“The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment” (Job 38:14)

The line above comes from YHWH’s speech to Job near the end of the Book of Job. The analogy is well chosen. In ancient (or, for that matter, modern) times a seal signified ownership. It displayed authority. It also protected what was hidden behind the seal. Each of these characteristics of a seal expresses some truth about God’s relationship to the earth.

For example, “the earth is YHWH’s” (Ps. 24:1); he owns it. Establishing his ownership of earth is one reason we have the story of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. When Genesis was written, no one doubted that the earth and the heavens were supernaturally created. The question was not, “Did God make all this?” It was, “Which god made all this?” The answer, as Genesis makes clear, is that YHWH made it. And if he made it, it is his. Hence the image of the seal.

A seal also displayed authority. So, on our currency one finds the seal of the United States Federal Reserve System. That seal validates the currency under the authority of the Fed. Likewise, the seal in Job 38:14 indicates that YHWH has authority over the earth. He gets the final say.

Official seals were also used to hide the content of a letter and to protect it. What lay behind the seal was a mystery, and only those authorized to do so dared to open the seal and uncover the mystery. This, it seems to me, is an apt metaphor for the earth, for creation conceals God’s remarkable power and infinite wisdom.

Our scientists have not been able to open the seal and reveal the secrets of God’s creation, but they have held the envelope up to the light and have seen vaguely the marvelous things that lie inside. Scientific inquiry is a noble task and a valuable work—a service to humanity and, I believe, to God. Yet the principal discovery science has made is that there is more to discover than we ever dreamed. We are just beginning to know how little we know.

The seal of creation hides remarkable mysteries. Science has allowed us to hold the envelope up to the light and dimly see the mysteries within. Physicists have not been able to untangle the mysteries – they do not see them clearly enough for that – but they have been able to marvel at them.

For example, physicists have begun to see the remarkably precise fine-tuning of creation. This is, perhaps, nowhere more evident than in the expansion rate of the universe. The average density of the universe is astonishingly close to the critical density. Were it otherwise, even in the smallest degree, the universe would have either collapsed or expanded so rapidly that there would be no suns and planets.

The expansion rate is also influenced by the cancellation rate of the cosmological constant. Scientists debate how this works – it is a mystery. Some, who have given up the debate, say: “Just accept it and move on; there is no sense in asking questions.” But the fact remains: the cancellation rate of the cosmological constant is exactly right to maintain the expansion of the universe at its perfect rate. And by exactly right, I mean right to more than one part in 10⁵⁰. This almost unthinkable precision is mindboggling.

The mass of a neutrino is 5 X 10^-35 kg. Compared to other known particles, this is tiny. Yet, according to the physicist Paul Davies, there are so many neutrinos in the universe that their accumulated mass could outweigh all the stars. Davies says that if the neutrino’s mass was any different – say 5 X 10^-34 kg – the expansion rate of the universe could be completely changed. This imperceptible difference would result in a contracting universe! The seal of creation hides mysteries galore.

Also hidden behind the seal is the uncanny balance between electromagnetism and gravity. The tiniest shift in this balance would result in a universe comprised entirely of red dwarves or blue giants, which would probably mean no life.

And there certainly would not be life – as we know it anyway – if carbon and oxygen were not created in just the right amounts: not too much, not too little, and perfectly in balance.

Then there is the ratio between neutrons and protons, which is dependent on their respective masses. If the neutron mass were 0.998 of its actual value, there would be no atoms at all. That ratio is fine tuned to an unthinkably small fraction. It is the difference between the “weight” of one quark and another.

These mysteries serve as a seal. “Its features stand out” clearly enough to see that there has been design. Yet Paul Davies, the physicist and wonderful science writer whose book The Accidental Universe first made me aware of these remarkable evidences of design, did not conclude that the universe was created by the transcendent (and imminent) God revealed in the Bible. Instead, he leaned (the last I knew) toward the idea that man evolves to a place where he is able to manipulate matter on a quantum level, gain transcendence over time, and as some kind of god himself go back and fine tune all these “coincidences.”

I’m sure I have grossly understated the complexity of Dr. Davies’ view. My point is simply that acknowledging the God of the Bible as the creator (which may require less faith than Davies’ view – where is Occam when you need him?) still requires faith. Perhaps the day will come when “faith shall be sight,” but we cannot now see behind the seal. We can, however, trust the one who put it there.