The Faithful Witness of the Moon
The Creation of God bespeaks His wisdom, power, love and goodness. Concerning this, the Scriptures say, “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20) Consider a thing we often take for granted, but which manifestly demonstrates the presence of a creator: the moon.
Indeed, the moon is a witness to its Maker.
In Genesis 1, we read of the creation of the Sun and the Moon: “Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.” In Psalms 89:37, the moon is called a faithful witness, and this is true: the moon is indeed a faithful witness to its Maker.
We see the moon in the sky each night and oft forget what a wondrous thing it is. It is a massive chunk of rock which keeps time for us and helps to sustain the life on this planet.
Our moon is an oddity in the galaxy, being proportionally oversized when compared to those satellites possessed by our neighboring planets. This allows our moon to do some rather interesting and important things, to our benefit.
The moon is positioned from the planet at exactly the right distance from the planet to be proportionally, to the eye, the exact same size as the sun in the sky. This equity of apparent size, an optical illusion on a grand scale, allows the shadow of the earth to mark perfect time upon the moon, in a 28-day lunar cycle of waxing and waning moons. At the same time, the proximity of the moon is of such a distance as to create a constant, moderate tidal effect.
If the moon were closer to the earth, the tides would overwhelm the land. Great floods would daily sweep back and forth across most of that area of the earth we now inhabit. Life on such a planet would be impossible. If the moon were much further from the earth, we would not have the tides we now have, and the oceans would begin to stagnate. Likewise, the tides help move heat from the equator to the poles, preventing ice from overwhelming the land. There are other things the tides do, but in a nutshell, the tides created by the moon play a rather significant part in maintaining life on the planet.
The moon does one other thing that many people don’t pay much attention to. Our planet is at a particular tilt to the sun, allowing for the creation of seasons across the majority of the globe. The moon helps regulate those seasons, a thing the Bible testifies to in Psalms 104:19.
Because of the size of our moon, and its proximity to the planet, the moon acts as a stabilizing agent upon the planet, as we rotate around the sun, so that the tilt of the planet only ever shifts by no more than a single degree. Without the moon’s stabilizing influence, our planet could shift back and forth by, we are told, 10 degrees or more, creating havoc with every ecosystem we have as the seasons fluctuated wildly throughout the years.
When you start to add up all of these things, one must start to be rather impressed by how exactly and perfectly positioned the moon is to the planet. It is exactly the right size, at exactly the right distance so as to make life possible on this planet. So much so that even nonbelieving scientists, who do not give God the credit for any of this, debate whether or not life is even possible on other planets without a moon such as ours.
The moon, is but a single witness to the power of God, but night after night, it stands high in the sky, keeping time, sustaining life, and speaking to the glory and wisdom of God. (cf. Psalm 8:3-4) When we start to have doubts, we can look to the night sky and think about those powerful testimonies to the majesty of God we see in the sky above us.
God has provided well for us. He has left us a multitude of myriad witnesses to His care and affection for His creation. You can have confidence that God wants you to have life. He wants to sustain you, in this world, and in the next. Which is why He sent His Son to die for you, that you might have salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and hope for eternal life. (cf. John 3:16) God has done mighty things for us, and if we will trust in Him, He will continue to work on our behalf.