THE WORLD AT OUR FEET


The World, the Word & You! Broadcast
Commentary by Dennis L. Finnan

"WE'VE ALL LOOK UP AND PONDERED A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT SKY WITH A MYRIAD OF STARS TWINKLING IN THE NIGHT! YET, HOW MANY OF US HAVE LOOKED DOWN ON A BRIGHT SUMMER'S DAY AND OBSERVED THE MULTITUDE OF GOD'S CREATURES LIVING AND WORKING IN THE 'WORLD AT OUR FEET?''

I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about that… "World at our Feet!" …

… In the Bible I've discovered that God has given us such a wide variety of presenting His revelation to mankind. One of God's practical ways is to use the "creation" as an illustration of what God wants us to see about Him. Why, every time the Lord Jesus taught a lesson for us to know, He often used illustrations of life and the creatures that surround us. Now in the Old Testament, perhaps the greatest illustrator of life and situations was a man named King Solomon. In his book of Proverbs, we discover he spent much time studying the "creation" around him and, observing life even to the smallest degree. In particular, King Solomon enjoyed studying the little "ants" that scurry around on a hot summer's day. So much so, that he commented on them by divine leading and inspiration for our help and hope for today. It is for this reason we'll take a look now at "the world at our feet", and examine the most amazing creatures called ¾ the tiny little ant! But first, another pause for a musical expression…

… In the Bible we are often given examples of how and what God expects His highest creation, the human race, to do in living on this earth in relationship to other human beings and of course, in relationship to God. In particular, we have an exquisite lesson on the tiny animals called ¾ ants. We read in, (Prov. 6:6-8;30:24-25)

Prov 6:6-8 (NLT) "Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and be wise! 7 Even though they have no prince, governor, or ruler to make them work, 8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter."

Prov 30:24-25 (NLT) "There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise: 25 Ants—they aren’t strong, but they store up food for the winter."

Well, here we are in Solomon's world of wisdom. He observed these tiny little creatures called ants, and discovered some lasting truths about them for our own edification for life and living. Solomon's lesson was simple. As one looked at the world at our feet and observed the tiny ant, they would discover these simple creatures were little in strength, yet wise, industrious, having much foresight, and showed they are caring creatures! As one observes them in their habitat and their work, these lessons Solomon said were a perfect teaching illustration for what God expects of us human beings today. So now, I want to talk about this "world at our feet," as we too observe the ants and find out some of the amazing things these creatures do that show us not only some practical illustrations for life and relationship to God and man, but also that all around us is PROOF of the marvelous CREATION the Bible ascribes to our Creator God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's begin…

Now… as one observes the ants, the first thing we discover is they all live ¾ in colonies. No ant lives alone, nor can survive alone. They must have each other's support or perish. In like manner God wants us, who are Christians, to know this same truth. We must support each other, work together or perish! Yet the ants tell us so much more!

As one looks at a typical ant colony, you'll find that there are various different ants and workers. Some collect food and bring it to the nest. Others enlarge the nest home, rebuild it when necessary and keep the rooms of the "great" house clean. Still others, are busy taking care of the queen ants, and the growing nursery of new ants. Now modern evolutionary science today which has extensively observed ant colonies, tells us that all these diversified things done by ants are just a matter of "instinct." Yes, evolution and its followers who refuse to believe all things exist because of an intelligent Creator God, say "instinct" is something that just "evolved" through millions of years. However, friend, as one observes just these "ants," the idea of instinct being a product of evolution is the most ridiculous thing to believe! Where and why did instinct begin? Since it is an "effect" that shows us design, intelligence, wisdom, and great complexity, then scientifically speaking it must have a FIRST CAUSE. In science you know, there is the law and principle of cause and effect. This teaches us that no "effect" is ever greater than its "cause." The opposite must be true! So the first cause of "instinct" in the animal world, reveals that whatever caused such marvelous instinct to appear must be greater in design, intelligence, wisdom and complexity. Mindless evolution woefully cannot be the "cause" ¾ only something of such great intelligence as the Creator God revealed in the Bible! Well now, the instinct of the ants is amazing to say the least. We see that God created a variety of different ants for differing purposes. We see first of all there are what are classified as,

