Genesis 1:14-19 • Day 4 • Sun, moon, and stars

Gen 1:14-19 → 14Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

• Day 4 brings the last of the "setup" days, as now the earth will be ready for animals and man. God created light on day 1, but now the sources of the light are created. When you think about modern technology, and the ability to see so much more of the sky than what is available to the naked eye, you can realize that there are more stars in the sky than all the people of our planet who have ever lived in total. Staggering to think about. How could we ever doubt that God can keep an eye on us all as individuals after he has created so many worlds?

• When the text says "the expanse of the heavens" we can understand the multiple uses of those words. On Day 2 we talked about how this was specifically, at least in my understanding, referring to the atmosphere of earth. But on this day the phrase is more inclusive of the entire sky, in all it's infinite greatness.

• "the greater light to govern the day" is obviously the sun; while "the lesser light to govern the night" would be the moon.

• "He made the stars also" would, I assume, include the other 8 planets of our solar system (I still think Pluto should be considered a planet!), and any other floating junk (asteroid belt, comets, etc.) that is out there.

• Why? What is the purpose for all of this? The text tells us multiple things about this...

This list does not have any order by priority, other than how the ideas popped out at me as I read the text...

1 ► "to give light on the earth". If you've ever been in a scenario where there is absolutely no light at all (in a cave?) and you can't even see your hand in front of your face, then I think you can appreciate this. The sun pretty much overwhelms the daytime sky, but at night, while being much darker, you can most often still see enough to be able to hike outdoors without falling off a cliff or bumping into a tree. The artificial light in a large city kind of masks this, but if you ever get the chance to get out somewhere away from the city, on a clear night, you can actually see enough to get around.

2 ► "to separate the day from the night" and "to separate the light from the darkness". In both of these scenarios you need to realize that the number one factor that differentiates each of these comparisons is the sun. It is the sun, at least from our perspective on earth, that dictates whether it is day or night, light or dark. The stars are always there; just not always visible; because of the sun.

3 ► "and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years". All the work that God did in the sky also has significant, if not subtle, impacts on us every day. Our calendars are mostly based on the movements of the sun and moon. The sun, in it's positional relationship to the earth, denotes our seasons, as we draw nearer, or drift further away from it. The moon has significant impact on our tides and gravity. There are actually 13 28-day cycles of the moon in a year. Not sure why/how we ended up with a convoluted (28 days, 30 days, 31 days) 12 month calendar, but it doesn't take a scientist to figure out that a more efficient manner would have been to follow the cycle of the moon. And leap year! What is that all about? I have a nephew whose birthday is on February 29th. We save a fortune on birthday presents!

• The more we see in the sky as we deploy newer and better telescopes in space, the greater my view of God becomes. Some people actually see the same thing that I do, but their view is to eliminate God all together. I just don't understand this. I just can't accept that all this order, all of this beauty, all of this balance, can be just by some random collisions of atoms. There must be some kind of Designer. One who not only created everything, but also holds it all together. If you've ever watched a juggler, balancing and tossing about numerous objects, and somehow being able to keep them all aloft, you can maybe understand how I think of God this way sometimes. Holding the entire universe in balance, creating a light show of perpetual movement, and never once losing control. If He can hold the entire universe, I think I can trust Him to keep my little world under His control.

Photo → 5/19/2024 • The Milky Way, Alamo Lake State Park, AZ