Genesis 1:1–16

The opening sentence of the Bible sets us in the presence of God, the infinite source of all true blessedness. There is no elaborate argument in proof of the existence of God. The Holy Spirit would never take up such a task. God reveals Himself. He makes Himself known by His works.

For the believer this is a simple yet deep truth: everything that exists had a beginning. If God says it, the believer sees that nothing else can be true. Every effect must have a cause. But at its best, reasoning can go no further than this: it can say, "There must be a First Cause." It can never say, "There is one." God alone can say that, and He does.

A creation that always existed, matter that always existed — this is untrue and impossible. It contradicts thought itself, even without the word of God to teach us. God has all power, and He creates if He pleases. That is the whole truth of it… So creation was free to God, not something He had to do. It came when He pleased and as He pleased. And He was pleased to create. Creation exists.

In grammar, "dual" means two, so "plural" means three or more. Yet the verb "created" beside this plural name is singular! Why this apparent breach of grammar? The reason seems clear. At the very start of what we learn about God, we get a hint of a truth revealed openly later: He is a Trinity in Unity — three Persons, yet one God.

Take the plural form of the word and its link with singular verbs. Would it not be closer to the truth to say this? We cannot call it a revelation of the Trinity. Yet it is still a way of speaking that shows the Holy Spirit, the third Person, had the Trinity in mind. He used words whose full force we could only grasp once God had revealed that truth.

God created, as Genesis 1:1 tells us. But where Scripture sets the Persons apart, as it does here, it credits creation not to the Father but to the Son. The Son — whom we know as our Lord Jesus — was the mighty One at work in those scenes of creation, splendid beyond anything we can imagine.

There is a vast difference between "In the beginning God created" and "in the beginning was." The first tells us when created things started. The second points to Him who already existed when everything else began.

Take the six days however you like. On sound principles of reading, no one can deny two things. The first day begins with light. And the first two verses stand apart from the work of the six days, both in what they describe and in how they say it… "In the beginning" carries its own meaning. It is not tied to "the days" at all, except as the revealed start of God's creation.

In our human nature there is a thirst to know where things came from. God gave us that thirst, and God answers it. He does so in the first sentence of His own revelation to mankind… Some may ask and argue over how God could create so vast a universe. Faith believes what the word of God says.

Now who but an inspired man would have so written? The lower your view of Israel — an unlettered people, even rough and uncivilised — the greater the wonder. Did Egypt teach this, or Babylon? Did Greece or Rome? How did Moses come to declare the fact as he writes it? ... Any living man, judging by what everyone can see, has always regarded the sun as the great source of light. If the writing had been his, he would have spoken first of that bright orb. In other words, the work of the fourth day would more reasonably have taken the place of the first. That is what the philosophers taught for ages afterwards. But the truth is not so.

Darkness, no doubt through angelic sin, had entered His creation. As He moved with feeling over the scene, He commands, "Let there be light." This was creative power — the prerogative of God Himself. But it also says, "God saw the light, that it was good" — the first moral pronouncement of Scripture! "And God divided the light from the darkness."

A wrecked life lies hopeless in a gloom that, as far as its own efforts go, must be eternal. Over that life the Spirit of God in brooding love flashes out the knowledge of the presence of God Himself: "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts." The light here shows nothing but itself, in which God can find pleasure: "God saw the light that it was good." He can only divide it from all that is not light, calling the one "day" and the other "night."

So God divided the light from the darkness. There was to be no compromise, no mixture, no vague twilight. For a season the darkness was to give way fully to light, and so there was a division between them. So there was evening and there was morning — a first day.

Earlier in this book we noticed that God called the light good, but said nothing like this of the darkness. In nature, darkness is a real benefit. After the toil of the day comes the rest and peace of night. But in a spiritual sense, Scripture treats darkness as a picture of evil. That is why Genesis 1:4 does not call it "good," as it calls the light good.

