Question:
In Genesis 1:3-5 and v.14-19 it appears that god created the day and night on days 1 and 4 which would be two different days creating the same thing. I have never noticed it before but it doesn’t seem to make sense. Can you help?
Answer:
Good question. Most of the time our casual reading causes us to miss honest questions like this one. When we stop to look at things like this, not only does it make perfect sense, it also gives us a heightened appreciation for the Bible.
Here’s the first passage:
Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
First, remember that God IS light. In heaven, there will be no sun or moon, God will be the source of light (Rev. 21:23).
As God created our universe, He created LIGHT as we know it. Whether the original “light” simply eminated from God Himself, or was a separate physical presence, is not explained. I tend to believe He created light as we know it as it flowed out of Him. As Einstein rightly proved, light is a “thing” with tangible physical properties. Darkness is NOT a “thing” but simply the absence of light. (in the same manner, “evil” is the absence of GOODNESS, goodness being an attribute of God).
Notice there is no mention of the sun or moon on Day One, nor of stars (we ASSUME they are present because of our reality; but notice they are not mentioned), but only the statement about the creation of “light”. It does say God “separated” the light from darkness and created “day and night”. How this was manifested physically is not explained. We can speculate all we want, but God didn’t tell us.
What we DO know at this point is that light did not necessarily have to be related to stars (because it does not specifically say it is) or our Sun and Moon (because they are specifically created later). The next passage you ask about specifically tells us about those:
Genesis 1:14-19 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
On the fourth day, it says God specifically “made” two great lights – our Sun and Moon. Does this mean that the other stars were already created, and God simply declared their purpose on Day Four? Or did God create all the other stars on Day 4 as well? We aren’t told and it doesn’t matter. God could have created “light” before He created “light sources” simply because God is God. I think the stars were not physically created until Day Four.
Just because we can’t understand it doesn’t make it illogical or impossible. WE CAN’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING ABOUT HOW GOD CREATED ANYTHING AT ALL. THE IDEA OF BRINGING SOMETHING INTO EXISTENCE FROM NOTHING, IS TOTALLY BEYOND OUR GRASP.
So to find some part of the process that doesn’t make sense to us, doesn’t bring the process into question in any way, because they very process of creation is infinitely beyond our ability to understand in the first place.
For example, how could plants exist before the Sun was created? Light already existed, but without the Sun nearby, could “starlight” be enough to give them life? Or did they simply live a day without “energy” until God created the Sun the next day? These are all questions generated because of our limited human knowledge and viewpoint. Hardly an issue with the God who created it all to begin with.
The Genesis account says plants came before the Sun. How could light exist before the stars and Sun were created? I have no idea, other than to say that everything is possible with God who created it all.
I personally believe that God put this “impossible” order into the Creation account simply to PROVE that GOD was the Creator, not evolution or any type of materialistic explanation.
Either the Genesis account is true, or evolution is true. There is no “synergy” or “cooperation” between the two. So this shallow cop out that “God created but used evolution” is UTTER NONSENSE.
If evolution is true, then Genesis account is foolishness. If Genesis is true, the evolution is an insult to the Creator named in Genesis.
God created light. The He created the stars, Sun and Moon. Possibly the light on Day One came from stars, but I don’t think so. We tend to want to think that because it “makes sense” but given that plants were created before the Sun (another “impossibility” in our minds), I think the acceptance of the plain account in Genesis doesn’t need to be questioned or wondered about. We don’t need to wonder, we need to be IN WONDER of a God of such power.
God created light on Day One, and stars (including our Sun) and the moon on Day Four. What a wondrous God we serve!
On a side note, the confusion that evolution and modern science introduces into the plain account of Genesis, causes most Christians to be insecure about the obvious. Do an informal survey of 25 Christians today asking “what came first? the chicken or the egg?”.
I’ll guess that you might get ONE person answer confidently “the chicken” which is abundantly simple and clear from the Genesis account. However, we have been so indoctrinated by evolutionary thinking, that even amongst ourselves, we waffle, hesitate and are insecure in even the most basic truths about creation.