Time: in the Beginning ...
The moment God said, "Let there be light," the celestial clock began to tick. Time is the elusive element created in the opening chapter of Genesis. As we are introduced to the grand narrative of creation, God, through his spoken word, brings order out of a formless and void existence, crafting the universe from nothingness. But within this dramatic story, a more subtle thread is woven: a clock woven into the fabric of creation - The universe hums with the rhythm of God's special creation - time. Let's dive into this intriguing concept, working through the creation week (itself a period of time), and see if we can discover a First-Sentence Perspective of time.
While the modern world relies on clocks and standardized timekeeping, the struggle to quantify the measuring and understanding of time stretches back millennia. From primitive sundials to intricate water-powered mechanisms, ancient societies developed ingenious methods to mark time's passage and to make and keep appointments.
Time is sacred. While the earliest sundials and water clocks were not specifically invented for religious purposes, the development of the mechanical clock in 14th-century Europe was indeed closely tied to the need to schedule prayer times. Monks played a significant role in the development and use of these early mechanical clocks, as their daily routines revolved around prayer at specific times. We actually can see this thread throughout ancient times, even in ancient non-Christian cultures. The timeliness of idolatrous worship rituals seemingly required some way of marking accurately the rhythms of worship - times and seasons.
Before even the mechanical clocks of the monks, other tools were used to measure time: to measure days, months, years, and seasons.
However, our fascination with time extends beyond its practical applications. Just as we use clocks to measure time and to keep appointments, so it is with God's measuring of time by his celestial clock. The sun, moon, and stars are His celestial clock (Gen. 1:14-18; cf. Job 38:31-33). For most of history, these God-created timekeepers were the only clocks people used.
What appointments did He have that needed keeping? What was so important that God developed a way of telling time to mark it?
Could it be, that in the beginning, God created time as a means of engaging his creation and moving it toward its desired destiny? The biblical narrative portrays God's establishment of time markers, in Hebrew, the moedim, through the creation of the sun, moon, and stars and how this act culminates in the designation of the seventh day as a special space within the newly formed creation, a sanctuary carved within the flow of time. Time, as we know it, is finite and has a destiny appointed for all of creation, and inscribed in the heavens from the beginning.
The First Hint of Time
The first tick of God's celestial clock is found in the first word in the first sentence of the Hebrew scriptures: Bereshit bara Elohim — In the beginning God... (Genesis 1:1). The beginning of what? This marks the beginning of time.
The next marking of time comes quickly in the next few verses.
As His Spirit moved over the waters (Ge 1:2), He commanded light into existence (Ge 1:3). By inference, it must have been dark. Having seen that light was good, we learn that He called the light day, and the darkness night. This combination of a dark-light cycle was then declared to be 'one day.' (Ge 1:5)
Two things happen in this verse. First, the concept of a day is created - one cycle of dark (evening) and light (morning). It is also the 'first' day. This combination of dark and light had not previously existed. Like the first dollar made is often framed and prominently displayed on a new business's wall, could it be that in heaven God has the first day framed and hanging on His wall to remind Him of what began with that 'first day?'
There is another curiosity to be gleaned from verse 5 as well. In fact, this pattern continues through the creation week. Notice that it is the cycle of evening and morning that defines a day and not the other way around as we presently count it. As God establishes time, the cycle of a day begins in the evening, not at midnight or sunrise.
“... And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” (Genesis 1:5, NASB95)
This is so important to understanding the Bible. When marking time, the Bible uses this pattern as it refers to days, with the day starting at the sun's setting. Recall that at the crucifixion the order was given to break the legs (Jn 19:31-32) of those on the cross to hasten their death so that they could be removed before the Sabbath which began at sunset.
The Moedim - Leviticus 23
The first recurring appointment God sets is the Sabbath (more on this in a moment). In addition to the weekly Sabbath, God, in the wilderness, establishes seven other appointed times, moedim, on an annual cycle. We find these in Leviticus chapter 23. These annual observances can be grouped by their harvest seasons:
Spring Moedim
Passover
Feast of Unleavened Bread
First Fruits
Festival of Weeks(Pentecost)
Fall Moedim
Feast of Trumpets
Day of Atonement
Feast of Tabernacles
Remember, that God's revelation of himself, the recounting of creation, and the revelation of His appointments in Leviticus 23 all happen at the same time and place - in the desert at the foot of Sinai. By doing this he declares that what Israel is only now receiving in the desert, has been His intent from the beginning.
