Article November 24, 1973 Issue

The Bible's Energy Insight

GERTRUDE BAYLESS

High above my head the windmill barely turns. Its broad tail slowly shifts the wheel around to catch the breeze. The vanes start to revolve, pulling the long shaft up out of the well and dumping cool water down the lead pipe into the wooden tank. Thirsty cows jostle for a drink. As the wind's energy dies down, the giant wheel screeches to a stop. So I grasp the pump handle. It flies up by itself, but I have to swing from the handle with all my weight to pull it down and send the water gurgling into the pipe. We take turns pumping, the wind and I. My energy for a while; then the wind spells me.

People have worked hand-in-hand with nature like this through the ages. Jesus' disciples did, sometimes rowing on the Sea of Galilee (see John 6:19), sometimes sailing before the wind. (See Luke 8:23.) Elisha drove oxen for plowing (see I Kings 19:19); Solomon used fire for smelting copper and iron.^{See "Ezion-geber," The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. II, pp. 213, 214;} Hezekiah employed earth's gravity to bring Gihon's spring water through a mountain tunnel into Jerusalem; that way, folks could save for more important work the energy they would have spent carrying waterpots (see II Chron. 32: 30).

What a boon when mankind found partnership with such forces outside themselves! What relief from physical labor and what added opportunities to think—to transcend the mortal self and to acknowledge energy's ultimate source!

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Responding to Prophecy