2. The First Day

 

I. The word “Creation” means strictly production of being out of nothing; but it is often used in a broader sense as including the subsequent evolution and arrangement of the world which completed it for its purpose. Creative action proper was limited to that enormous antecedent period which is called “in the beginning.” Holy Scripture gives no details of this, but only relates the ordering of our planet during geological time. The surmise of St. Augustine and St. Gregory of Nyssa to this effect has in modern times received scientific corroboration. It is very probable that Moses saw the history of creation unrolled before him in a vision, or in a succession of visions on different days. He then described his impressions in the language of his day, in a way that would be intelligible to a simple and unlearned race, and he so adapted his account as to make it of religious rather than of scientific import. Glorify God for His goodness in granting such a revelation at the beginning of human history. Without it, mankind would have had no conception of many most important truths till their discovery by scientific research in this present century.

II. The days of creation are not the days of men, but of Him who is eternal, and to whom ages are as minutes. Their incalculable duration is a testimony to the infinity of His life. They are not definitely marked successive periods, but they overlap and run into one another. Moses follows the actual order of events as he saw them, noting in particular those which were characteristic of the different epochs; and he summarizes each set of events in a single day, although it may have commenced during an earlier epoch and extended into a later one. Thus each day of the week becomes commemorative of some particular manifestation of the power of the One God; and this served to wean the Israelites from the Gentile practice of consecrating the days to different false divinities. Hence Moses divided the work of creation into seven scenes corresponding to the division of time which had prevailed from the patriarchal ages, and adapted it so as to give a new sanction to the old observance of the Sabbatical rest. Every day should be to you a Lord’s day, consecrated by the remembrance of God’s manifestations in His mysteries or His Saints, and by some special service rendered by you to Him.

III. The first Mosaic day corresponds to the first period of the earth’s existence as a globe. Previously there had been a glowing nebular mass in violent motion; this had gradually condensed, had taken a revolving motion, and had thrown off whirling rings which broke and concentrated into globes. For a long period this earth remained in an incandescent molten state, an unformed chaos without life, and surrounded by a veil of heavy exhalations which the light could not penetrate. While slowly cooling down and becoming solid, “the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen. i. 2). “And the spirit of God moved (brooded, Heb.) over the waters” (ib.). This was not the divine Spirit, nor was it the wind, for there was then no atmosphere, but some natural force from God which infused the first germs of life into the chaos. We have geological evidence of the prevalence of darkness in the first stages of the earth’s existence, and of this first beginning of life preceding by a long time the production of fully developed animals. “And God said, Be light made” (ib.). This was the first step in the evolution of the earth. It may mean the definite condensation of the sun, or the first partial penetration of its rays through the overhanging cloud. It was only a half-light and not the full light of the sun. This represents the first glimmer of grace in our souls. By fidelity to this, “the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day” (Prov. iv. 18). Pray God for light, and be careful to follow it.