As a creative person, it is hardly surprising that I should occasionally ponder the Creation account of Genesis 1. In commenting on this passage it is my intent to avoid some of the more controversial questions that often rage concerning the Creation account, including their timing. I am reminded, though, that even the more seemingly innocuous elements of the Creation can cause firestorms. Nearly twenty years ago, when I was barely a teenager myself, I attended a church whose corrupt leadership used a particular absence of the expression “and the evening and the morning were the seventh day” in the Genesis account as an argument from silence to promote a bizarre and unbiblical claim that there was therefore an eternal Sabbath that could be kept whenever someone chose instead of the seventh day Sabbath that is consistently preached and injoined in the Scriptures. Therefore, in dealing with this expression, “the evening and the morning” as it appears in the Bible, we ought to be aware that its significance is far greater than has often been assumed.

Let us, before we bloviate on ideas and speculations about the expression “the evening and the morning” in the Creation account, first provide the scriptural context of what we speak. Even though our area of interest today is the expression “the evening and the morning” in the Creation account and what it means, it is worthwhile to provide the context in which they appear, as that will invite further discussion and commentary. We find this expression repeated six times in Genesis 1:1-31, so let us include all of Genesis 1 as the context for this expression. For helpfulness, we will italicize the expression “the evening and the morning”:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And teh Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose side is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day. Then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light to the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the firsh of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; and in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

It is an obvious fact that in the biblical measurement of time, days are reckoned from sunset to sunset. Anyone who has ever attempted to keep the biblical Sabbath and Holy Days has been struck by this fact at least at some point, given that our lives and personal habits (driven so often as they are by our own culture and society) do not often consider sundown to be a time worthy of reflection and commentary. Our work lives, if we are the type to work longer than our hours, continually abut if not cross over the sunset during the winter months of the year when days are short. Our Roman-based time scales show day beginning in the dead of night, and even this division of time does not tend to mean much for those who routinely stay up late to write, to converse online with friends, or to read and do homework as a busy student, all of which have been efficient robbers of sleep for me during the course of my life. The fact that the biblical day begins and ends and sunset is a fact that is so obvious that we often do not reflect on any potential deeper significance.

After all, the biblical day begins in approaching darkness and ends in fading light. God, for whatever reason, chose to begin every day with darkness and to end every day with light. First comes the dark and then comes the light. This is contrary to our normal expectation, but worthy of reflection. Often, if we strive to follow God’s ways, we find that God’s ways often involve present pain and suffering and future glory, present loss and future gain, present discipline and future happiness and pleasure. It would appear that the rhythm of God’s time is designed in part to reflect this bias for beginning with what is difficult and troublesome and ending in what is glorious. In this light, it is notable to reflect that in the world to come there will no longer be any night at all, nor sorrow, nor death, nor crying (see Revelation 21-22). Apparently the division between night and day in this present world is designed to impart a particular lesson, and those who follow God’s rhythm of time might be gradually disciplining themselves in such a way as to learn deeper lessons simply through showing an appreciation of how God marks time on earth.

We are often conditioned, in light of our experiences of darkness and the evil purposes which fallen beings use the night, to think of the night and of darkness in general as something that is evil. Yet this is not necessarily the case. The Bible clearly says that the day and the night, and the way in which God created and ordained different lights in the heavens to “rule over” the day and the night were good. Some of us (myself included) need a great deal of darkness to fall asleep and remain asleep, regardless of the terrors of the night to which we are sometimes subjected to. The evil purposes of mankind that take advantage of darkness to not negate the fact that each day in the Bible begins with the time of rest. First we rest, recover our energy, and then we are ready for the work of the day. Again, God shows His nature and His care for His creation through the way that He has set time. If mankind uses His Creation for evil purposes, it does not make that Creation evil; it only shows that anything God made can be corrupted through those who have departed from His ways.

There are, if one is inclined to do so, many different speculations and ponderings that one can make about the expression “the evening and the morning.” For one, it is worthwhile to note that several times there are different aspects of creation that appear to take place in the “evening” and “morning” portions of the days of creation. For example, God appears to have divided the sea from the dry land in the evening of the third day and then created herbs and green plants in the morning of the third day. Likewise, God appears to have set the moon and the stars visible in the night sky in the evening of the fourth day and then made the sun visible during the morning of the fourth day. On the sixth day, perhaps most importantly for mankind, God created the land animals on the evening of the sixth day and then created man (and woman) in the morning of the sixty day. For whatever reason, then, there appears that in many cases there is a temporal distinction in the evening and the morning and that there was a particular order to the creation that we observe in the flourishing of life on this earth.

There are some people who with great ingenuity have divided up the known history of mankind into millennial days and seen the patterns of human history that correspond to the aspects of God’s creation, and who have seen that the various divisions of the days of creation have also applied to the last 6000 years (at least) of human history. While it would be unjust for me to claim any kind of credit or originality for this view, nor would it be possible to explain this view in detail in the short time that is provided for me here, but it is worth at least a short comment that the patterns of human history appear to correspond with the order that is creation. There appears to be a developmental aspect of human behavior by which stages of development are reflected that struggle through infancy and reach maturity before deeper levels of insight can be attained. This suggests that not only people, but even societies, must wrestle with important questions and struggles that must be dealt with successfully before progress can be made. Likewise, this progress is always threatened by decadence and corruption on the part of those people and societies that are striving to progress from infancy to maturity in all aspects of their thought and behavior.

In many ways, therefore, even some not discussed here, paying close attention even to such modest expressions as “the evening and the morning” can repay one’s studies with insight and reflection onto the larger significance of even the minor textual details of Scripture. For those who are so inclined, just about any experience or situation can be mined for wisdom and understanding and growth, so that we may grow to maturity as believers of God whose beliefs and practices are influenced to our deepest core by the truths of God, and so that our ways may ever more closely confrom to His ways. Let us therefore learn to see the universe and others as God sees them and not as we might see them only from superficial appearance. I hope that you may all have an enjoyable Sabbath day, and any day where one can reflect on the truths of God and on their implications and ramifications for mankind.