The Days Are Numbered
Now, let's continue this recap of creation. After each day's creation, we find a summary in the form of, "There was evening and there was morning, a second day" and so on. (Genesis 1:8, 12, 19, 23, 31)
On the fourth day, we encounter quite a curiosity. There we read,
“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;.... God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; ...There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.” (Genesis 1:14–19, NASB95, emphasis mine)
The first thing to note is that the sun and moon were created as lights on the fourth day. But, light was created on day one! Light from the darkness is the first separation of the creation. The implication is that the earth was formed first and then the universe around it. The sun and moon are not to be the origin of light but the governors of the light for days and nights.
The Universe is the Earth's Time Piece
Could it be that the universe is Earth's timepiece? I believe so. See if you can follow my reasoning on this. First, look at the phrase, "and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." (emphasis mine)
There is much more to this phrase than first meets the eye. Note that these words are direct quotes of God's command to these created things - He establishes their purpose. (By the way, each creative statement by God should be understood as a command.) Let's examine the four words I have underlined.
Signs
The creation of day 4 and the Sabbath on day 7 are harbingers for God's interaction and authority until "heaven and earth pass away (Matt 5:18)."
I have established previously that the revelations of the book of Genesis are to Israel as they journey in the desert. God is reforming everything they had learned about gods and the world while in slavery in Egypt. He is revealing that it was He and not the gods of Egypt or Canaan, who is The Creator and ruler of all things.
The humiliation he had heaped upon the usurping gods of Egypt was soon to be heaped upon the gods of Canaan. With the revelation of time recorded in the heavens, He puts these gods on notice that their time is running out. He now reveals that the worship of those gods and their set times are false echoes of the divine intent from the beginning. In this first week of creation, the God who will soon teach them to build a tabernacle for Him to dwell in their midst has ordained, in the patterns of the galaxy, the appointments He has made and will keep with mankind. This revelation is to the Jews first, as Paul says (Ro 1:16).
The word for signs in Hebrew is ōtōt (אֹתֹת). This is a word used throughout scripture to describe circumstances in which God demonstrates His control and decrees remembrance of His promises. The universe itself was intended to be such a sign to humanity. Paul recognizes this in the opening of his letter to the Romans.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20, NASB95)
Seasons
The Hebrew behind the word for seasons is moedim (מועדים). This is much more than just the four seasons of the year with which we are so familiar. It has the connotation of set times or appointments. Yes, God makes appointments. His appointments are not merely penciled in they are carved in the stone of the clockworks of the universe.
What are these appointments, these appointed times? To understand this let's look at a familiar phrase often repeated throughout the formative books of Genesis through Leviticus and even beyond. In Exodus 27:21 we find the phrase, "In the tent of meeting, ...."
The word for meeting, you guessed it, is moed (singular of moedim). The Tabernacle was a tent where God conducted His appointments (moedim). In the wilderness, God would reveal these appointments as His feasts. At these appointments, Israel was to still themselves and focus on the celebration of what God had done and was yet to do. These are God's appointed times. On them, we are to remember and reflect on all of the times when God revealed Himself as mighty and strong, loving and holy. Beyond that, each of His seven feasts (Lev. 23) is a revelation of what He would do through the coming of the Messiah — Jesus.
The cycles of the sun and the moon, whom Egypt and the rest of the world recognized as deities, were now revealed, in God's version of creation, to be the heralds of His plan for the redemption of the world and the enthronement of Jesus as Lord of all. The universe has proclaimed this ever since the fourth day of creation. The annual acknowledgment of God's appointments is our way of continuing to acknowledge what God has done and what He will yet do as the celestial clock winds toward its destined appointment of the return of Jesus, the resurrection, and the restoration of all things.
Days and Years
God's appointments are determined by a solar-lunar calendar. Days are governed by the cycle of the earth's rotation: one dark cycle, governed by the moon, and one daylight cycle, governed by the sun. Years are governed by the earth's completion of a revolution around the sun. A month is governed by a revolution of the moon around the earth. The moedim are governed by the moon's cycles within the sun's cycles and occur relative to the new moon and full moon or are counted from them.
The Uniqueness of the 7th Day
Creation week was not complete without the 7th day. Having made and established creation, God completed His creative week with the creation of the Sabbath - a day he set apart and made holy.
