The First Day Part 2

Genesis 1:1-5 – The First Day

Part II, read Part I here

Furthermore, since the Bible is God’s revelation to man, it makes sense that God would begin by telling us how the material world came into being and how time began.  In our finite minds we aren’t able to fully grasp something outside of time.  The Bible doesn’t start out by proving God, it simply states that He was there, “In the beginning God”.  We know God is eternal from such passages as Psalms 90:2 which states, “Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” 

So how did time begin?  We measure time in terms of one revolution of the earth including a morning and an evening.  In order to have this occur we need a spinning object and a light source.  And in Genesis 1:2-5 we see exactly that.  We have the earth, unformed and void, and we have God speaking light into existence.  Notice that He did not create the sun as the light source.  In today’s “science” teaching of evolution people claim that all matter came into begin from the sun.  How interesting that God didn’t even create the sun until later on in the Genesis account.  What foreknowledge God had in knowing we would try to explain everything as coming from the sun or that different cultures would worship the sun.  The sun and everything else are merely created objects.  God is the one who deserves our worship and adoration. 

After God spoke light into existence, He said that it was good, and then separated light from darkness.  Lastly, in verse 5, God provides amazing clarification concerning what He means by the use of the word day.  Yes it is true that the Hebrew word for day can mean an indefinite period of time just like our use of the word day.  However, when used with an ordinal (first, second, third, etc) the word day means a 24-hour period.  And, just in case we were still confused, He further explains a 24-hour period by stating that there was evening and morning, which can only be used as a 24-hour period.  There is quite a lot packed into the first 5 verses of the Bible.  There is probably more that could be said, but I hope that this gives us a good foundation for the remaining of Genesis and the remainder of the Bible.