The Source of All Dynamic Energy and Vigorous Power

“Raise your eyes high up and see. Who has created these things? . . . Due to the abundance of dynamic energy, he also being vigorous in power, not one of them is missing.”—Isa. 40:26.

 1. How does the muscular strength of humans compare with that of other creatures?

PHYSICALLY man is a very weak creature. A dwarf he is in muscular power when compared with gorillas, bears, elephants, whales and a host of other creatures. The ‘strength of a bull’ is proverbial. Even the lowly insects, spiders and ants, for example, are able to lift fantastic loads in ratio to their own body weights. In one instance it was observed that an ant suspended by its hind feet was able to hold in its jaws a dead weight measuring 1,100 times the weight of its own body. For a 150-pound man to equal this phenomenal feat he would, while hanging high in the air by his feet, have to hold in his teeth more than eighty-two tons! Certainly human creatures have no reason to boast in their limited physical strength.

 2. What are some of the physical sources that men have tapped to supplement their limited strength?

² To make up for this shortage of muscular power men from the earliest times of history have sought to harness and use outside sources of energy. They have depended very heavily on such creatures as horses, oxen, camels, yaks, buffaloes, dogs, elephants, llamas, burros and other beasts of burden. To increase and multiply the loads they can move, men have in countless ways applied the principles of the lever and fulcrum, the pulley and the wheel. The invisible forces of the wind the power of rivers and waterfalls, and the surging strength of the tireless tides have all been utilized by men. Many types of steam generators and many designs of internal combustion engines have also been built. Electricity too has been freely exploited. And, more recently, the sun’s radiation and the controlled release of atomic energy have been regimented and pressed into the service of humankind.

 3. (a) What perverted mental conception have many people acquired? (b) As a result, what are the masses of mankind led to believe?

³ Many people, however, seem to be blinded by the brilliance of such scientific progress and technological achievements. Losing sight of their proper place in the universe, some of these confessed physical weaklings suddenly view themselves and other men as great mental giants with overpowering intelligence. Especially is this perverted mental concept found among the more educated classes and prominent world leaders, many of whom are disgustingly obnoxious in their boastful arrogance and overbearing self-confidence. Bloated with pride, they wantonly brag of man’s accomplishments in this jet-powered, electronic, atom-smashing age. As men zoom to new heights of success in their rocket program they imagine and predict in great swelling words that humans are on the very threshold of becoming conquerors and masters of outer space, of establishing themselves in what they think is the “ultimate position” in the universe. As a consequence the general masses of mankind are constantly urged and pressured into putting their complete trust and confidence in the mental powers and thinking ability of these world leaders for guidance, protection and security.

 4. Are human creatures justified in boasting of their accomplishments?

⁴ But is there any truth, in actual fact, that gives these human creatures the license and freedom to glory and boast in their accomplishments or in the security of human strength? It is granted, men through the fertility of their brains and the ingenuity of their hands have contrived not only simple oxcarts and water wheels but also giant turbines and intricate nuclear machines of great power. But certainly this gives no reason or excuse for praising and worshiping these mortal creatures as if they were gods. Really, man’s most complicated machines are based on simple fundamental laws and principles of mechanics, not one of which he has created or originated. Men of science and learning have merely discovered and applied principles and forces of energy that were in existence long before man made his comparatively recent debut on this planet.

 5. So how are we to view the physical and mental strength of creatures?

⁵ The pounding hoofs and the snorting nostrils of a charging cavalry of horses may be rated by some people as a thrilling display of vigor and strength, sending shivers down the spine. Yet long ago the psalmist warned against trusting in such false strength. “The horse is a deception for salvation, and by the abundance of its vital energy it does not afford escape.” (Ps. 33:17) With like force of reasoning it is foolish and ridiculous to put trust and confidence in men, who are much weaker than horses. The bulging muscles of an athlete or the thunderous lung power of a political dictator are just as deceiving. To put trust and hope in the strength of earthly men, even though they elevate themselves to a princely status among their fellows because of their “brainy” accomplishments—this too was long ago described as futile. “Salvation by earthling man is worthless.” (Pss. 60:11; 146:3) Of a truth both men and horses are deceptive sources of true strength.

 6. What questions make it obvious that dynamic energy does not originate with man?

⁶ Stop and think! Who gave the horse or the athlete his vitality and strength? Who generated the power of gravity by which the rivers flow and the waters fall? Or who set the ceaseless tides in motion to time indefinite? Who created the fabulous furnace of the sun with its internal temperature estimated at more than 40,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit? And who concentrated such incomprehensible energy as is bound up in minute atoms, the invisible particles of all physical matter? Surely no withered and dying weakling like a mere man, no, not even though he be honored and praised to the high heavens as an international Nobel prize winner bedecked with many college citations and degrees.