God did not say, "Let darkness be removed," but "Let there be light." The positive radiance of light drives out the darkness. So too, the light of God entering someone's soul drives out his moral and spiritual darkness. "God saw the light, that it was good." ... Then God divided the light from the darkness. So we know there was light before God set the sun in its place to rule over the day. In a spiritual sense this reminds us that light has entered the soul of every believer. Even so, night experiences will still come, because the fleshly nature is still in us, and its very character is darkness.

All is divine. God said, God saw, God called. His thoughts, words, and acts are presented throughout. ... How noticeable it is, too, that God gives everything its name! He calls as well as makes all things. Night and day, heaven, earth, and seas all receive their names as well as their existence from Him. What was for man's use, and to be put under man's control, is left for him to name.

We have now had five things before us that were named by God Himself. We note this because of what comes next. In the next chapter God brings to Adam the living creatures He had made on the fifth and sixth days, so that he might give them names... So God let Adam show his powers of discernment in many a smaller detail. But these five things he had to accept as named by God — Day, Night, Heaven, Earth, Seas.

Notice that the first day does not begin before the light, but with it. Otherwise it could not begin with evening, for evening implies light already there. But the light strangely comes only to fade and darken into night. Through that it reaches its morning by a kind of new birth, when (for that day, of course) the darkness is wholly past.

For a long time unbelievers took great exception to this statement of verse 5, because the sun does not appear until the fourth day. But the sun is not the only source of light.

The question is raised whether the days of Genesis 1 are literal, or figurative — vast periods of time... For ourselves, we believe it is to be understood literally. The figurative sense does occur in Scripture — "man's day," "the day of salvation." But that sense is clearly a secondary one. The literal sense is the primary... The repetition of "the evening and the morning" fits the primary meaning, and would have very little meaning in the secondary sense. Further, in verse 16 the sun is made to rule the day and the moon to rule the night, and we do not see how the primary sense can be avoided.

If the Scriptures were uninspired, we would surely have reversed the order and written that the morning and the evening were the first day. Man's mind runs naturally to morning first and then evening. We speak of the morning of life, and of the evening of life. For man, darkness follows light.

Practically, the day is not all light; "evening and morning" make it up. Yet though darkness in itself is "night," it is worth noticing something. Once light has come in, it is never simple, absolute night any more, but "evening." There are always some rays of the day. And in God's order, evening surely gives way to morning... its promise of the perfect "day" is never realised until God's work is finished and His Sabbath is reached. Then indeed there is no more evening, or morning either, but "day," without mixture or decline.

Here we have the two great symbols so widely used throughout the Word. The presence of light makes the day; its absence makes the night. So it is in the history of souls. There are "the sons of light" and "the sons of darkness." This is a very marked and solemn distinction.

The Hebrew word translated "firmament" would be better given as "expanse," as it is marked in the reference column in some editions of our Bibles. The word "firmament" comes from the Vulgate translation of the Bible in Latin by Jerome, and is unfortunate. The idea came to him from the ancients. Greek and Roman philosophies described heaven as forming a solid vault over the earth.

A solid vault is out of the question… The Scriptures really present the heavens as spread out, and the earth hung upon nothing. They nowhere support the crude idea of stars fastened like brass nails on a metal vault.

On the second day God called a "firmament," or "expanse," into being; a further division, not now of light from darkness but of waters from waters. God called this expanse, Heaven. In verse 1 "the heaven" means what we should call the starry heavens. In verse 8 it means the atmospheric heavens… As a result of the work of the second day, an atmosphere surrounded the earth. He did it by His word, "God said … and it was so."

The New Testament tells how Paul was caught up into the third heaven… Here God made another heaven, since man was about to be made. There is the heaven of His presence. There is the heaven of the stars, planets, and other objects in space. And there is the atmospheric heaven that man and living things here below need.

The waters upon the earth are the salt, bitter waters of the ocean; while those above, though drawn from the ocean, are perfectly fresh. It is beautiful to see how these waters in vast and inconceivable volume are suspended in those "balancing clouds" which lift them above the earth and yet hold them in connection with it, ever ready to pour down in beneficent rain the treasures which they hold.

