Or, Signs, Seasons, and Swarms of Life
Scripture: Genesis 1:14-25
Date: March 15, 2015
Speaker: Sean Higgins
In the Great Hall of Answers exhibited in Genesis, a front-and-center question casts a profile over the entire room: What are we saved unto?1 We deal with things in a Genesis three world, but we need Genesis chapters one and two to get an idea of what the world was like at first. We know the basic storyline: Creation-Fall-Redemption. We are redeemed both from something and for something. Salvation from sin is not salvation from creation. We need the opening chapters of the Book in order to see what God thinks is so good that we lost in disobedience. When man is found, he finds the good again. When he gets his sight back, he can see what God has given.
We are only through the first three days of creation and the crescendo is picking up steam; God, as the Conductor, calls for more breath from the horn players. God is building a cosmic stage. He’s already put life support systems in place with light and air and land and food. More than necessary things, these are gifts from God that help us to know Him and for which we ought to thank Him. We do not live in a grey world of scarcity to be endured. We are living in a green and blue world of abundance to be enjoyed as good from God. Sin has caused us to look at it wrongly, but lets look at earth before sin before we decide it’s worthless.
The first part of the week, days one through three, involve God shaping and structuring the earth He created that was “without form” (tohu). The second half of the week, days four through six, involve God filling the newly formed planet since it was “void” (bohu). There even seems to be a parallel in the days.
This morning we’ll watch God fill the sky and seas and land with creatures. He will make signs, seasons, and swarms of life.
On the fourth day of the first week God created and took pleasure in the light-giving sun, moon, and stars, filling the heavens and establishing the pattern for days, seasons, and years.
And 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, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens 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—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. (verses 14-19)
Here are a few popular questions in light of day four (per Sailhamer):
One commentator “solves” the problems as follows, also the position taken in the The Scofield Study Bible:
[A]s the globe of the earth was during that time surrounded surrounded by a dense mass of mingled air and water, the rays of the sun would be intercepted; only a dim glimmering light, even in the day time, would appear; and the bodies of the heavenly luminaries would be entirely hidden, just as they are now in a very cloudy day. Let it be supposed then that on the fourth day the clouds, mists, and vapors were all cleared away, and the atmosphere made pure and serene; the sun of course would shine forth in all his splendor, and to the eye of our imagined spectator would seem to have been just created: and so at night of the moon and stars. (Bush, 35)
So the sun and moon were there, they just couldn’t be seen from earth for the first three days. And if it seems like the interpretation couldn’t get worse,
This effect of the divine power, according to the usual analogy the of Scriptures, is described from its appearance, and the language employed—“let there be lights in the firmament”—and—“He made two great lights and set them in the firmament”—is to be interpreted on the principle above stated. They might then be said to be “made” because they then first began to be visible, and to perform the office for which they were designed. (ibid)
Even the ESV Study Bible suggests:
The term made need only mean that God “fashioned” or “worked on” them; it does not of itself imply that they did not in any form exist before this. Rather, the focus here is on the way in which God has ordained the sun and moon to order and define the passing of time according to His purposes. (50)
There were three purposes for the lights, and all three are stated in verse 17 and repeated in verse 18. First, the lights separate the day from the night. Second, they measure and mark time, days and seasons and years. Third, they give light on the earth.
Of course, on one hand, the light was divided from the darkness on the first three days (verse 4) like the sunlight would divide the darkness from day four on (verse 18), but the duration of the light/dark cycles were the same as indicated by the same formula for identifying a day (“there was evening and there was morning, the Xth day”). The sun and moon are His instruments to do the work. God does a lot of things, and He chooses to do a lot of things through instruments and agents.
God made these lights consistent and predictable; they are standards for measuring time: let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years . As signs they show indicate weather patterns and provide direction for navigation. The seasons are regular, definite periods that influence agricultural life, plant growth, as well as the breeding and migration of animals. In some seasons the sun is closer to the earth, other seasons not as much. The luminaries also make for division and calculation of days and years , respectively the shortest and longest measures of time fixed by the movement of the sun and the earth. The sun and moon regulate the agricultural and social calendars. Who would buy an almanac otherwise?
And God made the two great lights . The sun is the greater light to rule the day and the moon is obviously the lesser light to rule the night . The sun is larger in size (it could fit more than a million earth-sized objects]earths or approximately sixty-four million moons), but in context it is called greater according to the amount of light that comes from it compared to the moon.
”The sun, of course, radiates light, while the moon merely reflects light. But from an earthly perspective, both are light sources” (MacArthur, The Battle for the Beginning, 109). The lights rule in that they establish patterns but they are not powers. They rule or regulate the day; the day begins when the sun rises and ends when it sets (again, from our perspective on earth).