IDENTIFYING THE TRUE SOURCE

 7. How is it possible for us to identify the true Source of all power?

⁷ There is only one right answer to these thought-provoking questions. Jehovah the all-powerful Creator is the only true and original Source of all dynamic energy and vigorous power. How do we know this is so or how can we prove that this is true? The Bible tells us how when it says: “For [Jehovah’s] invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are understood by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship.” (Rom. 1:20) So by a study of “the things made,” the visible tangible physical matter all about us, we can understand and appreciate to some small degree the invisible and eternal power and strength of the great Jehovah God.

 8. What are the “building blocks” of ‘the things that are made’?

⁸ Physical matter may be defined as anything that occupies space and has weight. The material houses we live in, the physical food we eat, the clothing we wear, the earth upon which we walk, are all examples of ‘the things that are made.’ An analysis of these hundreds of thousands of different material things surrounding us discloses that they are actually made up of molecules of a comparatively few, only about a hundred, basic substances called elements. In turn the molecules of these elements are composed of atoms, so called because the ancient Greeks thought that the atom was the smallest indivisible particle of matter.

 9. Of what are atoms composed?

⁹ But what give atoms their weight and cause them to occupy space? Within the atoms are electrically charged particles called protons and electrons, and there are also other particles known as neutrons. Now due to the fact that all the protons in the core of a single atom carry the same positive electrical charge, they would repel rather than attract one another were it not for the fact that some unexplainable and mysterious force called “nuclear cement” binds and holds them together. Men of science are unable to explain the source of the force that holds these particles of the atoms together, yet they are able to measure this force, and under certain conditions are able to release it. This is what happens when atom bombs explode, such as those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. In such instances, surprising as it may seem, comparatively few atoms are actually split apart.

10. Why is it impossible for the human mind to comprehend the enormous energy and power holding the physical universe together?

¹⁰ Consider these figures for a moment and perhaps you can get a better idea of the tremendous power and energy that hold the atoms of all matter together. If all the energy binding together the atoms in a single pound of matter were released it would take a force equal to a billion, billion, billion, billion pounds! Writing out such a figure one puts down the figure 1 and follows it with 36 zeros. If this is the amount of power necessary to hold together just a single pound of matter, try to visualize, if you are able, the enormous energy and power required to hold all the atoms of this earth together, a globe weighing sextillions of tons! Or try to imagine the power and energy holding the sun together, for it has a volume equal to 1,300,000 earths! Yet there are stars in our galaxy or “Milky Way” many times larger than the sun, as for example Antares, with a diameter 390 times that of the sun. What immeasurable power is bound up in all its atoms! With telescopes disclosing that there are billions of galaxies like our own “Milky Way,” each made up of billions of individual stars, can you appreciate the enormity of the power and force that binds all this physical matter together? Impossible! for it staggers and numbs the feeble human mind to comprehend even a minute fraction of this awesome power.

11. How does Jehovah by his prophet Isaiah impress upon us that He alone is the Source of all dynamic energy and vigorous power?

¹¹ What, then, can be said of the One who created and harnessed such forces of the material universe? Surely His power and energy are far greater than these things that he made. “Raise your eyes high up and see. Who has created these things? [A mere earth-bound atom-smashing scientist? Oh no!] It is the One who is bringing forth the army of them even by number, all of whom he calls even by name. [All the astronomers together cannot so much as count or number the stars, much less call them all by name.] Due to the abundance of dynamic energy, he [Jehovah] also being vigorous in power, not one of them is missing.” (Isa. 40:26) Ah yes, not only by Jehovah’s dynamic energy and vigorous power did he create and fashion the whole celestial cosmos into one grand and harmonious unity, but he also controls and uses it to suit his sovereign will and glorious purpose. What an awesome display of almightiness!

12. What illustrates the littleness of human strength and thinking ability?

¹² So, by any and all comparisons that we might choose to make, what is man for all his vaunted might? Absolutely nothing! Like a little baby who is able to smash up a delicate watch but who is completely lacking in the mental and physical ability to assemble and restore such a timepiece, so it is with the atom-smashing scientists. They may trigger the explosion of a few atoms, but they are totally helpless in both mental and physical strength and ability, if called upon, to bring together and assemble the forces necessary to create just a single simple atom.

ONLY ONE ALMIGHTY

13. Having a proper view of themselves, whom do reasonable persons gladly hail as the Mightiest One in all the universe?

¹³ Thus, stripped of all cause for boasting of man’s greatness and power, sensible and sane individuals are greatly humbled in the estimation of themselves and other men. They have a proper view of the insignificant size and strength of human creatures in this vast universe, and they quickly attribute greatness to the truly Great One. In an unrestrained outburst of praise they hail none other than Jehovah God, the Creator of heaven and earth, as supremely all-powerful, the only Almighty One in all the universe.

