What does "let them be for signs and seasons" mean in Genesis 1:14?

The lights in the firmament of the heaven are said to be for 'signs' as well as for 'seasons.' Gen. 1:14. A false application has been made of this passage in using the varied positions of the sun, moon, and planets as a means to foretell events. Of what then are they signs? it may be asked. This is perhaps answered in Ps. 19:1-6. The stupendous distance and marvellous regularity in the movements of the heavenly bodies are a sign of the glory of the One that created them, as is stated of God in Rom, 1:20; "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead," or divinity.

It is assuredly not the creation of the sun, etc. This the inspired historian does not say, but only that God now constituted the heavenly luminaries, after the plants and before the animals for the Adamic earth. Light had shone otherwise 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 ver. 1; for God did not create either empty; and what would heaven be without its host? And we saw that ver. 2 implies that the earth even had not been so, though so it became with other marks of disorder. What then hindered the functions of sun and moon was now rectified. Light independently had been proved to be under God's control. On the fourth day He gave the luminaries of heaven their unhindered relation to divide the day from the night. Now we can readily understand the plants (and these were for the use of man and his congeners) caused to spring forth on the day before without the sunbeam; but assuredly not so of a geological age of grass, corn, and fruit. Yet we see the fitness of the due ordering of light and heat, as we have it, the next day, if the plants were to flourish, as well as for the animal life that begins after that according to His word.

This is entirely confirmed if we inspect the context more closely. For where would be the sense of the light-bearers "for signs and for seasons, and for days and years," if it had been an age (thousands, myriads, millions of years) before Adam? If, on the contrary, God was not creating them, but, after that which had intercepted, only "setting" them to their ordained task in immediate view of man, all is clear and consistent. And to whom could this be of such interest as to Israel, the people of His choice, in whose history we have them acting as "signs" on critical occasions for His sovereign will? Without dwelling on His wonders in Egypt where light was in Israel's dwellings, darkness thick in all the rest of the land, or later at Sinai, we see what a sign it was to Israel when Joshua said in their sight, "Sun, stand still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon"; or in far other days when Jehovah 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 where all was lost, as far as man is concerned, in the Cross of Messiah when darkness for three hours covered all the land! A mere eclipse was then impossible. Nor will whole clusters of signs be wanting when He comes in power and glory on the clouds of heaven. For "seasons" is needed no comment: man alone on earth understands and appreciates these fit and recurring times. As the same Hebrew word means "the congregation" and "the solemn feast," as well as the season or appointed time at which they kept it, "seasons" may have a sacred aspect; but the more ordinary sense seems confirmed by what follows. Very little astronomy is requisite to know how "days and years" are defined by them, but only for man. In the ages before him this were all irrelevant. In view of man, and Israel especially, it is as affecting as full of interest. The constant design is reiterated in "Let them be for light-bearers in the expanse of the heavens." It was their effect, not their structure, that is intimated. "And it was so."

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 Joshua 10:12-14; 2 Kings 20:8-11. There is also the Lord's prediction in Luke 21:25. The beginning of Psalm 19 points in the same direction.

The order of events in God's re-making of the heavens and earth is far different than man naturally would imagine it to be, so that only ignorance suggests that Genesis 1 is the product of anyone's imagination. Men criticize it because it does not describe things in the way they think would be the most likely. But God's thoughts are far higher than man's, and His wisdom infinitely greater. If we want to be wise, we must allow His word to correct our thoughts. On this fourth day God spoke again to introduce two great lights to separate the day from the night. We are not told that the sun and moon were created at that time, but at least they were then set in their present relation to the earth. If we question how this was done, the only answer God gives us is that He spoke the word and it was done.

These lights were “for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” As well as their introducing each succeeding day, they have a significance more important than their being an actual literal blessing. Their changing positions at different times of the year also indicates the changing seasons on earth. Then when all the seasons have passed through their yearly cycle, the position of the sun and moon marks the beginning of another year.

As regards the declared significance of the sun, it speaks of the Lord Jesus, “the Sun of Righteousness” (Mal. 4:2), the One whose brightness is so welcome, yet too dazzling for our eyes; and the warmth of His love so welcome too, though to unbelievers this warmth may become the heat of judgment. We have seen on the third day the fruitfulness of the earth in contrast to the waters, a type of the growth and fruitfulness of believer. Now 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, and 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 experiences, to see in Him what fully satisfies and delights the heart. This is a precious climax in the history of a believer, when the glory of the person of the Lord Jesus bursts on his vision, to lift him out of himself, to see all beauty and virtue in Him alone.

On the fourth day, the great luminaries which were symbols of established power and order were made for signs, for seasons, and for days and years. Notice that the word "made" (ver. 16) is not the same as "created." (Ver. 1.) It is not said that sun, moon and stars were created at the epoch of verse 16, but that they were constituted lights to the earth at that time. Although the Bible is not a treatise on astronomy (for it treats of moral subjects far higher than the stars), yet its language will be found to be singularly correct, and we shall never find any confusion between the acts of creating things and placing them in their order. The word of God never denies the exact sciences, as they are called (that is, that 2+2=4, etc.), but it gives us what is infinitely higher. What would be the value to us of having a full knowledge of mathematics (the abstract relations of time and space) if our hearts were void of the love of God as known in Christ?

Thus, the sun and moon are spoken of as signs in Genesis 1. They were to be “for signs, for seasons, for days, and years.” They clearly betoken the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator (Rom. 1:20), and call, universally, for His recognition as such (see Ps. 19). By them, by creation as a whole, man is left without excuse. He should at least own his Creator.

We are told these two lights were for signs and seasons and days and years. They are God’s great timekeepers. Every day they are signs to mankind. They declare the Creator’s “eternal power and Godhead” (Rom. 1:20). In the wonderfully vivid and beautiful language of Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. Day by day utters speech. Night by night shows knowledge. Its speech is known by all mankind. In the heavens has He set a tabernacle for the sun, which as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, rejoices as a strong man to run a race.

They are for seasons. Spring ushers in summer; autumn succeeds summer; winter follows autumn, and the winter gives place to spring again. They are for years. The earth travelling round the sun in its orbit produces the year. How wonderful is God’s timekeeper.

God at the first gave the sun and moon "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." (Gen. 1:14-15.) He marked out the course of time by this means, and man, from the earliest, was acquainted with the periods into which time — as we know it on this earth — is divided. The fourth commandment given to Israel after their separation from Egypt, recalled a truth previously known, and sanctified again the seventh day in the name of Jehovah. In Israel, the measures of time were ordained by God, and days, and weeks, and months, and years were regulated by sacred feasts.

'Times and seasons' as relating to the earth are first mentioned in Genesis 1:14. We have the exact words here, and we meet with them again in Acts 1:7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1. It is clear that this expression refers to God's dispensations and dealings on the earth. In Acts 1, the disciples were not to know the time of God's dealings. Yet the Thessalonians did know the manner of God's predicted dealings, and the order in which they would transpire: indeed they knew this perfectly, though they were ignorant of the coming of the Lord for His saints, as revealed in the previous chapter. But then, that coming has to do with a heavenly calling, while 'times and seasons' relate to the earth.