"_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 viii. 3, 4.
"_The day is Thine, the night also is Thine: Thou hast prepared the light
and the sun.... Thou hast made summer and winter._"--PSALM lxxiv. 16, 17.
"_Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to
behold the sun._"--ECCLESIASTES xi. 7.
"_One star differeth from another star in glory._"--1 CORIN. xv. 41.
When we had got as far in our reading of the first chapter of Genesis as
the fourteenth verse, we noticed that it is very like the third; for both
verses begin with those wonderful words which none but God could say--"Let
there be."
But there is a great difference between the "light" of the third verse and
the "lights" of verses fourteen and sixteen. The sun is called "the greater
light," and the moon, which is so very much smaller, "the lesser light";
but in the language in which this part of the Bible was first written,
these two lamps which give us light are called by a name which means, not
the light itself, but that which holds it; not, as we might say, the candle
which gives light as it burns but the candlestick in which it is set.
Let us read again carefully what God has told us about His work on the
FOURTH DAY, and I think we shall see, as we noticed in the chapter on
"Light," that we are not told that it was upon that Day that the sun and
moon were _created_.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165