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:
14. Let there be lights ] The word rendered “lights” (LXX : Lat. luminaria) denotes a thing, or body, carrying light; cf. Psa 74:16, “The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light (Heb. luminary) and the sun”; Eze 32:8, “All the bright lights of heaven.”
It has seemed strange to some that the creation of the heavenly bodies should follow after that of the vegetable world, whose life, according to our notions, is dependent on the light of the sun. But, beside the artificial arrangement (according to which the creation of “the lights” of the sky on the fourth day corresponds to the creation of “the light” on the first day), it is probable that, in the ascending scale from vegetable organisms to animal life, the “lights,” i.e. the sun, moon, and stars, with their mysterious movements and changing, yet ordered, paths in the sky, seemed to be endowed with a vital activity, which, if inferior to that of the animals, yet was far surpassing that of the plants.
Described in terms of astronomy, the account here given of the origin and functions of the heavenly bodies is, what is called, “geocentric,” that is, it supposes the earth to be the centre of the system. It conceives the sun, moon and stars to be much smaller bodies of varied light-giving capacity, formed for purposes of use to the dwellers upon earth, and attached to the roof of heaven at no very great altitude above the flat earth.
Primitive and childlike will this Hebrew view seem now to us who inherit the privilege of the continually advancing discoveries of astronomical science since the days of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. But we shall do well to recollect, that the statement in these verses respecting the origin, nature, and function of the heavenly bodies, stands on an immensely higher level of reasonable and dignified intelligence, than the notions of other peoples in the ancient world, who identified the heavenly bodies with gods, or semi-divine beings, exercising a benevolent or malevolent potency over the affairs of men and women, countries, and nations. The Hebrew account is simple almost to baldness, but it is an account which harmonizes with the fear and worship of the one God of Israel. There is neither idolatry nor superstition in it. It gives no loophole for the follies or fears of astrology, which even down to modern times has been known to enslave the reason of Christian minds.
God is described as calling into existence the heavenly bodies for three distinct purposes: (1) to divide between day and night; (2) to determine periods of time, days, months, years, seasons, festivals, &c.; (3) to give light upon earth, providing by day for the growth, health, and strength of living organisms, and by night for the guidance of the wayfarer and the mariner.
for signs, and for seasons ] Literally, “for signs and for fixed times.”
The seasons of the year were indicated by the position of the sun, moon, and stars; the “signs” probably have special reference to the constellations, and especially to what are called “the constellations of the Zodiac” a knowledge of which was from a very early time possessed by the Babylonians. Comets, eclipses, shooting-stars, &c. would also be included among the “signs” of the sky.
The “fixed times” probably denote the periods of the year for agricultural and rural occupations, together with their festivals. Days of festivals were determined by particular moons, or by the rising of particular stars. Cf. Job 38:32, “Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth (signs of the Zodiac) in their season?”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
14 19. Fourth Day. The Creation of the Heavenly Bodies
Observe that the creation of the “lights” in the heaven on the fourth day corresponds to the creation of “light” on the first day. If we divide the six days into two groups of three, there are in each group four creative acts, and at the head of each group is the creation of light in two different forms, (1) elemental, (2) sidereal.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– VI. The Fourth Day
14. ma’or, a light, a luminary, a center of radiant light.
moed, set time, season.
Words beginning with a formative musually signify that in which the simple quality resides or is realized. Hence, they often denote place.
17. nathan give, hold out, show, stretch, hold out. Latin: tendo, teneo; teino.
The darkness has been removed from the face of the deep, its waters have been distributed in due proportions above and below the expanse; the lower waters have retired and given place to the emerging land, and the wasteness of the land thus exposed to view has begun to be adorned with the living forms of a new vegetation. It only remains to remove the void by peopling this now fair and fertile world with the animal kingdom. For this purpose the Great Designer begins a new cycle of supernatural operations.
Gen 1:14, Gen 1:15
Lights. – The work of the fourth day has much in common with that of the first day, which, indeed it continues and completes. Both deal with light, and with dividing between light and darkness, or day and night. Let there be. They agree also in choosing the word be, to express the nature of the operation which is here performed. But the fourth day advances on the first day. It brings into view the luminaries, the light radiators, the source, while the first only indicated the stream. It contemplates the far expanse, while the first regards only the near.
For signs and for seasons, and for days and years. – While the first day refers only to the day and its twofold division, the fourth refers to signs, seasons, days, and years. These lights are for signs. They are to serve as the great natural chronometer of man, having its three units, – the day, the month, and the year – and marking the divisions of time, not only for agricultural and social purposes, but also for meeting out the eras of human history and the cycles of natural science. They are signs of place as well as of time – topometers, if we may use the term. By them the mariner has learned to mark the latitude and longitude of his ship, and the astronomer to determine with any assignable degree of precision the place as well as the time of the planetary orbs of heaven. The seasons are the natural seasons of the year, and the set times for civil and sacred purposes which man has attached to special days and years in the revolution of time.
Since the word day is a key to the explanation of the first days work, so is the word year to the interpretation of that of the fourth. Since the cause of the distinction of day and night is the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis in conjunction with a fixed source of light, which streamed in on the scene of creation as soon as the natural hinderance was removed, so the vicissitudes of the year are owing, along with these two conditions, to the annual revolution of the earth in its orbit round the sun, together with the obliquity of the ecliptic. To the phenomena so occasioned are to be added incidental variations arising from the revolution of the moon round the earth, and the small modifications caused by the various other bodies of the solar system. All these celestial phenomena come out from the artless simplicity of the sacred narrative as observable facts on the fourth day of that new creation. From the beginning of the solar system the earth must, from the nature of things, have revolved around the sun. But whether the rate of velocity was ever changed, or the obliquity of the ecliptic was now commenced or altered, we do not learn from this record.
Gen 1:15
To shine upon the earth. – The first day spreads the shaded gleam of light over the face of the deep. The fourth day unfolds to the eye the lamps of heaven, hanging in the expanse of the skies, and assigns to them the office of shining upon the earth. A threefold function is thus attributed to the celestial orbs – to divide day from night, to define time and place, and to shine on the earth. The word of command is here very full, running over two verses, with the exception of the little clause, and it was so, stating the result.
Gen 1:16-19
This result is fully particularized in the next three verses. This word, made, corresponds to the word be in the command, and indicates the disposition and adjustment to a special purpose of things previously existing.
Gen 1:16
The two great lights. – The well-known ones, great in relation to the stars, as seen from the earth.
The great light, – in comparison with the little light. The stars, from mans point of view, are insignificant, except in regard to number Gen 15:5.
Gen 1:17
God gave them. – The absolute giving of the heavenly bodies in their places was performed at the time of their actual creation. The relative giving here spoken of is what would appear to an earthly spectator, when the intervening veil of clouds would be dissolved by the divine agency, and the celestial luminaries would stand forth in all their dazzling splendor.
Gen 1:18
To rule. – From their lofty eminence they regulate the duration and the business of each period. The whole is inspected and approved as before.
Now let it be remembered that the heavens were created at the absolute beginning of things recorded in the first verse, and that they included all other things except the earth. Hence, according to this document, the sun, moon, and stars were in existence simultaneously with our planet. This gives simplicity and order to the whole narrative. Light comes before us on the first and on the fourth day. Now, as two distinct causes of a common effect would be unphilosophical and unnecessary, we must hold the one cause to have been in existence on these two days. But we have seen that the one cause of the day and of the year is a fixed source of radiating light in the sky, combined with the diurnal and annual motions of the earth. Thus, the recorded preexistence of the celestial orbs is consonant with the presumptions of reason. The making or reconstitution of the atmosphere admits their light so far that the alternations of day and night can be discerned. The making of the lights of heaven, or the display of them in a serene sky by the withdrawal of that opaque canopy of clouds that still enveloped the dome above, is then the work of the fourth day.
All is now plain and intelligible. The heavenly bodies become the lights of the earth, and the distinguishers not only of day and night, but of seasons and years, of times and places. They shed forth their unveiled glories and salutary potencies on the budding, waiting land. How the higher grade of transparency in the aerial region was effected, we cannot tell; and, therefore, we are not prepared to explain why it is accomplished on the fourth day, and not sooner. But from its very position in time, we are led to conclude that the constitution of the expanse, the elevation of a portion of the waters of the deep in the form of vapor, the collection of the sub-aerial water into seas, and the creation of plants out of the reeking soil, must all have had an essential part, both in retarding until the fourth day, and in then bringing about the dispersion of the clouds and the clearing of the atmosphere. Whatever remained of hinderance to the outshining of the sun, moon, and stars on the land in all their native splendor, was on this day removed by the word of divine power.
Now is the approximate cause of day and night made palpable to the observation. Now are the heavenly bodies made to be signs of time and place to the intelligent spectator on the earth, to regulate seasons, days, months, and years, and to be the luminaries of the world. Now, manifestly, the greater light rules the day, as the lesser does the night. The Creator has withdrawn the curtain, and set forth the hitherto undistinguishable brilliants of space for the illumination of the land and the regulation of the changes which diversify its surface. This bright display, even if it could have been effected on the first day with due regard to the forces of nature already in operation, was unnecessary to the unseeing and unmoving world of vegetation, while it was plainly requisite for the seeing, choosing, and moving world of animated nature which was about to be called into existence on the following days.
The terms employed for the objects here brought forward – lights, the great light, the little light, the stars; for the mode of their manifestation, be, make, give; and for the offices they discharge, divide, rule, shine, be for signs, seasons, days, years – exemplify the admirable simplicity of Scripture, and the exact adaptation of its style to the unsophisticated mind of primeval man. We have no longer, indeed, the naming of the various objects, as on the former days; probably because it would no longer be an important source of information for the elucidation of the narrative. But we have more than an equivalent for this in variety of phrase. The several words have been already noticed: it only remains to make some general remarks.
(1) The sacred writer notes only obvious results, such as come before the eye of the observer, and leaves the secondary causes, their modes of operation, and their less obtrusive effects, to scientific inquiry. The progress of observation is from the foreground to the background of nature, from the physical to the metaphysical, and from the objective to the subjective. Among the senses, too, the eye is the most prominent observer in the scenes of the six days. Hence, the lights, they shine, they are for signs and days, which are in the first instance objects of vision. They are given, held or shown forth in the heavens. Even rule has probably the primitive meaning to be over. Starting thus with the visible and the tangible, the Scripture in its successive communications advance with us to the inferential, the intuitive, the moral, the spiritual, the divine.
(2) The sacred writer also touches merely the heads of things in these scenes of creation, without condescending to minute particulars or intending to be exhaustive. Hence, many actual incidents and intricacies of these days are left to the well-regulated imagination and sober judgment of the reader. To instance such omissions, the moon is as much of her time above the horizon during the day as during the night. But she is not then the conspicuous object in the scene, or the full-orbed reflector of the solar beams, as she is during the night. Here the better part is used to mark the whole. The tidal influence of the great lights, in which the moon plays the chief part, is also unnoticed. Hence, we are to expect very many phenomena to be altogether omitted, though interesting and important in themselves, because they do not come within the present scope of the narrative.
(3) The point from which the writer views the scene is never to be forgotten, if we would understand these ancient records. He stands on earth. He uses his eyes as the organ of observation. He knows nothing of the visual angle, of visible as distinguishable from tangible magnitude, of relative in comparison with absolute motion on the grand scale: he speaks the simple language of the eye. Hence, his earth is the meet counterpart of the heavens. His sun and moon are great, and all the stars are a very little thing. Light comes to be, to him, when it reaches the eye. The luminaries are held forth in the heavens, when the mist between them and the eye is dissolved.
(4) Yet, though not trained to scientific thought or speech, this author has the eye of reason open as well as that of sense. It is not with him the science of the tangible, but the philosophy of the intuitive, that reduces things to their proper dimensions. He traces not the secondary cause, but ascends at one glance to the great first cause, the manifest act and audible behest of the Eternal Spirit. This imparts a sacred dignity to his style, and a transcendent grandeur to his conceptions. In the presence of the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, all things terrestrial and celestial are reduced to a common level. Man in intelligent relation with God comes forth as the chief figure on the scene of terrestrial creation. The narrative takes its commanding position as the history of the ways of God with man. The commonest primary facts of ordinary observation, when recorded in this book, assume a supreme interest as the monuments of eternal wisdom and the heralds of the finest and broadest generalizations of a consecrated science. The very words are instinct with a germinant philosophy, and prove themselves adequate to the expression of the loftiest speculations of the eloquent mind.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 1:14-19
Let there be lights in the firmament
The heavenly luminaries
I.
THESE LIGHTS ARE ALL GODS SERVANTS.
II. THE MISTAKES MANS EYE MAKES IN JUDGING THE WORKS OF GOD. We limit the Holy One of Israel. What a small world mans eye would make of Gods creation!
III. THE DEEPEST HUMILITY IS THE TRUEST WISDOM. The most difficult discovery for man to make in the world is to find out his own littleness.
IV. UNCONSCIOUS BENEFITS ARE RENDERED BY ONE. PART OF CREATION TO ANOTHER. Here are seen the wisdom, power, and goodness of the great Creator. Little do these distant stars know what benefits they confer on our small world.
V. THE HIGH ESTIMATE WHICH GOD PUTS ON MAN. He ordains such glorious worlds to serve Him.
VI. THE GREAT SIN OF IDOL WORSHIP. (J. P. Millar.)
The heavenly bodies
I. THE HEAVENLY BODIES WERE CALLED INTO EXISTENCE BY GOD.
1. Their magnitude.
2. Variety.
3. Splendour.
II. THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH THE HEAVENLY BODIES ARE DESIGNED.
1. They were to be for lights. They are unrivalled, should be highly prized, faithfully used, carefully studied, and devotionally received. These lights were regnant.
(1) Their rule is authoritative.
(2) It is extensive.
(3) It is alternate.
(4) It is munificent.
(5) It is benevolent.
(6) It is welcome. A pattern for all monarchs.
2. They were made to divide the day from the night. Thus the heavenly bodies were not only intended to give light, but also to indicate and regulate the time of man, that he might be reminded of the mighty change, and rapid flight of life. But the recurrence of day and night also proclaim the need of exertion and repose; hence they call to work, as well as remind of the grave.
3. To be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. The moon by her four quarters, which last each a little more than seven days, measures for us the weeks and months. The sun, by his apparent path in the sky, measures our seasons and our years, whilst by his daily rotation through the heavens he measures the days and the hours; and this he does so correctly that the best watchmakers in Geneva regulate all their watches by his place at noon; and from the most ancient times men have measured from sun dials the regular movement of the shadow. It has been well said that the progress of a people in civilization may be estimated by their regard for time–their care in measuring and valuing it. Our time is a loan. We ought to use it as faithful stewards.
III. A FEW DEDUCTIONS FROM THIS SUBJECT.
1. The greatness and majesty of God. How terrible must be the Creator of the sun. How tranquil must be that Being who has given light to the moon. One glance into the heavens is enough to overawe man with a sense of the Divine majesty.
2. The humility that should characterize the soul of mall. When I consider the heavens, the work of Thine hand, etc. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Reflections on the sun
In the sun we have the most worthy emblem that the visible universe presents of Him, who, with the word of His power, kindled up its glories, and with the strength of His right hand established it in the heavens. And the analogies between the sun of nature and the Sun of Righteousness are both striking and instructive.
1. In the opening scene of the fourth day we have a fine image of the advent of the Redeemer of men. On that morning the sun burst forth in its unveiled glories, irradiating the new-made earth, and revealing upon its face scenes of loveliness and grandeur which could neither be seen nor known before. So arose the Sun of Righteousness upon the world of mankind, an object as wonderful and as new in His person, and character, and office, as the great orb of day when it first came forth to run the circuit of the heavens–pouring a flood of light from above upon benighted humanity, and opening up to them views of truth, happiness, and immortality, such as the world had never known or heard before; and, like the solar light, while revealing all else, remaining Himself a glorious mystery.
2. As the natural sun is the centre of the system of creation, so the Sun of Righteousness is the vital centre of revealed truth and religion.
3. As the sun shines by his own light, so the Son of God poured the light of truth upon men from the fountain of His own mind. The instructions He imparted were neither derived from tradition nor borrowed from philosophy. He was a self-luminous and Divine Orb, rising upon the darkness of the world, shedding new light, and revealing new truths to bewildered humanity.
4. As in the pure sunbeam we have combined all the colours of the rainbow in their due proportions, so in Christ we find all virtues and graces harmoniously blended in one perfect character. In Him we behold every principle, every affection, every impulse, in perfect equipoise.
5. As the sunlight, on whatever foulness or corruption it may fall, remains uncontaminated, so the Son of Man, amid all the temptations, guilt, and depravity of earth, continued pure and unspotted.
6. As the light of the sun is unlimited and inexhaustible, so also are the healing and saving beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
7. As the suns law of gravitation extends over the whole solar system, so the law of love, proceeding from the Sun of Righteousness, extends its authority over the whole family of man. Gravitation exercises its dominion alike over the mightiest planet and the minutest asteroid; so the Divine law of love, with equal hand, imposes its obligations upon kings, and peasants, and beggars; its authority is no less binding in courts and cabinets than in churches and families, its voice is to be heeded no less by the diplomatist sent to foreign realms, than by the preacher who remains among his flock at home. To all it speaks alike, in the name and in the words of its Divine original, Love one another, as I have loved you. (H. W. Morris, D. D.)
The great time keeper
What are the benefits God intends to secure for us, by the arrangements here made? By this means, He–
I. Compels men, as far as they can be compelled, to reckon their time, or number their days aright.
II. Calls us often to a reckoning with ourselves under the most impressive influences.
III. Invites us to new purposes of future life.
IV. Teaches us, in the most impressive manner possible, the value of time.
V. Impresses upon us, as a truth of practical moment, that everything must be done in its time.
VI. Reminds us both of our rapid transit here and immortality hereafter.
VII. Teaches us that there is a changeless empire of being, which theestablished round of seasons and years, and the mechanical order of heaven itself suggests and confirms. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Light
I. ITS SPEED! Have you any idea of it? The mind becomes confused when we try to imagine it. For instance, whence, think you, came the bright rays which this very morning lighted up your room with their dazzling brightness? Ah! they had travelled very far before they reached you, even all the distance between the sun and the earth. If a man could take the same journey, travelling at the rate of ninety-five miles a day, he would take a million of days, or nearly three thousand years to do it. And yet, how long do you think those bright rays have been in travelling this morning from the sun to your window? Only eight minutes and thirteen seconds.
