Day 7 Devotion – Sun, Moon and Stars

Then 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. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on 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. Genesis 1:16-18


It is obvious that these verses for the fourth creation day are talking about the sun, moon and stars. Young earth creationists take everything to its literal extreme here and teach that the earth (day one) was created before the sun (day four). People ask “where did the light came from on day one if the sun had not been created yet?” Also, “how did photosynthetic life appear on day 3 with no sun to support it?” The typical response is that the first light was God’s glory and it sustained everything until the sun was created. With this strictly literal interpretation you can see the conflict because science rejects that the earth came before the sun. Planets are actually the ashes from burning stars so the sun had to come first.
Maybe a word study will be helpful here. In Genesis chapter one, two words are used. Create is the Hebrew word bara and it is something only God can do. It is traditionally interpreted as to create from nothing. The word made is the Hebrew word asa and means to fashion out of something. On day four the word asa is used so it is possible that the sun already existed but it only became observable for the first time on day four. It is interesting in studying the natural history model of the earth is that the first atmosphere was very toxic and opaque (not able to see through). After photosynthesis started, the oxygen produced caused the atmosphere to become first translucent and then transparent. To an observer on the earth’s surface the sun would become visible for the first time even though it already existed. This does not conflict with the Bible because the word bara is not used with the sun, moon and stars. Actually, this natural history shows us that the first living organism created on day three caused the sun, moon and stars to become visible on day four.