If you have not had a chance to listen to the message on April 19th or 26th, I encourage you to go back and take a listen. This all builds on each other.

My intention last week, wasn’t to land on one specific way creation took place, but to throw out the challenge to all opinions of creation because I believe the declaration of the creation story, of Genesis 1 and 2 isn’t about the HOW of creation, it is about the WHO of creation. As Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning GOD created….

Which means do I believe that God could have created in 7-24-hr days? Yeah, I believe he could. Do I believe that God could create over 100,000’s of years? Yeah, I believe he could. Do I believe that God could have used micro-evolution? Yeah, I believe he could. Do I believe that God could have said, “Bang” and created the heavens and the earth? Yeah, I do. Now I got you squirming, didn’t I?

It’s not how, it’s the WHO. Because through the Spirit-inspired, ancient text, the focus wasn’t on science, but on Yahweh, the Creator, or as we said, With His powerful Word, the King of the Universe created earth as His good kingdom. That’s the point of the creation story.
Last week we looked at Days 1-3 and I would say those days were about God forming, taking what was in chaos and bringing order. Day 1 he said, “let there be light” and he separated the light from the darkness, formed light in the darkness. Day 2 he separated the waters from above and below, he formed the vault, the sky above and the water below. Day 3 he separated the water by forming the land and vegetation with seeds. Now let’s look at how God is going to fill what he formed.

Read Genesis 1:14-19- 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

I want you to notice a couple of different side bars, just to expand our understanding of the passage. On day one we see that God said, “there be light” and now on day four we see him create lights in the vault of the sky, greater and lesser lights. Many believe the light in Day 1 was the light of His glory, or as it was said of Jesus in John 1, that he was the Light of the World. But now, we see him create lights in the heavens as “signs”, they are physical symbols of God’s own light, glory, and power that meets the darkness on day one.
But what does he call these lights, these signs, these symbols of his own light? Greater light and lesser light. Why doesn’t he just call them sun and moon?

That’s why reading it with the backdrop of the ancient text is so important. Because the ancient creation stories and mythology had names for pagan gods, called the sun god and the moon god. This is a declaration that Yahweh, that God was greater than any pagan god because he created, made, spoke into experience the sun, moon and stars. If you want to write in your margin, Isaiah 40:26 and 42:5, you can do some more reading that is connected to creation.

What was the purpose of the sun and moon? To govern, to rule. The sun to rule the day and moon to rule the night. Again, bringing order in the midst of the chaos.

But what about the stars? They were not intended to rule, which is a challenging thought along the lines of astrology and horoscope. I would challenge that we shouldn’t look to the stars for our guidance or our destiny or greater understanding, because God didn’t create them to “rule” or “govern” and the role he placed with the sun and moon was for the material world, not our spiritual world. If we trust Yahweh, the Creator of all, then we shouldn’t look to lesser things to guide us.

Notice what was formed on day one, the heavens, separating light from darkness. What is filled on day four, the lights filled the heavens. What was formed on day one is filled on day four. Notice this pattern as we read the next two days.

What does it mean for you to see God as creator of light, separating light from darkness, and giving us order in the midst of chaos? How do you take what he created and apply it to your life; forming and filling?

If you want, please take time with this older worship song as well. God of Wonders