II. But if you wonder at the speed of light, what will you say when you think of its ABUNDANCE? This is, if possible, still more wonderful. Who can even imagine the immense and immeasurable torrents of light which from age to age have gushed forth from the sun in every direction, constantly filling with their ceaseless waves the whole extent of planetary space? I do not speak thoughtlessly when I tell you of the ceaseless flow of these waves of light, for they gush forth from the sun by night as well as by day. Some young people fancy that when it is night with us, it is then night in the universe; but this is a childish fancy, for, on the contrary, there is perpetual day in the wide universe of space.
III. ITS BRILLIANT COLOURS. The rays of light which come to us directly from the sun, are, you know, of a dazzling white. If you shut carefully all the shutters in your room, so as to make it perfectly dark, and if you allow a single ray of light to enter through a small hole, you will see it mark on the opposite wall a beautiful circle of white light. But do you know what would happen to this ray if you were to place before the hole a prism of finely polished glass? When the great Newton tried this experiment for the first time, he tells us that he started with joy. The sight that he saw, and that you would see, would be this: The prism would decompose and divide the beautiful white ray into seven rays, still more beautiful, of bright-coloured light, which would paint themselves each separately on the wall, in the following order: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. These brilliant-coloured rays, of which each white ray is made up, are reflected in various ways, according to the nature and composition of different bodies, and thus they give their varied and manifold tints to all objects in nature. (Professor Gaussen.)
The clock of time
It is beautiful to observe how the motions of the stars of heaven in their orbits are represented by the flowers of earth in their opening and closing, in their blossoming and fading. The clock of time has two faces: the one above, on which the hours are marked by the rising and setting of the orbs of heaven; the other below, on which the hours are marked by the blossoming and the fading, the opening and the closing of the flowers. The one exactly corresponds with the other. The movements of the living creatures depend upon the movements of the lifeless stars. The daisy follows with its golden eye the path of the sun through the sky, opens its blossom when he rises, and closes it when he sets. Thus should it be with our souls. There should be a similar harmony between them and the motions of the heavenly bodies which God has set in the firmament for signs to us. Our spiritual life should progress with their revolutions; should keep time with the music of the spheres; our thoughts should be widened with the process of the suns. This is the true astrology. And as the daisy follows the sun all day to the west with its open eye, and acknowledges no other light that falls upon it–lamplight, moonlight, or starlight–remaining closed under them all, except under the light of the sun; so should we follow the Sun of Righteousness whithersoever He goeth, and say with the Psalmist, Whom have we in the heavens but Thee; and there is none upon the earth whom we desire besides Thee. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The clock of the universe
It was the will of God that man should be able to measure and reckon time, that he might learn its value and regulate its employment of it. He therefore placed in the heavens a magnificent and perfect clock, which tells the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the seasons, and the years–a clock which no one ever winds up, but which yet goes constantly, and never goes wrong. The dial plate of this clock is the blue vault of heaven over our heads–a vault spangled with stars at night, brilliant with light by day–a vault whose edges, rounded like the edge of a watch, rest on the horizon of our mountains here at Geneva, while far out at sea the whole great dial plate may be seen, the dome of the sky seeming to rest on the wide circle of the ocean. And what, think you, are the hands of this magnificent dial plate? God has placed on it two, the greater and the lesser. Both are ever shining, both are ever moving. They are never either too early or too late. The greater is the great light which rules the day, and which, while it seems to turn above our heads from east to west across the celestial vault, rising each morning over the Alps, and setting each evening over the Jura, seems to move at the same time on the great dial plate of the heavens in a contrary direction, that is to say, from the west to the east, or from the Jura towards the Alps, advancing every day the length of twice its own breadth. And the lesser hand of the clock is the lesser light which rules the night, which progresses also in the same direction with the sun, but twelve times faster, advancing each day from twenty-four to twenty-rive times its own breadth, and thus turning round the dial plate in a single month. Thus, for example, if you look this evening at the moon as she sets behind the Jura, and if you carefully observe what stars are hidden behind her disk, tomorrow you will see her again set behind the same mountain, but three-quarters of an hour later, because she has in the meantime moved towards the east twenty-four times her own breadth; and then she will cover stars much nearer the Alps, so that twenty-four moons might be placed in the sky between the place that she will occupy tomorrow and the one she occupies today. (Prof. Gaussen.)
No note of time in the dark
When the famous Baron de Trenck came out of his dark dungeon in Magdeburg, where he could not distinguish night from day, and in which the King of Prussia had kept him imprisoned for ten years, he imagined that he had been in it for a much shorter period, because he had no means of marking how the time had passed, and he had seen no new events, and had had even few thoughts: his astonishment was extreme when he was told how many years had thus passed away like a painful dream. (Prof. Gaussen.)
Time should be valued
The savages of North America, after their fatiguing hunting parties, and warlike expeditions, pass whole weeks and months in amusement and repose, without once thinking that they are wasting or losing anything that is valuable. It has been well said that the progress of a people in civilization may be estimated by their regard for time–their care in measuring and valuing it. If that be true even of a half-savage people, how much more must it be true of a Christian nation! Ah, how much ought a Christian to value his time, if he means to be a faithful steward, since his hours belong not to himself, but to his gracious Master, who has redeemed him at so great a price; and since he knows that he must give an account of it at last. (Prof. Gaussen.)
The moon, an emblem of the Church
1. As the moon, though widely separated from the earth, is attached to it by the invisible bonds of gravitation, and ordained to travel with it in its appointed course round the sun–so the Church militant, though distinct from the world, is connected with it by many ties, and appointed to pursue her pilgrimage along with it to eternity.
2. As the moon receives all her natural light from the sun, so the Church receives all her spiritual light from the Sun of Righteousness.
3. As the moon has been appointed to reflect the light she receives upon the earth to relieve her darkness, to guide the lone mariner on the deep, to lead the belated traveller in his path, and to cheer the shepherd keeping watch over his flock by night–so the Church has been ordained to reflect her heavenly light for the guidance of benighted and bewildered humanity around her. The design of her establishment, like that of the moon, is to give light upon the earth.
4. As the moon remains not stationary in the heavens over some favoured spot, but according to the law of her creation, pursues her career around the globe to cheer and enlighten its every habitable region–so the Church has been organized and commanded to carry the light of the gospel into all the world, and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to every creature.
5. As the moon, while shining in her usual brightness, moves forward unnoticed, but when under an eclipse has the gaze and remarks of half the earths population–so the Church while walking in light and love, enlists but little of the worlds attention; but let her honour pass under a cloud, or her purity be tarnished by the misconduct of but a member, and the eyes of all are fixed upon her, and her failing repeated by every tongue. Let the Israel of God take heed to their ways. (H. W. Morris, D. D.)
God calling the luminaries into existence
1. The call was omnipotent. Man could not have kindled the great lights of the universe.
2. The call was wise. The idea of the midnight sky, as now beheld by us, could never have originated in a finite mind. The thought was above the mental life of seraphs. It was the outcome of an infinite intelligence. And nowhere throughout the external universe do we see the wisdom of God as in the complicated arrangement, continual motions, and yet easily working and harmony of the heavenly bodies. There is no confusion. They need no readjustment.
3. The call was benevolent. The sun is one of the most kindly gifts of God to the world; it makes the home of man a thing of beauty. Also the light of the moon is welcome to multitudes who have to wend their way by land or sea, amid the stillness of night, to some far-off destination.
4. The call was typal. The same Being who has placed so many lights in the heavens can also suspend within the firmament of the soul the lights of truth, hope, and immortality. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
God has placed the lights above us
1. As ornaments of His throne.
2. To show forth His majesty.
3. That they may the more conveniently give their light to all parts of the world.
4. To manifest that light comes from heaven, from the Father of lights.
5. The heavens are most agreeable to the nature of these lights.
6. By their moving above the world at so great a distance, they help to discover the vast circuit of the heavens. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The heavenly bodies
1. Not to honour them as gods.
2. To honour God in and by them (Psa 8:1; Timothy 6:16; Isa 6:2). (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The place and use of creatures are assigned unto them by God
1. That He may manifest His sovereignty.
2. That He may establish a settled order amongst the creatures.
3. Let all men abide in their sphere and calling.
(1) To testify their obedience to the will of God.
(2) As God knows what is best for us.
(3) As assured that God will prosper all who fulfil His purpose concerning them. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The stars and the spiritual life
Not for secular purposes alone are the divisions of time marked out for us by the heavenly bodies; they have a still higher and more important purpose to serve in connection with our spiritual life.
I. The lights which God hath set in the firmament BREAK UP THE MONOTONY OF LIFE. Life is not a continuous drudgery, a going on wearily in a perpetual straight line; but a constant ending and beginning. We do not see all the road of life before us; the bends of its clays and months and years hide the future from our view, and allure us on with new hopes, until at last we come without fatigue to the end of the journey.
II. The lights which God hath set in the firmament DIVIDE OUR LIFE INTO SEPARATE AND MANAGEABLE PORTIONS. Each day brings its own work, and its own rest.
III. The lights which God hath set in the firmament ENABLE US TO REDEEM THE TIME; to retrieve the misspent past by the right improvement of the present. Each day is a miniature of the whole of life and of all the seasons of the year. Morning answers to spring; midday to summer; afternoon to autumn; evening to winter. We are children in the morning, with fresh feelings and hopes; grown-up men and women, with sober and sad experiences, at noon; aged persons, with whom the possibilities of life are over, in the afternoon and night.
IV. The lights which God hath set in the firmament ENABLE US TO SET OUT ON A NEW COURSE FROM SOME MARKED AND MEMORABLE POINT. God is giving to us, with every new horizon of life, a sense of recovered freedom, separating us from past painful experiences, and enabling us to begin a new course of life on a higher plane. And with this division of time by the orbs of heaven–this arrangement of days and months and years, with their perpetually recurring new opportunities of living no more unto ourselves but unto God,–coincide the nature and design of the blessed gospel, whose unique peculiarity is, that it is the cancelling of debts that could never be paid, the assurance that our relations to God are entirely changed, and that all old things are passed away, and all things become new. It is this association that gives such importance to anniversaries, birthdays, and new years days-seasons considered peculiarly auspicious for commencing life afresh, and which are generally taken advantage of to form new resolutions. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Lessons of the firmament
I. LET US LOOK AT THE SUN, AS AN EMBLEM OF GOD HIMSELF. The king of the hosts of heaven, the centre of revolving orbs, the source of light and heat.
II. THE MOON, SHINNING WITH BORROWED LIGHT, MAY REPRESENT THE CHURCH, which, like a city set on a hill, only reflects the light that falls on it. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines.
III. THE STARS MAY REPRESENT CONSPICUOUS CHARACTERS. The brightest star and best is the Star of Bethlehem, which ushered in Christ.
The star of the East is the daystar which marks our bright, guiding light, Jesus Christ. He is the centre of attraction to all. (J. B. Smith, D. D.)
The fourth day
The fourth days work is lights set in heaven: mighty work: more glorious far than the light upon the first day. Then the light was undefined. Now lights are come; one with warmth; one cold but shining: each defined; the one direct, the other reflex; but both to rule and mightily affect, not the earth only, but even the wide waters: giving another cheek, too, to darkness, not only taking from it day, but invading and conquering it by the moon and stars in its own domain of night. And so after that the seas of lust are bounded, and the fruits of righteousness begin to grow and bud, a sun, a mighty light is kindled in our heaven,–Christ dwells there, Gods eternal word and wisdom,–no longer undefined, but with mighty warmth and power, making the whole creation to bud and spring heavenward: while as a handmaid, another light, of faith, grows bright within,–our inward moon, truth received on testimony, the Churchs light; for as men say, Christ is the sun, the Church the moon, so is faith our moon within to rule the night. Of these two, the lesser light must have appeared the first; for each day grew and was measured from the evening to the morning; just as faith, with borrowed light, in every soul still precedes the direct beams of this light or Word within. Now both shine to pour down light. Oft would darkness fall, if our moon of faith rose not to rule the night. Yet fair as she is, she but reminds us of present night, making us sigh for the day star and the perfect day. These lights are for signs and for seasons and for years, and to rule over the day and over the night also. For signs–first, of what we are. We have thought this earth is fixed: but sun and moon show that we are but wanderers here. We have supposed ourselves the centre; that it is the sun that moves. The lights will teach us in due time that he is steadfast: it is we who journey on. Again, these lights are for a sign how we stand, and where we are; by our relative positions toward them showing us, if we will learn, our real situation. For the moon is new and feeble, when, between us and the sun, it trenches on his place, and sets at eventide. So is our faith: put in Christs place, it must be weak: dark will be our night: we shall move on unillumined. Not so when in her place, not in His, but over against Him, our moon of faith rises at even, as our Sun withdraws Himself. Now she trenches not upon Him; therefore she is full of light, making the midnight almost as the noon-day. Signs they are, too, to the man, when at length he walks upon the earth,–the image of God, which after fruits and lights is formed in us,–to guide him through the wastes within the creature, as he seeks to know its lengths and breadths that he may subdue it all. The lights are for seasons also; to give healthful alternations of cold and heat, and light and darkness. Sharp winters with their frosts, chill and deadness in our affections, and the hours of darkness which recur to dim our understandings, are not unmixed evil. Ceaseless summer would wear us out: therefore the lights are for seasons, measuring out warmth and light as we can profit by it. So faith wanes and waxes, and Christ is seen and hid, each change making the creature learn its own dependence; forcing it to feel, that, though blessed, it is a creature, all whose springs of life and joy are not its own. These lights, too, are to rule over the day and over the night. To rule the creature, much more to rule such gifts as the day, wrought by God Himself in it, as yet has been unknown. Even to bound the natural darkness hitherto has seemed high attainment. Now we learn that the precious gifts, which God vouchsafes, need ruling; an earnest this of that which comes more fully on the sixth day. A sun to rule the day leads to the man to have dominion, set to rule, not the day only, but every creature. It is no slight step, when Gods aim, hitherto unknown, is learnt; that in His work this gift is for this, that for the other purpose; when it is felt that the best gifts may be misused and wasted; that they need governing, and may and must be ruled. (A. Jukes.)
The heavenly bodies emblematic of the spiritual
It is interesting to notice the many applications made in Scripture of the heavenly bodies as emblems of the spiritual.
1. God is a Sun and Shield (Psa 84:11).
2. Christ is the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2); the Light of the Joh 8:12); the Morning Star (Rev 2:16); the dispeller of the darkness (2Sa 23:4).
3. The Church is fair as the moon (Son 6:10); clear as the Son 6:10): the moon under her feet (Rev 12:1); crowned with stars; the saints are to shine as the stars (Dan 12:3); with different glories (1Co 15:41); as the sun in his Jdg 5:31); as the sun in the kingdom of their Father Mat 13:43).
4. Christs ministers are likened to stars (Rev 1:16-20).
5. Apostates are likened to wandering stars (Jud 1:13).
6. It was a star that lighted the wise men (Mat 2:2).
7. At the coming crisis of earths history, all these heavenly orbs are to be shaken and darkened for a season (Mar 13:25). (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Lights
I. THE LIGHTS OF ANGELS, OF MEN, AND OF ANIMALS. The angels behold the face of God and watch His plans from age to age. Compared with us, they live in the blaze of day: we have the lesser light of human reason, which relieves, but does not banish, the night. There are around us other conscious creatures, endowed with still feebler powers, who grope in the dim starlight of animal existence. God is the Father of all lights.
II. THE LIGHTS OF HEATHENISM, JUDAISM, AND CHRISTIANITY. What a glimmering starlight of religious knowledge is that of the heathen millions! How partial and imperfect was the knowledge that even the Jews possessed! At last the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in His wings. The world has not exhausted, it has scarcely touched, the wealth of spiritual light and life in Him.
III. THE LIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD, MANHOOD, AND THE HEAVENLY STATE. The faint gleam of light in childhood develops into the stronger light of manhood, but even that does not banish the night. In Thy light we shall see light. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.)
Genesis of the luminaries
I. EXPLANATION OF THE PASSAGE.
1. Twin triads of the creative week. This venerable creation archive evidently divides into two great eras, each era consisting of three days; each day of the first era having a corresponding day in the second era. Thus, to the chemical light of the first day correspond the sidereal lights of the fourth day. To the terrestrial individualization of the second day corresponds the vital individualization of the fifth day. To the genesis of the lands and of the plants on the third day corresponds the genesis of the mammals and of man on the sixth day. Thus, the first era of the triad was an era of prophecy; the second era of the triad an era of fulfilment.
2. The two-fold difficulty.
(1) Was not light already existing? The answer is easy. Light may exist independently of the sun. There is, e.g., the light of phosphorescence, the light of electricity, the light of incandescence, the light of chemism, atom clashing with atom, and discharging light at every collision.
(2) The earth, you remind me, is a constituent part of the solar system; as such, it necessitates from the beginning the contemporaneous existence of the sun, to hold the solar system in balance, and to keep earth itself in its orbit; but if the sun was not created till the fourth day, what becomes of the astronomic teaching that earth has been from the beginning an integrant part of the solar system? Again the answer is easy. Observe, first, that our passage does not assert that God created–that is to say, caused to come into existence for the first time–sun, moon, and stars, on the fourth day. All that our passage asserts in this matter is this: God on the fourth day for the first time caused sun, moon, and stars to become visible. Remember that light is not an essential, constituent part of the sun. For aught we know, the sun itself may be a dark body, as indeed the solar spots have led some astronomers to think. Moreover, surveying the sun as the centre of gravitation for the planetary system, the sun can fulfil its gravitating office equally well whether luminous or not.
