The Day of Genesis and the Day of the Lord

[eaglesway]

[size=115]The word day(I know this is old news for most) in Genesis is yom, and altho it is an old argument about whther that means "24 hours", I would like to mention one thing about it.

The word yom, in the phrase "the Day of the Lord" is not refering to a 24 hour period. I believe it is talking about the "period of the restoration of all things spoken of by all the prophets and sages from ancient times"(Acts 3:19), which is prophesied in Isaiah 65 and many other places.

A day neither morning or evening....a day of thick darkness.....a day of dawning light....a day where the foundations(stoicheon-elementarty principles) of the earth are shaken....

I think it is also frequently used also in a generic way as any major "visitation" by God in the affairs of men.

Also I personally believe it refers to the Day, spoken of in Romans 2, "When God judges the secrets of men through Jesus Christ....." a time period or perhaps time transcendent period to come where the heavens will flow into the earth and the "waters above" will no longer be separated from "the waters below" and "the earth will be covered with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea".

This Day is prophetically used as a symbol of the "olam haba", or world to come, the future ages, and perhaps interchangeably with what will occur after the veil is rent at the "epihinea"(universal revelation) and "parousia"(presence) and "erchomai"(coming, visitation) of the Lord Jesus Christ- who is progressively abolishing all "rule, power and authority" on the way to "delivering creation from futility into the glorious liberty of the children of God"(Rom 8) as He "gathers all things into one in Christ, whether things in heaven or things on earth"(Eph 1) so that "God might become all in all". As Paul reveals there is a connection between this day and the resurrection of our bodies and the whole creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God", because (imo) it is then that the manifest restoration of all things will begin in earnest, through the "many sons unto glory"- "a kind of first fruits of His creation(James 1) who are "created in Christ Jesus for works prepared from the foundation of the world that we should walk in them"(Eph 2)- which is us, in the ages to come-Eph 2:7.

so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

What a destiny awaits us! What a work to be engaged in!

When looking at the how of God's physical creation and considering the processes He employed in creating the cosmos...... It seems likely to me that even as the future, when we shall know as we are known, is seen through a glass darkly- so also is the distant past(olam olam)- so that the insights science is gaining- things like quantum physics, wav theory, etc are (to me) getting closer and closer to the actual processes, but are still blinded from the possibilities these discoveries present in the same way religious dogmatists are blinded to the possibility that their interpretations of words are superficial and out of context with much of their own scriptures. The Hebrew cosmology, as well as the Christian one presented by Paul, John, and Peter has within it a lot of vagueness as to facts but a very consistent theme regarding the immensity of time and the time transcendant aspects of both the nature of God, the acts of God and the ultimate purpose of God.

The cardboard box God of fundamentalist zealots is no more "real" that the self actualized universe of the scientific atheist- and both are willing to ignore possibilities that are logical within paradigms that they refuse to acknowledge from their polarizng superficialities.[/size]

[ded2daworld]

Sounds good except for a couple of things.EVERY time the word yom is used with a number assigned to it, such as he rose the third day or Jonah was in the belly of the big fish for three days, it always means a regular 24 hour day. There was evening and there was morning, the first day, etc. Secondly, whenever yom is used and "there was evening and there was morning" it always means a regular 24 hour day. It's as if God knew there would be a dispute about it so He numbered each day and added "evening and morning" to each day to show it was a regular day. Jewish scholars and Christian scholars ALWAYS interpreted yom in the first chapter of Genesis to mean a regular 24 hour day UNTIL the early 1800's when Charles Lyell started the theory about the earth being hundreds of thousands and millions of years old. Darwin grabbed it up because they believed(Darwin and Lyell) that IF evolution were true, it would need long ages. Since that time (around 1830 to 1860) faithful believers started to doubt that God's word means what it says that a normal person not indoctrinated to evolution would get the plain meaning out of the clear intent. Also Jesus, who knew what was correct said the universe was created in 6 days and God himself wrote with his finger in the rock 6 days as the commandments were being handed down the ten commandments from Moses.

[WhiteWings]

Jewish scholars and Christian scholars ALWAYS interpreted yom in the first chapter of Genesis to mean a regular 24 hour day UNTIL the early 1800's

Wrong.
Jewish scholar Maimonides (1135-1204) believed the days before Adam had a different length than the days after Adam was created.
Maimonides even wrote things that sound exactly like the big bang theory. The universe had the size of a mustard seed and there was no time in that stage of the uninverse.

EVERY time the word yom is used with a number assigned to it, such as he rose the third day or Jonah was in the belly of the big fish for three days, it always means a regular 24 hour day.

Except....

2Ch 21:19, Amos 4:4, etc

[micah7:9]

Mat 4:2  And when He had fasted for forty days and forty night... 