God drew man's attention to His thoughtful and almighty goodness when He separated "waters from waters." Otherwise endless mist would have filled the space above the earth, without the right mixture of gases that makes up the air every living thing needs. To the air's work, with other causes God set up, we owe clouds, rain, and evaporation. It also bends and reflects light, softening it, which adds much to the beauty and usefulness of creation. Without it a black sky would have cast a constant shadow over the earth.

Nothing new was made on the second day. God separated the waters above from the waters below, leaving the heavens free as an expanse between them. But no new substance was created, so the day is not said to be very good.

If the first day pictures God beginning His work in a soul by new birth, the second day shows a person made to look up. True blessing comes from above, and so does authority… All below may look like a watery waste with no order. Yet if the believer is refreshed by the pure water of God's word from above, in true subjection to the Lord Jesus, his life can change greatly from disorder into calm, orderly obedience.

It is now widely known — and the most competent Hebrew scholars said so long before modern science existed — that "expanse" is the real force of the original word, not "firmament." That word came to us through the Latin Vulgate, and seems to come from the Greek Septuagint... The way the word is used in this chapter itself (verses 15, 17, 20, 28) proves that it means the open, transparent sky, whatever readers may have misunderstood at any time.

From this point God begins to work again. We read not only of God creating (Gen. 1:21, 27) but of His making (Gen. 1:7, 16, 25), and finally of His forming man (Gen. 2:7). The last two words apply when the question is not producing something out of nothing. They speak of shaping matter that already exists into fresh forms of order and beauty.

On the second day God called a "firmament," or "expanse," into being. As a result a further division took place — not now of light from darkness, but of waters from waters. In verse 1 "the heaven" means what we should call the stellar heavens. In verse 8 it means the atmospheric heavens. There immense quantities of water float above in the form of clouds, divided from the far greater quantities lying on the earth beneath. The work of the second day surrounded the earth with an atmosphere. His word accomplished it: "God said … and it was so."

The waters upon the earth are the salt, bitter waters of the ocean, while those above, though drawn from the ocean, are perfectly fresh. This is a true picture of what the expanse of the atmosphere is: a separation between the waters on the earth and those in the heavens, not a hard and fast line. It can be filled with vapour, and yet in general it arches above us, making a true separation, just as Scripture describes here.

God drew man's attention to His thoughtful and almighty goodness when He separated "waters from waters." Otherwise the space above the earth would have been filled with constant vapour. It would have lacked the right mixture of gases that makes up the air, which all life on earth needs. To the workings of that air, with other causes God set in place, we owe the forming of clouds, the fall of rain and evaporation. To its power of bending and reflecting light we owe that softening of light which adds so much to the beauty and the usefulness of creation. Otherwise a black sky would have cast its constant covering over the earth.

Nothing was made the second day — that is, no new thing. The separation of waters above and below, leaving the heavens free as an expanse between, was not a new substance created, and so it is not said to be very good.

If the first day pictures God beginning His work in a soul by new birth, the second day shows that one has reason to look up and see that true blessing comes from above. And so authority comes from above too... All below may seem a watery waste with no order. Yet when a believer is refreshed by the pure water of God's word from above, in true subjection to the Lord Jesus, his life may be greatly changed from disorder into calm, orderly obedience, even when surrounded by the swelling seas of the world's confusion.

On the second day God brought a "firmament," or "expanse," into being. This made a further division — not light from darkness now, but waters from waters. God called this expanse Heaven. In verse 1 "the heaven" means what we would call the starry heavens. In verse 8 it means the atmospheric heavens. That is where huge amounts of water float above us as clouds, divided from the far greater amounts lying on the earth below. So the work of the second day left the earth wrapped in an atmosphere. He did it by His word: "God said … and it was so."

It is now widely known — and the best Hebrew scholars said so long before modern science existed — that "expanse" is the real force of the original word, not "firmament," which reached us through the old Latin translation, the Vulgate, and seems to come from the older Greek one, the Septuagint... The way the word is used in this very chapter (vv. 15, 17, 20, 28) is proof enough that it carries the idea of the open, clear sky, whatever readers may have misunderstood at any time.

