Eckhardt's Homiletisches Reallexikon, 1907–1917

AI translation · machine

Preservation. Outline. The efficient cause of preservation. § 1. Objects of preservation. § 2. The laws of nature. § 3. God preserves through means. § 4. Motive. § 5. Purpose. 1. The efficient cause of the preservation of the world, causa efficiens, is a. not the world itself. As little as it can develop out of itself, so little can it preserve itself. — Were there, alongside God, something else that preserved itself, then God would no longer be the Most High. Dualism; b. not the laws of nature. Mere laws, with no one standing behind them, bring no order into the world; c. not chance. Stories on this: The world of chance. Neb. 92, 19. Fick, There Is a God, 85. Thousands of atoms are supposed to have flown together and formed the ear by chance. — Mich. 95, 18. Cal. 91, 20. As if the poems of Cicero could arise by chance out of a sack full of letters! Jo. 8, 22; d. but God himself. God preserves the world. Ps. 104:27: These wait all upon you. Acts 17:25: he gives to all life and breath. Col. 1:17: by him all things consist. Acts 17:28: in him we live, and move, and have our being. Heb. 1:3: he upholds all things. "And still preserves." Note on this: 1. God does not merely preserve being and existence for his creatures, but also gives them power to act. Indeed, he not only gives them power to make movements, but himself moves all things. See The cooperation of God. 2. He cares for his creatures. 3. He does not leave the house, like a builder, and abandon the creature to itself. 4. He did not merely wind up the clock at creation and then let it run down. 5. Without God's working, everything would be finished. Were God to withdraw his hands, everything would collapse into nothing. No child would be born, no blade of grass would grow. — Whoever thinks that any creature could continue to exist on its own without God makes that creature into God and sets up a god alongside God. Examples: there are no more sunbeams once the sun goes out; no more shadows, once the bodies fall; the machine stands still once the steam runs out. 6. Preservation happens with the same power as creation. Preservation is an ongoing creation. 7. This can be recognized already from the light of nature. If man did not come into being of himself, he cannot preserve himself either. — The consideration of nature is to be recommended to deniers of God. 8. If God did not care for his creatures, this would have to be because he does not will to (against his goodness), cannot (against his omnipotence), or knows nothing of it (against his omniscience). 9. That a higher being preserves all things is shown by the strictest order in nature: how some animals, for example bees, provide for the winter! How migratory birds find their old breeding grounds again! The beaver must build its house in just such a way that it does not drown. 10. Everything else is rejected in Scripture. Man does not live by bread alone. Matt. 4. Except the Lord build the house, and so on, Ps. 127:1. Let no one say: my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. Deut. 8:17. 11. Preservation is not merely negative — that God does not destroy what he has created — but positive. 12. Because he is almighty and omnipresent, he is also able to do this. See Omnipresence § 4. Note b. Preservation is a work of the Triune God. Father: John 5:17: My Father works until now. Son: John 5:17: I work too. Heb. 1:3: he upholds all things. Proof of Christ's deity. Spirit: even there your hand would lead me. Ps. 139:10. Note c. Our Savior and Brother is at the same time our Preserver. The government is upon his shoulder. Many a person thinks that Christ does not concern himself with our temporal welfare. Objection. God rested on the seventh day. — He still does so now, that is, he ceases to create new creatures. Note d. God preserves the world through the Word. Heb. 1:3. He needs no exertion. His will is a command, a working and bringing forth. Antithesis. a. Atheists. God did not create the world at all. b. Deists. It preserves itself. c. Heathen ascribe preservation to their idols. Childish thoughts of the heathen. Baier 1, 166. d. Hofmann puts the angels, as created beings, in God's place. e. Jerome. It would be absurd to degrade God so far. Note a. Christians too often act as though God concerned himself with great things, but not with small ones, and consider matters too trivial to bring before God. Temptation: God has forgotten me, does not care about you. Note b. Deniers of divine preservation 1. make the creature into God, 2. rank below the heathen, who at least still said: Jupiter thunders, and so on, 3. must place their trust in men. Mutual aid societies.