If forty days equal forty 24-hour periods, you don't have "and night."  Can we count that on? Not specifically, in a general sense you could.  Because from the one sunset to the next sunset He did not eat.  Because the Scripture themselves know the meaning of the word 'day.'  Joh 11:9  Jesus answered, `Are there not twelve hours in the day?
So did you think that He didn't fast all day and eat all night, they had to tell you He fasted for forty days AND ALSO during the night.  I mean if the word day means a 24-hours lunar cycle it is almost never used in the Scriptures, never.  And when it is, even then it uses some buffers to be sure you understand what it says. :Peace2:

[eaglesway]

Sounds good except for a couple of things.EVERY time the word yom is used with a number assigned to it, such as he rose the third day or Jonah was in the belly of the big fish for three days, it always means a regular 24 hour day. There was evening and there was morning, the first day, etc. Secondly, whenever yom is used and "there was evening and there was morning" it always means a regular 24 hour day. It's as if God knew there would be a dispute about it so He numbered each day and added "evening and morning" to each day to show it was a regular day. Jewish scholars and Christian scholars ALWAYS interpreted yom in the first chapter of Genesis to mean a regular 24 hour day UNTIL the early 1800's when Charles Lyell started the theory about the earth being hundreds of thousands and millions of years old. Darwin grabbed it up because they believed(Darwin and Lyell) that IF evolution were true, it would need long ages. Since that time (around 1830 to 1860) faithful believers started to doubt that God's word means what it says that a normal person not indoctrinated to evolution would get the plain meaning out of the clear intent. Also Jesus, who knew what was correct said the universe was created in 6 days and God himself wrote with his finger in the rock 6 days as the commandments were being handed down the ten commandments from Moses.

Maybe it was actual 24 hour days, I have no problem with that, but I think there has to be some leeway(and that is my point), since there was no sun or moon to measure hours by until the forth day. So whatever evening and morning stands for, it was not the rotation of the earth in relation to the sun because there was no sun yet.

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.


I tend to be a literalist but in this case, I can see everything up to God placing the spirit in Adam open to interpretation- and that no benefit comes from making a huge issue out of it....


And I certainly dont want to cause that debate here LOL, because my point was about blindness and polarization from all sides of the debate between scientific creationists and scientific atheists and literalists.....

And to point out some interesting language regarding the word Day and, the Day of the Lord....

Context is the only way we can determine whether we are reading figurative language or literal language in some of these issues where a word like day or light or darkness or year can mean different things, like "the acceptable year of the Lord"(Luke 4:19). Was it just a year? Or are we still in that year?

Certainly most of the time a "day" is a 24 hour cycle, based on the rotation of the earth and the light of the sun and the lunar cycle, but there was no sun or moon. There was only light and dark until the second day- To me these are broad sweeping strokes of God's creative brush and I don't think we see clearly enough to limit it, from either perspective.

Personally tho, I have no disrespect for either the 24 hour view(My God is miraculous and all-powerful and can do whatever He wants) or the creative age view...... my point was more that people are locked into their paradigms and belief systems and try to put forth their logic as if there is no other possible perspective that makes sense, when actually people of honest intention can see it differently.

But perhaps it is a can of worms I shouldnt have opened LOL

[GodIsLove]

Eaglesway, it may have been "a can of worms" but I appreciated reading your insight in your OP. I have thought for a while, without any proof, that "day" may or may not have been 24h. When Ken Ham and Bill Nye debated about creation I didn't watch it but read a little bit about it and from my understanding Ken ham is a new earth creationist and of course bill nye believes in the Big Bang and evolution and I don't think either side has the "right" answer because of "seeing through the glass darkly." I don't think it matters, truthfully, if the earth is young or old, we will know eventually :) 

[eaglesway]

Thanks, I am glad you found it interesting. I am not and have never been hung up on the issue so I tend to speculate freely for the sake of discovery sometimes. :o)

I have a young earth perspective and to not believe in evolution, but as far as those first 5 "days" and the processes God used in creation- for me there is a wide realm of possibilities. The interpretations of the facts, by scientists(who frequently disagree vehemenently with each other) and the interpretation of the scriptures(by Christians, who frequently disagree vehemenently with each other) need not be as mutually exclusive and divisive as they are.

Eventually we will all know as we are known, but for now, as you said- we see through a glass darkly.

[Dandelion]

Just started to teach science to Junior High School Special Ed. students about 7 weeks ago. I had never taught science before, though as a child and into my adulthood, had always had a fascination for it. As I am explaining various concepts to my students, I am in awe of our God, who created it all. For instance, the tiniest atom is based on similar principals of structure to the solar system and galaxies. And, how about the fact that ice can float, and its molecules are less dense than water, which is highly unusual for a solid to be less dense than its liquid. Otherwise, there would be no life in the waters.

How could all this be accidental? In all of His creation, we see a God who has thought of the tiniest details, in love for us.

I wrote a song a few years back, and said in it how God was no longer in the 'box' that I had kept Him in, for me.

How true this is EW! The more we see Him and the more he reveals Himself to us, the more we come to know how HUGE our God is! 

Thank you for sharing this, EW.

D.             :iagree: