Dusk and Dawn, Experience and Belief

I play Wii Mario Kart with my children. We grab the remotes, turn on the Wii, slip in the game disc, and then we play, sometimes for hours. I don’t how to make a game like Wii Mario Kart, but I know that it works.

I don’t know how long it took to develop the game, how many days, weeks, months, or years. All I know is that it took a team, a really knowledgeable team. If they told me it took 5 years to develop the game, I would believe it.

If I was told the game had a day they started development, and a day they said “It is finished” I would believe it again.

So, if I can believe man, who is limited and has a puny brain and tiny capability for creative thought in comparison to God, then why don’t I always believe God?

God, if anything, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes. He gave us the Bible to clearly communicate to us His will, His instructions, and it is a unified message, in full agreement with itself from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been thou forever will be.

 

God Called Them Day and Night

At Bible study Sunday night, as I let everyone know we would be starting to study Genesis, the discussion quickly turned to how long were the days of creation. A few of us hold to some mighty strong opinions. I opt for a literal view of creation.

Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

You see, the first thing that God did, was he made the Day and the Night. Day is the word

יום
yôm

Pronounced “yome”, it can mean

1. a 12 hour period of time, literally the hot or warm hours of a day,
2. a 24 hour day including morning and evening
3. or it can mean a period of time, an age, or an era

So look at the passage. It mentions the day is both morning and evening. So the 12 hour model is out. ( I think everyone is relieved to find out I am not advocating 12 hour days of creation)

The passage allows though for a 24 hour period, and folks who opt for a metaphorical view of interpretation would say it also allows for a longer age/era/time period view. This is where some folks say that creation and evolution are compatible. I strongly disagree.

A time when the light and the dark are intermingled and mixed

What does the passage mean

And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Evening. Strong’s Concordance defines “the evening” this way. Notice it comes from the word for “dusk“/

H6153
ערב
‛ereb
eh’-reb
From H6150; dusk: – + day, even (-ing, tide), night.

 

 

Let’s look at “dusk”

H6150
ערב
‛ârab
aw-rab’
A primitive root (rather identical with H6148 through the idea of covering with a texture); to grow dusky at sundown: – be darkened, (toward) evening.

H6148
ערב
‛ârab
aw-rab’
A primitive root; to braid, that is, intermix; technically to traffic (as if by barter); also to give or be security (as a kind of exchange): – engage, (inter-) meddle (with), mingle (self), mortgage, occupy, give pledges, be (-come, put in) surety, undertake.

 

Dusk is evening, eventide, when the day grows dusky at sundown, darkened, toward evening. A time when the light and the dark are intermingled and mixed.

Now, how about “the morning“? Again, looking at Strong’s Concordance.

H1242
בּקר
bôqer
bo’-ker
From H1239; properly dawn (as the break of day); generally morning: – (+) day, early, morning, morrow.

 

H1239
בּקר
bâqar
baw-kar’
A primitive root; properly to plow, or (generally) break forth, that is, (figuratively) to inspect, admire, care for, consider: – (make) inquire (-ry), (make) search, seek out.

 

So “the morning” is literally “dawn, the break of day, coming from the root word meaning to break forth.

The evening ( dusk) and the morning (dawn) were the first day. The language itself, if taken literally, as it is written in a literal grammatical style, says that the Day and the Night were made in a period of time between dusk and dawn. God called the period of a day as beginning at sundown and ending the following sundown. We still have several faiths that observe the day this way, among them the Jews and Adventists, that begin the Sabbath observance at sundown on Friday. In places where the sun is up or down for extended periods of time, (think arctic regions) and for convenience the day begins at 6:00 pm.

If God had meant that the first day of creation took period in a “day” as in an era, an extended time, an “age” of many years, why would he define the day as a morning and evening period. The Bible was written in a clear manner, and the clear meaning of the text is that God was able to create Day and Night in a single day.

How does the Bible use the words “evening” (H6153) and “morning” (H1242) ?

Is God’s Word Always Consistent?

Go to Blue Letter Bible, or download a copy of E-Sword (free) and search the Strong’s Concordance for yourselves. The word for evening used here in Genesis occurs roughly 125 times and yet no one argues the meaning of the word “evening” in any of those other passages, except for the days of creation. Why would God try to confuse men about the meaning of the word for “evening”?. Everyone agrees that it means the late afternoon, early evening, the time when the sun goes down. The same goes for the word for “morning”. Used over 200 times in the Old Testament, and only argued about here in the creation account.

Why not use a word that describes a “really long period of time” instead of one that everyone in history, and the modern world all agree means evening or morning?