IN THE BEGINNING PART 5

Let There Be Lights in the Expanse

It is estimated that there are between 100 and 400 billion stars and at least that many planets in our Milky Way Galaxy. It is estimated that there are around 200 billion galaxies in the known universe.

Isaiah 40:25-26 “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”

Psalm 147:4-5 “He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.”

With a radius of 43,440 miles, Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Jupiter would be about as big as a basketball. Jupiter's diameter is about 11 times that of the Earth's and the Sun's diameter is about 10 times Jupiter's. You can fit around 984 Jupiters inside of the Sun!

The sun has a mass of 4.384 x 10^30 lb, or a mass 333,000 times that of the Earth. The radius of the Sun is 432,639 mi or a radius 109 times that of the Earth. The volume of the Sun is so huge that it could hold over 1 million Earths. The biggest star in the universe (that we know of), UY Scuti is a variable hypergiant with a radius around 1,700 times larger than the radius of the sun. To put that in perspective, the volume of almost 5 billion suns could fit inside a sphere the size of UY Scuti. If UY Scuti replaced the sun in the center of the solar system, it would extend just beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

Psalm 33:6-9 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

Genesis 15:5 “And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.””

Jeremiah 33:22 “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.””

The Purpose of the Lights

1. To separate day from the night.

2. To be for signs, seasons, days, and years.

They would be uses as signs for various feasts, offerings, and celebrations.

Because the earth is tilted on its axis, it causes the sun to be at varying distances from its surface  at different points on the globe at different times of the year, which produces the seasons which are critical for the rejuvenation of life and the growing of crops and the flourishing of the earth and the blessing of mankind.

It takes about 24 hours for the earth to rotate around its axis.

The Moon takes about one month to orbit Earth (27.3 days to complete a revolution, but 29.5 days to change from New Moon to New Moon).

The earth takes a year to orbit the sun.

The Earth orbits the Sun at an average speed of 67,000 mph and it takes a year to complete the orbit. The surface of the earth at the equator rotates at a speed of roughly 1,000 miles per hour. Our solar system orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy at about 515,000 mph. We’re in one of the galaxy’s four spiral arms. It takes our solar system about 230 million years to complete one orbit around the galactic center. Our galaxy is also in orbit at an estimated 1.3 million miles per hour. (He upholds all things by the word of His power — Hebrews 1:3)

3. To give light upon the earth.

The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. It will be about 600 miles on our trip to Alabama this week. So if we could travel there at the speed of light, we could be there before you could blink. At that speed, you could travel about 6 trillion miles in one year.

It would take you about 1.3 seconds to travel to the moon at that speed. It would take about 8 minutes to travel to the sun.

Now let’s say we wanted to travel out of our solar system. It would take about 3 minutes to get to Mars, 33 minutes to get to Jupiter, 67 minutes to Saturn, and about 4 hours to get to Pluto. Now to get to the very edge of our solar system, it would take about 1.87 years. Keep going to Proxima Centauri, our nearest neighboring star, and plan on arriving in 4.25 years at light speed.

What about if you wanted to travel from one end of our galaxy to the other? How long would that take? About 100,000 years traveling the speed of light. It would take about 2.5 million years to get to our neighboring Andromeda galaxy. It is 220,000 light years wide, so it would take another 220,000 years to travel across it. Keep in mind, it is estimated that there are about 200 billion galaxies in the known universe. The amount of time it would take to travel the universe at the speed of light is beyond our comprehension.

4. He gave the sun and moon to rule, or dominate the day and night.

Mention how we are a the perfect distance from the sun and moon,

The Splendor of Space

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

Psalm 8:1-4 “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

Deuteronomy 4:19 “And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.”

Deuteronomy 17:2-5 ““If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.”