1. SLAVE KEEPER & SLAVE ANTS - This variety and team of ants work together. The slave keeper ants cannot live by themselves without "slaves," because their jaws are so long, curved and sharp they cannot dig, nest or even feed themselves. So, in the ant colony the "slave ants" do that for them, or they die. This is not an accident of nature. It is instinct by design! Next, there are the,

2. WORKER & SOLDIER ANTS - The worker ants sole responsibility is to provide food, mainly grass or wood for the nest and its inhabitants. While the soldier ants protect these workers who go out at night to cut grass in quarter inch lengths and bring it back for storage and stacking in chambers. Now, the soldiers make up about 5% of the group. They are physically different from the others. These ants have protruding mandibles, with a nozzle in their head to squirt a potent chemical on their enemy. This chemical is a sticky substance that tangles the legs and antennae of the enemy and greatly irritates their body. Now, if the nest is attacked by hoards of their enemies, these soldier ants also seal off the tunnels leading to their nest, cementing shut the entrances with soil and feces to keep them out. Thus, their sole job is to "protect" the worker ants, whose sole job is to gather and store food. So by themselves neither can exist, but together they can and they do admirably. Third we see what is called,

3. THE QUEEN ANT - The queen ant is the sole reproducer of the ant colony, no other female is able to produce while she is alive and mating ¾ that is, until she become sterile. Once this happens, somehow "instinct," causes another young female to start developing the ability to mate and take over egg production. This amazing "instinct" reveals great wisdom and intelligence doesn't it? Is it mindless evolution? How ridiculous ¾ rather it is "CREATIVE DESIGN," as the Bible reveals. Well, next we see that God designed more differing ants. We learn there are,

4. THE LEAF-CUTTER ANTS - Now these don't eat leaves, rather "fungus" which is their only food. These ants use the leaves to make subterranean compost piles where they farm their fungus and reproduce it for the colony to feed upon. Their only work is to do this thing for the life and continuance of the colony. You know as Solomon observed these differing ants, and as science today has much more catalogued this amazing species of life ¾ it can be observed that the "ants," are one of the most industrious little animals God has ever created. Tiny though they are, small and helpless individually, yet together in working in orchestrated diversity ¾ they become the most efficient, organized, powerful animals ever to walk the face of the "earth at our feet." Well, there's more … for now we can see there are also what I would call the,

5. DAIRY FARMER, OR WOOD & WEAVER ANTS - Yes, much like our human dairy farmers these special ants do a similar work. These ants are interested specifically in the many aphids, that is small sap sucker insects that rest on leaves and plants and suck out the juice of the tissue of the plants. Upon doing so, they excrete a sweet liquid which these ants "farm." These aphids become their "cows." Amazingly these wood ants herd many aphids into their underground chambers without killing them. There in controlled conditions they provide chambers or "barns" ¾ made of fine grains of soil cemented together ¾ where many roots are, for the aphids to feed themselves happily upon. Now along with the wood Dairy Farmer Ants, are the "Tropical Weaver Ants," whose job it is to build special "silk" tents for their "cattle." For the aphids this is a great day of provision and care. These silk tent making ants somehow gained the "instinct," to just build barns for aphids! Together the Dairy Farmer, Wood and Weaver ants keep production going for the nest, producing the milk honeydew or sweet liquid needed for life.
This milk farming production is amazing. In addition to the above work of gathering aphids for milking, there are also specialists among them who in gathering the aphids are "Cowboy" ants. These special ants stand guard to protect the herd and to keep it from straying. Then "dairymaids" do the milking while can you imagine ¾ "tank-car" ants carry home the honey-dew from the barn by filling their bodies sacs with it and disgorging it again at the nest. Moreover, as these aphids grow old and cease to produce, some of the Dairy Farmer ants slaughter some of their "cattle" for meat as well.

