QT 7/7/2025 Gen 1:14-19, Life has meaning

Genesis 1:14–19 (ESV) —

14 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, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 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. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over 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, the fourth day.

 

NOTE: On the first day, God created light. I think verse two is key to understanding the apparent discrepancy with verse four. In verse two, God says that the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters. I believe that is the perspective of creation: on earth, hovering over the waters. In that case, with a heavy atmosphere, God thinned the atmosphere enough that light breaks through (day one). This process continues up to and after day four as the atmosphere has thinned to the point where the sun, moon, and stars are visible. I believe this humid, thicker atmosphere allowed the earth to exist in a temperate climate with little radiation, and no rain, until the time of the flood. Later in Genesis, we see decreasing lifespans, suggesting an increase in harmful radiation was coming through the atmosphere. After the flood, the difference is even more dramatic, with lifespans decreasing from 1000 years (without the tree of life) ultimately down to 120 years as the maximum.

 

There is another view that the creation story is set in triplets where the first 3 days are repeated with additional details in the second three days. I suppose that is also possible. Once again, the point is not how it was done but that we recognize God as our creator -- a key point throughout the whole bible and a linchpin of our faith.

 

PONDER:

1. Do I recognize God as my creator?
2. Or do I think I am an accident of random events with no true purpose or meaning to life?

 

PRAYER: Father, you created life with purpose and with meaning. Sin has ruined your creation and the earth groans, under the weight of our sins, looking forward to the day when you will rule. There have been terrible events in the last few days. They do not tell us that you don't care; rather they remind us that we didn't care to worship you as our God but instead chose to be our own gods.