There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all that makes him God. But since the beginning of the world, those things have been easy for people to understand. They are made clear in what God has made. So people have no excuse for the evil they do.
“Men, why are you doing this? We are not gods. We are human just like you. We came to tell you the Good News. We are telling you to turn away from these worthless things. Turn to the true living God, the one who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them.
The one who rescued you is the Lord, the one who formed you in your mother’s womb. He says, “I, the Lord, made everything. I put the skies there myself. I spread out the earth before me.”
The Lord, the true God, said these things. (He created the sky and spread it out over the earth. He formed the earth and everything it produced. He breathes life into all the people on earth. He gives a spirit to everyone who walks on the earth.)
Look up to the skies. Who created all those stars? Who created all those “armies” in the sky? Who knows every star by name? He is very strong and powerful, so not one of these stars is lost.
It is the Lord who sits above the circle of the earth. And compared to him, people are like grasshoppers. He rolled open the skies like a piece of cloth. He stretched out the skies like a tent to sit under.
“He is the God who made the whole world and everything in it. He is the Lord of the land and the sky. He does not live in temples built by human hands.
“I, the Lord, am the one who made you. With my power I made the earth and spread the sky over the earth. But you have forgotten me, so you are always afraid that angry men will hurt you. Those men planned to destroy you, but where are they now?
I made the earth and all the people on it. I made all the animals on the earth. I did this with my great power and my strong arm. I can give the earth to anyone I want.
This is a message from the Lord about Israel. The Lord is the one who made the earth and the sky, and he put the human spirit in people. And this is what the Lord said: