Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Nov 1964

In the work of the six days in Genesis 1, the days are in three pairs. On the first and fourth days the subject is one of light, light as the result of the command of God on the first day, and light by the heavenly luminaries, the sun, and moon, and the stars also on the fourth day. On the second day He made the firmament (Hebrew -expanse), and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. The Hebrew word for firmament is derived from a word which conveys the thought of 'to spread out by beating or otherwise'. The question was asked of Job by the LORD,

"Canst thou with Him spread (Heb. raqa, the word from which the Hebrew word for firmament is derived) out the sky, which is strong as a molten mirror?" (Job 37. 18).

The extent of the firmament may he grasped from the fact that the heavenly lights were set in the firmament on the fourth day.

In recent years the attention of the men of science of the nations is being directed to the heavens and the heavenly bodies as perhaps never before in human history. But alas, He who made the heavens and all things therein does not come within men's thoughts in their eagerness to reach the moon and certain of the planets which are nearer the earth than others.

The firmament was to divide the waters from the waters, the waters under the firmament from those above the firmament. These waters are evidently not the clouds. Psalm 148. 4 says,

"Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens,

And ye waters that he above the heavens."

On the fifth day God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life," or according to the R.V. marg., (Heb. swarm with swarms of living creatures). God also said, "Let fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven," or, again according to the R.V. marg., (Heb. on the face of the expanse of the heaven). Re also created the great sea-monsters. Thus on the fifth day we have the beginning of animal life; first life in the waters of the sea, followed by bird life. The words 'swarm with swarms' convey to the mind this tremendous productivity. Dr. Strong says of the Hebrew noun for swarm "active mass of minute animals". The powers of reproduction of sea life are tremendous. Of the common herring it is said that the average number of eggs depositied by a female is 30,000." Other fish may produce almost as many eggs. Birds are much less productive of their species. They come next in the work of God in the production of animal life. In this order of God's work those who believe in the theory of evolution think they see the lower forms of life throwing off different species, each species being an advance on the one before. This we believe to he quite wrong. Fish never produced birds, and birds four-footed beasts, and beasts men. The law of the universe is as briefly stated in Genesis 1.21, "The waters brought forth abundantly, after their kinds, and every winged fowl after its kind". Such is the truth that Moses wrote, and for ourselves we reject entirely man's ideas as to the origin of species. The origin of species was in the mind of God and came to he by the word of God. This is what Genesis 1 teaches and it is simply falsehood to teach otherwise.

The third day and the sixth day are linked together. The third day was the day of the resurrection of the earth from the waters under the firmament God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas" (Genesis 1.9, 10). From the dry land God commanded grass to grow, herb yielding seed, and fruit tree bearing fruit, and here again we have the same law "after its kind". Thus the earth was prepared as a place of habitation for the beasts and for man whom God created and made on the sixth day. Though the animals which God made may have a body more or less like man as to organs and external structure, none was made in the image and likeness of God, and herein lies the vast difference between man and any other form of earthly life. The pity is that some want to think of themselves emerging from the beasts, and the more this is believed the more bestial man becomes, indeed sometimes even worse than the beasts.

Having passed over with slight reference God's work on the fourth day in connexion with setting lights or luminaries in the firmament, we would seek now to say a little of the vastness of the sun and the solar system, that we may repeat David's beautiful and poetic words,

"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,

The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;

What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?

And the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him?" (Psalm 8.3, 4).

We may say in passing that man in the first question is the rendering of the Hebrew word enosh, which means frail, dying or mortal man, whereas the second use of the word is Adam. The Lord was not an enosh, He partook of none of the consequences of the Fall; there was neither sin in His soul nor mortality in His body. It was His will to die, according to the authority given to Him from the Father (John 10.17, 18). In Hebrews 2.6-9 the Son of Man is applied to the Lord, a name by which He described Himself more than any other.

The sun, the centre of the solar system of planets, of which there are eight major ones, is over 92,000,000 miles from the earth. In size the earth is the fourth largest of the planets. The largest is Jupiter which has nine moons. The next in size is Saturn, which has ten moons and is surrounded by rings; Neptune is the farthest from the sun, with an orbit of about 3,000 million miles or more. The vastness of their distances baffles the mind of the ordinary person.

The moon which gives its light by night to the earth revolves round the earth in just over 27 days. Its average distance from the earth is just over 238,000 miles. The sun, studied with the aid of the spectroscope, "appears of a bright red colour, arising from uprushes of glowing gas, chiefly hydrogen, which is ejected at great speed from the sun's interior, and rises to heights of 200,000 miles. The streamers then bend over and descend, forming fantastic shapes". The sun is a vast flaming orb, the source of the earth's heat and the main source of its light. The stars, many of them said to be greater than the sun, are so remote in space that they afford the earth little light as compared with the sun.

The moon is a dark body and gives its light to the earth by reflection. It has no light in itself. In an illustration of the moon's surface before me there are numerous mountains and seas (whether seas of water or lava is, or was, not known) on the side of the moon which is towards the earth.

David at night in the clear atmosphere of his country found much to praise God for and much to make him humble as he contemplated God's mighty wonders in the heavens. What indeed is man in the light of God's work? Wonders of wonders the One who made all these heavenly orbs (John 1.3), was none other than He who lay in Bethlehem's manger (Luke 2.7). Though a babe, yet at the same time He was the One in whom all things consist (Colossians 1. 17) and who upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1.3).

There is one great and important lesson we may learn from the sun and the moon, and that is in the absence of the sun to us at night the moon gives her reflected light. The Lord is called "The Sun of Righteousness" (Malachi 4.2), who shall arise with healing in His wings. What health He who is the Light of the World (John 8.12) gave to many when He was here; health for soul and body both! He is going to come again with His healing rays. He left His disciples here when He went back to heaven to give light to the world (Matthew 5.14). Paul said, "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand" (Romans 13.12). Again he said, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee" (Ephesians 5.14). And yet again, "We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror (or beholding as in a mirror) the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3.1 8).A mirror is useless without light, and it can only reflect what it beholds. If the believer is beholding the glory of the Lord then he can reflect it in the present night, and that glory will have a transforming effect upon himself. This transformation is by the Lord the Spirit.

Men generally do not read the Bible, but they read the Christian who should be an epistle of Christ (2 Corinthians 3.1, 2).

J. Miller | Nov 1964
Jottings