Evening and Morning – The First Day

There is so much debate about the actual Creation timeline.  Some have said it is literal days – as in seven 24 hour days.  Some have said that the days are figurative and each day really indicates a 1,000 year period.  Still others think that the creative day was a period of time simply marked by a beginning and an ending or a cumulative period of time, not necessarily 24 hours.

So let’s start with the 1,000 year period theory of time for creation days.  Where are people getting this from? Take a look at 2 Peter Chapter 3, verse 8.  It states, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”  So people who hold to the theory that the seven day creation listed in Genesis is actually 7,000 years based on the verse in 2 Peter.   But, in my opinion, to believe that it to take the verse in 2 Peter out of context.  Read the entire passage in 2 Peter chapter 3.   It is not talking about creation days.  It is talking about God’s patience when it comes to the destruction and punishment of man.  It is almost as if the writer is trying to convey the idea that God is giving the people every possible chance to turn away from their wickedness and turn to God for repentance and salvation.

But if you look at the actual account of creation in Genesis Chapter 1, verse 5.  It states, “God called the light “day” and the darkness he called “night,” and there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.  Well, I think that is pretty clear.  We have a day and we have a night, and they are referred to as evening and morning, the first day.  When you and I refer to evening and morning, we understand that to be a 24 hour period of time aka day and night.  We don’t think anything other than that.

Now some debate this and state that it couldn’t be actual days because the sun wasn’t created until Day 4 and that is when time began to be documented.  But what the Bible actually states is that the sun was created to mark the seasons and days and years, and to give light to the earth.  The sun was given so man could track time, not for God to track time.  And why would man need to track time?  Well, if you think about it, the earth was going to rotate around the sun causing changes to occur on the earth.  With the markers of the sun and the moon in the sky man would be able to relate the rising and the setting of the sun with different changes that were to occur at different times, affecting life on the earth.  It states that the light was to “serve as a sign to mark seasons……”.   Let us not forget what Adam’s job was going to be.  He was going to care for the Garden until his fall and then he would work the ground wherever he went.  Any farmer knows that there is a time to plant and a time to sow.

And God Said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years……….”

And God saw that it was good………

 

“Let There Be Light”

‘And God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”  Genesis Chapter 1, verse 3.

To look at this verse at face value, we immediately create a picture in our own head that is similar to standing in a dark room and flipping on a light switch.  And this is partly true.  But before we get to this part of the verse, did you notice that you completely skipped over the first three words? – “And God Said’.  Have you ever stopped there and contemplated those three little words?  Does that make a difference to you?  Did you ever give though to God speaking at Creation?

Let me ask you – Who was God speaking to?  Was he just speaking to Himself?  Why does the Bible record the fact that God was speaking?  Certainly an all powerful God could have simply “thought” something into creation, couldn’t He?  Those three words are extremely important, yet most people gloss right over them.  They are important because as we get further into the study of God’s word, we will come to find out that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all present at Creation, and God was speaking because He was not alone.  How can I be sure of this?  Jump ahead to Genesis Chapter 1 verse 26.

Here we see those same three words, “And God Said,”  ….but pay careful attention to the next two words, “Let us…..”  So, if God was alone at the Creation, he would not have said anything to anyone.  He would have simply went about the business of creating.  Isn’t that interesting how three little words can have so much meaning?

Now, If we go back to Chapter 1 verse 3, ‘And God Said, “Let there be light.”  This kind of gives me the impression tht He spoke and boom – there was light.  How awesome is that?  Bu what was that light?  Was it Him and His glory as some have suggested?  Can or does God turn Himself on and off like a firefly?  I don’t believe that is the case here.  I don’t believe God flipped His “internal switch” to light the heavens.  I think it is more of God spoke the light into existence by causing the darkness to depart.  How?  I have no idea.  But there was a light source, because the Bible tells us there was.  It was not the sun, because the sun had not yet been created.  That wouldn’t occur until creation day 4.

Some claim that the sun was there “at the beginning” and it was hidden by vapor.  I don’t believe this either.  That is not how the Bible reads.  It states that the sun was clearly created on day 4.  It doesn’t say that God caused the “vapor” to clear revealing the sun.  It says, he created the lights in the expanse of the sky .  Verse 16 says, “God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.”  This was on day 4.  So the claim that the original light in verse 3 is the sun is, in my mind, not accurate.

What I also find disturbing about all these “other” theories in creation is that some are willing to acquiesce to the fact that God created man from dirt, but cannot believe He could speak or create light into exsistance.  It is kind of limiting Him to what his powers can and can’t do, in my mind.

Personally, I believe it as I have written it.  God Said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, some kind of light, some kind of illumination that was there until He created the sun to rule over the day.

I don’t know about you, but this amazes my finite mind.   I read the words and they make no logical sense to my simple human brain, but the God I serve is not human. And just because I can’t understand it, doesn’t mean it didn’t occur or doesn’t exist.

There are many things in creation that are inexplainable, like the earth hanging in a solar system in the middle of a galaxy, surrounded by other planets, never colliding, but circling the sun, without being drawn into the gravitational pull of the sun.  I could go on…..it makes no sense, but nevertheless it exists.