Nature as a Witness

Acts 14:17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

This phrase is used by Paul when ministering at Lystra and while he was being worshipped by them after a miracle. Paul explains to them that he is just a human bearing a good news. The good news is that God wants everybody to turn towards Him from the vain things of the world. Before Jesus arrived, God allowed the parts of the earth other than Israel to live in their own ways. But the nature was a constant witness to God.

The problem with the world is that it easily ignores all the witnesses that are placed right in front of its face. Science has developed so big that we start to trust theories about creation and other events of the world rather than the written word that has a clear explanation to everything we need. We have to place the word as the source of the truth and nature as a witness. Instead of this we at most times, search the Bible for proof of natural things which will at most times with the devil’s assistance shatter our faith. We should be careful in everything we see as witness around us. Sometimes, we need miracles to establish our faiths, but a true Christian would marvel at every work of God and build his faith up.

Rain is an important blessing from God which is referenced a lot in the Bible. Gen 2:5, Job 5:10, Ps 147:8 and many other verses attribute rain to originate only from God Himself. Even Noah’s rain had come from the Lord as per Gen 7:4. With this understand, 1 Samuel 12:17-18 would explain the floods of our times. Instead of a king we had forsaken what our original call is and are asking for other rulers to rule us like pleasure, knowledge and technology. Samuel explains this clearly that every goodness is from the Lord. He has to send rains of blessings only at the perfect times and an inappropriate rain would cause us heavy damage. The verse explains every time we have an untimely rain, it is because the people should know how big their wickedness is in front of the Lord.

As per Acts 14:15, we are men of like nature with others. Paul uses this term to a crowd who worships him as a good example. We at many situations receive honor thinking that we deserve that. When a person who is not saved gives us any offering, it should be seen as a vain thing. There are areas where Paul exercised authority like Philemon 20, 21. We are expected by our Lord to use authority and humility diligently at the right times. At these times if we look at the nature around us as a witness, we should see how our pride is so unworthy.

We are expected to turn to a living God from vain things. A list of vain things from the bible is a detailed bible study. One example is Ecc 4:4 where we perform things as a result of envy. This action is not worship, but a regular day to day task. But God sees this as a vain product which does not prove there is a living God. Any vain achievement disproves God’s existence and so we shall fearfully work turning our faces towards Him. There are sinful products and there are vain products. Sin is anything that is against God but a vain thing is anything that denies God. The nature around us is a witness for God who is watching us.

Another vain thing to really understand is Mathew 6:5 where Jesus says that they have received their reward in full. Our prayers should be very carefully done. We have gone to extremes of showing authority to God. Prayers were always humble in the bible. Let us look for witnesses of God around us which obey Him totally.

It was proved that worshipping Paul was vain because the same crowd at that very moment had turned against and stoned him. A small persuasion was sufficient for this. Thats why Paul saw both the worship and the stoning as nothing and did not shake the dust off his feet and leave. He was back in Lystra as per verse 21. They did that in 13:51 at Antioch because of the Jews there but came back in 14:26 for the grace of God which was earlier produced well. Both these actions were good as per the following verses.

Nothing in the world could harm us as there is a living God who keeps reminding us with solid proofs around us. All we have to do is increase our dependency on Him away from vain things so that that he will be pleased. As per verse 22, through many tribulations we should enter the kingdom of God, but a living God is above us and watching us.

Amen.