#5 On the Nature of God: God creates EARTH TIME

What can be said about the nature of God from the first thirteen verses of Genesis 1? God is a Spirit and is self-existent. He created the earth, the universe, light, rotation of the earth, air, gravity, the land, the seas, and the first life on this earth—green plants. All of this was accomplished on God’s timeline—the evening and morning marked each day. But as of yet, God had not created a way to mark time in a way that we would understand.

On the fourth day of creation, God created the conditions that brought about time on this earth, Genesis 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, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 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. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

It might seem that God created only a few small things on this fourth day. Not so.

On this day of creation, God made changes to the earth that marked time and seasons as we experience them today. God created two great lights —the sun and the moon—for signs, seasons, days, and years. He gave each a domain—the sun in the day, the moon at night.

This may appear to be lesser things created than days one, two, and three. However, the enormity of these creations comes from realizing the facts scientist have discovered about what God did. The sun is 109 times larger than the earth. The light and heat that the sun radiates come from nuclear fusion of two hydrogen atoms to make a helium atom in the sun’s core at a temperature of almost 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That means the earth cannot be positioned too close to the sun, or it would catch fire and burn. So, God caused the earth to rotate about the sun in a slightly elliptical yearly orbit of some 93 million miles in circumference. That means the earth travels at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour in space to complete the yearly orbit. In this orbit, the earth will be about 864,000 miles from the sun all during the orbit. This is such a large distance that it takes the heat and light from the sun about eight minutes to reach the earth.

Scientist estimate that if the earth had been placed further away, it would have frozen. Thus, God located our planet so that light and heat from the sun would sustain life on the earth.

The moon was created much smaller than the sun—only 27% the size of the earth and was placed in a slightly elliptical 27-day orbit about the earth, 239,000 miles away. The moon has no heat source in itself and only provides reflected light from the sun. However, that amount of light is larger in magnitude than that of all the stars combined.

In addition, the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon on the earth now cause a new phenomenon—tides in the seas.

How can all this creation be used for signs, seasons, days, and years?

A day continues to be the time for the earth to rotate one time.

Although to us the stars are slowly moving west during the night, they reappear the next night in the same position. Then once a year—say January 1—they appear to be in the same place as some 365 days before. This defines a year, the time needed for the earth to orbit the sun—a little over 365 days. That means that later when a yearly calendar was devised, a day had to be added about every four years—our leap year and leap day—February 29.

God caused the seasons to occur—summer, fall, winter, and spring—by tilting the earth’s axis about 23 degrees relative to the plane of the earth’s orbit about the sun. This means that when the earth’s north axis is toward the sun, the northern hemisphere experiences warmer temperatures—the summer season. At the exact same time, the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun and experiences cooler temperatures—the winter season. The opposite condition occurs when the north axis is pointed away from the sun.

God caused the earth to have a gentle wobble on its axis so that the north pole always points toward the north star. This enables the mariners to use the stars to determine location at sea.

Considering all that God did on this fourth day to make the earth fit for man, it is no wonder that David was awestruck, Psalms 8:3-4:

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

In defining a day, a year, and the seasons God set earth time as we know it today.

In summary, God’s nature is to fashion an ideal environment on this earth for His creation.

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