Home \ Online Books \ The Way it Was

 Let's Have the Sun in the Morning
and the Moon at Night

In the fourteenth verse God rearranges His light source. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night. and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." (Genesis 1:14-19)

At this point God created the sun, moon, and stars. Why didn't He leave things alone? He had a light source and He had day and night. God in His infinite wisdom, explained the need for such a change. Knowing us as He did even before He created us, He knew of our need for time. There was time in the movement of the earth, day and night, but no system for telling time. If I were to ask how old you were under the first system, the light source created in day one (vs. 3), you would simply reply that you were 5644 day-nights. Certainly this is not a convenient system for determining time. So God created a sun, moon, and stars. These were made for signs, seasons, days and years.

We understand that the rotation of the earth itself divides the days. the moon going around the earth provides us with the months. and the earth traveling around the sun provides us with the years. The moon affects the tides and also determines season. So for signs and seasons, days and years, God created sun, moon, and stars so man might know when to plant and when to harvest.

Verse 16 says that God made two great lights, "...the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also." I love the end of that verse. Think of the power that is displayed in almost a post script: by the way, He made the stars also. Stars are pretty fantastic when you think of them, millions and billions of stars, so many we cannot even count them. God just mentions almost in passing, that He made the stars. As we go out into the evening and look up to the heavens, we learn something about our God. He is a God that is so almighty, having such unmeasurable power, that instantly He can create all those stars. Man cannot yet explain where they come from, yet God said they were created for signs, seasons, days, and years. I believe these were made by simply taking existing light source and spreading it out through the heavens. In Psalms we read that God "spreadeth abroad the heavens by his fingers." The heavens and the firmament are the work of His hands, His special creation.

Some people may ask how we can have literal or solar days before the sun was made. Refer back to Exodus 20:11. This verse does not distinguish between three days which were very long before the sun and three days which were literal days after the sun was created. It says simply six days, referring to them as exactly the same. The numerical adjective is used in describing both. God tells us of a period of evening and morning and so we learn that in four literal days God has now created the heavens, filled it with stars and supplied the earth with plant life.