After astronauts set the Eagle down in the Sea of Tranquility, Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” He was the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. Other space travelers followed, including the commander of the last Apollo mission, Gene Cernan. “There I was, and there you are, the Earth—dynamic, overwhelming, and I felt . . . it was just too beautiful to happen by accident,” Cernan said. “There has to be somebody bigger than you and bigger than me.” Even from their unique view in deep space, these men understood their smallness in comparison to the vastness of the universe.
The prophet Jeremiah also considered the immensity of God as Creator and Sustainer of the earth and beyond. The Maker of all promised to reveal Himself intimately as He offered His people love, forgiveness, and hope (Jeremiah 31:33–34). Jeremiah affirms God’s enormity as He who “appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night” (v. 35). Our Creator and Lord Almighty will reign above all as He works to redeem all of His people (vv. 36–37).
We’ll never finish exploring the immeasurable vastness of the heavens and depths of the earth’s foundations. But we can stand in awe at the complexity of the universe and trust the maker of the moon—and everything else.
INSIGHT
The Noahic covenant is one of the earliest recorded covenants in the Scriptures. The rainbow is the sign of God’s promise never again to destroy the earth with a flood (Genesis 9:8–17). God made a covenant with Abraham when he called him to the land of Canaan and promised to make him a great nation, give him the land, and bless all nations through him (12:1–3; 15:5–16; 17:6–8). God sealed the Abrahamic covenant with the sign of circumcision (17:10–11). In the Davidic covenant, God promised David, Abraham’s descendant, that each king who sits on the throne of Israel would be his direct descendant (2 Samuel 7:8–16; 1 Chronicles 17:11–14). The sign is the promised Son of David (Matthew 1:1; Acts 13:23). The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31–34 and declares that Christ, the promised Son of David, is now the “mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 8:6–13; 9:15; 12:24).