#5

‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.'

Genesis 1:1

"Who hath measured the water in the hollow of his hand and melted out the Heavens in a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed out the mountains in a scale and the hills in a balance."

     - Isa. 11:12

Anyone who has spent time farming and ranching has spent time measuring and counting.  It could be that they measured the pounds of wheat required to plant an acre of land or the pounds of feed required to bring stock to market.  Then there's deciphering required to come up with a bottom line on the year-end balance sheet (uggh).

Technology has taken agriculture into the space age.  Farmers now track their crops with satellite imaging and trace their livestock through DNA testing.  Ownership was once done with a hot branding iron; now identification implants are commonplace.  This technology extends to how we identify and track our pets.

Branding is now a major component in the work of marketing.  Not too long ago our five-year-old grandson provided us with a lesson on corporate branding.  He pointed out that the best way to tell a Chev from a Ford was that a Chev always had a yellow bow-tie on the front grill (now that's effective branding).  

Branding is nothing new; with the first ten words of the Bible (In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth), God took ownership and branded all that was as being His.  He just didn't leave it with that claim.  He set about marking his creation just as surely as old-time ranchers marked their stock by applying a hot brand to their hide.  God's brands are there to take notice of if we only search them out.

In the millennia since those famous ten words were put to parchment, man has done all he can do to discredit them and like bandits and rustlers steal away ownership of God's creation.  The intellectual world has given itself over to a blind unquestioning faith in themselves and in evolution.  They throw around words like theory, conjecture and assumption like they had a place in true science.

So successful has this thievery been that those who give God credit for creation are branded as backwood crackpots and Christian wing-nuts.  Just consider what this is doing to our young people as daily we send them off to school to get an education.

If we are to have any hope of saving our young people's minds for Christ we must present them with a credible alternative to modern day 'science'.

We have the people to do it--people with all the necessary credentials to be called experts; people who have spent a lifetime in the study of such matters.  They are called ranchers, farmers, cowboys and horse handlers; shepherds, gardeners, birdwatchers, naturalists, pet enthusiasts and a host of others.  Their experience comes from time spent looking at the heavens, comprehending the dust of the earth; the hills, valleys and mountains; and considering the well-being of the beasts in their charge as well as those that are not.  Their experiences when guided by the Holy Spirit offer a wealth of wisdom and knowledge to meet the challenge of protecting God's creation as His and ours.

 

What is it that these Christian experts have learned in their time down in the dirt.  It's that the Holy Spirit has led them to take notice of the little things and God's branding of these things in ways that go unnoticed by those outside the wisdom of His Spirit and his kingdom.  They call these little things the laws of nature but what they really are is God in action in words and in works; it's God showing off his power.  Through his Holy Spirit, God has offered his creation to us as a place of higher learning and has branded his creations as examples of His law and divine power.  Consider the number seven as one of his brands and follow it through the gestation periods of the following creatures:

• the mouse is 21 days; that's 3 x 7
• the rat and hare are 28 days (4 x 7)
• the cat, 56 (8 x 7 days)
• the dog, 63 (9 x 7 days)
• the lion, 98 (14 x 7 days)
• the sheep, 147 (21 x 7 days)

All the above times of gestation are the ideal number required before the birth process begins.   Birds are not left out.  The common hen is 21 days (3 x 7); the duck, 42 days (6 x 7).  This list could go on for several more pages.  Other numbers are used to brand different elements in God's creation.  Why are these primary numbers seen over and over again?  I suggest it's because God is offering us proof of Himself as a divine creator and has branded His work in a way that all can see.  He has branded us with His Holy Spirit so as to provide us with the knowledge and wisdom required to be teachers. Indeed, He is perfect in all His ways.