“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (Genesis 2:2–3, NASB95, emphasis mine)
Man had been enthroned to rule this new creation (Ge 1:26-30). But this new authority first bowed to the sanctification of the perpetual 7th-day appointment with his creator before engaging his work assignment.
This 7th-day was not an afterthought or simply a play day. it was the pinnacle of God's creation and mankind's first appointment with its creator. This was the origin of worship. Every sabbath reminds us that there will be an ultimate sabbath when the entire earth will rest, freed from its encumbrance of sin. From the Sabbath, we can understand that God was heavily invested in His creation and that He intended to be relationally involved with it. Its first duty was to pause in the presence of its creator. The Sabbath was God's creation of a holy sanctuary in time. It was the model for the physical sanctuary in space - the Tabernacle.
This day was not governed by some alignment of the sun, moon, or stars. It was a day that stood on its own and existed only for the God who created it and by the intentionality of the relentless counting of the 7-day cycle. Each new day sprang from the sabbath and was named and counted from the sabbath, anticipating the next appointment with God.
The sun and moon gods had no say or influence on the seventh day. It was holy - God's alone - and He would not share it. Israel had likely not celebrated this sabbath rest for the duration of their enslavement. But now, the God who rescued them from the treachery of the gods of Egypt would give them rest. They could see in the creation account that this was His intention from the beginning, that man should rest with Him.
This creation of the seventh day was a promise of a permanent time when man would be wholly devoted to and with God - no sin, no striving.
Another subtlety is that the creation account merely refers to this day as the seventh day. It is only later that it is referred to as the Sabbath. Sabbath comes from the Hebrew Shabbat meaning rest. The days of the week are each only numbered, not named. Today we retain names for the days of the week from a mixture of ancient Babylonian, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon/Norse traditions naming the days after their gods: Sunday is "Sun" day, Monday is "Moon" day, Tuesday is "Tiu's" day, Wednesday is "Woden's" day, Thursday is "Thor's" day, Friday is "Frigg's" day, and Saturday is "Saturn's" day.
The Bible references days of the week by their number, not by name, and usually by their number relative to the seventh day, the Sabbath. It is noteworthy that in the Greek instead of 'first day of the week' we find 'first of the sabbaton (sabbaths).'
“On the first day of the week (first of sabbaton), when we were gathered together to break bread, ...” (Acts 20:7, NASB95, emphasis mine)
The days of the week, unnamed, each had to bow to the Lord of the Sabbath. None was to usurp its creator. Only Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:5).
Why would this be? In Putting God in Perspective I described how Genesis was written to the Hebrews after their deliverance from Egypt's gods and as they journeyed in the desert learning who this God who freed them was. Ancient deities were and still are associated with days of the week and the sun, moon, and stars. What we see is God making no mention of them in the revelation that He created these things - the things purported to be gods were merely created things. God does not even honor the Sun or Moon with these names. Instead, He refers to them as the greater light and the lesser light that rule the day and the night. The stars, also identified with ancient gods, are simply lumped together in the casual phrase, "and the stars also." (Genesis 1:16)
So too, the days of the weeks are silent before their creator and serve to mark His next appointment.
On Purpose On Time
Each appointment has a past, present, and future element regarding what God has done, is doing, and will yet do, particularly as it relates to the work of Jesus. Just as a teaser, in the spring feast of Passover, we see Jesus becoming the Passover lamb as He was crucified. As the One without sin, we see Him in the grave on the feast of Unleavened bread (the day after Passover). His resurrection was exactly on the morning of the Feast of First Fruits, He being the "first fruits from the dead" 1 Co 15:20. The Fall feasts teach us about and promise His soon second coming.
Next in God’s Clock: The Biblical Mystery of Time, we will explore these recurring appointments with God to gain a deep understanding of their significance for our faith.
Within the time-space continuum, He has placed prophetic pictures into the fabric of the days, weeks, and sacred appointments (moedim) to communicate the spiritual reality of His plan to redeem His creation. All of this requires a means to reckon time.
There is yet an appointed time when, just as at the beginning God will join His creation by taking up permanent residence - He will permanently tabernacle with His creation. So, we can see that creation week was the pattern for all time to come. What has been and what will yet be was written in the heavens during the first week of creation.
This is the apocalyptic nature of time. That will be the deep dive of our next article. See you there.
