Sermon Tone Analysis

*Genesis 1:14-16…*Then 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; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.”

And it was so.

16 And God 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.

*Commentary*

            The first three days of God’s good creation entailed the giving of light, creating the atmosphere & the “waters above,” and the formation of dry ground with seed producing plants, trees, & vegetation.

God’s work on day four gives substance to the disembodied light of day one.

Even though God had already created light on day one, on day four He creates the sun, moon, and stars.

Day one correlates with day four (day two w~/day five; day three w~/day six), as this is God’s finishing work.

In the latter three days of creation God is filling up the void from the first three days of creation.

When God created light on day one, it was an ethereal light that day four completed.

The light that shone prior to the sun was God Himself, much like the light that will shine eternally without the sun in Revelation 21:23.

God also created the moon that shines by night.

Though the moon doesn’t have any life-giving light in itself, it does /reflect/ the light from the sun and is thus the light that governs the night.

The moon also is responsible for determining the ocean tides through its gravitational pull.

The high tides of the oceans align with the moon on both sides of the earth.

The water levels of the ocean are determined by the bulges of the earth both toward and away from the moon.

These bulges move across the face of the earth while it rotates on its axis, and this accounts for the two high and low tides of the oceans each day.

The balance of the earth’s ecosystems depend largely on these ocean tides.

Isn’t it amazing how our little lifeless moon 225,000 miles away is vital for life as we know it?

The sun is the light that “governs” (or “rules”) the day.

In ancient Babylon (Iraq) the sun and moon were believed to be gods because they governed the universe.

Nothing like that is implied here, for their rule is only figurative in that their light oversees the earth, governing its transformation from day to night.

The sun is 93 million miles away from the earth, but it’s light takes approximately 9 minutes to reach the earth (what you see at 8 a.m. is light that left at 7:51 a.m.).

Dark spots on the sun that appear from time to time tend to cause dramatic changes like electrical storms on the earth.

At the same time, the sun maintains a miraculous balance that continues to sustain life on the earth.

Life as we know it would end if the sun’s brightness or temperature fluctuated ever so slightly in either direction.

Notice the last sentence in verse 16: “He made the stars also.”

It’s as if God wanted nothing left to chance about who created them.

Those who worship the stars or attempt to see the future through them in horoscopes and the like show their contempt for the Maker of those stars.

*Food for Thought*

            The twenty-four hour day is determined by the earth’s spin on its axis.

The year is determined by the earth’s revolution around the sun.

Our months are determined by the moon’s orbit around the earth.

So where do we come up with a 7-day week?

It’s in the creation week by our Lord, and it is a universal week around the globe.

When God created the universe it actually governed the way humans define time.

The day is the shortest measure of time governed by the heavenly bodies.

The year is the longest period of time governed by the same.

All of which reflect day four of God’s creation week when He created the sun, moon, and stars.

Look out at them today, and see them as creations of God, not products of chance.

There’s no beauty in that.

*Genesis 1:17-19…* And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

*Commentary*

            The “expanse” in verse six was clearly a reference to the atmosphere that was in the “midst” of the waters below and the waters above (transparent vapor canopy).

Here in verse 17 the “expanse” is the place where the sun, moon, and stars dwell.

We know that they don’t dwell in the atmosphere but in the heavens /above/ the atmosphere.

The “expanse” in this passage then, clearly deals with a different area of the sky than verse 6.

After God created the sun, moon, and stars he “placed” them in the expanse.

It’s as if God just set them in their respective spaces the same way a loving mother places her baby in its crib.

God /called/ them into existence and lovingly set them where He wanted them.

He did this for three reasons.

First, “to give light on the earth.”

Now God was already shining light on the earth from the first day of creation.

It was His first act on the first day.

Light had been shining during the first three days just as though there was a sun already in place even though it had not yet been created.

This is not impossible for God who creates waves of light energy because He Himself is the Prime Mover – the initial generator of all power.

The only thing lacking from God’s initial light on day one was their governing power over the seasons, days, and years.

The second reason God created the sun and moon in found in verse 18: “to govern the day and the night.”

Though God had already divided the light from the darkness on day one, calling the light “good,” here on day four He creates these literal entities that will rule over the two.

The sun rules over the day, and the moon is the light-/reflecting/ governing body at night.

And the final reason God created these two entities was “to separate the light from the darkness.”

Once God created these light-givers He “saw that it was good.”

He created them out of nothing, carefully set them in place with a specific job to perform, then He sat back, surveyed His creation, and called it “good.”

When He was finished He called it a day – the fourth day.

Some have postulated that since the stars are so far away (billions of light years) the fact that their light can be seen is evidence that the universe is billions of years old.

In other words, it would take a given star’s light many billions of years to reach earth for humans to see, so the universe has to be at least that old.

This kind of reasoning, though logical, is silly, and it hinders the creative work of God.

When God created He created in 24-hour days as the text clearly teaches.

The light from these stars was created /in transit/ – a light that was already shining and able to be seen.

Of course this is in keeping with all of God’s creations.

They were all created with the /appearance/ of age, and though many old-earth “scientists” will insist the earth is ancient, they severely limit not only God’s creative power but the clear reading of Genesis 1.

 

*Food for Thought*

            Psalm 33:6-9 says, “By the word of the lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the lord; let all the people of the world revere him.

9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

Clearly the Psalmist believed in God’s simple calling into existence of the universe.

It was by His word alone that did it.

Why then do so many adhere to the idea that it took billions of years to create it?

In doing so God’s Word is relegated to myth and legend.

Remember today that God is the Creator.

He speaks, and it occurs.

It is His creation and His gift for mankind.

*Genesis 1:20-23…* Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens."

21 And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

*Commentary*

            Just as the creation of light on day one parallels the creation of the sun, moon, and stars on day four, day five corresponds with the second day of creation when God made the sky and the oceans.

On day five He fills both of them with living creatures.

First, the waters are said to “teem with swarms of living creatures.”

The word for “teem” means to be /innumerable/, or to /multiply/.

All of a sudden the ocean waters are filled with all kinds of life – too numerous to count.

It all happened at God’s command.

He called for it, and they appeared.

God’s second act on day five is the filling of the sky with birds that fly around in the “expanse” – the atmosphere – he created.

Again, it was through His word that they came into being.

The sea creatures didn’t evolve into flying animals in the sky.

Each one suddenly appeared at God’s command.