AI translation · machine

2. The object of preservation. God's preservation extends a. over everything. Do you know how many little stars there are, and so on. Notes: 1. Kings do not concern themselves with everything, but delegate much to their officials. 2. God preserves everything in the kingdom of power, the kingdom of grace, and the kingdom of glory. 3. God preserves creatures in the manner in which they were created. Animals, grains of wheat found from ancient times, are exactly as they are today. 4. He preserves not merely the species, but every single specimen, all individual things. When one considers all this, one looks at the world quite differently. 5. How vast is God's household: 25,000 species of plants, 1,500 million people, 20 million (?) visible stars. — What a mass of food the sparrows alone require. — And yet nothing is wasted. Everything is managed with the utmost economy. 6. What a wonder, for example, is the skin, the course of the sun! 7. What a God this must be! Heaven is merely his footstool; b. over mankind. He makes his sun rise upon them, Matt. 5:45. He knows them all by name, John 10:3, cares for their clothing, Matt. 6:25. He has numbered all the hairs of their heads, Luke 12:7. My time is in your hands, Ps. 31:15. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. Note a. God cares for the preservation 1. of the human races — no two people have the same appearance, 2. of the sexes, 3. of individual persons. That each individual finds food, clothing, work, shelter, he cannot attribute to himself, 4. even of the wicked, who blaspheme him, of the eyes that commit adultery, of the hands that steal. Note b. Human beings are the chief object of preservation. Matt. 6:26: Are you not much better than they? 10:31: you are of more value than many sparrows. Note c. God cares not merely for the soul; c. over Christians in particular. 1 Tim. 4:10: the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. Zech. 2:8: he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. 1 Pet. 5:7: He cares for you. Rom. 8:28: to those who love God, and so on. Ps. 34:7: the angel of the Lord encamps round about them, and so on. V. 10: those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Ps. 33:18. Heb. 1:14: sent forth to minister, and so on. Isa. 49:15: yet I will not forget you. Isa. 41:10. Note a. This often seems, to be sure, to be otherwise. Isa. 49:14: The Lord has forsaken me. Ps. 42:3: Where is now your God? Ps. 73:11: How does God know? Ex. 17:7: Is the Lord among us or not? Note b. For the sake of one Christian, God preserves Zoar. Christians are the pillars on which the structure of the world rests. Note c. If God at times lets Christians suffer want, this is more necessary for them than their daily bread. Note d. The world does not respect Christians; d. over the animals. Ps. 36:6: you preserve man and beast. Ps. 147:9: he gives to the beast its food. Matt. 6:26: Behold the fowls of the air. 10:29: Are not two sparrows sold, and so on. Ps. 104:27, 28: These wait all upon you. 50:10, 11: I know all the fowls of the mountains. Jonah 4:11: God has compassion on the cattle. The animals in Noah's ark. Hymn 363:3: God, who feeds the birds, and so on. Note a. God preserves even the unclean animals. The sun is not defiled by shining upon bugs. Note b. He preserves the species. A dog never becomes some other animal, though Darwinists have tried everything. Objection. Some species of animals, antediluvian animals, have already died out. — It was not God's intention that all creatures should remain forever. But those that do live, live through God's preservation. Note c. If a sparrow could speak, what wonders it could tell of how it found its food every day. One cannot hit a sparrow without God's will. Note d. Without God not even a gnat can move; e. over the plants. Matt. 6:28: Consider the lilies of the field. 6:30: if God so clothes the grass of the field. Ps. 104:14, 15: grass, wine, and oil. God cares for every leaf. Hymn 363:3: grass and flowers; f. over the working of the forces of nature: removing mountains, Job 9:5. Wind, water, lightning. Job 28:25: water. Isa. 40:12. Thunder, Job 37:5. Weather, earthquakes, thunder, whirlwinds. Isa. 29:6. Clouds, Ps. 147:8. Snow, hoarfrost, frost, Ps. 147:16, 17. Fire, hail, Ps. 148:8. The sea, Ps. 33:7; g. over angels and devils; h. over the very smallest things. God concerns himself with every drop of water, every woodworm, every sparrow, every hair, every tear in a beggar's coat. Ps. 139:2: I sit down and I rise up. Note. That God concerns himself even with the smallest things a. is necessary. Without care for the small, the great cannot be preserved. If God has no power over bacteria, then he has none over epidemics either. — The smallest things are often of the greatest importance: a lamp in a stable falls over, and Chicago burns. A spider falls into Napoleon's poisoned cup and saves his life; b. is not unworthy of God, for: 1. What is no shame for God to create is also no shame for him to preserve. 2. What is small before God, to whom nothing is great? It costs him no more power to preserve an elephant than a gnat. 3. Among creatures there is, in this respect, no difference: the least worm has, in its kind, just as much excellence as a lion; c. presents God no difficulty. The sun shines on the little worm just as easily as on the mountain; d. reveals God's infinite goodness. God cares for the lowliest worm just as much as for the highest angel.

AI translation · machine

3. God preserves the world according to certain laws. These laws of nature a. were established at creation and clearly set forth in Gen. 1; b. have remained unchanged to this day. No speck of dust has ever risen up against them, no little flower ever rebelled against them,

AI translation · machine

raises children through teachers, and so on. Note c. God could preserve us without food. Yet he does it through means, in order rightly to reveal to us 1. his heart. He shows himself as the great helper, sends his gifts ahead of himself, so that we may recognize that he desires peace; 2. his glory, that we may recognize his wisdom, grace, and power. Note d. What a wonder, that he provides us food through seedtime and harvest! Note e. How can the intake of a substance, which itself has neither life nor consciousness, preserve life and consciousness in us? Note f. To these means God has bound 1. us. To refuse to use these means would be to tempt God. If any will not work, neither shall he eat; 2. not himself. He who created the means — should he not be able to set them aside? A man can turn a sword into a horseshoe; why should God not be able to make bread out of stones? Examples: the widow of Zarephath. Jo. 1906, 27. Il. 1903, 28, 29. Elijah, 1 Kings 17:6, fed by ravens; 1 Kings 19:8, went forty days by the strength of that food. Il. 1904, 31. The people in the wilderness. Manna. Stöckh. O.T. 85, 86. The feeding of the 5,000. Brenz. Neb. 92, 40, 41. Fick 384. Note g. God wants to give us these means through labor. He could, to be sure, give them to us without labor, but it has not pleased him to do so. Note h. Everything depends on God's blessing. Without God's blessing 1. we would not, through labor, get a single potato. The earth would not yield its produce; 2. our food would not nourish and satisfy us. The power does not lie in the means themselves. Man does not live by bread alone. Were the power to lie in the means, how much idolatry would be practiced with them. — Daniel ate only vegetables and water, and looked better than the others. Stöckh. O.T. 350. Note i. Therefore God's favor should matter to us more than bread.

AI translation · machine

5. The motive of preservation is a. not our merit. 1 Cor. 4:7: What do you have that you did not receive? Rom. 11:35: Who has first given to him? — If it went by merit, it would be all over for us. And yet he preserves us despite our sin;