This is the fourth in a series of seven posts where I share my thoughts about my song Creation and the story in the first chapter of Genesis.
“On the fourth day God filled the sky with lights
The sun for day and the moon for nights
And He scattered stars in the evening sky
As signs to mark the seasons by
So the fourth day God filled the sky with lights
The sun for day and the moon for nights
And the third day God made the plants and trees
He made dry ground and He made the seas
And the second day God made the sky
The water split so the firmament’s dry
And the first day God made the heavens and earth
Split the dark and light in the universe
And to mark the time there was morning and evening
And He saw that it was good”
We measure the length of a day by how long it takes the earth to rotate one full turn. Because of this, many of us have decided that the “days” talked about in the creation story had to be 24 hours long. Others will discount any credibility of the creation story because science tells us that it took a lot longer for many of these things to happen. If the sun wasn’t created until the fourth day, how would we know how to measure the length of the first three days? Even the length of the fourth day would be in question. As a Christian, I don’t have a problem with the idea that these things took many years to happen. As a scientist, I don’t have a problem with a supernatural act of creation taking 24 hours or even happening instantaneous. If something supernatural happens, what does the evidence look like?
And is any of this important to the creation story. I believe the whole idea of creation happening over the course of seven days is more important in establishing God’s participation in the event and establishing the Sabbath than giving a detailed scientific and historical explanation. The creation of the heavenly bodies serves as a marker for the seasons and is therefore not necessary until there would be creatures on the planet that would benefit from these signs. To the writers of this story, it is not necessary for God to create these things until they are needed by the creation.