere.
I am wanting us to understand what God has done for us in the physical,
and that He is also prepared to do miraculous and wonderful things for us in the spiritual.

We must confess that God our Creator has wrought wondrously in supplying our physical basis of life.
So why not as much, and more, for life itself?
The same God is also our Redeemer.

If He was not prepared to do equally wonderful things in the realm of the spiritual,
Christianity and its claims would be discredited.
And it is just this evidence of His supernatural working in our spiritual experience,
the the transforming of personality, that is needed to validate the claims of the Christian faith
to the modern man today.

Since you live in a house, are are possessed of a body, that is so skillfully designed
and operates so smoothly, why not invite the Designer -- your Creator into your heart and life
He is always ready and available to come and do for you spiritually what He has done for your body?
Why not?

He is ready with loving, plain spoken concern for our spiritual well-being,
professing a desire to meet our every need.
Then why not come to Him?
Why not let Him do in you His "exceeding abundantly all we ask or think"?

That is our challenge to you without Jesus in your heart?
God can take away your death and give you life everlasting.
God can take away your fears and give you peace.
God can give you a life in heaven that will never end.
Why not come to this great God who created you, and who will make you a new creation in Jesus Christ?

"My Father is omnipotent, and that you can’t deny;
A God of might and miracles, ´tis written in the sky.

Though here his glory has been shown, we still can't fully see
The wonders of his might, his throne, t'will take eternity.

The Bible tells us of his power and wisdom all way through;
And every little bird and flower are testimonies too.

The greatness of the Lord is seen in everything he made,
But greater far the work he did when on him my sin was laid.

CHORUS:
It took a miracle to put the stars in place;
It took a miracle to hang the world in space.
But when he saved my soul,
Cleansed and made me whole,
It took a miracle of love and grace."
( "It Took A Miracle" by John W. Peterson)

Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White