The Hebrew word is raqia, meaning 'expanse.' It covers both the sky we see when we look up and the air in which the birds fly. We read that God called the expanse 'heaven.' This is 'heaven' in a broad sense, for elsewhere we read of 'the stars of heaven,' but also of 'the birds of heaven.'

We have now had five things before us, and God Himself gave the name to each. We note this because in the next chapter God brings the living creatures He had made on the fifth and sixth days to Adam, so that he might name them... God let Adam show his skill of discernment in many a smaller detail, but these five things he had to accept as named by God — Day, Night, Heaven, Earth, Seas.

The air's workings, with other causes God set in place, give us the forming of clouds, the fall of rain, and evaporation. Because the air bends and reflects light, we get that softening of light which adds beyond measure to the beauty of creation, and just as much to its usefulness. Otherwise a black sky would have hung over the earth like a constant shroud... And if dry land had survived anywhere, it must have been a dry, barren waste with no animal life and not a blade of grass.

God made nothing on the second day — that is, nothing new. Dividing the waters above from the waters below, and leaving the heavens free as an expanse between, created no new substance, so Scripture does not call it very good.

Nothing fills these heavens as yet but "waters" — waters above as well as below — the very picture of instability... And it seems telling that on this second day there is no voice of God calling "good" what is still for good. In His providence He may be working blessing through what He cannot bless in itself.

This heaven is clearly the atmospheric heaven, and the waters above are no doubt the waters held in the clouds... the second day shows us that we have reason to look up and see that true blessing comes from above, and so authority comes from above too. "The heavens do rule" (Dan. 4:26).

First He commands the waters under the heavens to gather into one place, so that dry land can appear. People have noticed that all the seas of the world connect with each other, while the land masses do not. Moses could not have known this unless God revealed it to him. For the dry land to appear, it had to rise above the level of the water. Deep water still covers much land. Dry land takes up less than a third of this planet's surface.

Sudden, extraordinary acts brought about what God then did for man. Slow, ordinary causes played their part too. But here we learn that God laid down the great landmarks that remain to this day.

Again on the third day there was division. The waters above the expanse stayed as they were. God gathered the waters beneath into one place, and dry land appeared. Solid, fixed ground now appeared where everything had been unsettled and moving.

We may well believe His word, since by the word of God all things came into being and continue... The word of God is the authority the believer needs, and the believer is called to obey it in faith. The ground of faith is: "The Lord has said."

This gathering of the waters into their own place begins the great period of earth's history that we still live in. Except for the flood, when water covered everything for a time, the dry land has always been visible... Notice that God's work from the beginning was work of separating. He separated light from darkness. He separated the waters above the expanse from the waters beneath. And here again He separates the dry land from the waves that had covered it and hidden it.

The "third day" speaks of resurrection to the Christian heart. Here it is marked by resurrection power: the earth comes up out of the waters. What can be worked and made fruitful now rises from under the waste of sea that could never be reclaimed. The sea is not removed, but bounded and restrained; it cannot return to cover the earth. God acknowledges that the sea exists. He names it for the first time. In the new earth there will be no sea.

It was like this with the darkness, and now it is like this with the waters. God does not remove them completely. He controls them and sets their limits. The same is true of everything that causes uncertainty, unrest and barrenness in the soul. God does not remove it. He gives it limits it cannot pass, so it can never again cover the ground.

This illustrates the relation of Israel to the nations. The sea is a picture of the nations, who are out of control. Daniel 7:3 tells us of four great beasts coming up from the sea. These are not real beasts or a real sea. They stand for four great world empires that rise up among the nations.

Everything is divine. God said, God saw, God called. We see His thoughts, words, and acts all the way through. And so everything is very good. Sadly, it is when the creature begins to act that everything is spoiled. Notice too how God gives everything its name! He calls as well as makes all things. Night and day, heaven, earth, and seas all receive their names from Him as well as their existence. God left man to name what was for man's use and under man's control.