3. Panorama of the emerging luminaries. There is still light on the newly-verdured mountain and mead. But it is a strange, weird light; perhaps like that of the zodiacal gleam, or the dying photosphere, or perhaps like the iris-hued, lambent shimmer of the northern aurora. Suddenly the goldening gateways of the East open, and, lo, a dazzling orb, henceforth the lord of day, strides forth from his cloud pavilion as a bridegroom from his chamber, and rejoices to run his course as a giant his race; upward and upward he royally mounts; downward and downward he royally bows: as he nears the goal of his resplendent march, lo, the blushing portals of the West open to receive him: and lo, again, his gentle consort, pale empress of the night, sweeps forth in silver sheen, while around her planet and comet, Arcturus and Mazzaroth, Orion and Pleiades, hold glittering court.
4. Purpose of the luminaries.
(1) To bring about alternations of light and darkness. Man, as at present constituted, must have recurrent periods of sleep. And that we may sleep and wake at healthful intervals, how mercifully the Framer of our bodies and Father of our spirits has divided the day from the night; at every sunset dropping the curtains of His evening, and so inviting to repose; at every sunrise lifting the curtains of His morning, and so inviting to labour! Ah, it is one of the perhaps inevitable regresses of civilization that it tends to reverse our Divine Fathers method, bidding us close our shutters, that we may sleep during His sunshine, and light our little candles and gas jets, that we may work during His night.
(2) To be for signs, seasons, days, years.
(3) To give light on the earth.
II. MORAL MEANING OF THE STORY.
1. The luminaries are guides to Jesus Christ. The Creator has expressly bidden us accept His ordinances of the heavenly bodies as the pledge of His covenant of grace in the Divine Son (Jer 31:35; Jer 33:20-26; Psa 89:35-37).
2. Jesus Christ and His Church and His truths are the true luminaries, shining in the true heavens. Jesus Christ Himself is the true Greater Light, ruling the day as the Sun of Righteousness, coming out of the chamber of His eternity as the King of the worlds, going forth from the ends of the heavens, circling unto the ends thereof, and nothing is hidden from His heat Psa 19:5-6). The Church of Jesus Christ–Immanuels real, spiritual Church, the aggregate of saintly characters–is the true lesser light: ruling the night as the moon of His grace, shining because He shines upon her, silvering the pathway of this worlds benighted travellers. The truths of Jesus Christ–the truths which He came to disclose–are the true stars of heaven, from age to age sparkling on His brow as His many-jewelled diadem. And Jesus Christ and His Church and His truths are the worlds true regulators–serving for its signs and its seasons, its days and its years. Let me cite a single instance. Why do not the worlds scholars still measure time from the Greek Olympiads? Why do not the worlds kings still reckon their annals from the Year of Rome? Why do not the worlds scientists date their era from some memorable transit or occultation? Ah, Jesus Christ and His Church and His truth are too much for them. And so they all, even the most infidel, bow in unconscious homage before the Babe of Bethlehem, reckoning their era from that manger birth, dating their correspondence, their legislations, their discoveries, their exploits, with the august words: Anno Domini. Yes, Christianity is humanitys true meridian, dictating its measures of time and space, its calendars and eras, its latitudes and longitudes. All history, if we did but know it, is times great ecliptic around the eternal Son of God. Happy the hour, brother, when the fourth day dawns on thy soul, and thou takest thy place in the moral heavens, henceforth to shine and rule as one of earths luminaries!
2. A personal entreaty. Take heed, O friend, lest the day come when the stars, now fighting in their courses for thee, shall fight against thee Jdg 5:20). In that coming day of sack-clothed sun and crimsoned moon and falling stars, one thing shall survive the dissolving heavens and melting elements: It is the blood-bought Church of the living God. (G. D. Boardman.)
Time
There are few words much oftener in our mouths than that short but most important word, time. In one sense, the thought of it seems to mingle itself with almost everything which we do. It is the long measure of our labour, expectation, and pain; it is the scanty measure of our rest and joy. Its shortness or its length are continually given as our reason for doing, or leaving undone, the various works which concern our station, our calling, our family, our souls. What present time is; which it is most difficult to conceive, if we try it by more exact thought than we commonly bestow on it; for even as we try to catch it, though but in idea, it slips by us. Subdivide ore measure as we may, we never actually reach it. It was future, it is past; it is the meeting point of these two, and itself, it seems, is not. And so, again, whether there is really any future time; whether it can exist, except in our idea, before it is. Or whether there can be any past time; what that can be which is no more; whose track of light has vanished from us in the darkness; which is as a shadow that swept by us, and is gone. All this is full of wonder, and it may become, in many ways, most useful matter of reflection to those who can bear to look calmly into the depths of their being. It may lead us to remember how much of what is round us here is, after all, seeming and unreal, and so force us from our too ready commerce with visible shadows into communion with invisible realities. It may show us how continually we are mocked in the regions of the senses and the understanding, and so drive us for certainty and truth to the higher gifts of redeemed reason and fellowship with God. It may abate the pride of argument on spiritual things, and teach us to take more humbly what has been revealed. And this should give us higher notions of that eternity towards which we are ever drifting on. We are apt to think of it as being merely prolonged time. But the true idea of eternity is not prolonged time, but time abolished. To enter on eternity is to pass out of the succession of time into this everlasting present. And this suggests to us the two remarkable characters, which together make up the best account we can give of time. The one–how completely, except in its issue, it passes from us: the other–how entirely, in that issue, it ever abides with us. In itself how completely does it pass away. Past time, with all its expectations, pains, and pleasures, how it is gone from us! The pleasures and the pains of childhood, of youth, nay, even of the last year, where are they? Every action has tended more to strengthen the capricious tyranny of our self-will, or to bring us further under the blessed liberty of Christs law. We are the sum of all this past time. It was the measure of our opportunities, of our growth. We are the result of all these minutes. And if we thus look on past time, how, at this break in our lives, should we look on to the future? Surely with calm trust, and with resolutions of increased earnestness. Let our thanksgivings grow into the one, our humiliation change into the other. If time is the opportunity and measure of this growth, what a work have we to perform in it! How should we strive to store it full with deeds which may indeed abide! (Bishop S. Wilberforce.)
The sun
The sun is almost the heart and brain of the earth. It is the regulator of its motions, from the orbital movement in space, to the flow of its currents in the sea and air, the silent rise of vapours that fly with the winds to become the source of rivers over the land; and the still more profound action in the living growth of the plant and animal. It is no creator of life; but through its outflowing light, heat, and attraction, it keeps the whole world in living activity, doing vastly more than simply turning off days and seasons. Without the direct sunlight there may be growth, as many productions of the sea and shady grounds prove. But were the suns face perpetually veiled, far the greater part of living beings would dwindle and die. Many chemical actions in the laboratory are suspended by excluding light; and in the exquisite chemistry of living beings this effect is everywhere marked: even the plants that happen to grow beneath the shade of a small tree or hedge in a garden evince, by their dwarfed size and unproductiveness, the power of the suns rays, and the necessity of this orb to the organic period of the earths history. (Bib. Sacra.)
God more glorious than the sun
We are told that the late Dr. Livingstone of America, and Louis Bonaparte, ex-king of Holland, happened once to be fellow passengers, with many others, on board one of the North River steamboats. As the doctor was walking the deck in the morning, and gazing at the refulgence of the rising sun, which appeared to him unusually attractive, he passed near the distinguished stranger, and, stopping for a moment, accosted him thus: How glorious, sir, is that object! pointing gracefully with his hand to the sun. The ex-king assenting, he immediately added, And how much more glorious, sir, must be its Maker, the Sun of Righteousness! A gentleman who overheard this short incidental conversation, being acquainted with both personages, now introduced them to each other, and a few more remarks were interchanged. Shortly after, the doctor again turned to the ex-king, and, With that air of polished complaisance for which he was remarkable, invited him first, and then the rest of the company, to attend a morning prayer. It is scarcely necessary to add that the invitation was promptly complied with.
The luminaries
The use of these bodies is said to be not only for dividing the day from the night, but for signs and seasons, and days and years. They ordinarily afford signs of weather to the husbandman; and prior to the discovery of the use of the loadstone, were of great importance to the mariner. They appear also on some extraordinary occasions to have been premonitory to the world. Previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, our Lord foretold that there should be great earthquakes in divers places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights, and great signs from heaven. And it is said by Josephus, that a comet like a flaming sword was seen for a long time over that devoted city, a little before its destruction by the Romans. Heathen astrologers made gods of these creatures, and filled the minds of men with chimerical fears concerning them. Against these God warns His people; saying, Be ye not dismayed at the signs of heaven. This, however, does not prove but that He may sometimes make use of them. Modern astronomers, by accounting for various phenomena, would deny their being signs of anything: but to avoid the superstitions of heathenism, there is no necessity for our running into atheism. The heavenly bodies are also said to be for seasons, as winter and summer, day and night. We have no other standard for the measuring of time. The grateful vicissitudes also which attend them are expressive of the goodness of God. If it were always day or night, summer or winter, our enjoyments would be unspeakably diminished. Well is it said at every pause, And God saw that it was good! David improved this subject to a religious purpose. He considered day unto day as uttering speech, and night unto night as showing knowledge. Every night we retire we are reminded of death, and every morning we arise of the resurrection. In beholding the sun also, which as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, we see every day a glorious example of the steady and progressive path of the just, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (A. Fuller.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. And God said, Let there be lights, c.] One principal office of these was to divide between day and night. When night is considered a state of comparative darkness, how can lights divide or distinguish it? The answer is easy: The sun is the monarch of the day, which is the state of light the moon, of the night, the state of darkness. The rays of the sun, falling on the atmosphere, are refracted and diffused over the whole of that hemisphere of the earth immediately under his orb; while those rays of that vast luminary which, because of the earth’s smallness in comparison of the sun, are diffused on all sides beyond the earth, falling on the opaque disc of the moon, are reflected back upon what may be called the lower hemisphere, or that part of the earth which is opposite to the part which is illuminated by the sun: and as the earth completes a revolution on its own axis in about twenty-four hours, consequently each hemisphere has alternate day and night. But as the solar light reflected from the face of the moon is computed to be 50,000 times less in intensity and effect than the light of the sun as it comes directly from himself to our earth, (for light decreases in its intensity as the distance it travels from the sun increases,) therefore a sufficient distinction is made between day and night, or light and darkness, notwithstanding each is ruled and determined by one of these two great lights; the moon ruling the night, i.e., reflecting from her own surface back on the earth the rays of light which she receives from the sun. Thus both hemispheres are to a certain degree illuminated: the one, on which the sun shines, completely so; this is day: the other, on which the sun’s light is reflected by the moon, partially; this is night. It is true that both the planets and fixed stars afford a considerable portion of light during the night, yet they cannot be said to rule or to predominate by their light, because their rays are quite lost in the superior splendour of the moon’s light.
And let them be for signs] leothoth. Let them ever be considered as continual tokens of God’s tender care for man, and as standing proofs of his continual miraculous interference; for so the word oth is often used. And is it not the almighty energy of God that upholds them in being? The sun and moon also serve as signs of the different changes which take place in the atmosphere, and which are so essential for all purposes of agriculture, commerce, c.
For seasons] moadim For the determination of the times on which the sacred festivals should be held. In this sense the word frequently occurs; and it was right that at the very opening of his revelation God should inform man that there were certain festivals which should be annually celebrated to his glory. Some think we should understand the original word as signifying months, for which purpose we know the moon essentially serves through all the revolutions of time.
For days] Both the hours of the day and night, as well as the different lengths of the days and nights, are distinguished by the longer and shorter spaces of time the sun is above or below the horizon.
And years.] That is, those grand divisions of time by which all succession in the vast lapse of duration is distinguished. This refers principally to a complete revolution of the earth round the sun, which is accomplished in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds; for though the revolution is that of the earth, yet it cannot be determined but by the heavenly bodies.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Let there be lights; to wit, more glorious lights than that created the first day, which probably was now condensed and reduced into these lights; which are higher for place, more illustrious for light, and more powerful for influence, than that was. Note here, that herbs and trees were created before the sun, whose influence now is necessary for their production, to show that God doth not depend upon the means or upon the help of the creatures in his operations.
The day, i.e. the artificial day, reaching from sun-rising to sunsetting.
Let them be for signs; for the designation and distincton of times, as months, weeks, &c.; as also for the signification of the quality of the weather or season, by the manner of their rising and setting, Mat 16:2; by their eclipses, conjunctions, &c. And for the discovery of supernatural and miraculous effects; of which see Jos 10:13; Isa 38:8; Luk 21:25-26; Act 2:19-20.
And for seasons, and for days, and years:
1. By their motions and influences to produce and distinguish the four seasons of the year, mentioned Gen 8:22. And to show as well the fit times and seasons for sowing, planting, reaping, navigation, &c., as for the observation of set and solemn feasts, or other times for the ordering of ecclesiastical or civil affairs.
2. By their diurnal and swift motion to make the days, and by their nearer approaches to us, or further distances from us, to make the days or nights either longer, or shorter, or equal. He speaks here of natural days, consisting of twenty-four hours.
3. By their annual and slower motion to make years.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. let there be lights in thefirmamentThe atmosphere being completely purified, the sun,moon, and stars were for the first time unveiled in all their gloryin the cloudless sky; and they are described as “in thefirmament” which to the eye they appear to be, though we knowthey are really at vast distances from it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven,…. In the upper part of it, commonly called the starry heaven: some writers, both Jewish and Christian, and even modern astronomers, understand this only of the appearance of them, and not of the formation of them; they suppose they were made on the first day, but did not appear or shine out so clearly and visibly as now on the fourth day: but it seems rather, that the body of fire and light produced on the first day was now distributed and formed into several luminous bodies of sun, moon, and stars, for these were
, “from light”; lights produced from that light, or made out of it; or were instruments of communicating and letting down that light upon the earth h, which was collected and put together in them, especially in the sun: and the uses of them were
to divide the day from the night; which is the peculiar use of the sun, which by its appearance and continuance makes the day, and by withdrawing itself, or not appearing for a certain time, makes the night; as the light by its circular motion did for the first three days, or the diurnal motion of the earth on its axis, then and now:
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; for “signs” of good and bad weather; for the times of ploughing, sowing, reaping, c. and for the “seasons” of summer and winter, spring and autumn for “days” by a circular motion for the space of twenty four hours; and for “years” by annual motion for the space of three hundred sixty five days and odd hours. The Targum of Jonathan is,
“and let them be for signs and the times of the feasts, and to reckon with them the number of days, and, sanctify the beginnings of the months, and the beginnings of the years, and the intercalations of months and years, the revolutions of the sun, and the new moons, and cycles.”
And so Jarchi interprets “seasons” of the solemn festivals, that would hereafter be commanded the children of Israel; but those uses were not for a certain people, and for a certain time, but for all mankind, as long as the world should stand.
h “significat lucem illam primam per sese lucentem”;
“vero corpus per quod lux illa prima splendorem suum demittit”. Nachmanides, apud Fagium in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Fourth Day. – After the earth had been clothed with vegetation, and fitted to be the abode of living beings, there were created on the fourth day the sun, moon, and stars, heavenly bodies in which the elementary light was concentrated, in order that its influence upon the earthly globe might be sufficiently modified and regulated for living beings to exist and thrive beneath its rays, in the water, in the air, and upon the dry land. At the creative word of God the bodies of light came into existence in the firmament, as lamps. On , the singular of the predicate before the plural of the subject, in Gen 1:14; Gen 5:23; Gen 9:29, etc., vid., Gesenius, Heb. Gr. 147. , bodies of light, light-bearers, then lamps. These bodies of light received a threefold appointment: (1) They were “ to divide between the day and the night,” of, according to Gen 1:18, between the light and the darkness, in other words, to regulate from that time forward the difference, which had existed ever since the creation of light, between the night and the day. (2) They were to be (or serve: after an imperative has the force of a command) – ( a) for signs (sc., for the earth), partly as portents of extraordinary events (Mat 2:2; Luk 21:25) and divine judgments (Joe 2:30; Jer 10:2; Mat 24:29), partly as showing the different quarters of the heavens, and as prognosticating the changes in the weather; – ( b) for seasons, or for fixed, definite times ( , from to fix, establish), – not for festal seasons merely, but “to regulate definite points and periods of time, by virtue of their periodical influence upon agriculture, navigation, and other human occupations, as well as upon the course of human, animal, and vegetable life (e.g., the breeding time of animals, and the migrations of birds, Jer 8:7, etc.); – ( c) for days and years, i.e., for the division and calculation of days and years. The grammatical construction will not allow the clause to be rendered as a Hendiadys, viz., “as signs for definite times and for days and years,” or as signs both for the times and also for days and years. (3) They were to serve as lamps upon the earth, i.e., to pour out their light, which is indispensable to the growth and health of every creature. That this, the primary object of the lights, should be mentioned last, is correctly explained by Delitzsch: “From the astrological and chronological utility of the heavenly bodies, the record ascends to their universal utility which arises from the necessity of light for the growth and continuance of everything earthly.” This applies especially to the two great lights which were created by God and placed in the firmament; the greater to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night. “ The great ” and “ the small ” in correlative clauses are to be understood as used comparatively (cf. Gesenius, 119, 1). That the sun and moon were intended, was too obvious to need to be specially mentioned. It might appear strange, however, that these lights should not receive names from God, like the works of the first three days. This cannot be attributed to forgetfulness on the part of the author, as Tuch supposes. As a rule, the names were given by God only to the greater sections into which the universe was divided, and not to individual bodies (either plants or animals). The man and the woman are the only exceptions (Gen 5:2). The sun and moon are called great, not in comparison with the earth, but in contrast with the stars, according to the amount of light which shines from them upon the earth and determines their rule over the day and night; not so much with reference to the fact, that the stronger light of the sun produces the daylight, and the weaker light of the moon illumines the night, as to the influence which their light exerts by day and night upon all nature, both organic and inorganic-an influence generally admitted, but by no means fully understood. In this respect the sun and moon are the two great lights, the stars small bodies of light; the former exerting great, the latter but little, influence upon the earth and its inhabitants.