14. To whom, and how, did reverent men long ago ascribe almightiness?

¹⁴ Some such reasonable men lived long ago, men, incidentally, who knew nothing of the forces holding the proton particles of atoms together, yet men who were intelligent enough to recognize and praise Jehovah for his greatness and power. For example, King David in his memorable farewell speech before the congregation of Israel shortly before his death said, among other things: “Yours, O Jehovah, are the greatness and the mightiness and the beauty and the eminence and the dignity, for everything in the heavens and in the earth is yours. . . . you are dominating everything, and in your hand there are power and mightiness and in your hand is ability to make great and to give strength to all.” (1 Chron. 29:11, 12) After the return from Babylonian captivity and after the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt in the days of Nehemiah, the priests and Levites of Israel in a seal-bound statement attested to Jehovah’s exclusive almightiness, saying: “You are Jehovah alone, you yourself have made the heavens, even the heaven of the heavens, and all their army, the earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them, and you are preserving all of them alive, and the army of the heavens are bowing down to you. You are Jehovah The true God . . . the great, mighty and fear-inspiring God.”—Neh. 9:6, 7, 32.

15. How does the prophet Jeremiah show the superiority of Jehovah in power, knowledge and wisdom?

¹⁵ Likewise the prophet Jeremiah in reverent prayer declared: “O Lord Jehovah! Here you yourself have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. The whole matter is not too wonderful for you yourself.” Yes, indeed, it is all too awesome, fear-inspiring and wonderful for us lowly human creatures to comprehend and understand fully, but not so for the great Almighty Creator Jehovah.—Jer. 32:17.

16. What two classes today are praising the almightiness of Jehovah?

¹⁶ Even though there is a flood of satanic propaganda aimed at turning all creatures away from their Creator, yet there are today many people living, who, like those ancient men of reverent fear and faith, have enough good sense to give all praise and honor to the only true Source of all dynamic energy and vigorous power, the One alone whose name is Jehovah. Numbered among these sensible ones are some few thousands of the modern-day spiritual Israelites who returned from captivity in Satan’s Babylonish organization A.D. 1919, the remnant of the anointed members of the body of Christ still on earth; and as part of the “twenty-four persons of advanced age” mentioned in Revelation 11:16, 17, these keep on saying: “We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king,” that is, from and after A.D. 1914. Joining in this hallelujah chorus of praise to the almightiness of Jehovah are the voices of over 900,000 other individuals, who are indeed a “great crowd,” and these keep on saying with ever-increasing effectiveness in all parts of the inhabited earth: “Praise Jah, you people, because Jehovah our God, the Almighty, has begun to rule as king.”—Rev. 19:6.

17. Such momentous news as this raises what important question?

¹⁷ Such momentous news as this, namely, that Jehovah, who is the Almighty, the very Fountainhead of all dynamic energy and vigorous power, has taken up and is now exercising his great power as Sovereign Ruler of the universe, raises this important question in the minds of many thinking persons: Is it possible to receive power and strength directly from this most holy Source? As already considered, human creatures have been using the forces and energies of Jehovah’s material creation for a long time and in a number of ways, whether they recognize and admit it or not. But is there a more direct way for weakling man to draw on this inexhaustible Source to supplement the very limited natural strength of the fleshly body and mind?

18. What does the Almighty One himself say in answer to this question?

¹⁸ Praise be to Jehovah, there is! Listen! By the mouth of his prophet Isaiah, the Almighty himself says: “Have you not come to know or have you not heard? Jehovah, the Creator of the extremities of the earth, is a God to time indefinite. He does not tire out or grow weary.” Moreover, if you have not already heard, this eternally Tireless One says that he is able to sustain weak and weary ones and to supply them with an abundance of vigorous power. “[Jehovah] is giving to the tired one power, and to the one without dynamic energy he makes full might abound. Boys even may tire out and grow weary, and young men themselves will without fail get to stumbling, but those who are hoping in Jehovah will regain power. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not tire out.”—Isa. 40:28-31.

MADE MIGHTY IN POWER THROUGH SPIRIT

19. Jehovah uses what means to impart sustaining power to those hoping in him?

¹⁹ But how is such a thing possible? By what means does Jehovah impart dynamic energy and vigorous power to mere human creatures? Obviously not everyone can receive such divine power. Godless scientists and worldly leaders who trust in their own or other men’s power and strength can never hope to tap this heavenly Source of energy, for only “those who are hoping in Jehovah will regain power,” we are told. It was to such individuals in Ephesus whose trust and confidence and hope was in Jehovah that the apostle Paul wrote: “I bend my knees to the Father . . . to the end that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory to be made mighty in the man you are inside with power through his spirit.” So this power to make one mighty and strong is imparted by and through Jehovah’s spirit, and because it is from a holy Source it is correctly spoken of as “holy spirit.”—Eph. 3:14-16.

