Kingdom of Life

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9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning — the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse 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 expanse 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.

Genesis 1:9-19 (NIV)

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Again, the Genesis account strongly suggests that God continued to be involved in the development of Earth and its life forms after the initial creation of matter and energy; this development was not an automatic or random process.

Verses 14-19 seem to show a deliberate downplaying of the importance of the sun and moon; in the ancient world they were widely regarded as deities and worshiped. The Bible makes it clear that they were created by God for His purposes. “Lights” in verse 16 is not the plural of “light” but rather a word indicating mediators — as opposed to originators — of light. The sun and moon are not even directly mentioned by name; they are referred to only as the “greater light” and “lesser light”.

These verses also seem to reflect a pre-scientific outlook. The heavenly bodies are of course not in the sky, but they appear to be, from the view of someone standing on the ground. It is worth noting that before the 19th century, astronomers had little idea how far the stars are from the earth. H. L. Ellison pointed out that the revelation given to Moses (or whoever wrote Genesis) may not have been purely or even mainly verbal; it could have been largely visual, in which case the writer was relating what he saw. If this is true (and it is impossible to know if it is or not), it might help explain why the account of the creation of these heavenly bodies is deferred until after the creation of the earth, atmosphere, land and oceans, and vegetation. Then again, it might be due to the desire to play down the spiritual significance of these bodies.