“You are worthy, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:11
According to Wikipedia, the first attempts at dulling pain for medical related procedures were most likely herbal remedies. Drinking alcohol was one of the oldest known sedative methods used in Mesopotamia. Before the birth of Christ, the Chinese are believed to have used some sort of herbal concoction for a general anesthesia. As time progressed, plants, elements and gasses of all sorts have been the subject of experimentation in helping humans and animals experience less or no pain during surgical procedures. With each “discovery” scientists and doctors have learned how to induce a safe state of unconsciousness and a stillness in the patient.
You may be thinking this is a strange way to start off this Soli Deo Gloria devotional series but I, for one, am incredibly thankful for the work these scientists have done over the last few thousand years — because yesterday I had two wisdom teeth removed. Today, I thankfully have no memory of the cutting open of my gums and the pulling of those two teeth. I didn’t feel a thing. And although I look like a chipmunk that’s a small price to pay for the pain free experience of modern anesthesia.
Who is responsible for this amazing scientific work? Was it Joseph Priestly who discovered the gas, nitrous oxide, also known as “laughing gas?” Or maybe it was William Thomas Green Morton, a dentist who studied and used diethyl ether. Then later, physicians Samuel Guthrie and Eugene Soubeiran who made chloroform famous. While these men and thousands of others must be recognized for their tireless work in helping us all enjoy pain free surgeries we need to step back and remind ourselves of the people living on the plain of Shiner. Yes, those Tower of Babel folks (Genesis 11).
They took God’s created elements and built themselves a tower to reach the heavens. They wanted to be known, to make a name for themselves, to get all the glory. They didn’t seek to use God’s gifts for His glory — imagine the different outcome if they had! Instead, they were cursed, suddenly unable to understand each other and scattered across the earth. The city they began in cooperation could not be finished because confusion reigned.
During the so-called “Age of Enlightenment” (17th and 18th century) scientists and scholars began building a world wide “Tower of Babel” That tower was built not with brick and mortar but on knowledge and scientific discoveries. You see, until then universities and other places of study put God at the top of all things. From God came the studies of the earth, the body, the mind, and the arts. Everything was understood to come from God. But as the scholars began placing God to the side as just another thing to study they removed Him from all other areas. “New” plants, “new” species, “new” medical discoveries were all down to man’s knowledge and talent — making names for themselves. And God, He has become relegated to a mythology for so many in the sciences. We can all see the confusion that now reigns around us.
But my friend, as faithful followers of our beautiful Triune God we can know that scientists can never fulfill their ultimate target of the “why” of all things. There is no brick or mortar that scientist “discover” that hasn’t already been created by God. I heard recently that God, in fact, makes science possible. Without Him there would be nothing for man to discover or study. God and science are not in conflict. As usual, it is man’s fleshly desires that are in conflict with both.
So today, while I am thankful to all the people who, with God’s hand, made anesthesia what it is today and to my doctor who put in thousands of hours studying oral surgery, I am most thankful to God. Giving all glory and honor, as the 24 elders in Revelation 4 are quoted, to the Creator. To the one who made every single brick in existence yesterday, today and what will be “discovered” by man tomorrow. He is the first and ultimate physician and scientist.
To Him give the glory. Amen
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