There is another division in Genesis 1 besides creation and the days, made by the words "and God saw" and "it was good." First He creates. Then He separates the elements to make order out of disorder… Then water and dry land, giving each its name; and the world so prepared He pronounces "good." That is the first division — an ordered world.

The earth was to have, for the most part, the shape God saw best fitted for His new purpose. There would be vast continents and vaster oceans, islands large and small, lakes salt and fresh, mountains and rivers, plains and valleys. Deep and sudden upheaval, not just slow erosion, often shaped those valleys. In Hebrew usage the "seas" take in all large collections of water — oceans, seas, lakes, and even rivers… here we learn that God laid down the great landmarks that remain to this day.

It has been observed that all the seas of the world are connected, while all the land is not. Moses could never have known this unless God revealed it to him. For the dry land to appear it would have to be raised up above the level of the water. Some land remains covered by great depths of water, for the dry land on this planet takes up less than one third of its surface.

The "third day" speaks to the Christian heart of resurrection. Resurrection power marks it here: the earth comes up out of the waters. What can be worked on and made fruitful is now brought up from under the hopeless waste of sea. That sea is not removed, but bounded and restrained; it cannot return to cover the earth. Its existence is indeed openly recognised; it gets its name from God for the first time; in the new earth there will be none (Revelation 21:1). Meanwhile He lays the foundations of the earth, so that it should never be moved.

The land speaks of what is solid and stable, in contrast to the unstable mass of the waters of the oceans. The heaving waters speak of the flesh in its unstable emptiness, whether the flesh in unbelievers or in believers. In the same way, Revelation 17:15 speaks of the waters as "peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues." There you see the flesh in all its constant turmoil and disorder. These are the waters of the seas, in contrast to the waters from above — the rain that stands for the blessing of God by His word (Isaiah 55:10-11). This separation of earth from the waters God saw to be good.

No doubt in Genesis 1 the Earth refers to the whole land surface, just as the Seas refers to the oceans that circle the globe. But what does this division between the Earth and the Seas picture? The Earth stands for the land of Israel.

Every stage is produced by His Word. Each time, God speaks. This is not simply the unfolding of what was already hidden in the earliest seed. Step by step, God puts out His power and carries out plans that are wholly His own. "We are His workmanship" — the patient, perfect work of the wisdom of God — "created in Christ Jesus."

On the third day God speaks a second time. He commands the earth to "sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind." This settles any objection that the tree could not be there until the seed was planted. If God had wanted to create the seed first, He could easily have done so. But He commanded the earth's fruit to come out before any seed went into the ground. That was just as simple for Him as doing it the other way round.

The second point is this. As soon as this chapter touches life — life of the kind that reproduces its species, whether plant, tree, fish, bird, creeping thing, or cattle — it lays down the unchanging law that governs all such reproduction in three words: "after his kind." This points us to a fact that keeps proving itself in a thousand ways. Breeding and selection may modify a species within certain limits, but nothing can alter the species.

But what did this often-repeated phrase, "After his kind," mean? The Spirit of God surely meant something very definite by it. It states plainly that each species in nature is distinct from every other. One species never blends into another. Nothing in nature changes from one species into another.

But there is a second part of His work to notice: plant life for the earth as it now is, the kingdom that stands between minerals and animals. God commanded the earth to bring out grass, plants producing seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit after their kind, with their seed in them — and Scripture says it here with great emphasis. This is the true origin of plant species for the earth of Adam. God had pronounced the dry land and the seas good; now He says the same of the beautiful clothing of the dry land and the rich supplies for man and beast — food that at first was the only food even for man.

But God also stamped the third day at creation in a remarkable way. Before that day the waters of death covered everything. On that day the waters drew back, and living, fruitful things sprang out of the dry land... And twice on this day, and on this day only, we are told that "God saw that it was good." What could that be for, except to teach us that the third day — the day of life springing out of death — was good not only in creation, but also in resurrection?