This truth, which arises from the relative magnitude of the heavenly bodies, or rather their apparent size as seen from the earth, is not affected by the fact that from the standpoint of natural science many of the stars far surpass both sun and moon in magnitude. Nor does the fact, that in our account, which was written for inhabitants of the earth and for religious purposes, it is only the utility of the sun, moon, and stars to the inhabitants of the earth that is mentioned, preclude the possibility of each by itself, and all combined, fulfilling other purposes in the universe of God. And not only is our record silent, but God Himself made no direct revelation to man on this subject; because astronomy and physical science, generally, neither lead to godliness, nor promise peace and salvation to the soul. Belief in the truth of this account as a divine revelation could only be shaken, if the facts which science has discovered as indisputably true, with regard to the number, size, and movements of the heavenly bodies, were irreconcilable with the biblical account of the creation. But neither the innumerable host nor the immeasurable size of many of the heavenly bodies, nor the almost infinite distance of the fixed stars from our earth and the solar system, warrants any such assumption. Who can set bounds to the divine omnipotence, and determine what and how much it can create in a moment? The objection, that the creation of the innumerable and immeasurably great and distant heavenly bodies in one day, is so disproportioned to the creation of this one little globe in six days, as to be irreconcilable with our notions of divine omnipotence and wisdom, does not affect the Bible, but shows that the account of the creation has been misunderstood. We are not taught here that on one day, viz., the fourth, God created all the heavenly bodies out of nothing, and in a perfect condition; on the contrary, we are told that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and on the fourth day that He made the sun, the moon, and the stars (planets, comets, and fixed stars) in the firmament, to be lights for the earth. According to these distinct words, the primary material, not only of the earth, but also of the heaven and the heavenly bodies, was created in the beginning. If, therefore, the heavenly bodies were first made or created on the fourth day, as lights for the earth, in the firmament of heaven; the words can have no other meaning than that their creation was completed on the fourth day, just as the creative formation of our globe was finished on the third; that the creation of the heavenly bodies therefore proceeded side by side, and probably by similar stages, with that of the earth, so that the heaven with its stars was completed on the fourth day. Is this representation of the work of creation, which follows in the simplest way from the word of God, at variance with correct ideas of the omnipotence and wisdom of God? Could not the Almighty create the innumerable host of heaven at the same time as the earthly globe? Or would Omnipotence require more time for the creation of the moon, the planets, and the sun, or of Orion, Sirius, the Pleiades, and other heavenly bodies whose magnitude has not yet been ascertained, than for the creation of the earth itself? Let us beware of measuring the works of Divine Omnipotence by the standard of human power. The fact, that in our account the gradual formation of the heavenly bodies is not described with the same minuteness as that of the earth; but that, after the general statement in Gen 1:1 as to the creation of the heavens, all that is mentioned is their completion on the fourth day, when for the first time they assumed, or were placed in, such a position with regard to the earth as to influence its development; may be explained on the simple ground that it was the intention of the sacred historian to describe the work of creation from the standpoint of the globe: in other words, as it would have appeared to an observer from the earth, if there had been one in existence at the time. For only from such a standpoint could this work of God be made intelligible to all men, uneducated as well as learned, and the account of it be made subservient to the religious wants of all.
(Note: Most of the objections to the historical character of our account, which have been founded upon the work of the fourth day, rest upon a misconception of the proper point of view from which it should be studied. And, in addition to that, the conjectures of astronomers as to the immeasurable distance of most of the fixed stars, and the time which a ray of light would require to reach the earth, are accepted as indisputable mathematical proof; whereas these approximative estimates of distance rest upon the unsubstantiated supposition, that everything which has been ascertained with regard to the nature and motion of light in our solar system, must be equally true of the light of the fixed stars.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Creation. | B. C. 4004. |
14 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: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 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. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 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. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
This is the history of the fourth day’s work, the creating of the sun, moon, and stars, which are here accounted for, not as they are in themselves and in their own nature, to satisfy the curious, but as they are in relation to this earth, to which they serve as lights; and this is enough to furnish us with matter for praise and thanksgiving. Holy Job mentions this as an instance of the glorious power of God, that by the Spirit he hath garnished the heavens (Job xxvi. 13); and here we have an account of that garniture which is not only so much the beauty of the upper world, but so much the blessing of this lower; for though heaven is high, yet has it respect to this earth, and therefore should have respect from it. Of the creation of the lights of heaven we have an account,
I. In general, Gen 1:14; Gen 1:15, where we have 1. The command given concerning them: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven. God had said, Let there be light (v. 3), and there was light; but this was, as it were, a chaos of light, scattered and confused: now it was collected and modelled, and made into several luminaries, and so rendered both more glorious and more serviceable. God is the God of order, and not of confusion; and, as he is light, so he is the Father and former of lights. Those lights were to be in the firmament of heaven, that vast expanse which encloses the earth, and is conspicuous to all; for no man, when he has lighted a candle, puts it under a bushel, but on a candlestick (Luke viii. 16), and a stately golden candlestick the firmament of heaven is, from which these candles give light to all that are in the house. The firmament itself is spoken of as having a brightness of its own (Dan. xii. 3), but this was not sufficient to give light to the earth; and perhaps for this reason it is not expressly said of the second day’s work, in which the firmament was made, that it was good, because, till it was adorned with these lights on the fourth day, it had not become serviceable to man. 2. The use they were intended to be of to this earth. (1.) They must be for the distinction of times, of day and night, summer and winter, which are interchanged by the motion of the sun, whose rising makes day, his setting night, his approach towards our tropic summer, his recess to the other winter: and thus, under the sun, there is a season to every purpose, Eccl. iii. 1. (2.) They must be for the direction of actions. They are for signs of the change of weather, that the husbandman may order his affairs with discretion, foreseeing, by the face of the sky, when second causes have begun to work, whether it will be fair or foul, Mat 16:2; Mat 16:3. They do also give light upon the earth, that we may walk (John xi. 9), and work (John ix. 4). according as the duty of every day requires. The lights of heaven do not shine for themselves, nor for the world of spirits above, who need them not; but they shine for us, for our pleasure and advantage. Lord, what is man, that he should be thus regarded! Psa 8:3; Psa 8:4. How ungrateful and inexcusable are we, if, when God has set up these lights for us to work by, we sleep, or play, or trifle away the time of business, and neglect the great work we were sent into the world about! The lights of heaven are made to serve us, and they do it faithfully, and shine in their season, without fail: but we are set as lights in this world to serve God; and do we in like manner answer the end of our creation? No, we do not, our light does not shine before God as his lights shine before us, Matt. v. 14. We burn our Master’s candles, but do not mind our Master’s work.
II. In particular, v. 16-18.
1. Observe, The lights of heaven are the sun, moon, and stars; and all these are the work of God’s hands. (1.) The sun is the greatest light of all, more than a million times greater than the earth, and the most glorious and useful of all the lamps of heaven, a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power, and goodness, and an invaluable blessing to the creatures of this lower world. Let us learn from Ps. xix. 1-6 how to give unto God the glory due unto his name, as the Maker of the sun. (2.) The moon is a less light, and yet is here reckoned one of the greater lights, because though, in regard to its magnitude and borrowed light, it is inferior to many of the stars, yet, by virtue of its office, as ruler of the night, and in respect of its usefulness to the earth, it is more excellent than they. Those are most valuable that are most serviceable; and those are the greater lights, not that have the best gifts, but that humbly and faithfully do the most good with them. Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, Matt. xx. 26. (3.) He made the stars also, which are here spoken of as they appear to vulgar eyes, without distinguishing between the planets and the fixed stars, or accounting for their number, nature, place, magnitude, motions, or influences; for the scriptures were written, not to gratify our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints. Now these lights are said to rule (Gen 1:16; Gen 1:18); not that they have a supreme dominion, as God has, but they are deputy-governors, rulers under him. Here the less light, the moon, is said to rule the night; but in Ps. cxxxvi. 9 the stars are mentioned as sharers in that government; The moon and stars to rule by night. No more is meant than that they give light, Jer. xxxi. 35. The best and most honourable way of ruling is by giving light and doing good: those command respect that live a useful life, and so shine as lights.
2. Learn from all this, (1.) The sin and folly of that ancient idolatry, the worshipping of the sun, moon, and stars, which, some think, took rise, or countenance at least, from some broken traditions in the patriarchal age concerning the rule and dominion of the lights of heaven. But the account here given of them plainly shows that they are both God’s creatures and man’s servants; and therefore it is both a great affront to God and a great reproach to ourselves to make deities of them and give them divine honours. See Deut. iv. 19. (2.) The duty and wisdom of daily worshipping that God who made all these things, and made them to be that to us which they are. The revolutions of the day and night oblige us to offer the solemn sacrifice of prayer and praise every morning and evening.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 14-19:
“Lights” denote “luminaries,” here used in the sense or light carriers, as lamps The sun, moon, and stars were not created on the fourth day, as the sources of light. God brought light to the darkness and desolation of Earth on Day Two. The sun, moon, and stars were already in existence. On Day Two, God designated them to be the centers of radiated light. Their function: to “rule” (regulate) the day and night. This was to be a continuing arrangement, for the duration of time. The heavenly luminaries were designated as agents to “divide” or separate between light and darkness, day and night.
“Signs” othoth, a mark or anything engraved (Gen 4:15; 2Ki 20:8), used to designate a warning or instruction (Sep. semeion). This could refer to the use of the stars by mariners and other navigators, as well as to the use of the moon by farmers to indicate ideal planting and harvest conditions. These “signs” have nothing to do with the practice of astrology, an activity God strongly condemns (Isa 47:13-14; Deu 18:9-14; Lev 19:26).
“Seasons” moradhim, set times; used to define the annual returning periods of nature. “Days and years” refers to the calculation of time. God chose the sun, the “greater light” to judge or rule (mashal) the day, and the moon, the “lesser light” to rule the night. The concept of the ancients was geocentric. They thought of the earth as the center of the universe. To them the sun and moon appeared much larger than the stars. The sacred record emphasizes that sun, moon, stars, and earth alike are the handiwork of God, not the product of evolution.
God did not create the sun and moon and stars on Day Four. He decreed on the fourth day that they would be the regulators of light and darkness, day and night, seasons, and chronological time.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. Let there be lights (67) Moses passes onwards to the fourth day, on which the stars were made. God had before created the light, but he now institutes a new order in nature, that the sun should be the dispenser of diurnal light, and the moon and stars should shine by night. And He assigns them this office, to teach us that all creatures are subject to his will, and execute what he enjoins upon them. For Moses relates nothing else than that God ordained certain instruments to diffuse through the earth, by reciprocal changes, that light which had been previously created. The only difference is this, that the light was before dispersed, but now proceeds from lucid bodies; which in serving this purpose, obey the command of God.
To divide the day from the night He means the artificial day, which begins at the rising of the sun and ends at its setting. For the natural day (which he mentions above) includes in itself the night. Hence infer, that the interchange of days and nights shall be continual: because the word of God, who determined that the days should be distinct from the nights, directs the course of the sun to this end.
Let them be for signs It must be remembered, that Moses does not speak with philosophical acuteness on occult mysteries, but relates those things which are everywhere observed, even by the uncultivated, and which are in common use. A twofold advantage is chiefly perceived from the course of the sun and moon; the one is natural, the other applies to civil institutions. (68) Under the term nature, I also comprise agriculture. For although sowing and reaping require human art and industry; this, nevertheless, is natural, that the sun, by its nearer approach, warms our earth, that he introduces the vernal season, that he is the cause of summer and autumn. But that, for the sake of assisting their memory, men number among themselves years and months; that of these, they form lustra and olympiads; that they keep stated days; this I say, is peculiar to civil polity. Of each of these mention is here made. I must, however, in a few words, state the reason why Moses calls them signs; because certain inquisitive persons abuse this passages to give color to their frivolous predictions: I call those men Chaldeans and fanatics, who divine everything from the aspects of the stars. (69) Because Moses declares that the sun and moon were appointed for signs, they think themselves entitled to elicit from them anything they please. But confutation is easy: for they are called signs of certain things, not signs to denote whatever is according to our fancy. What indeed does Moses assert to be signified by them, except things belonging to the order of nature? For the same God who here ordains signs testifies by Isaiah that he ‘will dissipate the signs of the diviners,’ (Isa 44:25😉 and forbids us to be ‘dismayed at the signs of heaven,’ (Jer 10:2.) But since it is manifest that Moses does not depart from the ordinary custom of men, I desist from a longer discussion. The word מועדים ( moadim,) which they translate ‘certain times’, is variously understood among the Hebrews: for it signifies both time and place, and also assemblies of persons. The Rabbis commonly explain the passage as referring to their festivals. But I extend it further to mean, in the first place, the opportunities of time, which in French are called saisons, (seasons;) and then all fairs and forensic assemblies. (70) Finally, Moses commemorates the unbounded goodness of God in causing the sun and moon not only to enlighten us, but to afford us various other advantages for the daily use of life. It remains that we, purely enjoying the multiplied bounties of God, should learn not to profane such excellent gifts by our preposterous abuse of them. In the meantime, let us admire this wonderful Artificer, who has so beautifully arranged all things above and beneath, that they may respond to each other in most harmonious concert.
(67) “ Luminaria ” — “Luminaries.” Hebrew מארות. Instruments of light, from אור, light, in verse 3. “Lighters; that is lightsome bodies, or instruments that show light.” — Ainsworth
(68) “ Altera ad ordinaem politicum spectat.”
(69) “ Ex siderum praesagiis nihil non divinant.”
(70) See the Lexicons of Schindler, Lee, and Gesenius, and Dathe’s Commentary on the Pentateuch. The two latter writers explain the terms “signs and seasons” by the Figure Hendiadys, for “signs of seasons.” “ Zu Zeichen der Zeiten.” The word stands — 1. For the year. 2. For an assembly. 3. For the place of assembling. 4. For a signal. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 1:14. Lights] Luminaries: Heb. merth, sing, mr, not r as in Gen. 1:3 : Sept. phstr here, phs there. There was light before the fourth day
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 1:14-19
THE HEAVENLY BODIES
As we have seen, light had been created before; and now the heavenly bodies are introduced into the complete exercise of their light-giving purpose.
I. The heavenly bodies were called into existence by God. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmanent of the heaven, &c. On this supposition only, that the heavenly bodies were called into space by the word of God, can we account for their magnitude, variety, and splendour?
1. Their magnitude. Only a Divine voice could have called the great worlds into being which people the realms of space. They would not have yielded obedience to the command of man had He spoken never so loud and long. True, magnitude is not always associated with power, but sometimes with weakness; yet the vastness of the great heavens above us is such as we can only connect with the voice and power of God.
2. Their variety. There is the sun, moon, stars. The sun to rule the day. The moon to rule the night. The stars to be the bright attendants of the midnight Queen. The star-light sky is the very emblem of variety, as to magnitude, number, and beauty.
3. Their splendour. What artist could put the splendour of the evening sky upon his canvass? What speaker could describe the glory of the midnight heaven? The stars, shining out from the violet deeps of night, are as brilliant lights in the dome of our earth-house, and are as the bright carpet of heaven. Before this unrivalled scene all human effort to attain grandeur is feeble, all the achievements of art or science are powerless to imitate it; yet one tone of the Divine voice was sufficient to bid the heavenly bodies move into their spheres and work, in which they will continue until the same voice bids them halt in their celestial course.
1. The call was Omnipotent. Man could not have kindled the great lights of the universe. They are above his reach. They are deaf to his voice. They ofttimes strike him with fear. The sun-light has to be modified before he can use it. The moon is beyond the control of man, or he would never permit her waning. The brighest seraph, whose whole being is aglow with the light of God, could not have flung these celestial orbs into the heavens. Cherubim shed their lustre in other spheres, and for other purposes. They cannot create an atom. How the power of God is lifted above that of the most dignified creature He has made. His voice is omnipotent, and is therefore sufficient to call the sun, moon, and stars to their work. Only Infinite Wisdom could have uttered this behest to the heavenly bodies.
2. The call was wise. The idea of the midnight sky, as now beheld by us, could never have originated in a finite mind. The thought was above the mental life of seraphs. It was the outcome of an Infinite intelligence. And nowhere throughout the external universe do we see the wisdom of God as in the complicated arrangement, continual motions, and yet easily working and harmony of the heavenly bodies. There is no confusion. There is no disorder. They need no re-adjustment. They are alike the admiration of art and science. In their study the greatest genius has exhausted its energy. The great clock of the world never needs repairs, nor even the little process of winding up. The midnight sky is the open page of wisdoms grandest achievements.
3. The call was benevolent. The sun is one of the most kindly gifts of God to the world; it makes the home of man a thing of beauty. Also the light of the moon is welcome to multitudes who have to wend their way by land or sea, amid the stillness of night, to some far-off destination.
4. The call was typal. The same Being who has placed so many lights in the heavens, can also suspend within the firmament of the soul the lights of truth, hope, and immortality. The sun of the soul need never set; our thought and feeling may be ever touched by its beauty, until the light of earths transient day shall break into the eternal light of the heavenly Temple.
II. The purposes for which the heavenly bodies are designed.
1. They were to be for lights. There had been light before. But now it is to be realised; it is to become brighter, clearer, and fuller, more fit for all the requirements of human life. Hence, at the command of God, all the lamps of the universe were lighted for the convenience and utility of man. They are unrivalled, should be highly prized, faithfully used, carefully studied, and devotionally received. These lights were regnant:
(1.) Their rule is authoritative.
(2.) It is extensive.
(3.) They were alternate.
(4.) It is munificent.
(5.) It is benevolent.
(6.) It is welcome. A pattern for all monarchs.
2. They were made to divide the day from the night. Thus the heavenly bodies were not only intended to give light, but also to indicate and regulate the time of man, that he might be reminded of the mighty change, and rapid flight of life. But the recurrence of day and night also proclaim the need of exertion and repose, hence they call to work, as well as remind of the grave.
3. To be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. The moon by her four quarters, which last each a little more than seven days, measures for us the weeks and the months. The sun, by his apparent path in the sky, measures our seasons and our years, whilst by his daily rotation through the heavens he measures the days and the hours; and this he does so correctly that the best watch makers in Geneva regulate all their watches by his place at noon; and from the most ancient times men have measured from sun dials the regular movement of the shadow. It has been well said that the progress of a people in civilization may be estimated by their regard for time,their care in measuring and valuing it. Our time is a loan. It is Gods gift to us. We ought to use it as faithful stewards. We shall have to give an account of its use. O Lord, so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom (Psa. 90:12). Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I cry aloud; and He shall hear my voice. Thus the solar system is mans great teacher, monitor, and benefactor.
