Prayer
Heavenly Father, I praise and thank you this day for your tender mercies. Thank you, Lord, that in the greatness of your compassion you make all things in my life work together for good. I praise you for the hard providences that you use to work against sin in my life, and I am sorry for the many times when I have complained in these things. I am sorry for the spirit of resistance I have often exhibited toward your corrections, and I thank you for your continued patience and perseverance with me. Surely God is good to Israel. Lord God, as I open your word this morning, may you meet with me and give me instruction and guidance. Please renew my mind as I seek your face. I commit this day to you, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reading
Gen 1:14-19.
“And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15. and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, (18) to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”
Meditation
The big picture of what’s revealed on day four is that God shines his glory into his creation through his creation. There’s more to see here, however, because when God made the sun, moon, and stars he also had a specific purpose in mind, namely that his glory would be realised in creation progressively. God did not snap his fingers and fill the earth with his glory instantaneously, the end was not fulfilled at the moment of the beginning. No, God had a much bigger plan in mind, a plan that would be unfolded and progressed in the fullness of time. In other words, what I’m saying here is that God made the sun, moon, and stars to regulate time, and that itself shows us that time is a key part of God’s plan for his creation. This is what the text shows us: “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” The language here makes it very clear that the sun, moon, and stars were established to regulate the passing of time. We see this truth revealed in three ways, which will be the focus of our meditation this morning.
First, the lights give us day and night. This is the most basic sense in which the sun and moon provide a measurement of time – by giving us day and night. In the words of the text, they “separate the day from the night”. And we know this from our own everyday life, day and night provide our basic cycle. We wake and work in the day, and we sleep and rest at night. The rhythm of day and night is part of the warp and woof of scripture and life. It begins with the seven days of creation, it rains for forty days and nights in the time of Noah, Israel marches around Jericho for seven days, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights and after his death is raised on the third day. We could go on, but the truth is very clear: God gave the sun, moon and stars to regulate time by giving us day and night.
The second way in which sun, moon, and stars regulate time is seen in the sense that they give us signs and seasons: “let them be for signs and seasons”. This too is a measurement of time. Just as we have days as a cycle in life, so too we have seasons - summer, autumn, winter and spring time. Now there’s another question here too: What does it mean for the lights to be “signs”? What do the lights signify? In the context of the passage, these signs are referring to the passing of time. The heavenly lights would be signs to signify the passing of time. In Psalm 104:19 we read that “He made the moon to mark the seasons”, the “signs” here indicate the marking of seasons, which themselves are part of the time cycle. 1 Chron 22:31 speaks of burnt offerings being offered to the Lord on “Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them, regularly before the LORD.” This passage shows that the new moon marked the passage of time to help Israel keep the rhythm of the festivals.
So, what am I saying here? I’m saying that God gives the heavenly lights to mark the turning of the seasons. They regulate the seasons, and they give signs so that we can see and recognise the turning of seasons in our own lives as well. From a scientific perspective we see the truth of this in the way that the sun regulates the seasons. The earth circles the sun – that’s the space of a year, and the seasons are determined depending on where the earth is on it’s rotation. And isn’t it amazing that God placed the earth and the sun at just the right distance, and on just the right axis, so that we could have day and night, years and seasons?
The final way that the heavenly lights regulate time is that they give us days and years. We have day and night as a regular cycle, and we have signs and seasons that regulate the passing of time, and we have days and years as a broader measurement: one rotation of the earth per day, and one circuit of the sun per year. I think you get the point – God appointed the sun, moon, and stars to regulate time.
Be ye doers of the word…
These three basic insights that we draw from day four reveal an important aspect of God’s purposes for his creation, namely: that those purposes would unfold over time. This may seem basic, and yet the challenge is there for us all. Are you a patient person? Patient people are people who have learned this lesson – that God will unfold his purposes in time. Impatient people have yet to learn the wisdom of this lesson. So, which one are you? In Ecclesiastes 3:1 we read: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”. Acts 1:7 says that the Father has fixed “times (and) seasons... by his own authority”. The timing of our lives is all in God’s hands, and we must learn the patient art of waiting for his timing in all things – because his purpose is to unfold his plan in his own timing. So take that as your application in this study: wait for God’s timing, and do good while you wait.
God has appointed the times and the seasons in this life, and while we would rather speed things up, we only bring frustration upon ourselves when we attempt to do it unlawfully. Wisdom always seeks to discern the rhythm of God’s timing. In Psalm 62:5 the psalmist says: “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” Is there something in your life that you are longing for right now, and all you can think about is getting that thing? Perhaps it’s deliverance from some trial, and the days are dragging on and all you want is for the suffering to be over. Maybe you’re longing for a spouse. You don’t want to be single any more, and you want to find someone to be with. Maybe your patience feels like it’s evaporating, or that your hope is being constantly frustrated. Whatever it is, we must always remember that our times are in his hands (Ps 31:15). We all need frequent reminders to wait for God’s timing. In Galatians 6:9 we read: “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up”.
Following on from this, we might add a second application here for our lives, which is: be present to serve God in each moment. It’s so easy for us to be caught up in looking forward to what we don’t have, or in trying to escape what we “have to put up with” (which God ordained for us by the way…). The problem with this kind of mindset is that the opportunities of the moment pass us by. In Matthew 6:34 Jesus said “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” We should pray and plan wisely for the future, but never at the expense of neglecting the present. We must be present in the current moment, paying attention to what’s before us right now.
Consider what opportunities are before you right now in this moment to please God. What opportunities do you have right now to obey God and to see his purposes progressively realised on the earth? In the Lord’s Prayer we’re instructed to pray: “Your kingdom come”. There’s a process of time involved in the coming of the kingdom, and in each and every moment, we must pay attention to be sure that we are using that moment in the service of God. We must be present to serve God in the moment. We don’t get our moments back, for each moment that goes by we got one shot to use it to the glory of God and then it’s gone – set in stone as wasted or well-used. We must be prayerfully present at all times. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Thank you, Lord, for your precious word. Thank you for this precious reminder of the importance of time. I confess that far more often than not, I exercise neither patience nor awareness of the present moment. I often pursue things I desire out of time, and neglect precious opportunities at the appropriate times. Lord, please forgive me for wasting so much of the gift of time. O Lord, please give me wisdom. Help me to truly number my days, and to invest each moment rightly to the glory of your name. May your kingdom come, and may it come in my life in ever brightening degrees – moment by moment. O God most high, get glory to your name through me, I pray. Have mercy on me, please help and strengthen me, please deliver me this day from occasions for temptation and from the tempts guile and plans. Please strengthen and build up the walls of Jerusalem, that your people may worship and adore you in all things. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Day 21: The Realisation of Glory (Gen 1:14-19).