On the third day He made the grass, the plants, and the fruit trees yielding after their kind, with their seed in them (Gen. 1:11; 2:5) — the day which points us to resurrection... The Seed of promise is CHRIST... and all in that line are "after their kind"; but death, being made alive, and resurrection were needed if lasting fruitfulness was to come.

God commanded the earth to bring out grass, plants that make seed, and fruit trees that bear fruit according to their kind, with the seed inside the fruit. The verse states this with great emphasis. This is the true origin of plant species for the earth of Adam. God had already called the dry land and the seas good. Now the beautiful clothing of that dry land is good as well, with its rich supplies for man and beast — at first the only food even for man.

In Genesis 1 the formula — "according to its kind" — appears ten times. It covers plants in verse 11, sea life and birds in verse 21, and last of all the beasts of the earth, the cattle and everything that creeps on the earth in verse 25. Why "according to its kind"? It leaves room for each species. The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not pair with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee. Man arranges the only hybrids in creation, and they are sterile and come to nothing.

The passage quoted makes it clear that God created plant life full-grown and mature… So the tree came before the seed, not the other way round. But evolution insists on a universal law of progress from "low to high," from immaturity to maturity, from the structureless cell to the perfect organization. We are asked to accept either an unproved theory or an inspired history, and here the believer has no choice.

God created life, and He keeps it going… We can see the wisdom of what He shows us in this day. How many wise men have dreamed and thought that the sun was the source of all life! Yet the plants were formed when the sun was not yet set to do its all-important work for the earth of man.

Before that day the waters of death covered everything. On that day the waters drew back, and living, fruitful things sprang out of the dry land… Twice on this day, and on this day only, Scripture says that "God saw that it was good." What can this be for, if not to teach us that the third day — the day of life springing out of death — was good not only as creation, but also as resurrection?

The grass, the plants and the fruit tree illustrate the development of spiritual life in the child of God. The fresh green grass reminds us of the freshness of the faith of "little children"… The plant yielding seed is a picture of the energy of the "young men"… The fruit tree shows the maturity of "fathers," who know the Lord Jesus in a settled way and bear fruit for Him freely.

There is progress; from grass and plant to "trees bearing fruit in which is their seed" — another beautiful picture. The fruit carries inside itself the power to reproduce. The fruit itself is for the Master's use, and it is well to remember that. The seed is in this fruit according to its kind — love to produce love, and so on. If we want to find love, we must show it. The riper the fruit is for the Master's taste, the riper the seed is too. The best ripe fruit is the fruit that has hung in the sun most.

People ask whether the days of Genesis 1 are literal days, or figures standing for immense periods of time... For ourselves, we believe they are literal. Scripture does use "day" in a figurative sense — "man's day," "the day of salvation," and so on. But that sense is clearly a secondary one, and the literal sense is the primary one... We must have the primary meaning settled before we can reach any secondary meaning at all, and Genesis 1 deals with primary things... The repetition of "there was evening and there was morning" fits the primary meaning, and would mean very little in the secondary sense.

The earth was now to take, for the most part, the form God saw best fitted for His new purpose: vast continents and vaster oceans, islands large and small, lakes salt and fresh, mountains and rivers, plains and valleys. Those valleys were not merely worn down by slow erosion, but often broken open deeply and suddenly... In Hebrew usage the word "seas" takes in all large collections of water — oceans, seas, lakes, and even rivers... here we learn that God laid down the great landmarks which abide to this day.

How absurd to take the third day before us and identify it with the Carboniferous age, the age that laid the basis for the coal beds! What real likeness is there between coal-plants and the grass, herb and tree, so clearly meant to feed animals, and above all man?... This is plainly not provision for coal, but for the food and refreshment of man and cattle, of bird and beast... For geologic eras it is a failure; for man's world it is the simple and fitting truth. It was plant-life for Adam's earth.

This is confirmed in Genesis 1 where the formula — "after his kind" — is repeated ten times. It is applied to the vegetable kingdom in verse 11, to the marine world in verse 21, and again to the winged birds in the same verse, and finally to the beasts of the earth and cattle and everything that creeps upon the earth in verse 25. Why "after his kind"? That clearly leaves room for each species. The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not consort with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee.

