Naturalistic science has always struggled to explain all the stars and planets that exist in the universe. How could so much have evolved out of nothing? How did the stars get scattered across such a vast expanse of space? Why is there such diversity among them? What set the stars ablaze? And where did the planets come from?
Genesis chapter 1 gives a simple answer: GOD MADE THEM ALL! He spoke them into existence!
Their vastness, their complexity, their beauty, and their sheer number all reveal the glory and the wisdom of an all-powerful Creator! And they remind us how amazing it is that such a great Creator would lavish His grace and favor on the human race. After all, from the perspective of size, our whole world constitutes only an infinitesimal speck in the vastness of all He created.
David celebrated this fact in Psalm 8:3-4 – “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” As David gazed into the vast universe, he realized it was just finger work for God. As great as the universe is, God is infinitely greater. And the human race is nothing by comparison.
Yet God’s creative purpose has always had the human race at its center. We alone of all His creatures are made in His image.
The entire creation account in Genesis 1 is told from an earthly perspective, underscoring the centrality of this tiny planet in the creative purpose of God. Even the creation of the stars is recounted from an earthly perspective, so that the sun and moon appear as 2 great lights, while vast galaxies appear as lesser luminaries, being mentioned almost as a footnote in verse 16, “the stars also.”
As we have seen from the beginning and will see throughout the entire week of creation, God accomplishes His creative work by “fiat” (let it be done). “Then God said ‘Let there be lights in the firmament.” (Verse 14).
There is no process and no passage of time; that which He creates comes into being instantly by His Word alone. That is why theories that add multiple billions of years to the age of the earth do nothing to advance biblical understanding. Creation is not a process God “initiated,” it is something God completed! He literally spoke it into existence!
In the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 33:6-9 – “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; He puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere Him. For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.”
In other words, what God made did not evolve. He gave the order, and it came into existence complete and fully functioning.
As we say on day 1, God had already created light and separated the light from the darkness. Where did the original light come from and what form was it in? We do not know because Scripture does not say. In any case, the source was clearly God, the Father of Lights and the giver of every perfect gift. But on this day, God created the sun and the moon to be permanent light sources.
In part 2 next week we will look more at: “…He made the stars also.
Last Update: Aug 20, 2018 8:03 am CDT