III. A few deductions from this subject.
1. The greatness and Majesty of God. How terrible must be the Creator of the sun. How tranquil must be that Being who has given light to the moon. How unutterably great must be the Author of that vast solar system. One glance into the heavens is enough to overawe man with a sense of the Divine majesty.
2. The humility that should characterise the soul of man. When I consider the heavens the work of Thine hand, &c. What great thing is there in man that Thou art mindful of him? Man, a little lower than the angels, should rival them in the devotion and humility of his soul. Under the broad heaven man must feel his littleness, though he cannot but be conscious of his greatness, in that so grand a curtain was spread out for him by the Infinite Creator.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 1:14. God has placed the lights above us:
1. As ornaments of His throne.
2. To shew forth His majesty.
3. That they may the more conveniently give their light to all parts of the world.
4. To manifest that light comes from heaven, from the Father of Lights.
5. The heavens are most agreeable to the nature of these lights.
6. By their moving above the world at so great a distance, they help to discover the vast circuit of the heavens.
The heavenly bodies:
1. Not to honour them as gods.
2. To honour God in and by them. (Psa. 8:1; 1Ti. 6:16; Isa. 6:2.)
The place and use of creatures are assigned unto them by God:
1. That He may manifest His sovereignty.
2. That He may establish a settled order amongst the creatures.
3. Let all men abide in their sphere and calling.
(1.) To testify their obedience to the will of God.
(2.) As God knows what is best for us.
(3.) As assured that God will prosper all who fulfil His purpose concerning them.
The highest creatures are ordained by God for use and service:
1. Men of the highest rank should apply themselves to some employment for the good of others.
2. They are ordained for it.
3. They are honoured thereby.
4. They are bound thereunto by the law of love.
5. They will be rewarded hereafter.
6. Christ has set them an example.
The night is a Divine ordination:
1. To set bounds to mans labour.
2. To temperate the air.
3. To allow the refreshing dews to fall upon the earth.
4. To manifest the comfort of light by its removal.
The stars a sign:
1. Of the providence of God.
2. Of the olden folly of men.
3. Of the changing moods of life.
These luminaries are sometimes made by God amazing signs of grace and justice.
These luminaries have natural significations at all times.
Power and influence, as two causes, God hath given to the luminaries.
Gen. 1:15. Light:
1. Its speed.
2. Its profusion.
3. Its beauty.
4. Its joy.
The excellencies of creatures are not of themselves, but are the gift of God:
1. Because all perfections are originally in God, and therefore must come by way of dispensation from Him.
2. That the honour of all might return to Him alone.
3. Let men acknowledge all their abilities as from God.
4. Seeking all at His hand.
5. Enjoying them without pride.
6. Giving thanks to Him for them.
7. Using them to His glory.
What it was that carried the light about the world before the sun was made is uncertain; only this is evident, that when God had created the body of the sun, and made it fit for that use, He planted the light therein; and then that other means ceased, whatsoever it was. So that where God provides ordinary means, there He usually takes away those which are extraordinary:
1. Because God makes nothing in vain, and consequently removes that for which there is no further use.
2. Lest other ordinary means should be dispised.
3. Let no man depend upon extraordinary means.
Though the planets are so far distant from us, yet this does not interrupt their light and influence. So distance cannot hinder us from receiving the benefit of Gods care.
1. Though Gods influence be in heaven, yet His eye beholds the children of men.
2. Let no mans heart fail him because God seems so far off.
3. Let not distance, either in place or condition hinder our desires for the good of others.
Gen. 1:16-19. God proportions the abilities of His creatures according to the uses in which He employs them:
1. Thus is the natural outcome of the Divine wisdom and sufficiency.
2. Necessary to make the workman equal to his task.
Men must make use of light to guide and direct them in all their employments.
Though all the creatures are not furnished alike, yet none of them lack that which is necessary for their use and employment:
1. Let no man repine at his condition.
2. Let no man envy another.
3. All degrees of men are useful.
4. We cannot enjoy true happiness without attention to the meanest duties around us.
5. We know not to what the meanest may be advanced hereafter.
God provides for the government of the day as well as of the night:
1. He can do it, as light and darkness are alike to him.
2. He must do it to keep the world in order.
3. The night cannot hide our sins from God.
These lights were good works of God. These glorious works must lead to Creator.
SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS
God in Nature! Gen. 1:14. The heavens declare the glory of God. But not the heavens ONLY. There are many sources whence we may derive some faint glimpse of the divine glory. Yet we must be inside to see clearly. Standing within a cathedral, and looking through its stained and figured windows towards the light, we behold the forms and colours by the light. Standing outside and gazing at the same windows, we see nothing but blurred and indistinct enamelling. And so we must stand within the temple-pile of nature if we would see the glaring hues of divine glory, especially in the outburstings of noontide splendour, in the silent pomp of the noiseless night, in the moon walking in her brightness like some fair spirit wading through the opposing clouds of adversity in the starry garden of the firmament, those flowers of the sky budding with hopes of immortality. Thus worshipping reverently within natures cathedral, we see that
The heavens are a point from the pen of His perfection;
The world is a rosebud from the bower of His beauty;
The sun is a spark from the light of His wisdom.Sir Wm. Jones.
Sun! Gen. 1:15. Dr. Hayes, the arctic explorer, graphically describes the return of the sun after an absence of long cold months. For several days the golden flush deepens until the burning forehead of the King of Day rises above the horizon to circle round it half the year. The inexpressible delight with which the morning glory is hailed almost makes one cease to wonder that the sun has had devout worshippers.
Most glorious orb! thou wert a worship, ere
The mystery of thy making was revealed!
Thou earliest minister of the Almighty,
Which gladdened, on their mountain tops, the hearts
Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they poured
Themselves in orisons.Byron.
Sun and Moon! Gen. 1:15. We consider the sun the type of Christ, and the moon as the type of the Church. It is remarkable that at the crucifixion the sun was obscured, and the moon was at the full. But though she has suffered many an eclipse, yet like the moon the Church of Christ emerges from them all by keeping on her path of obedience:
And still that light upon the world
Its guiding splendour throws;
Bright in the opening hours of life,
But brighter at its close.Peabody.
Tides! Gen. 1:16. The influences of the Holy Spirit upon the life of the Christian Church has been likened to that of the moon upon our earth. The return of the tide twice every day is owing to the attractive influence which the moon exerts upon our world, and especially upon its great movable fluid the ocean. What a mysterious page of nature does this fact open, when we thus behold ourselves linked as it were with a distant world by an invisible chain figure that wonderful power by which the life of the Church and her true members is kept motion, purity and holiness! Well may that moon be called the Queen of Heaven
Who, from her maiden face
Shedding her cloudy locks, looks meekly forth,
And with her virgin stars walks in the heavens,
Walks nightly there, conversing as she walks
Of purity, and holiness, and God.Pollok.
Starlight. Gen. 1:16. Those bright and beautiful stars are witnesses for God. They tell us that He isthat He is very great and good. This was the impression upon the mind of a man of God in the olden time, when he sang how the heavens proclaim the glory of God. Not many years ago, during the terrible French Revolution, when godless men murdered their king and princes in France, an attempt was made to obliterate all trace of God. Bibles were burnt, churches were shut up, sabbaths were abolished, and Christians were cruelly slain. One of these revolutionists accosted a pious countryman with the jaunty assurance that he was going to pull down the village church in order that there might be nothing left to remind you of God or religion. To this the pious peasant responded, Then you will have to blot out the stars, which are older than our church tower, much higher up in the skybeyond your reach. Yes, it is not the unwearied sun only which displays the Creators power, it is not the man only which publishes to every land the work of an Almighty hand; but
All the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to poleAddison.
Sunlight! Gen. 1:17. There is a good story told about a certain missionary and the sun. He was talking one day with a heathen man, who said:I go to the place where you worship, but I never see your God. The missionary, stepping out of the house into the open air, bathed in the brilliant beauty of the noontide sun, pointed up to it, and said to the enquirer, Look at yonder sun. The man tried to look but instantly turned away his face, and covered his eyes with his hands, exclaiming, It blinds me. And the man of God quickly responded by telling him that yon sun was but one of the numerous retinue of his God, and stationed merely on the outside of Gods palace. If you cannot bear to look at one of His servants, how can you expect to see the master of that servantthe great God who made him.
God spake, and on the new-dressed earth
Soft smiled the glowing sun,
Then full of joy he sprung aloft,
His heavenly course to run.Krumacher.
Sun-Rule! Gen. 1:18. The sun is like the father of a family with his children gathered round him. A good father always governs his children well; and the better they are governed, the happier and more useful they will be. The sun is such a fathergoverning well those different worlds which are like children about him. He keeps them all in the places which God wants them to be in, and at the same time he sees that they are all going roundeach in his own path, just as God wants them to do. This power he enjoys from God. Through Him
His beams the sea-girt earth array,
King of the sky, and father of the day.Logan.
Sun-Good! Gen. 1:18. The sun is the fountain of light to this lower world. Day by day it rises on us with its gladdening beams. All nature seems to own its influence, both for light, heat, faithfulness, and beauty. Christ is, says Trower, to the moral world, what the sun is to the natural worldthe source of life and loveliness, health and happiness. He rises with healing in His wingsscatters the mists of ignorance and sincalls forth the fruits of righteousnessand arrays them in splendour, outrivalling the brilliant beams of the rainbow. And as the natural sun retains his strength undimmed though ages have rolled past, so the Divine Sun remains at His sacred, high, eternal noon. And
As the sun
Doth spread his radiance through the fields of air,
And kindle in revolving stars his blaze,
He pours upon their hearts the splendour of
His rays.Upham.
Moonlight! Gen. 1:18. All the beauty of the moon is but the reflection of the glory of the sun. She has no light of her own, and shines only by reflecting or giving away the light which she receives from the dazzling orb of day. When a piece of looking-glass is held in the sunshine, it causes a bright light to dance about on the opposite wall. This is exactly what the moon does; she catches the beams of light which it receives from the sun, and throws them down. The moon hangs in the sky, and becomes as much like the sun as it can by reflecting the light which that orb gives it; just so when we become Christians, we not only learn to love Jesus, but try to be like Him. And when we do this we are reflecting the light that Jesus gives us; just as the moon, the queen of the midnight hour, and for ever beautiful, softly and silently pours
Her chastend radiance on the scene below;
And hill, and dale, and tower
Drink the pure flood of light.Neele.
Two Suns! Gen. 1:19. There is this difference between the Sun of Righteousness and that in the skythat, whereas the latter by his presence eclipses all his satellite-attendants, the Former, though radiant with a much brighter splendour, will by His presence impart glory to His saints. When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. So that the saints are not like stars which the sunshine obscures and makes to disappear; but they are, as Boyle defines it, like polished silver, or those vaster balls of burnished brass upon the cathedral dome which shine the more they are shone upon, and which derive their glittering brightness from the suns refulgent beams
Made hereby apter to receive
Perfection from the Suns most potent ray.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Day Four: Chronology (Gen. 1:14-19)
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of 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 heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made the 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 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 there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day
1. Evidently we have here the account of the genesis of chronology, the measurement of time. On this day the sun, moon and stars were bidden to give light for the earth, and were appointed as timepieces, for signs, seasons, days and years.
2. This does not necessarily mean that the heavenly bodies were brought into existence at this time. It is our conviction that the various systems of suns and planets and satellites had all been passing through the same formative processes as that which had brought into existence our own planetary system. Milligan (SR, 29): There is nothing in the text that implies that they were just then created. They had doubtless existed in some state, as had the earth, from the beginning. But on the fourth day the clouds were most likely dispersed, and the atmosphere became perfectly transparent, and these luminaries then became visible from the earth; and hence this was the most suitable time that could have been selected for making them our chronometers.
3. This section obviously refers to the appearance of sun, moon and stars in the firmament, in such a way as to be plainly discernible to the naked eye of an observer upon the earth. During this entire period, the atmosphere was gradually being purified. Plants continued to grow in this humid environment, although the source of the rapidly increasing light was probably not apparent for some time; however, plant growth itself, by absorption, assisted in the complete dissipation of the enveloping vapors, so that the heavenly bodies finally appeared in full view in the firmament.
4. Note that the Divine decree was not, Let the luminaries be brought into existence; it was, rather, Let the sun, moon and stars give light upon the earth. This was necessary in order for them to be appointed as our timepieces. Note our word appointednot created. This means that these celestial luminaries which had been in process of creation from the beginning were now divinely appointed as the instruments for mans use in measuring signs (the zodiac?) and seasons, and days and years; just as the rainbow which had existed from the beginning in the relationship between the suns rays and the rainfall, was in Noahs day divinely appointed to be the sign of His covenant that He would never again destroy man with the waters of a flood (Gen. 9:8-17); and just as the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, which had existed from the beginning, were appointed by our Lord to be the appropriate emblems of His offering of His body and His blood on the Cross of Calvary for the redemption of mankind (1Co. 11:23-33).
In order to adapt to his present environment, man has need of the sequence of day and night, of seedtime and harvest, of the times and the seasons. For practical ends, he must have norms for the measurement of space and time. However, mathematical time must be distinguished from real time. Whereas the former is measured, the latter is experienced: it is the very intensity of life, as e.g., the soldier who will say, on coming out of battle, I feel as though I have lived a lifetime in the last few hours. This experience of the intensity of living affords one at least a faint glimmer of the meaning of eternity as timelessness.
FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING
The Primordial Darkness a Metaphor of the Unconverted Soul
The thick darkness of the first day of the Creation is a fit metaphor of the darkness of the unconverted soul. In the beginning the world was (1) without order. It was in a state of formlessness and emptiness. So the unconverted soul lives in a state of spiritual formlessness and emptiness, a condition which requires a special Divine arranging in order to bring harmony and beauty out of this formlessness (1Co. 2:14). (2) Without light. In the beginning there was thick darkness everywhere. So the unconverted soul walks in darkness (Eph. 4:17-19) devoid of that true spiritual light which came down from heaven to illumine the emptiness of mens hearts (Joh. 1:4-9, 2Co. 4:4-6). One may be alive to culture, to education, to science, to social problems, to political issues, but unless one is born again, born of water and the Spirit, he is spiritually dead (Joh. 3:1-6). (3) Without life. There were no indications of life in the great deep until the Holy Spirit began to brood upon the face of the waters. So, until the human soul yields itself to the quickening impulse of the Holy Spirit, it is dead in its own trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1, Rom. 3:23). Persistence in such a course leads ultimately to eternal separation from God and from the glory of his might (2Th. 1:7-10, Rev. 20:14). (4) Yet not beyond the limits of Divine grace. As the Holy Spirit brooded over primeval darkness, so He broods today over unconverted souls, longing for the proclamation of the Word to introduce light, life, order, and beauty; by wholeheartedly responding to the Divine Word; all who thus hear and obey the Gospel are made partakers of the divine nature (Rom. 10:8-10; Rom. 10:17; 2Pe. 1:4).
Darkness was upon the face of the deep until God said, Let there be light. A beautiful symbol of the appearance of the true Light who lighteth the world. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not (Joh. 1:4-5; Joh. 14:5). When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, the world of men was enshrouded in spiritual darkness (Rom. 1:18-32). Judaism had become hopelessly encrusted with sheer formalism and traditionalism. So-called natural: religion had failed. Current philosophies did not assuage the pessimism in mens souls. Stoicism, Hedonism, Libertinism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and the other isms, had served their day and been found wanting. The whole World was under condemnation, lost, in danger of perishing (Joh. 3:16-17). Then cometh Jesusthe worlds hope, the Light and life of mankind, and the only Light and Life of mankind.
Light as a Metaphor of the Gospel
1. Light and the Gospel are analogous, as regards (1) their source, God; (2) their nature, which is, in each case, to shine, to illumine, to dispel darkness; (3) their effect. Light simply shines: it does not have to be advertised. What would you think of a man who would put a sign on a lighthouse, reading This is a lighthouse? What would humanity do without light? What would the world be without the Gospel?
2. Gods gift of light resembles His gift of the Gospel, in that (1) both are pure, (2) both are free, (3) both are universal, (4) both are gentle, (5) both are pervasive, (6) both are indispensable, (7) both are transcendent, (8) both are satisfying.
3. It is the will of God: (1) that all men shall have the light of salvation. God despises both physical and moral darkness. To dissipate moral darkness, He sent His Son, His Spirit, His Church, His ministers, etc. (2) That His Church shall be the light of the world (Mat. 5:14-16, 2Co. 3:2-3). God does not expect the world to be spiritually enlightened by literary, philosophical, cultural, or social service societies; nor by clubs, lodges, or secular schools; nor by the social gospel, eugenics, fraternalism, or any other human instrumentality in itself. God expects the world to be spiritually enlightened by His Church, and only by His Church, which is the habitation of God in the Spirit (Eph. 2:22). As Christ was the Incarnation of the Father, so the Church is the Incarnation of the Son (Eph. 1:23). There is no substitute for the Church of the living God. (3) That the whole worldall peoplesshall be illumined by the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ. The twofold mission of the Church is that of preserving the Truth of God and proclaiming it unto all the nations (Isa. 11:9; Isa. 60:19; Heb. 2:14; 1Ti. 3:15; Mat. 28:18-20; Mat. 24:14).
Have you the light of Divine grace in your heart? Can you truly sing,
The light of the world is Jesus?
Once I was blind, but now I see
Is your soul so flooded with Gospel light that you can peacefully wait for the morning (Psa. 130:6)? Are you letting your light shine before men? Are you truly a living epistle of Christ?
In the beginning, God
God createdGod saidGod sawGod calledGod madeGod setGod blessedalways there is God. Godthe explanation of all things; without Him, there is no ultimate explanation of anything.
Joseph Parker (PBG): I claim no finality; I scorn no other mans thinking; I had a universe given me to account for. One man told me that it was to be accounted for by chance, and I feltthat he was a fool. I had human life given me to account for, in all zones and climes, in all ages and seas and lands. I studied it. One man told me it was to be accounted for by the law of averages, and I felt that he was a fool. I had the Bible to account for. I read it straight through, and I was told by one man that it happened to come together just as it is, that there is no purpose in it, no organic spiritual genius and unity, and that it was a gathering up of fragments that have no mutual relation; and as I read the thing, as it got into me and made my blood tingle, I felt that he, too, was a fool. Then I came to this revelation, In the beginning, GodGod, not a name only, but. a character, a spirit, a life, a reality: God is light, God is love, God is Savior, God blessed forevermore, King of kings and Lord of lords, and I felt that the answer was grand enough to be true!