God also put a striking mark on the third day at creation. Before that day the waters of death covered everything. On that day the waters drew back, and living, fruitful things sprang out of the dry land... On this day, and on this day only, we are told twice that "God saw that it was good." Why twice? Surely to teach us that the third day, the day of life springing out of death, was good not only as to creation, but also as to resurrection.

Then as to the fruit. There is progress; from grass and herb to "fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, on the earth" — another beautiful figure that. The fruit carries within itself the power to keep itself going. The fruit is for the Master's use, and it is well to remember that. The seed is in this fruit according to its kind — love to produce love, and so on. If we want to find love, we must show it. And the riper the fruit is for the Master's taste, the riper the seed is also; the best ripe fruit is that which has hung in the sun most.

It is certainly not the creation of the sun and so on. Moses does not say that. He says only that God now set the heavenly lights in place, after the plants and before the animals, for the earth that man would live in. Light had shone in another way since the first day of the great week. Now He set the light-bearers of the heavens to do their assigned work, but it is for the earth, and indeed for man. Verse 1 already implied their creation, for God did not create either heaven or earth empty. And what would heaven be without its host? … On the fourth day He gave the lights of heaven their unhindered place, to divide the day from the night.

It is only their relation to man on earth that shows the exact fitness of the phrase "the two great lights." He who created all things and inspired Moses knew the size of every body in heaven better than Newton or Laplace. But think of what helps man on earth, and Israel especially, and every creature under them. For giving light by day and night, what were all the rest compared to the sun and moon?

Scripture says the lights in the expanse of the heavens are for "signs" as well as for "seasons." People have wrongly used this passage, treating the varied positions of the sun, moon and planets as a way to foretell events. Of what, then, are they signs? Psalm 19:1-6 perhaps answers that. The huge distances between the heavenly bodies, and the wonderful regularity of their movements, are a sign of the glory of the One who created them.

We see what a sign it was to Israel when Joshua said in their hearing, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon." In far different days the Lord spoke to sick Hezekiah, and gave him a sign in the shadow that went back ten steps on the dial of Ahaz. And what a sign again at the cross of the Messiah, when all was lost as far as man is concerned! Darkness covered all the land for three hours. A mere eclipse was impossible then.

No comment is needed on "seasons": man alone on earth understands and values these fitting, recurring times. The same Hebrew word means "the congregation" and "the solemn feast," as well as the season or appointed time at which they kept it. So "seasons" may have a sacred sense, but the more ordinary sense seems confirmed by what follows. Very little astronomy is needed to know how "days and years" are marked out by these lights, but only for man.

The lights set in the heavens speak very plainly of Christ and of the Church… Here Christ, revealed by the Holy Spirit, shines out for men in the word of His grace. The Church is the responsible reflector of Christ, His letter to the world… Let this scene preach to us that all true and divine light now is heavenly. To let our "light shine" is nothing else than to let men see we belong to another sphere.

The sun speaks of the Lord Jesus, "the Sun of Righteousness" (Malachi 4:2), whose brightness is so welcome, yet too dazzling for our eyes… The fourth day teaches us that we must have a proper Object outside of ourselves and of our fruitfulness. The person of the Lord Jesus is that Object. When we are blessed with the sight of His own glory, this lifts our hearts above our circumstances, and above our own spiritual state and experience.

It is certainly not the creation of the sun and the rest. The inspired historian does not say this. He says only that God now appointed the heavenly lights for the earth of Adam's day, after the plants and before the animals. Light had shone in another way since the first day of the great week. Now He set the light-bearers of the heavens to do their assigned work, but it is for the earth, and indeed for man. Their creation was implied in verse 1, for God did not create either heaven or earth empty; and what would heaven be without its host? ... The same design is repeated: they are to be lights in the expanse of the heavens. It was their effect, not their structure, that is meant.

