BEN F. VICK, JR.
The everlasting God who inhabits eternity established time approximately six thousand years ago. Moses wrote, "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" (Gen. 1:14-19).
The Creator established lights in the expanse of heaven to divide the day from the night; He made them for signs, seasons, days, and years. The sun, moon, and stars were signs, tokens of changes in the weather and times. He did not make them to be worshiped or for the astrologer to predict the future by their positions in the sky. When the Pharisees and Sadducees tempted Jesus to show them a sign from heaven, "He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" (Matt. 16:2-3.) Jesus was not being critical of their ability to predict the weather by the sky; but because they would not discern "the signs of the times." They refused to see the Messiah's time then and the signs that proved he was who he claimed to be (John 20:30-31; Acts 2:22).
The luminaries placed in the sky are for "seasons." We think of the four seasons of the year. After the flood, God said, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:22). Seedtime and harvest would be spring and fall. Mentioned is also made of summer and winter; so the four seasons of the year are found in this verse. Brown-Driver and Briggs state that "seasons" probably refer "to sacred seasons as fixed by the moon's appearance." The same lexicon refers to Psalm 104:19: "He appointed the moon for seasons: The sun knoweth his going down." Paul and Barnabas cried out to the idolaters at Lystra, "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).
The lights in the firmament are for days. "God made two great lights; the great light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also" (Gen. 1:16). The word "day" has different meanings depending on the context. In Genesis 1:5, "the evening and the morning were the first day" refers to a twenty-four-hour period. That use refers to a complete rotation of the earth upon its axis. When Moses said, "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day…." the word "day" refers to the daylight hours. "Day" can also refer to a more extended period as when Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56). There it means the time of Christ on earth, in particular, his ministry.
The lights in the sky were also for "years." A year contains 365 (or 366) days, the period of time it takes the earth to complete a rotation around the sun. The antediluvians lived for many centuries, but after the flood, the years of man's life were shortened. When Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was, he answered, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage" (Gen. 47:9).
Moses, in his farewell speeches to Israel, said, "For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year" (Deut. 11:10-12). When Canaan was that sacred land given to Israel, God looked down upon it "from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." But that promised land was conditional – Israel had to remain faithful to God, which she did not, and she lost it.
The Psalmist wrote, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away….So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psa. 90:10-12). As we sing, "Time is filled with swift transition," we are reminded of the brevity of life and the changes in society, the church, families, and individuals. Life is a vapor. John referred to a time when time would be no longer (Rev. 10:6). Benjamin Franklin said, "Dost thou love life? Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." We are to redeem the time.
God, who gave us time, inhabits eternity. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He is eternal. As far as his promises and their fulfillment, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Man makes promises but may forget to keep them for different reasons. However, God does not forget. The scoffers say: Where is the promise of the Lord's second coming? God is faithful to his promise. A two-thousand-year promise is nothing in God's mind. He will keep his word (2 Peter 3:3-14).
Let us be thankful for the time God has given us and use it wisely.