The Word-Power of God
Mans besetting sin has ever been that of rejecting the Word of God. But search the Bible from cover to cover, and you will find that nothing so displeases God as lack of confidence in, and disrespect for, His Word. For example, Saul and the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15).
There are those who speak of the mere Word as if it were of no importance. But words are always important, because they communicate ideas. Words are the media of intelligent intercourse among persons. So the Word of God is the revelation of the Mind and Will of God. Gods Spirit-Power, Will-Power, Word-Power, are equally all-powerful. (Cf. Luk. 1:37; Mat. 24:35; Mat. 12:36-37; Mat. 7:24-27; Mar. 8:38.) This Power is the sovereign Power in the cosmos, as evidenced by the following facts: 1. The worlds (ages) were framed by the word of God (Heb. 11:3). The formula, And God said, occurs ten consecutive times in the first chapter of Genesis, and in each case that which God ordained came to pass. Joh. 1:1-3; Joh. 1:14; Psa. 33:6; Psa. 33:9; Psa. 148:1-6; Col. 1:15-17. The Logos was the executive Agent of the Godhead in the Creation of the universe. 2. The cosmos is sustained, in its processes by the same Word-Power. This is the Power that maintains the order which human science discovers and describes both in the physical and in the moral realm. Heb. 1:1-3, 2Pe. 3:7. 3. Biblical miracles were performed by the use of the same Word-Power. The rod of Moses was an emblem of this Power. But Moses failed to sanctify Gods Word in the sight of the Israelites by smiting the rock instead of speaking to it, as God had commanded (Num. 20:7-13). Note Joshuas command addressed to the sun and the moon (Jos. 10:12). 4. This Word, Logos, became incarnate in the person of Jesus of Jesus of Nazareth. Joh. 17:5; Joh. 17:24; Joh. 8:58; Joh. 1:1-3; Joh. 1:14; Col. 1:15-17. Jesus was the Logos inwardly in that He is from all eternity in the bosom of the Father (Joh. 1:18). He is the Logos outwardly in that He is the complete revelation of God to man (Joh. 14:9-12; Joh. 16:13-15). The Babe in the Bethlehem manger was Gods Power clothed in flesh and blood. 5. Jesus wrought mighty works (miracles) by the same Word-Power. Act. 2:22; Mat. 14:19; Mat. 8:26-27; Mat. 8:3; Joh. 4:50; Mat. 8:32, Mar. 1:25; Luk. 7:14, Joh. 11:43. Mat. 8:8only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. Jesus gave no treatments, absent or present; He had only to speak the Word and the miracle was wrought. 6. When Jesus returned to the Father, this Word-Power was dispatched to the Apostles at Pentecost through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Luk. 24:49; Joh. 14:16-17; Joh. 14:26; Joh. 15:26-27; Joh. 16:7-15; Joh. 20:22-23; Act. 1:1-8; Act. 2:1-4. Note the effect of the preached Word on the multitude (Act. 2:37). 7. The Word-Power of God, since the first proclamation on the Day of Pentecost, is embodied in the Gospel. Psa. 19:7it converts the soul. Isa. 2:3, Mic. 4:2this Word to go forth from Jerusalem. Act. 2:4this it did on the first Pentecost after the Resurrection. Luk. 24:47the Gospel to be proclaimed first at Jerusalem. Rom. 1:16the Gospel, not just a power, nor one of the powers, but the Power of God unto salvation to all who accept and obey it. 8. By the same Word Power, the Apostles performed miracles, Act. 3:6; Act. 9:34; Act. 9:40; Act. 13:8-12. 9. The Word, written or spoken, makes believers. Act. 2:14-37; Act. 8:5-12; Act. 8:30-35; Act. 9:6; Act. 22:10; Act. 11:14; Act. 10:34-43; Act. 16:14-15; Act. 16:32; Act. 18:8; Heb. 4:12; 1Th. 2:13; Rom. 10:8-11; Rom. 10:17. Conclusion: Division in Christendom arises from two causes, namely, refusal to accept and obey the laws of God, and the making of laws by men where God has not made any. The Word is irresistible by material things: when it is spoken, nature obeys. Man alone has the power to resist the Word (Rom. 13:1-2) and the power to neglect it (Heb. 2:1-4). Note the ultimate destiny of all who ignore, neglect, or resist the Word (2Th. 1:8, 1Pe. 4:17). Let us obey the Gospel of Christ (Heb. 5:9) and so enjoy the fulfilment of the precious and exceeding great promises of God (2Pe. 1:4, Heb. 5:9, Act. 2:38, Rom. 6:23).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(14) Let there be lights (luminaries) in the firmament (or expanse) of the heaven.In Hebrew the word for light is r, and for luminary, ma-r, a light-bearer. The light was created on the first day, and its concentration into great centres must at once have commenced; but the great luminaries did not appear in the open sky until the fourth day. With this begins the second triad of the creative days. Up to this time there had been arrangement chiefly; heat and water had had their periods of excessive activity, but with the introduction of vegetation there came also the promise of things higher and nobler than mechanical laws. Now, this fourth day seems to mark two things: first, the surface of the earth has become so cool as to need heat given it from without and secondly, there was now a long pause in creation. No new law in it is promulgated, no new factor introduced; only the atmosphere grows clearer, the earth more dry; vegetation does its part in absorbing gases; and day by day the sun shines with more unclouded brilliancy, followed by the mild radiance of the moon, and finally, by the faint gleamings of the stars. But besides this, as the condensation of luminous matter into the sun was the last act in the shaping of our solar system, it is quite possible that during this long fourth day the sun finally assumed as nearly as possible its present dimensions and form. No doubt it is still changing and slowly drawing nearer to that period when, Gods seventh day of rest being over, the knell of this our creation will sound, and the sun, with its attendant planets, and among them our earth, become what God shall then will. But during this seventh day, in which we are now living, God works only in maintaining laws already given, and no outburst either of creative or of destructive energy can take place.
Let them be for signsi.e., marks, means of knowing. This may be taken as qualifying what follows, and would then mean, Let them be means for distinguishing seasons, days, and years; but more probably it refers to the signs of the zodiac, which anciently played so important a part, not merely in astronomy, but in matters of daily life.
Seasons.Not spring, summer, and the like, but regularly recurring periods, like the three great festivals of the Jews. In old time men depended, both in agriculture, navigation, and daily life, upon their own observation of the setting and rising of the constellations. This work is now done for us by others, and put into a convenient form in almanacks; but equally now as of old, days, years, and seasons depend upon the motion of the heavenly orbs.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
FOURTH DAY LUMINARIES, Gen 1:14-19.
14. Lights , luminaries, or lightbearers, thus differing from , light, in Gen 1:3. Light was made to shine out of the darkness upon the deep three days before these lightholders were made to appear in the expanse above the Eden land . Every interpreter has felt the difficulty of explaining this . For our hypothesis, see note on Gen 1:3. The sacred writer speaks of these luminaries merely in their phenomenal relation to the land of Eden, and not as an astronomer of the nineteenth century A . D . He therefore fittingly assigns them to that day of the creative week when they first became visible from the land already described .
Let them be for signs, and for seasons That is, let them serve this purpose to the earth . Some suppose here a hendiadys, signs of seasons . This, however, is not necessary. There is also no sufficient reason for abandoning the natural meaning of the word signs, ( ,) as indicating remarkable phenomena in the heavens which, according to the Scriptures, sometimes indicate great events of judgment or of blessing. Comp. Jer 10:2; Joe 2:30; Mat 2:2; Mat 24:29; Luk 21:25. The luminaries also serve as signs to indicate different points of the compass signals to direct the path of the traveller on the land and on the deep . , seasons, or appointed times; from , to fix, to appoint . The heavenly bodies serve to regulate and measure off these weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring seasons .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and years, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth”. And it was so.’
From now on periods of light and darkness will be determined by the action of sun and moon. No longer will darkness permanently threaten for it is controlled. It is these lights which will now determine the length of days and years. To ancient man his ideas of time were ruled by the heavenly lights. They were the signs that guided his thoughts on the passage of time. From them he knew the seasons. Days and months and years resulted from their activity. And it was they under God which ensured that permanent, enveloping darkness did not prevail.
They were also the signs to men of God’s continued provision for them. While vegetation has been able to grow without these cycles, it will be better for man that these functions are systematised. No more definite statement could be made that before this act days, years and seasons had not existed as we know them. But now those seasons will be the guarantee of the means of existence, and later the rainbow will be God’s sign of their permanence for man (Gen 8:22; Gen 9:12-17).
Furthermore these lights will give light to the inhabitants of earth. The sun will enable them to go about their daily round. At night the moon will guide the hunter and the shepherd. But the main occurrence and emphasis of the fourth day is that the ‘lights’ are called on to establish the times and seasons. Time and provision is systematised and guaranteed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Fourth Day of Creation Gen 1:14-19 gives us the account of the fourth day of Creation. This passage tells us about the fourth day of Creation in which God created the heavenly bodies. What is interesting to note is that the earth was created first, before the sun, moon and stars were created. We see this same order of creation in Isa 48:13.
Isa 48:13, “Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.”
Illustration – In December 2009 I spend a few days in a small Texas town called Brady, Texas. I stayed out on a ranch far from the small town center. There were no lights at night, so the stars in the sky were extremely bright. I had not seen a clear sky in a place far from city lights since a youth. I was overwhelmed with the awesome display of the moon and the stars, as they displayed the glory of God. The Milky Way was stretched across the sky displaying billions of stars so close together that they faded into a milky image. Truly, the heavenly bodies were created to display God’s glory. Gordon Wenham notes that this passage is written in a way the demystifies the ancient worship of celestial bodies. He says this is done by describing God as their creator, by omitting the words the sun and moon and using the phrases “greater light” and “lesser light” in their place, and by giving these heavenly bodies “surrogate” roles to God as the creator. [80]
[80] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16-50, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 2, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on Genesis 1:14-19.
Gen 1:14 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:
Gen 1:14
[81] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Science is also learning with the modern telescope that each star is unique with its own beauty and design. This fact is also confirmed in Scripture. If God calls each star by a unique name (Psa 147:4), it means that God sees each star as a unique creation. Today, man is calling stars and galaxies by numbers. This is because fallen man lacks the capacity to see each star’s uniqueness and to create for it a name.
Also, 1Co 15:41 says that each heavenly body varies in its glory, or radiance. This also, confirms that each star is uniquely different.
Psa 147:4, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”
1Co 15:41, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”
Gen 1:14 “and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” Word Study on “signs” – Gesenius and Strong tell us the Hebrew word “signs” ( ) (H226) literally means, “a sign, signal.” However, BDB reveals a variety of figurative meanings, “a distinguishing mark, anner, remembrance, miraculous sign, omen, warning, token, ensign, standard, miracle, proof.”
Comments While mankind rules over the earth, God rules over the heavens. The Scriptures teach us that all of the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars are in the heavens for a purpose, one of which was to serve as signs to mankind. We can find this illustrated in the Scriptures. Examples of heavenly signs found in the Scriptures:
Jos 10:12-14, “Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.”
Isa 7:10-11, “Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above .”
Mat 2:2, “Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east , and are come to worship him.”
Mat 24:30, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory .”
Luk 21:11, “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven .”
Act 2:19-20, “And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:”
This quote is from Joe 2:31, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.”
Rev 8:10-11, “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven , burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”
Rev 12:1-3, “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven ; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”
The word “star” is also used figuratively of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Num 24:17, “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob , and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.”
Rev 2:28, “And I will give him the morning star .”
Rev 22:16, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star .”
“for signs” The Book of Jubilees says that God sent down angels from heaven, called “watchers,” to teach the children of men the ways of righteousness. It goes on to say that these angels taught men to read the signs in the heavens, which implies the ancient “Zodiac.”
“ Mahalalel took unto him to wife Dinah, the daughter of Barakiel the daughter of his father’s brother, and she bare him a son in the third week in the sixth year, [A.M.] and he called his name Jared, for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the children of men, and that they should do judgment and uprightness on the earth. And in the eleventh jubilee [512-18 A.M.] Jared took to himself a wife, and her name was Baraka, the daughter of Rasujal, a daughter of his father’s brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, [522 A.M.] and she bare him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee, and he called his name Enoch . And he was the first among men that are born on earth who learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a book , that men might know the seasons of the years according to the order of their separate months.” ( The Book of Jubilees 4.15-18)
“In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, [1373 A.M.] in the beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Rasu’eja, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam, and she bare him a son in the third year in this week, [1375 A.M.] and he called his name Kainam. And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where he might seize for himself a city. And he found a writing which former (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon, and he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven . And he wrote it down and said nothing regarding it;” ( The Book of Jubilees 8.1-4)
Thus, the heavenly bodies are to be used as message bearers. We do find that the Scriptures support the ancient belief that certain stars formed into constellations (Isa 13:10).
Isa 13:10, “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.”
Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:16 Gen 1:16
Job 38:4-7, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together , and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
Gen 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18 Gen 1:19
Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Gen 1:19
Mat 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Creation of Sun, Moon, and Stars
v. 14. 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. v. 15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. v. 16. 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. v. 17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, v. 18. 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. v. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Gen 1:14, Gen 1:15
Day four. With this day begins the second half of the creative week, whose works have a striking correspondence with the labors of the first. Having perfected the main structural arrangements of the globe by the elimination from primeval chaos of the four fundamental elements of light, air, water, and land, the formative energy of the Divine word reverts to its initial point of departure, and, in a second series of operations, carries each of these forward to completionthe light by permanently settling it in the sun, the air and water by filling therewith fowl and fish, and the land by making animals and man. The first of these engaged the Divine Artificer’s attention on the fourth creative day. And God said, Let there be lights (literally, places where light is, light-holders, Psa 64:1-10 :16; , LXX.; luminaria, Vulgate; spoken of lamps and candlesticks, Exo 25:6 : Num 4:9, Num 4:16) in the firmament (literally the expanse) of the heaven. in the singular with in the plural is explained by Gesenius on the ground that the predicate precedes the subject (vid. ‘Gram.,’ 147). The scientific accuracy of the language here used to describe the celestial luminaries relieves the Mosaic cosmogony of at least one supposed irreconcilable contradiction, that of representing light as having an existence independent of the sun. Equally does it dispense exegesis from the necessity of accounting for what appears a threefold creation of the heavenly bodiesin the beginning (Gen 1:1), on the first day (Gen 1:3), and again on the fourth (Gen 1:14). The reference in the last of these verses is not to the original creation of the matter of the supra mundane spheres (Gerlach), which was performed in the beginning, nor to the first production of light, which was the specific work of day one; but to the permanent appointment of the former to be the place, or center of radiation, for the latter. The purpose for which this arrangement was designed, so far, at least, as the earth was concerned, was threefold:
1. To divide the day from the night. Literally, between the day and the night; or, as in Gen 1:18, to divide the light from the darkness to continue and render permanent the separation and distinction which was effected on the first day.
2. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. The celestial lights were to serve
(1) For signs. Othoth, from oth, anything engraved, hence a mark (Gen 4:15; 2Ki 20:8), is employed to designate a portent, or sign of wanting or instruction (Psa 61:8; Isa 8:18; Isa 20:1-6. g; LXX; ; cf. Luk 21:25; Acts if. 19), and here probably refers to the subsequent employment of the heavenly bodies “as marks or signs of important changes and occurrences in the kingdom of Providence” (Macdonald). “That they may have been designed also to subserve important purposes in the -various economy of human life, as in affording signs to the mariner and husbandman, is not improbable, though this is not so strictly the import of the original” (Bush). Still less, of course, does the word refer to mediaeval astrology or to modern meteorology.
(2) For seasons. Moradhim, set times, from ya’ad, to indicate, define, fix, is used of yearly returning periods (Gen 17:21; Gen 18:14)the time of the migration of birds (Jer 8:7), the time of festivals (Psa 104:19; Zec 8:19).
(3) For days and years, i.e. for the calculation of time. Luther, Calvin, Mercer, Piscator, Delitzsch, Murphy, Macdonald, et alii regard the three phrases as co-ordinate; Rosenmller, Gesenius, Do Wette, Baumgarten take the first two as a hendiadys for “signs of the seasons;” Kalisch considers the second to be in opposition to the first; Tuch translates, “for signs, as well for the times as also for the days and years.” The first, which accords with the English version, is the simplest, and, most probably, the correct interpretation.
3. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. Not to introduce light for the first time to this lower world, but to serve as a new and permanent arrangement for the distribution of the light already called into existence. And it was so. Like every other command which Elohim issued, this was in due time followed by complete realization.