Some have thought that light was independent of the sun, that on the first day God created the light, and that on the fourth day He created the sun. But we are not told that on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon, but that He made two great lights... What proves that they were there from the beginning, we believe, is that there was evening and morning on the first day. That shows the daily motion of the earth in relation to the sun, which gives day and night.

"He made the stars also" (v. 16, in an older translation). The record mentions this only in passing, as something of much lesser importance. Many of the stars turn out to be huge, much larger than the sun. Their number is beyond counting, and their distances range into billions of light years. Yet the sun and the moon are more important to us on earth, and God's revelation is for the benefit of human beings.

Six times in the chapter the words "And God said" have the fitting sequel, "and it was so." From the very start, the word of God shows itself powerful. It never fails of its effect. How encouraging to learn this in the first chapter of the Bible, for we may be sure it applies to every word that God has spoken. When we reach the end of the story we shall be able to say with triumph, "and it was so," about every promise He has made, every prediction He has uttered.

The sun is the great centre of light, and the centre of our system. The lesser bodies revolve around him and get their light from him. So we may rightly see him as a fitting symbol of Him who is soon to arise, with healing in His wings... The mists and shades of night are all scattered, and the whole creation seems to welcome the returning source of light.

The lights set in the heavens speak very plainly of Christ and of the Church... Christ, revealed by the Holy Spirit, shines out for people in the word of His grace. The Church is the responsible reflector of Christ, His letter to the world... Let this scene preach to us that all true and divine light now is heavenly. To let our "light shine" is nothing else than to let people see we belong to another sphere.

The moon is a fitting illustration of the church, and it guards against the tendency to exalt the church at the expense of her Head. It is a dark body with no light of its own, and its only usefulness lies in reflecting the light of the sun. Moonshine, strictly, there is none — it is the reflected light of the sun. So the only use the church can be in this world is shedding the light of Christ during the night of His absence.

Notice that the word "made" (v. 16) is not the same as "created" (v. 1). The verse does not say that sun, moon and stars were created at the time of verse 16. It says that God then appointed them as lights for the earth. The Bible is not a textbook on astronomy, yet its language is exact: it never confuses creating things with setting them in their order.

The work of the fourth day has caused difficulty for many. Years ago, under mistaken scientific ideas, people thought light (v. 3) without the sun (v. 16) was impossible. And people did not read closely what verses 14 to 18 do say, and do not say. Sun and moon were created as given us in verse 1; they were only made as "two great lights" on the fourth day.

Even here, where the subject is the heavenly bodies, the record looks at them only in view of man and this earth... On the fourth day He gave the lights of heaven their unhindered place, to divide the day from the night.

In this symbolism the stars stand for subordinate authority. So the sun is supreme, the moon derived, and the stars subordinate. They are also light-bearers, and God Himself sets them in the expanse of heaven. Keeping these features in mind helps when the same symbol is applied to the angels of the churches.

Time is tied to the "two great lights" (Gen. 1:16), which God set in the heavens "for signs and for seasons, and for days and years" (v. 14). When these disappear, time stops and eternity begins.

The stars are mentioned as though they were incidental and of much less importance. Many of them are huge, far larger than the sun, their distances run into billions of light years, and no one can count them. Yet the sun and the moon matter more to us on earth, and God's revelation is for the benefit of human beings.

Now, as the sun is a beautiful and fitting symbol of Christ, so the moon strikingly reminds us of the Church. The source of her light is hidden from view. The world does not see Him, but she sees Him; and she is responsible to reflect His beams upon a darkened world.

The moon is a good illustration of the church, guarding against the tendency to exalt the church at the expense of her Head. It is a body with no light of its own, and its only usefulness lies in reflecting the light of the sun. Strictly, there is no such thing as moonshine — it is the reflected light of the sun. So the only use the church can be in this world is to shed the light of Christ during the night of His absence.

People often mistake how a symbol is applied for what it means. Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness; but Sun does not mean Christ. The sun is only a symbol of glory and supreme government. God made the sun to rule the day (Gen. 1:16). It is a mistake to drop that general idea and take the sun to mean Christ.