God's Creation Day Four
God Created The Stars, Sun, and Moon
"And
God
said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide
the day from the night;
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give
light upon the earth: and it was so. And God
made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the
lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon
the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide
the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the
evening and the morning were the fourth day.
" - Genesis 1:14-19
God created the sun, moon and stars
to light the sky and also to mark time. This means that the light
from them had reached the earth by day 6, and also more importantly
this verse tells us that Adam could conceive of not only days but
"years". The stars have also been used for navigation. At
the time of Jesus' birth, God sent a special star as a sign to the
wise men. That star is what led the wise men to where they could find
Jesus. "Now
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the
king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying,
Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star
in the east, and are come to worship him."
-Matthew 2:1,2. Even animals use the stars for navigation. Some young
birds, for instance, are able to 'learn' the pattern in which
constellations of stars rotate and using it to tell which way is
north. Constellations are groups of stars that have been given names,
like Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Bootes, and Orion.
Another
reason God made the sun, moon and stars is for days and years. Think
of the ways we measure time: day, month, year, and seven-day week.
The first three all come from astronomical observations. One day is
measured by the length of time it takes the earth to rotate on its
axis. One lunar month is measured by the phases of the moon, which
means from the new moon (invisible) to the full moon (round) and back
to the new moon. A year is the time it takes the earth to orbit the
sun (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds). Genesis
does not say that the sun is not a star, it says it is greater than
the moon, which we call a planet, and also that the sun is more
significant than the other stars.
God also made the sun, moon
and stars so that we could see His glory and attributes, but He did
not put the stars or the sun in place for us to worship. God also did
not want us to use the stars in astrology, but in astronomy. "Stand
now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries,
wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be
able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the
multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers,
the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these
things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble;
the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the
power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to
sit before it."
- Isaiah 47:12-14
Creation-
Day Five
Return