Gen 1:16
And God made two great lights. Perhaps no part of the material universe more irresistibly demands a supreme Intelligence as its only proper origin and cause. “Elegantissima haecce solis, planetarum et cometarum compages non nisi consilio et domino entis intelligentis et potentis oriri potuit”. The greater light to rule (literally, to make like; hence to judge; then to rule. Mashal; cf. Gesenius) the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. The greater light is obviously the sun, which is sometimes denominated chammah, “the warm” (Psa 19:7; Isa 30:26); sometimes there, “the glistering” (Job 9:7); but usually shemesh, “the minister (Deu 4:19; Deu 33:14). Here it is described by its bulk or magnitude, which is larger than that of the moon, the second of the two luminaries, which is also spoken of as great relatively to the stars, which, though in reality immensely exceeding it in size, yet appear like little bails of light (kokhavim) bestudding the blue canopy of night, and are so depictedthe Biblical narrative being geocentric and phenomenal, not heliocentric or scientific. How the work of this day was effected does not fall within the writer’s scope to declare, the precise object of revelation being to teach not astronomy, or any other merely human gnosis, but religion. Accepting, however, the guidance of physical astronomy, we may imagine that the cosmical light of day one, which had up to this point continued either encompassing our globe like a luminous atmosphere, or existing at a distance from it, but in the plane of the earth’s orbit, was now, if in the first of these positions, gradually broken up, doubtless through the shrinking of the earth’s mass and the consequent lessening of its power Of attraction, and slowly drawn off towards, and finally concentrated, as a photosphere round the sun, which was thereby constituted chief luminary or “light-holder” the system, the moon and planets becoming, as a necessary consequence, “light-holders” in the secondary sense of “light-reflectors.” It is interesting to note that some such explanation as this appears to have suggested itself to Willet, who wrote before the birth of Newton, and at a time when solar physics and spectrum analysis were things of the remote future. It m not unlike, says he, “but that this light (of the first day), after the creation of the celestial bodies, might be drawn upward and have his reflection upon the beame of the sunne and of other starres” And again, “Whereas the light created the first day is called or, but the starres (meaning the heavenly bodies) are called meoroth, as of the light, hence it may appear that these lightsome (i.e. luminous) bodies were made the receptacles of that light thou created, which was now increased and united to these lights”; an explanation which, though certainly hypothetical, must be regarded as much more in accordance with the requirements of the sacred text than that which discovers in the making of the lights only a further dissipation of terrestrial mists so as to admit not the light-bringing beams of the celestial bodies alone, but the forms of those shining orbs themselves (‘Speaker’s Commentary’). He made the stars also. Though the stars are introduced solely because of their relation to the earth as dispensers of light, and no account is taken of their constitution as suns and planets, it is admissible to entertain the opinion that, in their case, as in that of the chief luminary of our tellurian heavens, the process of “sun” making reached its culmination on the fourth day. Perhaps the chief reason for their parenthetical introduction in this place was to guard against the notion that there were any luminaries which were not the work of Elohim, and in particular to prevent the Hebrews, for whom the work was written, from yielding to the heathen practices of star-gazing and star-worship. “The superstition of reading the destiny of man in the stars never took root among the Israelites; astrology is excluded by the first principle of Mosaismthe belief in one all-ruling God, who is subject to no necessity, no fate, no other will. Jeremiah warns the Hebrews not to be afraid of the ‘signs of heaven,’ before which the heathen tremble in vain terror (Jer 10:2); and Isaiah speaks with taunting irony against the astrologers, star-gazers, and monthly prognosticators, in whose counsel it is folly and wickedness to rely (Isa 47:13). But the Israelites had not moral strength enough to resist the example of star-worship in general; they could not keep aloof from an aberration which formed the very focus of the principal Eastern religions; they yielded to that tempting influence, and ignominious incense rose profusely in honor of the sun and the hosts of heavenJer 19:13; Eze 8:16; Zep 1:5; Wis. 13:2″ (Kalisch).
Gen 1:17, Gen 1:18
And God set (literally, gave) them (i.e. sun, moon, and stars) in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and ever the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. An intimation that on this day the astronomical arrangements for the illumination of the globe and the measurement of time were permanently settled. And God saw that it was good. Laplace was inclined to question the Divine verdict with regard at least to the moon, which he thought might have been so placed as to be always full, whereas, at its present distance from the earth, we are sometimes deprived of both its light and the sun’s together. But not to dwell upon the fact that to remove the moon four times its present distance from the earth, which it would require to be in order to be always full, would necessitate important changes in the other members of the solar system which might not be for the earth’s advantage, the immediate effect of such a disposition of the lunar orb would be to give us a moon of only one sixteenth the size of that which now dispenses its silver beams upon our darkened globe (Job 11:12).
Gen 1:19
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. The Scripture references to this day’s work are both numerous and instructive. The Hebrew writers supply no information as to the astronomical theories which were prevalent in their time; yet “from other sources we have facts leading to the belief that even in the time of Moses there was not a little practical astronomy in the East, and some good theory. The Chaldeans at a very early period had ascertained the principal circles of the sphere, the position of the poles, and the nature of the apparent motions of the heavens as the results of revolution on an inclined axis. The Egyptian astronomers, whom we know through Thales, 640 B.C; taught the true nature of the moon’s light, the sphericity of the earth, and the position of its five zones. Pythagoras, 580 B.C; knew, in addition, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the identity of the evening and morning star, and the earth’s revolution round the sun”. Modern astronomy, though possessed of highly probable theories as to the formation of the universe, is still unable to speak with absolute precision with regard to this fourth day’s work. Yet them are not wanting indirect corroborations of the truth of the Mosaic narrative from both it and geology. According to the sacred writer, the presently existing atmosphere, the distribution of land and water, the succession of day and night, and the regular alternation of the seasons, were established prior to the introduction of animal life upon the earth; and Sir Charles Lyell has demonstrated nothing more successfully than the dominion of “existing causes” from the Eozoic era downwards, and the sufficiency of these causes to account for all the changes which have taken place in the earth’s crust. Again, geology attests the prevalence on our globe in prehistoric times of a much more uniform and high temperature than it now possesses, so late as the Miocene era a genial tropical climate having extended up beyond the Arctic circle, and in the earliest eras of the history of the globe, in all probability, the entire sphere bring so favored with excessive heat. Different causes have been suggested for this phenomenon; as, e.g; the greater heat of the cooling globe (the earliest geologists), a different distribution of land and water (Lyell), variations in the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit (Herschell and. Croll), changes in the earth’s axis (Evans, Drayson, Bell), and the greater intensity of the sun’s heat; Sir W Thomson, ‘Trans. Geolog. Soc.,’ Glasgow, 1877). The Biblical narrative, by distinctly teaching that the sun was perfected on the fourth day, renders it intelligible that his influence on the surface of the earth was then at its greatest, causing tropical climates to prevail and tropical vegetation to abound, both of which have gradually disappeared from the polar regions in consequence of the sun’s diminished heat. It remains only to note that the Chaldean Genesis preserves a striking reminiscence of this day’s work; the obverse of the fifth creation tablet reading
1. It was delightful, all that was fixed by the great gods,
2. Stars, their appearance (in figures) of animals he arranged.
3. To fix the year through the observation of their constellations.
4. Twelve months (or signs) of stars in three rows he arranged.
5. From the day when the year commences unto the close.
6. He marked the positions of the wandering stars (planets) to shine in their courses.
12. The god Uru (the moon) he caused to rise out, the night he overshadowed,
13. To fix it also for the light of the night, until the shining of the day.
19. When the god Shamas (the sun) in the horizon of heaven in the east.
20. formed beautifully and
21. to the orbit Shamas was perfected. “It appears that the Chaldean record con talus the review and expression of satisfaction at the head of each tablet, while the Hebrew has it at the close of each act”.
HOMILETICS
Gen 1:16
The celestial luminaries.
I. Display the DIVINE WISDOM. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psa 19:1). M. Comte believed they declared no other glory than that of Hipparchus, Kepler, Newton, and their successors. Newton agreed with the Hebrew poet (vid. Expos. on Gen 1:16). The astronomical argument in behalf of theism has always been impressive, if not absolutely conclusive. Certainly, granting the Divine existence, nowhere does God’s glory shine out more conspicuously; and perhaps the attribute which most imperiously arrests attention is that of wisdom. This would seem to be the aspect of the Divine glory which a contemplation of the midnight heavens discovered to the writer of Psa 104:1-35. (vid. Psa 104:24, which is introduced after a poetic version of the fourth day’s work) and of Psa 136:1-26. (vid. Psa 136:7 in the same connection; cf. Pro 3:19; Pro 8:27; Jer 51:15). Many things about the orbs of heaven evince their Creator’s wisdom: these specially
1. Their formation, as explained by the highly credible teachings of physical astronomy.
2. Their varietiesconsisting of sun, moon, planets, comets, nebulas.
3. Their motions: in elliptical and parabolic orbits.
4. Their dispositions: the suns, moons, and planets in systems; the stars in constellations, clusters, galaxies.
II. Attest the DIVINE GOODNESS. Displayed chiefly by the threefold purpose the celestial orbs were designed to serve:
1. To give light upon the earth. Even the stars could scarcely be dispensed with without a sense of loss. Feeble as their light is, owing to their immense distance from the earth, they are yet invaluable to voyagers and travelers (Act 27:20). Still less could the moon‘s light, so pale and silvery in its whiteness, be spared. The night without its chaste beams would be shrouded in thick gloom, while with them an air of cheerfulness is imparted to the darkened earth. And, of course, least of all could the sun be wanted.
2. To distinguish day and night. The beneficence of this arrangement appears by reflecting on the inconvenience of either of the other two alternatives, perpetual day and perpetual night. The disadvantages of the latter have been indicated; those of the former are scarcely less numerous. The alternation of darkness
(1) Introduces variety in nature, which is always pleasing. Continuous day would be in danger of becoming monotonous, at least in this mundane world, if not in the celestial (Isa 60:20; Rev 22:5).
(2) Meets the necessities of creature life, by supplying constantly-recurring periods of repose, which are eminently beneficial for the growth of plants, animals, and man. “Vegetable sleep is that relaxation of the vital processes which is indicated by the folding together and drooping of the leaves as night approaches”. The animal tribes generally, with the exception of the wild beasts (Psa 104:20), seek repose with the shades of evening. And man, without the recuperative slumber which darkness brings, would speedily exhaust his energies.
(3) Solemnizes the mind of man, by suggesting thoughts of his frailty, of his end in the sleep of death, but also of his resurrection to the light of a better morning.
3. To mark times and seasons. That the different seasons of the year are somehow connected with the celestial bodies is perhaps all that the Mosaic narrative can be made to teach. But we know them to be dependent on the earth’s revolution round the sun. And the fact that God has so arranged the earth’s relation to the sun as to produce these seasons is a signal proof of the Divine goodness. Another is that God has so fixed and determined their movements as to enable man to measure time by their means. Without the help of sun, moon, and stars chronology would be impossible.
III. Proclaim the DIVINE POWER. More than any other science, astronomy enables us to realize the physical omnipotence of the Deity. Imagination becomes bewildered by the effort to represent the quantity of force required to propel a globe like our earth through the depths of splice at the immense velocity of 65,000 miles an hour. What, then, must be the strength of that arm which, in addition, hurls Jupiter, equal in weight to 1400 earths, along his orbit with a velocity of 29,000 miles an hour? And not Jupiter alone, but suns immensely greater, at rates of motion that transcend conception. Well said Job (Gen 26:14). Yet, perhaps, the Divine power is as much evinced by the perpetuation of these celestial masses and movements as by their first production. Not only has God made the sidereal firmament, with its stupendous globes and amazing velocities, but he has so established them that since the beginning they have kept on their mystic paths without rebellion and without confusion (Psa 147:5).
IV. Reflect the DIVINE BEAUTY. Perhaps glory is the better word. The counterpart of glory in the Creator is beauty in the creature. The celestial luminaries were approved as good, doubtless, for their uses, but likewise for themselves, as being of incomparable splendor. “God hath made everything beautiful in his time” (Ecc 3:11). Nothing that God does make can be otherwise than beautiful; and by their splendor, their order, their unity, they seem to mirror forth the majesty, and purity, and oneness of him to whom they owe their being.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen 1:14-19
The fourth day.
Notice
I. GOD PREPARES HEAVEN AND EARTH FOR MAN. Light needed for the vegetable world. But when the higher life is introduced, then there is an order which implies intelligence and active rational existence. The signs are for those that can observe the signs. The seasons, days, and years for the being who consciously divides his life.
II. THE LUMINARIES ARE SAID TO RULE THE DAY AND NIGHT. The concentration of light is the appointed method of its diffusion, and adaptation to the purposes of man’s existence. So in the moral world and in the spiritual world. There must be rule, system, diversities of gifts, diversities of operations. Distinctions of gloryof the sun, moon, stars. As the light, so is the rule. Those possessed of much power to enlighten others ought to be rulers by their Divinely-appointed place and work. But all the light which flows from heavenly bodies has first been communicated to them. We give out to others what we receive.
III. This setting out of time reminds us that THE EARTHLY EXISTENCE IS NOT SUPREME, but ruled over until it is itself lifted up into the higher state where day and night and diurnal changes are no more. The life of man is governed here largely by the order of the material universe. But as he grows into the true child of God he rises to a dominion over sun, moon, and stars.
1. Intellectual. By becoming master of many of the secrets of nature.
2. Moral. The consciousness of fellowship with God is a sense of moral superiority to material things. The sanctified will and affections have a sphere of rule wider than the physical universe, outlasting the perishable earth and sky.
3. Spiritual. Man is earthly first, and then heavenly. Human nature is developed under the rule of sun, moon, and stars. In the world where there shall be no more night the consciousness of man will be that of a spirit, not unwitting of the material, but ruling it with angelic freedom and power.R.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 1:14. And God said, Let there be lights The Almighty now proceeds to furnish the heaven, or expanse of air, after having furnished the earth; and so to complete his inanimate creation. The light, by whatever means till now sustained, was to be collected; or, at least, two great bodies were to be formed, as instruments of the diffusal of it; as lamps, if I may so speak, hung up in the firmament, to enlighten the earth by day and night. For the word translated lights, meoroth, signifies luminaries, or instruments of conveying and diffusing light: and consequently, on this interpretation, no objection can arise from the moon’s being an opaque body; since Moses says not, that it is a luminous one; any more than a lamp or chandelier is luminous in itself, though it is the instrument of holding or diffusing light.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 1:14 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: Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Ver. 14,15. Let there be light. ] The sun, moon, and stars, are, as it were, certain vessels, whereinto the Lord did gather the light, which before was scattered in the heavens. The sun, that prince of planets, but servant to the saints of the Most High, as his name imports, a cometh “out of his chamber as a bridegroom, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race”; Psa 119:5 this he doth with such a wonderful swiftness, as exceedeth the eagle’s flight, more than it goeth beyond the slow motion of a snail: and with such incomparable “sweetness,” Ecc 11:7 that Eudoxus, the philosopher, professed that he would be willing to be burnt up by the sun presently, so he might be admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it. In aeternum atri et tetri sunto et habentor, qui non tam cute quam corde Aethiopici, Solem quo magis luceat, eo magis execrentur! b Chrysostom c cannot but wonder, that whereas all fire tends upwards, the sun should shoot down his rays to the earth, and send his light abroad all beneath him. This is the Lord’s own work, and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes. Deu 4:19 It illuminates and beautifies all the orbs and heavenly bodies about it; yea, it strikes through the firmament, in the transparent parts, and seeks to bestow his beauty and brightness even beyond the heavens. It illightens even the opposite part of heaven (gliding by the sides of the earth) with all those glorious stars we see shining in the night. d Yea, it insinuates in every chink and cranny of the earth, and concurs to the making of those precious metals which lie in her bowels, besides those “precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and the precious things thrust forth by the moon.” Deu 33:14 For as the sun by warmth, so the moon by moisture, maketh the earth fruitful: whence also she hath her name in the Hebrew, , Jareach, from refreshing the earth with her cool influences. She is here called a “light,” and a “great light”: therefore she hath some light of her own, as the stars also have, besides what she borroweth of the sun; though not strong enough to rule the night without light from the sun. Galileo used perspectives to descry mountains in the moon; and some will needs place hell in the hollow of it. It is easy to discern that her body is not all alike lightsome, some parts being thicker and some thinner than others, and that the light of the sun falling on her is not alike diffused through her. It is sufficient that the Church looketh forth, at first, as the morning or day-dawning; she shall be “fair as the moon” at least in regard of sanctification, and (for justification) “clear as the sun,” and therefore to the devil and his angels “terrible as an army with banners.” Son 6:10 Clouded she may be, or eclipsed, but not utterly darkened, or denied of light. Astronomers e tell us, that she hath at all times as much light as in the full; but oftentimes a great part of the bright side is turned to heaven, and a lesser part to the earth. God seems therefore to have set it lowest in the heavens, and nearest the earth, that it might daily put as in mind of the constancy of the one and the inconstancy of the other; herself in some sort partaking of both, though in a different manner; of the one in her substance, of the other in her visage.
a of , Chald. ministravit.
b Plutarch.
c Chrysost., Hom. 8 ad pop. Antioch.
d Bolt. Walk with God.
e D. Hackwel’s Apolog. Preface.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 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.
Gen 1:14 for signs and for seasons and for days and years The heavenly lights were to mark feast days (cf. Gen 18:14; Leviticus 23; Deu 31:10) and cycles of rest, work, and worship (cf. Psa 104:19-23). The sun was created to divide the calendar and each day into segments of time to help humans fulfill all their responsibilities (i.e. physical and spiritual).
Gen 1:16 the two great lights. . .He made the stars also God is creator of the heavenly bodies (cf. Isa 40:26). They are not deities to be worshiped (Mesopotamian astral worship, cf. Deu 4:19; Eze 8:16) but physical servants (cf. Psa 19:1-6). This is a theological statement!
Gen 1:17-18 The parallel structure of the Hebrew implies three purposes in addition to Gen 1:14.
lights. Hebrew. m’aor = lightholders or luminaries (Exo 25:6; Exo 27:20; Exo 35:14, &c. Compare Gen 1:3).
signs. Hebrew. ‘oth = things to come (Jer 10:2).
seasons. Hebrew. mo’ed, appointed times (from y’ed, to appoint). Occurs only 3 more times in Genesis. See Gen 17:21; Gen 18:14; Gen 21:2.
Let there: Deu 4:19, Job 25:3, Job 25:5, Job 38:12-14, Psa 8:3, Psa 8:4, Psa 19:1-6, Psa 74:16, Psa 74:17, Psa 104:19, Psa 104:20, Psa 119:91, Psa 136:7-9, Psa 148:3, Psa 148:6, Isa 40:26, Jer 31:35, Jer 33:20, Jer 33:25
lights: Or, rather, luminaries or light-bearers; being a different world from that rendered light, in Gen 1:3
the day from the night: between the day and between the night
and let: Gen 8:22, Gen 9:13, Job 3:9, Job 38:31, Job 38:32, Psa 81:3, Eze 32:7, Eze 32:8, Eze 46:1, Eze 46:6, Joe 2:10, Joe 2:30, Joe 2:31, Joe 3:15, Amo 5:8, Amo 8:9, Mat 2:2, Mat 16:2, Mat 16:3, Mat 24:29, Mar 13:24, Luk 21:25, Luk 21:26, Luk 23:45, Act 2:19, Act 2:20, Rev 6:12, Rev 8:12, Rev 9:2
Reciprocal: Gen 1:6 – Let there Gen 1:20 – open firmament Job 38:19 – the way Psa 19:4 – In them Psa 89:37 – ever Jon 2:10 – General Mat 15:2 – transgress 1Co 15:41 – General 2Co 4:6 – who 2Co 12:2 – third Jam 1:17 – from the
SUN AND MOON
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.