20. (a) What is the basic meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated “spirit” in our English Bibles? (b) What two characteristics does the wind have that makes it a fitting illustration of holy spirit?

²⁰ To have a better understanding of what the Bible reveals about God’s holy spirit it is helpful to know the meaning of the Hebrew word ruʹahh and the Greek word pneuʹma, which are translated into English as “spirit.” Both of these words have the elementary meaning of “breath,” “blast” or “wind”; not just still, stagnant air, but rather air in forceful motion. While the Bible writers use these words in several different senses,a yet in all instances the basic characteristics of a blast of wind are conveyed, namely, invisibility and force. We cannot see the wind but we can certainly see what it does. We cannot see the wind that fills the sails of a boat, yet we see that the boat is driven over the water and we know that a powerful force is at work. Thus we see a visible, perceptible effect produced by an invisible force.

21, 22. (a) Jehovah’s holy spirit is defined as what? (b) How does one distinguish between the invisible forces of the universe and the invisible active force of Jehovah?

²¹ Now, Jehovah’s holy spirit is his invisible active force; not just the power residing within himself, but his energy when projected out from himself for the accomplishing of his will and purpose. Being invisible and powerful, it is properly termed spirit.

²² Are we to conclude from this that all invisible active displays of force or energy are manifestations of Jehovah’s holy spirit, for example, the gravitational pull of the earth or the violent release of nuclear power when atomic bombs are dropped? No, not at all. In creating this material world Jehovah certainly used his invisible active force as well as his infinite wisdom and knowledge in tenaciously binding together the great atomic forces of the physical universe. (Gen. 1:2) But it is altogether incorrect to speak of such phenomenal forces of nature as God’s holy spirit. Jehovah’s invisible active force is not a blind, wild, uncontrolled force. It is not a force or power that wicked men bent on the ruthless destruction of life can tinker with as a toy or plaything. At all times Jehovah has his holy spirit under his immediate control and direction. It is not a fixed force as the earth’s gravitational pull, for God’s spirit can be extended or withdrawn, increased or decreased, according to his holy will and pleasure. So God’s spirit may be defined as his invisible active force, a very real projected power indeed, which Jehovah personally uses to accomplish his will and which he gives in abundance to creatures who worship and serve him.

23. What response do those make who are privileged to draw upon this surpassing Source of dynamic strength?

²³ Here, then, is a Source of surpassing strength and power upon which those who are true worshipers of Jehovah and who are conscious of their limited physical and mental strength may freely draw with no fear of a power shortage. Concerning these fortunate people it is written: “Happy are the men whose strength is in [Jehovah] . . . They will walk on from vital energy to vital energy.” (Ps. 84:5, 7) Upon seeing all the marvelous wonders of Jehovah’s creative activity these energetic happy people exclaim: “For you have made me rejoice, O Jehovah, because of your activity; because of the works of your hands I cry out joyfully. How great your works are, O Jehovah! Very deep your thoughts are. No unreasoning man himself can know them, and no one stupid can understand this.”—Ps. 92:4-6.

24. What is in store for those who dare to mock and ridicule the Almighty Jehovah?

²⁴ Not only will the unreasoning and stupid ones fail to understand but they will continue to laugh at and ridicule the true Source of all strength and power. But let them continue to do so. Let the godless scientists and technologists of this old world’s system of things continue their ceaseless search for new sources of material fuel and power. Let the proud and arrogant researchers and explorers continue their probing of outer space. Let all these stupid ones, whether they are of the Eastern, Western or Neutral bloc of nations, continue to harden their stony hearts against the only true Source of all dynamic energy and vigorous power. Yet Jehovah says to them: “How dare you people say: ‘We are mighty men and men of vital energy for the war’?” (Jer. 48:14) What war is He speaking about? Why, the fast-approaching war of Armageddon, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” which is now so very near. It is then that Jehovah will answer the supplication of the righteous who pray: “By your vital energy make them wander about, and bring them down, O our shield Jehovah, for the sin of their mouth, the word of their lips; and may they be caught in their pride, even for the cursing and the lying that they rehearse. Bring them to an end in rage, bring them to an end, that they may not be, and may they know that God is ruling in Jacob to the ends of the earth.”—Rev. 16:14, 16; Ps. 59:11-13.

[Footnotes]