Genesis 1:16-18
What now is wanting to complete the scene of inanimate nature? The
mountains lift their heads to heaven. The valleys lie in soft repose,
traversed by rivers and by streams, which seem, in the various motions
of their course, to give the only idea of life the earth is yet able to
afford. The waters have retired to their ocean beds. The scene is
invested with all the glories and all the beauties of vegetable life.
What more is wanting? More light - by the full manifestation of those
bright luminaries, which had, optically speaking, been hitherto veiled
in mist, which their rays had not yet been able to dissipate and rarify
into a pure azure sky. The light which had previously appeared is
probably more intelligible to ourselves than even to the inhabitants of
the east, who have but little, if any, twilight, and whose sun is
seldom obscured from view. But we, with our long twilights, and with
mists which sometimes constrain us to kindle lights at noon-day, can
easily apprehend the kind of light which prevailed before the misty
pall was, at the Divine word, drawn aside, and disclosed the moon,
“walking in brightness” through the high heaven among the starry host;
and when morning came, the sun, shedding a full blaze of light and
glory, from the beautiful blue sky, upon all the work which God’s hand
had wrought.
The sun and moon were not, of course, simultaneously, but successively,
disclosed; and we place the moon first, because the fourth day, in
which both appeared, was like the other days, composed of the night
with the following day. If the sun had first appeared, the day would
have closed when the sun set, and then the appearance of the moon on
the following night would have belonged to another day. But seeing that
they appeared both on the fourth day, and that the days are reckoned
from evening to evening, and not from morning to morning, we may be
sure that it was the moon whose rays first shone on the new earth. If
man had then existed upon the earth, the appearance of “the pale regent
of the night,” would have prepared his mind and his eye for the glory
of that “greater light” which the day was to disclose.
But although man was not, it is ever to be borne in mind, that all
these changes are throughout described as they would have presented
themselves to his eye had he then existed So now to him these
luminaries would appear as if then first called into being - then first
created. Indeed they may, according to Scripture usage, be said
to be “made,” because they then first began to be visible in the
exercise of their natural office with respect to the earth. It may be
observed, that the word “made” is not the same in the Hebrew as that
translated “created.” It is a term frequently employed in Scripture to
signify “constituted, appointed, set for a particular purpose or use.”
Thus it is said, “that God made Joseph a father to Pharaoh;” “made him
lord of Egypt;” “made the Jordan a border between the tribes;” “made
David the head of the heathen;” and so in numerous other examples. A
critic, whose learning claims the respect which cannot be always
allowed to his opinions, says, with regard to the clause “Let there be
lights in the firmament,” etc., “The words ‘Let there be,’ are in my
conception equivalent to ‘Let there appear;’ and if I had allowed
myself the freedom which some modern translators have taken, I should
thus have rendered the verse - ‘Let the luminaries which are in the
expanse of the heavens, be for the purpose of illuminating the earth,’”
etc. Let it be borne in mind that this author (Dr. Geddes) wrote before
science had established a necessity for the pre-existence of the
heavenly bodies. Thus, therefore, as it has been well remarked, “As the
rainbow was made or constituted a sign, though it might have existed
before, so the sun, moon, and stars may be said to have been made or
set as lights in the firmament on the fourth day, though actually
called into existence on the first, or previously. The same result had
indeed been really effected by the same means during the previous three
days and nights; but these luminaries were henceforth, by their rising
and setting, to be the visible means of producing this separation or
succession.” Note: Bush on Genesis - This has become nearly the general
sentiment of theologians with reference to the subject.]
It may be, and has been, objected to this view, that it really assigns
no specific work of creation to the fourth day - the operation of which
is reduced to the clearing away of the mist, clouds, and vapors, and
thereby rendering the atmosphere clear and serene; while the same
terms are employed which are admitted to apply, in other instances in
the same chapter, to the higher acts of creative power. But it is to be
considered that the principle of life and action which was at first
infused into the mass, would still be exerting its energies. The
perfection of creation would be ever advancing on the fourth day, as on
former days, until the hosts of heaven broke into view from behind the
vanishing veil of cloud and mistiness. Appearing for the first time,
and of course as new creations, they would be described as such in the
same phraseology that has before been used. Besides, as already hinted,
the principal point, in the mind of the sacred writer, is the purpose
which they were destined to serve in this world, as organized for the
habitation and use of man. It is not so much, therefore, their creation
on the fourth day, as the use to which they were to be put, on which he
insists. It is by no means, then, necessary to understand the sacred
writer as asserting the creation of the heavenly bodies on that day,
but only their development on that day as adapted to the purposes
intended, the creation of them having previously taken place.
