Gen 1:13-25; Day 4,5,6a
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Alright, so tonight we pick up in our study of the Book of Beginnings, Genesis. Last time we studied the separation of the waters. We talked about the “water canopy theory” and the possible effects that it would have caused. These included the “green house effect” which would promote a warm even temperature all around the globe. It would also block out solar radiation and cosmic rays that are harmful to life. With the mutagenic rays blocked out; man and all life forms would be able to grow much larger and live appreciable longer. Just as the account in Genesis records.
We also studied how God made plant life. We learned the principal that God laid down which was that every living thing only reproduces after its kind.
Genesis 1:11 (NASB95)
11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.
We learned that the seed was encoded with information we call DNA. We talked about the probabilities that this could happen by random chance.
We learned the chance probability of one protein molecule be formed was 10 with 164 zeros following.
We also learned that the scientific definition of impossible or absurd is 10 with 50 zeros.
So tonight lets open to Gen 1:14 and begin or text;
14 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 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.
17 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 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 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 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 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
So now the 4th day presents a conundrum a problem to our understanding at least. That is we already have light, and we have plant life which depends upon “photosynthesis” to grow, that is light from the sun. But we have no sun, until this 4th day.
This is another sort of proof that these are actual 24 hour days. You could not have eons of time with life without the sun.
14 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.
Some scholars postulate that perhaps on Day 4, the Sun, Moon, and stars become visible and that they were there from the beginning. Which may explain the evening and the morning. It would also make the Gap Theory more plausible but we just don’t know for sure.
So here we see God’s purpose for the Sun, Moon, and Stars. These will be light sources for the day and the night, and also for signs for the seasons. And so we see the Jews developed a lunar calendar.
Now we have observed through the histories of all the ancient civilizations that the world ran on a 360 day year. This is pretty uniform through out the ancient world until about 700 BC. It then changed to 365 days.
Article: The Scriptural Calendar
Ancient Astronomers validate a 360-day year before the 8th century B.C. and then they had to adjust their calendars to line up with the changes of the solar and lunar cycles.
Calendar research shows that 30 different cultures had the same calendar of 12 months with exactly 30 days per month and 360 days per year.
Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky in his book, Worlds in Collision, shows evidence that these 30 cultures worldwide all record a period of upheaval lasting about 50 years when the days of the month and days of the year were in flux before it settled down to what we have now–a year of ~365 1/4 days and a month of ~29 1/2 days.
The ancient Vedas of India showed a 360 day year in the Brahmanas and they record that the moon waxed for 15 days and waned for 15 days in a month. The Brahmanas also state that the sun moved north 180 days and moved south 180 days in a year. In a later period the Vedas record that the year was reformed to 365 1/4 days.
In ancient Persia, the calendar had 360 days; later, it was reformed to add 5 Gatha days to the year length.
The Sumerians had a 360 day year with months of 30 days, and the Babylonians adopted that Sumerian calendar.
At the beginning of the 7th century BC, Babylon added 5 days to the year length.
In ancient Assyria, the clay tablets from the royal library in Nineveh showed a 360 day year with 30 day months, and that the spring equinox always fell on Nisan 15.
In Ancient Egypt, the Canopus Decree and Ebers papyrus calendar had 30 day months and a 360 day year. The year change occurred in the 8th or 7th century BC according to Plutarch and the Book of Sothis, with 5 epagomena days added to the year length.
The Mayans of Mexico and Incas of Peru in Central and South America had a 360 day year calendar; later they added 5 1/4 days to the calendar.
Other cultures like China and Polynesia had 360 day calendars that they amended by adding 5 days to the year–China called their added 5 1/4 days, Khe-ying days.
The historically recorded time of the calendar change period was ~725 BC to 675 BC.
So what caused the change from 360 days per year, to 365 days?
Dr. Velikovsky put forth the theory that a near collision with a wandering planet sized object caused the earth to change its orbit slightly around the sun, changing the year length from 360 days to 365 1/4 days. The moon’s orbit around the earth was also changed slightly so that the regular 30 day orbit came to have a 29 1/2 day cycle.
