Why did God create such a vast universe and other planets if there is only life on earth?

What then has been the object of the Creator in bringing into being such a universe of nebula, stars, planets, moons and comets? The answer cannot be other than exceedingly simple: “For Thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11). In bringing such a heaven and earth into existence we may be sure He had an object worthy of His wise and gracious mind. Rational beings do not work without some object in view. None but the insane do meaningless actions. Reason itself would tell us that when God began His works of old He had counsels and purposes to fulfil which would be for the eternal delight of His heart, and for the glory of His greatness, might and wisdom.

For the fulfilment of these counsels of God of which I have already spoken, it was necessary to possess such a creation, and to fill that creation with creatures, the nature of which we have little or no conception. It would be foolish on our part to suppose that the worlds that we see shining about our heads in the darkness of the night were waste and empty, and worse than foolish for us to suppose them to be inhabited by creatures like ourselves. Indeed, from what we learn of the ways of God from the revelation He has been pleased to give to us, we cannot do otherwise than infer that they were from their origin filled with beings set in intelligent relationship with Himself. That he has myriads of beings of angelic order is just what His word tells us. There are “principalities and powers,” both good and evil, in the heavenly places, and they all have their various abodes. We cannot say that our own earth was not peopled by responsible creatures many millions of years before its making as recorded in Genesis 1:2-31. I except verse 1, which speaks of the creation of the heavens and the earth, attributing their existence to the putting forth of the power of God. As far as this is concerned, it was all that was needful for us to know. He spoke, and it was done. What more do we want to know? But when He began to fashion the earth for the abode of man, we get more details of His operations, Scripture does not ask us to believe that it continued in the order and beauty in which it left His hand. It rather draws our attention to the fact that it had fallen into a state of ruin; for it is said to be waste and empty, swathed in darkness, and enveloped by water, the Spirit hovering over the face of the deep. All that we require to know is plainly brought before us, and no words are wasted in the narration. We have to do with a God of infinite goodness and wisdom, and who wastes no words in His gracious communications, nor does He omit one syllable from the lesson He would have us learn.

Let us then seek to interest our souls in the great thought of God in the creation of such a wondrous universe, that almost blinds us with its glory during the day, and with its countless tongues of fire calls to us through the mantle of the silent night, producing in our inmost hearts a holy awe and reverence for the One who made both ourselves and it. If He has given us any light as regards His intention in calling into existence such a galaxy of brilliants, this must be found in the revelation He has given to us in the Holy Scriptures.

Before the day of the display of God's grace before the whole universe, there is even now the display of His wisdom to the great intelligences of heaven, even as it is written in Ephesians 3, "that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" (verse 10). The Spirit of God reveals in this Scripture that this is one of the reasons that God created all things. This earth is but a little speck of dust moving in the vast region of space among the innumerable and mighty orbs, but it is the platform on which God is working out His eternal purpose, and even now it is where the wisdom of God, in an entirely new way, is being made known to heavenly beings.

Although the greatest human intellects have studied the creation, men are in utter darkness as to its origin and purpose. The Christian, receiving by faith the word of God, understands "that the worlds were framed by the word of God"; and that God created all things "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" (Heb. 11:3. Eph. 3:9-10).

The material creation was formed—the heavens and the earth—in view of the accomplishment of God's purpose. The creation thus serves as a platform for the display of the ways of God, His power, His wisdom, His love; yea, the manifestation of Himself in Christ: and soon the vast system which will be formed to satisfy His heart will be displayed; therefore creation is ascribed to Him as God, the Son, and the Word!

All this was in God’s heart and mind before the worlds were made, and the time scene has come in to give effect to the purpose of God. This world, though so small in comparison with the massive worlds that we see shining in the sky, is of immense importance because it is the platform on which God has been working to give effect to what He counselled in eternity. It was here that His Son came to make Him known, and to lay the basis in redemption for the introduction of the new heavens and the new earth, where God’s eternal thoughts would be displayed before the universe, and where He would rest in all that He has accomplished.

We can see then, that beside the well-known dependence of the earth and its inhabitants for physical existence, on the heavens there may be traced the moral and spiritual dependence as well. In doing so, however, we must remember the place the earth has in the mind of God above all other parts of His creation and that its very existence is the necessity of divine counsel. At its creation, the intelligences of heaven peal forth the Creator's praise, and throughout the multiplied distances of the universe there was heavenly celebration. When earth's foundations were laid — home of him who is the crown of all creation — the scene in which would be worked out both the ways and purposes of God, "the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Can we wonder, if these holy beings had some divinely-given glimpse of the mysterious depth of suffering and consequent height of glory that lay in the womb of the future for the new-born earth and its future inhabitants, things which were destined to bring out the deepest and richest revelation of the Being and Nature of God.

The heavens and their host were called forth by Jehovah's word; a majestic spectacle to arrest attention, wake up wonder and inquiry, and lift our thoughts above the earth. Preachers to us of our littleness and dependence, their testimony is manifestly in the line of His redemptive work. The philosopher Kant, whose critical spirit was not checked with any excessive reverence, unites "the starry heavens" with the "moral law" as that which filled him with unfailing admiration and reverence. And how easily might they have been shut out from our view, if God had not pleased to fling aside the veil, and bid us gaze! Whatever else those brilliant spheres were made for, they have surely been unveiled to impress us with the sight. They are an open Bethel: as, in the mind of the old patriarch, "the gate of heaven" is "the house of God."

You see where those are that speak about the enormous length of time necessary for light to be transmitted — though this again is more than they ought to assume — at any rate for the action of light by means of the heavenly orbs. But there is no difficulty whatever. When God created the heavens, did He make them empty? Did He not create also the host of heaven? What about the sun, and moon, and stars? He created them some time. That they were made we find elsewhere in this chapter; not, I presume, the absolute moment of their creation, but of their being made to serve for the use of man on the earth. What other uses they served we are not there informed. That they were God's handiwork, and for man's use, as creatures of God here below — not objects of worship, as in heathenism, He does explain. Surely there was wisdom in saying this and no more. There was considerate goodness in what He said, and in what He withheld.

In Genesis 1:1, details of the wide creation are not given. There we read, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis was written to give God’s people a knowledge of His dealings with men, not to teach them the details of the wonderful universe that is around us, or what lies beyond the ken of man. He tells us that the creation is His, and faith lays hold on what He has said. The forming of the earth for man’s habitation He gives in detail, in sober, dignified, and simple words; not for the scientific mind, but for the hearts of those who delight in Him and His word. In telling us of His making of the sun and the moon, there is the incidental information “He made the stars also.”

All recorded in Genesis 1, John tells us, was made by Him who “became flesh,” the holy Son of God. There are no details in Genesis 1 of the stars, which “differ from one another” in glory (1 Cor. 15:41), and which have such a large place in the studies of men, and which caused David to write, “When I consider Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained: What is man, that Thou art mindful of him” (Psalm 8:3-4).