The repetition of God’s initiation emphasizes that the sun and moon and stars are His; they do what He wants, when He wants. In fact, it is interesting that the lights are not named. Moses certainly would have known the words for sun and moon. Some commentators think this was Moses’ purposeful poke in the eye to the pagan religions of his day that worshipped the sun and stars. Various Near Eastern cultures considered the sun and moon as “the most important gods in the pantheon, and the stars were often credited with controlling human destiny” (Wenham). At least three things would have challenged the pagan beliefs:
At the end of verse 16 the phrase -and the stars is another possible punch in the face to pagan idolatry. For all the devotion, Moses mentions a vast galaxy of stars almost in passing, as an afterthought. It is, by the way, why astrology is stupid. There is a significant difference between astronomy and astrology; one studies the planets in the world and one guesses how the planets make an influence on the world.
And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day .
On the fifth day of the first week God created, took pleasure in, and commissioned swimming and flying creatures, filling the waters and the skies, establishing the next trophic level. He’s created heavens and filled them with the sun, moon, and stars. Now begins the to fill the biosphere with living organisms.
And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. (verses 20-23)
The KJV and NRSV translate verse 20 poorly, “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly/swarms,” as if the waters had power to produce. But the better translation is Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures . This shows that there was a multitude, an abundance, and that the creation was by God’s command.
Living creatures (nephesh hayah) are creatures who breathe, compared to plants that do not have life or soul like animals and men do. “An entirely new type of being has come into existence, creatures that breath and are animated and have power of their own volition to go from place to place” (Leupold, 80). Henry Morris remarks, “The first introduction of animal life was not a fragile blob of protoplasm that happened to come together in response to electrical discharges over a primeval ocean.”
God created is the word bara, used only of God (occurring in 1:1, 21, 27, and 2:3-4). It seems that bara is used again at this point in the creation week to spotlight a new stage, namely, the arrival of “living creatures.”
The great sea creatures comes from the Hebrew word tanninim. It has been variously translated as “whales” (AV), “sea-monsters” (RV), and “sea-dragons” (The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament). It could possibly been a word used to describe Leviathan or dinosaurs (think Job 41). Whatever the best word, the idea is big sea creatures. And contrary to people’s fears, these creatures are just another one of God’s creations, and very much under His control.
Also note that the largest creatures were first, not at the end of an evolutionary chain.
God commissions both the arial and aquatic creatures to reproduce. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth . This is the first time God speaks to creatures using the second person.
This is also the first time in Genesis that God blessed any part of His creation. Blessing is more than a well-wishing on God’s part. It is a powerful promise. The blessing for sea and sky creatures is similar to the blessing for men, and relates primarily to fertility in this context. In some ways, Genesis is a story of God’s blessing, filling the earth with animals and man twice, once before and once again after the flood.
And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day .
On the sixth day of the first week God created and took pleasure in animals as well as humans, filling the land and establishing men as His image-bearing rulers on the planet.
Day six is the longest day by far, so far as description and revelation is concerned. It is the climax, the peak of the creative week. (TGIF?)
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (verses 24-25)
God’s command, Let the earth bring forth means that the bodies of the creatures, like with man in 2:7, were formed from the same elements as the earth. When they died, they would return to dust.
The word livestock (bhemah) refers to larger, four-footed, domesticated/tame animals like sheep, goats, cattle and maybe camels and horses. Creeping things (remes) are legless or short-legged creatures that move closely along the ground including most amphibians and small mammals, such as rats and mice, lizards, and spiders, probably including insects and worms, too. And beasts (chaiyah) are larger, roaming, wild animals like gazelles and lions, along with rhinos and dinasours. It is interesting that the order of the three creatures is changed from verse 24 to verse 25, indicating that all three groups were created simultaneously.
The classification, at least on day six, does not concern animals eating other animals. That can be said with certainty based on verse 30:
to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.
God saw that it was good . There were no defects or problems.
Interesting lack of blessing on the land animals. Perhaps the blessing on living creatures in verse 22 still applied to land animals in addition to sea and sky animals. Perhaps no blessing is mentioned because Moses was so excited to get the main event.
Life is abundant because of God’s blessing. The world depends on Him, from Him and through Him and to Him. It is good. We have all sorts of reasons to be grateful.
Before reaching the climax of the creation story we’re going to consider an overview of the chapter so far and how theistic evolution doesn’t fit.
My wife shared this question with me from the book, Plowing in Hope. It’s a critical question for how we view our life on earth. ↩