Now, there is more than this, but suffice it to show us that ant colonies are composed of a variety of differing ants and work to produce the life and sustenance of these little creatures. This amazing society of ants cannot reasonably be attributed to evolution's idea of natural processes such as mutations and natural selection. It is much more reasonable to say these variety of ants and their instincts are ¾ GOD GIVEN & CREATED! So the Bible warns,

Psa 14:1 (NIV) "… The fool says in his heart, "There is no God

Well, King Solomon look at the world at his feet and saw ¾ GOD! He saw how God was illustrating His existence and His calling for His children to so live in a similar collective and cooperative manner. God has taught the animal world to care for itself and not expect others to do so. He also taught the need for diversity, and the use of our many talents and gifts for the good of society. Solomon said,

Prov 6:6-8 (NLT) "Take a lesson from the ants….. Learn from their ways and be wise!

Yes friends, take a lesson. We too are to be industrious and not lazy depending on others to meet our needs, while we do little to nothing to meet our own and theirs. "Learn from their ways and be wise" Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn is these creatures did not evolve. There is no possible way such complexity of the life and living of these ants could ever have evolved. This is why God's Word says,

Rom 1:20 (NIV) "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Yes "what has been made," even these tiny creatures shout out the existence of God, and as such no human being is excused, to seek His or her Creator! Have you my friend? Or are you like multitudes, closing your eyes, refusing to believe in God and His great and mighty "creation."

Most of all, it is God's plan that all who come to realize they are the "creature," and that the God of the Bible is their "Creator," also come to see His great love revealed to us.

Yes, the Bible is God's love letter to a lost, fallen and sinful world. All humanity, the Bible says, is under God's judgment for disobedience. We are told we are born disobedient by the very sin nature passed on to all of us from our very first parents, Adam and Eve. This sin nature can do only one thing. It rejects any idea of accountability to a Creator. It's only goal is to satisfy itself at the expense of everyone and everything else. That is, until it comes face to face with God and His Word. The Bible says,

Rom 3:23 (NIV) "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

Rom 6:23 (NIV) "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." YET…

John 3:16-17 (NIV) ""For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

John 10:9-10 (NIV) [JESUS SAID] "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved…"

Rom 5:12-16 (NIV) "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned… 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many."

Yes, as one looks up and observes the night sky and sees the wondrous creation of the universe, all they need to is look also at "the world at their feet," and see the wonders of creation in the tiny creatures called the ants. They are incredible evidence of the inconceivable intelligence, power, wisdom, might and exceeding love of a Creator God who has come to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, and has offered to die for our sins to save us from His wrath to come. To those willing to believe, the glory of the heavens and the splendor of the strange world of nature ¾ will cause our eyes to open to see Him and His Son Jesus Christ. Have you seen God? The answer is yes, every day you look around you! But, have you bowed your heart and knees before this wondrous Creator who has given us so amazing love? This is God's desire as one looks at the world at our feet. But if we turn away and continue to reject the signature of God's creative power and work in the Creation, then we will never come to see and recognize the beauty of God's love in Jesus Christ. Oh, may He rule and reign in your heart and may the concepts found in the tiny world of the ant, help us to see how God wants us to live and work together for God's glory and our own good will and unity. May God add His blessing to these words for Jesus sake…

… Ants ¾ what seemingly small and insignificant creatures, yet they too display the matchless handiwork of our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent GOD and Savior Jesus Christ. May His truths found in His Word, the Bible, ever lead you onward and upward to a full revealing of His great Personhood and work on behalf of sinners such as you and me. God bless this friends to each listening heart today.

The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries are not exhaustive studies of any particular subject due to the time limit of broadcasting. Actual broadcasts can be heard in selected areas around the nation, as funding provides. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for over 18 years, and serves as General Director.

These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are actual radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of recent messages is available upon request also.

For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(dennis@wwy.org),or visit our webpage at http://www.wwy.org/