Dale W. Wong in his 2006 book, The Ancient 360 Day Year: What It Was And How It Changed, laid out a simpler thesis than Velikovsky’s near collision scenario. Mr. Wong calculated the year when King Hezekiah in Judah was healed, and Elohim gave a sign by moving the sun back 10 degrees on the sundial.
“And Ḥizqiyahu (Hezekiah) said to Yeshayahu (Isaiah), “What is the sign that YHUH does heal me, and that I shall go up to the House of YHUH the third day?” And Yeshayahu said, “This is the sign for you from YHUH, that YHUH does the word which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?” 2 Kings 20:8-9
“And Ḥizqiyahu said, “It would be easy for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.” And Yeshayahu the prophet cried out to YHUH, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Aḥaz.” 2 Kings 20:10-11
Dale Wong calculated the year of Hezekiah’s sundial sign to be 713 BC; and he posits that Elohim actually moved the orbits of the earth and moon to accomplish this sign of moving 10 degrees/steps backward on the sundial. It’s an alternative to the catastrophe thesis of Dr. Velikovsky. Either way, the year change happened right around that time, plus or minus a few years.
So when when God says it you can and should absolutely believe it!
Now when you read of “new moons” and how the different seasons and Holy Days Festivals you will have a better appreciation for why they did it.
Article - Hebrew Calendar
The Hebrew calendar is based on both the lunar and the solar cycles. Months are measured by one revolution of the moon around the earth. According to the Talmud, one complete revolution of the moon around the earth takes 29.53059 days (Masechet Rosh Hashana). This value is very close to the average value measured by NASA: 29.530588. Since the average value is about 29.5 days, months alternate between 29 and 30 days in the Hebrew calendar (see Table below).
The common year in the Hebrew calendar includes 12 months. But there is a difference of about 11 days between 12 lunar cycles and one solar cycle. One complete rotation of the earth around the sun takes 365.25 days. Within a one-year period, 12 lunar cycles are completed in 12 X 29.53059 = 354.36708 days. Therefore the difference between 12 lunar cycles and one solar cycle is precisely 365.25 - 354.36708 = 10.88292 days.
They even up their calendar with the solar calendar by a leap year every 19 years and add 3 days to the months of Cheshvan and Kislev around Oct - Dec.
Now in Verse 16;
16 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.
The word for “lights” here means light holder or light bearer. We might use the term luminary. It is interesting that the Apostle Paul used this term to describe you and me.
Philippians 2:14–16 (NASB95)
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;
15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.
The word Paul uses for lights is the Greek word for “a luminary or that which gives light.”
It is interesting that when we consider, the lesser light, the moon. We notice that it really has no light of its own. It is more of a reflector or mirror of the light of the sun.
God gave the sun moon and stars as light bearers to the Earth. We serve the same purpose. It is Gods light in us that He wants us to shine forth for Him.
Are you shining? Jesus said;
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
So there we have the 4th Day and it was Good. Now on to the 5th day.
20 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 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 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
Here God creates the sea and water life and the birds of the air. You might find it interesting that there are just over 250,000 know species in the oceans, however, they estimate that 91% of the ocean species are still unknown. The total estimated to be around 1 million unique species.
Image - Sea life
Conversely there are between 9,000 and 10,000 species of birds, and they are 95% identified.
Image- Birds
The design of birds has been a wonder to man from the beginning. The ability to fly is something we have not been created to do. How can birds fly? It starts with hollow bones.
Video- The Anatomy of Flight 6’10”
Video- The Anatomy of Flight 6’10”
Notice in verse 22 God’s command (an imperative) “Be fruitful and multiply..” God’s desire was to fill the Earth with a vast diversity of life.
Have ever considered, why do the fish in the oceans have such wonderful colors when no one can see them? According to Col;
Colossians 1:16 (NASB95)
16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He, Jesus, created it that way because it pleased Him to do so!
The fifth Day is now complete and we move into Day 6. The creation of land animals and insects, and mankind.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So here God creates all the animal kingdom, insects, and reptiles. The amazing thing is He created each with the ability to reproduce itself, only after its kind. Again we marvel at the diversity of life. Take a moment if you haven't for a while to enjoy what God has made.
Image - Diversity of life
Now we get to Gods crowning achievement of creation; Mankind. What does it mean to be created in Gods image?
We will cover that next time..
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