Gen 1:14
There are few words much oftener in our mouths than that short but most important word, Time. It is the long measure of our labour, expectation, and pain; it is the scanty measure of our rest and joy. And yet, with all this frequent mention of it, there are, perhaps, few things about which men really think less, few things upon which they have less real settled thought.
I. Two remarkable characteristics make up the best account which we can give of time. The one, how completely, except in its issue, it passes from us; the other, how entirely, in that issue, it ever abides with us. We are the sum of all past time. It was the measure of our opportunities, of our growth. Our past sins are still with us as losses in the sum of our lives. Our past acts of self-denial, our struggles with temptation, our prayers, our times of more earnest communion with God,these are with us still in the blessed work which the Holy Spirit has wrought within us.
II. Such thoughts should awaken in us: (1) deep humiliation for the past; (2) thankfulness for the past mercies of God; (3) calm trust and increased earnestness for the future.
Bishop S. Wilberforce.
Illustration
It is noticeable that while this chapter does not profess to be a scientific account of creation, not only is creation represented as a gradual process, but the simpler living forms are introduced first, and the more advanced afterwards, as the fossil remains of plants and animals prove to have been the case. God has seen fit to appoint, in the world of mind as well as of matter, great lights, and lesser lights, and least lights, answering to the daylight, moonlight, and starlight of the heavens.
God’s work on the fourth day lay outside the earth, though in its effects a powerful influence on the earth was exerted. On the first day light had shone upon the earth, and day had been divided from night, but we are not told just how this result had been produced. The light-bearing matter may have been diffused; if so, it was now concentrated into one “great light,” and the earth was set in relation to it. Also the “lesser light” was set in relation to the earth. They were now to give light not in a general way but specifically on the earth.
But more than this was included in God’s purpose as to them. They were to be “for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.” We are well aware that the times – whether days or years – and the seasons are determined by them but the fact of their being signs is perhaps not so familiar to us. Yet there are illustrations of it in Scripture, such as Jos 10:12-14; 2Ki 20:8-11. There is also the Lord’s prediction in Luk 21:25. The beginning of Psa 19:1-14 points in the same direction.
Then again, they were to rule the day and the night respectively. From the outset the earth was placed under the rule and control of heaven, even as regards the action of inanimate matter, so that in this these heavenly bodies become a sign that “the heavens do rule” (Dan 4:26), and a faint prophecy of “the kingdom of heaven,” of which we read in the Gospel of Matthew. The sad fact confronts us that fallen man soon perverted all this, and began to worship these lights as though they were creator and not creature, thereby changing God’s truth into a lie. Rom 1:25 refers to this, we believe.
At the end of verse Gen 1:16 we have three words – “the stars also” – and with this brief mention they are dismissed. The ancients were acquainted only with those visible to the unaided eye, but those they did see they misused in the attempt to foretell the future, and astrology aided many heathen practices. Here we are simply told that they are the creatures of God’s hand.
It is worthy of note that here the two “lights” are not named. The word “sun” does not occur until Gen 15:12 is reached, and the first mention of “moon” is in Gen 37:9, where sun, moon and stars appear together, and their symbolic meanings are fixed in connection with the family – the original and most primitive unit of government in the earth. Jacob, the patriarch was supreme in his family. The mother reflected his authority, and was secondary. The brethren were entirely subordinate. Sun, moon and stars symbolize authority, supreme, secondary and subordinate, and this right through Scripture.
Again we have the words, “and God saw that it was good.” That creation should be under authority and control was good. We find, alas! that man, when created as the head of things, soon repudiated the Divine authority and plunged into lawlessness, which is sin. That emphatically is not good, but it should make every believer keenly realize how important it is to be subject in all things to the authority of the word of God.
The rule of heaven being thus established, God proceeded on the fifth day to bring into being an order of life much higher than the vegetable kingdom of the third day. Moving creatures that had life now appear, to fill the seas and the air immediately above the earth. The word translated “whales” simply means monsters that inhabit the waters, whether seas or rivers. All these too, like the herb and tree previously, are made after their kind, and are bidden to reproduce themselves and multiply.
In verse Gen 1:21 we get the word “created” for the second time. It appeared in verse Gen 1:1, the original creation of the heaven and the earth. The intervening verses have told us what God made out of His original creation. Why does the word occur again here? We believe, because here the waters were commanded to bring forth “the moving creature that hath life.” We see nutrition growth and reproduction in the vegetable kingdom. Here we see another order of things altogether, creatures with powers of sensation and of voluntary motion. Indeed the word translated “creature” in verses Gen 1:20-21 is really “soul.” On this fifth day then there was the introduction of a higher form of life, involving soul, so this was distinctly and properly creation.
As the result then of God’s work on the fifth day both the waters and the air were furnished with living souls, that would be fruitful and multiply until both were filled.
In the early part of the sixth day God similarly furnished the earth with living souls, both beast and cattle and also creeping things. We notice that God made them: it does not say that He created them. Though so different externally from the denizens of the waters and the air, they were still only “living souls,” and hence the word created is only used when first “soul” was created as distinct from matter.
We notice too that in both verses Gen 1:24-25 the “beast of the earth” is distinguished from the “cattle.” We gather from this that originally, and before sin came in, God designed certain animals to be specially for the upkeep and benefit of the man He was about to create. After sin came in the beasts developed their wild and savage nature, while the cattle remained comparatively docile and useful to man.
Man was to be the climax of all this work of God, and before the sixth day closed he appeared.
Verses Gen 1:26-28 are of the deepest importance, and for the third time in this chapter we get the word created. This is because once more a totally fresh element was introduced, though we do not find it mentioned until Gen 2:7 is reached. Man possesses spirit by the inbreathing of God. We may say therefore that in Gen 1:1-31 we get three acts of creation. First, the original creation of matter. Second, the creation of soul. Third, the creation of spirit, which is man’s prerogative as far as this world is concerned, since the creation of angels is outside the range of this chapter. All three acts bear upon man, for he possesses spirit, he is a living soul; his body is composed of terrestrial matter.
Verse Gen 1:26 shows us that from the outset man was the subject of Divine consultation or counsel. That God should say, “Let US,” is worthy of note. Elohim is, as we have said, a plural Name. In the Old Testament the three Persons in the Godhead are not revealed, but now that They are revealed we can see that, inspired of God, the language of our chapter is quite consistent therewith. There was present to the Divine mind all that man would turn out to be, and he was only brought into existence after this consultation within the Godhead Himself. In verse Gen 1:26 it is “Our image:” in verse Gen 1:27 it is “His image.” There is no incongruity for it is the eternal “Three in One” who speaks.
Man was treated in both the image and the likeness of God. The former word seems to be used in Scripture for that which represents unseen realities. The images of the heathen world represented their gods, without necessarily being like them, for indeed they had never seen the demons they worshipped by means of the images that represented them to their eyes. Man was made, then, to represent God to the lower creation over which he was set. But he was also made after the likeness of God; that is, he was really like God in certain important respects. Not in all respects of course, for God is infinitely holy and man was merely innocent. Still man was God’s “offspring” (Act 17:28, Act 17:29), a spirit being, though clothed in a body of flesh and blood, and hence with intelligence and moral sensibilities, which are a reflection of that which subsists on an infinite scale in God Himself.
Here let us pause a moment that we may realize the frightful debasement in both mind and morals which must flow from the degrading theory that man is only an improved ape, or come up from the protozoa, that are supposed to have existed in primordial slime, millions of years ago. Evolutionary theories have about them the fatal fascination of enabling their adherents to ignore the fall of man, and the state of sin in which he is found. What the Bible calls sin they regard as being merely unpleasing traces of animal ancestry manifesting themselves. The past 80 to 90 years have witnessed two things: the revival of the theory of evolution under the speculations of Darwin, which enables men to theorize on their ascent; and the descent of the more civilized peoples, where the theory has been mainly propagated, to a level of savagery and bestiality, far below the level of the heathen. This has been seen more particularly in the past ten years.
NO! Man was created in the image and likeness of God, and his present condition of sin and degradation is the fruit of a great spiritual catastrophe, which is on record in Gen 3:1-24. He is now a fallen sinner; he never was an exalted ape.
Another thing about man confronts us in verses Gen 1:26; Gen 1:28 he was created to hold dominion over the lower creation. In this feature he appears to be unique. There are rulers in the angelic world – “principality, and power, and might, and dominion” (Eph 1:21) – but their rule only extends over beings of their own order. Dealing with angels, Heb 1:14 asks, “Are they not all ministering spirits?” Yes, all, even to the archangel himself, were created to serve. As far as Scripture informs us, only man was made to have dominion over others.
This is deeply interesting for it shows us that the Second Man was before God from the outset. The defection of the first man did not take God by surprise. When God said, “Let us make man,” He knew what was involved. Man was not to be a mere machine, or unintelligent and irresponsible like the brute creation, but a moral agent capable of representing God, but capable also of rebellion against Him. As the fruit of sin man has lost control of himself and misused his dominion, but God’s original thought for man is going to be realized on a vastly larger and grander scale in the Son of Man, who is the last Adam. Psa 8:1-9 envisages this glorious prospect.
Verse Gen 1:27 states that duality characterizes man. It says that God created “him; male and female created He them.” This fact is elaborated in Gen 2:1-25, but the few words here show us how closely male and female are identified. The word, “man” covers both, and jointly they were to have the dominion, though the male from the outset was given the leading place. From the outset too they were blessed by God and bidden to multiply and replenish the earth. Before sin came in therefore children were in God’s purpose for them.
The closing verses of the chapter show that the vegetable kingdom was designed to provide food for both man and beast. After the flood animal food was given to man – see, Gen 9:3, Gen 9:4. Before sin came in, and death by sin, no animal was to be slain for man’s food.
With the creation of man – male and female – and his being set in dominion and blessed, the work of the sixth day reached its end. As it concluded, God surveyed all that He had made. Six times already we have been told that God saw it was good, now on this seventh occasion, when the whole was inspected, we are told that all was very good. Let us take note of this for it demolishes at one blow the whole system of error, miscalled “Christian Science,” which has, as one of its most fundamental dogmas, the idea that matter is evil and only spirit is good. The truth is the exact opposite of this, for when evil entered it came in by way of spirit and not matter.
We have seen that this chapter, from the first verse onwards, refutes Unitarianism, for GOD – Elohim – in the plural occurs no less than 32 times. We have seen how it refutes Evolution, for every species reproduces itself “after his kind.” We have just seen how Christian Science is refuted; and now as we open Gen 2:1-25, we meet with a statement that reinforces what has been apparent all through Gen 1:1-31; namely, that God is outside and above all that He created and made. Thus, on the seventh day when creation was what we may call “a going concern,” God is said to have rested. Thus Pantheism – the idea that God is only to be conceived of as immanent in creation, pervading all nature – is wholly denied. He may indeed act in nature, but He is transcendent, essentially above it in Person and Being.
Gen 2:1-3, really belongs to Gen 1:1-31, and completes the paragraph. The seventh day was a day of rest for God. His work had involved both creating and making, but all was now complete, and evidently He has not set His hand to work of that order from that time until now. The entrance of sin necessitated His taking up work of another order, and the Lord Jesus alluded to this in saying, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (Joh 5:17).
Thus the seventh day was specially blessed and set apart, and we may say that a seventh day of rest after six days of work is a thought that dates back to the very beginning of man’s history. The word “sabbath” does not occur until we reach Exo 16:23, where it designates the seventh day after the manna was given. After that the law was given, and this “sabbath” – this “ceasing” as the word means – became a legal institution for Israel, and a sign between them and the Lord for ever, as stated in Exo 31:17. Heb 4:4-10 also alludes to this, and evidently Israel will yet enjoy her sabbath in the millennial age; God thus redeeming the sign He had given.
The sabbath was never given as a sign to the Church. In Christ we have not the sign but the things signified. The Seventh Day Adventist would put us back under the law, and into the comparative darkness of Judaism, ignoring the fact that for us the new moons and sabbath days are over, as indicated in Col 2:16. Nevertheless we are as Christians very thankful to be able to observe one day’s rest in seven, as indicated from creation, and to have that day of rest on the first of the week, the day when our Saviour rose from the dead.
Gen 1:14-15. Let there be lights, &c. God had said, Gen 1:3, Let there be light; but that was, as it were a chaos of light, scattered and confused: now it was called and formed into several luminaries, and so rendered more glorious, and more serviceable. Let them be for signs,
An horologe machinery divine!
to mark and distinguish periods of time, longer or shorter; epochas, ages, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes. For seasons By their motions and influences, to produce and distinguish the different seasons of the year, mentioned Gen 8:22. To give light upon the earth That man, and other creatures, might perform their offices by its help, as the duty of each day required; as well as to call forth the moisture and genial virtue of the earth, in order to the production of trees, plants, fruits, and flowers, for the profit and pleasure of both man and beast.
Gen 1:14-19. The second set of four works on the last three days corresponds to the set of four on the first three. Thus we have the creation of light and of the luminaries; the firmament separating the upper from the lower waters, and the birds which fly across the firmament and the fish in the sea; the appearance of the land and creation of land animals; finally the creation of herbs and fruit, and the creation of man, who till the Flood subsists entirely upon these.
The heavenly bodies are described as they appear to us. hence the stars are a mere appendix to the two great lights, added almost as an after-thought, possibly by some scribe or reader. The plain meaning of the passage is that the lights were created on the fourth day, not that they had been created before and only then became visible! They are attached to the firmament, and serve as lamps for the earth. They also regulate the festivals and other occasions, secular as well as sacred, and the divisions between day and night, and they determine the length of the year. They serve, moreover, as signs, perhaps in the astrological sense as foreshadowing the future. But they are not to be worshipped, nor are they even represented here, as often in Scripture, as animated beings (Gen 1:21*).
1:14 And God said, Let there be {k} lights in the firmament of the heaven to {l} divide the day from the night; and let them be for {m} signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
(k) By the lights be means the sun, the moon, and the stars.
(l) Which is the artificial day, from the sun rising, to the going down.
(m) Of things belonging to natural and political orders and seasons.
The fourth day 1:14-19
The luminaries served four purposes.
1. They distinguished day from night.
2. They provided signs.
3. They distinguished the seasons.
4. They illuminated the earth.
"The narrative stresses their function as servants, subordinate to the interests of the earth. . . . This differs significantly from the superstitious belief within pagan religion that the earth’s destiny is dictated by the course of the stars." [Note: Mathews, p. 154.]
"Here is a stern warning for our times for any who would seek the stars in charting their lives." [Note: Ibid., p. 155.]
"The term ’signs’ has been given special attention by the author elsewhere in the Pentateuch. For example, the so-called ’plagues’ of Egypt are, in fact, called ’signs’ by the author of the Pentateuch (e.g., Deu 29:2-3). The meaning given this term in the Exod account . . . is that the acts of God in the bringing of disorder upon the Egyptians were ’signs’ that God was more powerful and majestic than the Egyptians’ gods. This sense of the term ’signs’ fits well in Gen 1:14. The author says that not only are the sun and moon to give light upon the land but they are to be visual reminders of the power and majesty of God. They are ’signs’ of who the God of the covenant is. The [sic] are ’telling of the glory of God,’ as the psalmist puts it (Psa 19:1). Not only does the term ’signs’ serve as a reminder of the greatness and glory of God for the author of the Pentateuch, ’signs’ are also a frequent reminder in the Pentateuch of his grace and mercy (Genesis 4, 9, 17)." [Note: Sailhamer, "Exegetical Notes . . .," p. 79.]
Moses did not mean that they were the signs of the zodiac or astrological signs. Why did Moses use the terms greater and lesser lights to describe the sun and moon (Gen 1:16)? He probably did so because these Hebrew words, which are very similar in other Semitic languages, are also the names of pagan gods. [Note: Hamilton, p.127. See G. Hasel, "The Polemical Nature of the Genesis Cosmology," Evangelical Quarterly 46 (1974):81-102.] He wanted the Israelites to appreciate the fact that their God had created the entities their pagan neighbors worshipped as gods.
"This, the fourth day, is the only day on which no divine word subsequent to the fulfillment is added. On days 1-3 this divine word names the created objects (Gen 1:5; Gen 1:8; Gen 1:10); on days 5-6 the creatures are blessed (Gen 1:22; Gen 1:28). The omission may be just elegant stylistic variation, or it may be a deliberate attempt to avoid naming ’sun’ and ’moon’ with their connotations of deity." [Note: Wenham, p. 23.]
The Hebrew word translated "seasons" appears elsewhere in the Pentateuch. It means "appointments," but the translators have also rendered it "feasts" in Leviticus.
"They [the sun and moon] were not mere lights or reminders of God’s glory, they were, as well, calendars for the celebration of the covenant. The world is made for the [Mosaic] covenant. Already at creation, the land was being prepared for the covenant." [Note: Sailhamer, "Exegetical Notes . . .," p. 80.]
The writer’s perspective throughout is geocentric rather than heliocentric. He used phenomenological language (of appearance) that is very common in the Old Testament. Even modern scientific textbooks use such language without fear of being criticized as unscientific when they refer to sunrise, sunset, etc. Perhaps God created light on the first day (Gen 1:3), but then on the fourth day the sun, moon, and stars appeared distinctly for the first time. [Note: Idem, The Pentateuch as Narrative, p. 93.]
Creationists have proposed several solutions to the problem of how light from stars that are millions of light years away could get to Adam if the universe was only days old. These explanations are too involved to discuss here, but I have included some sources for further study in the following footnote. [Note: D. Russell Humphreys, Starlight and Time, discussed five creationist models. See also Ham, et al., pp. 18, 187-95; "’Distant Starlight’ Not a Problem for a Young Universe" DVD featuring Dr. Jason Lisle.] I think the best explanation is the appearance of age. As God created humans, plants, and animals fully formed, so He created the light from distant stars already visible on the earth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)