Genesis 1:1-6:8
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Excerpt:
Yom Reve’ee – Day 4
Verses 14-15
“Elohim said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years; and let them be for lights in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth’; and that is how it was.”
Before this day of creation, there was Light and Darkness along with Day and Night. On this yom, Elohim creates lights in Sky, in that place where water is above and water is below. These lights were to be signs for the seasons, days, and years.
The word ‘season’ in this verse does not refer to spring, summer, fall, and winter. In Hebrew the word for ‘season’ is mo’ed which means ‘appointed time,’ ‘appointed meeting place’ or ‘appointed feast.’ Elohim put lights in the sky for His creation to recognize His holy days and seasons: from the Sabbath to the annual holidays.
These same lights in the sky will be used in the days of judgment. When Elohim judges the world for its evil ways, “the stars, the constellations in the sky will no longer give their light; the sun will be dark when it rises; and the moon will no longer shine” (Isaiah 13:9-11, Joel 3:15, Luke 21:25-28).
Verses 16-19
“Elohim made the two great lights — the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night — and the stars. Elohim put them in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and Elohim saw that it was good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.”
The two great lights that Elohim put in the dome of the sky are the sun and the moon. Through the greater and lesser lights, Darkness is divided from Light and a cycle of time is established for days, weeks, months, and years. The 24-hour day is ruled by the sun: sunset to sunset. The night is ruled by the moon creating months as it waxes and wanes from one new moon to the next. The lesser lights, the stars, regulate the year through constellations like Orion and Pleiades that rise and fall throughout the seasons creating the annual holidays.
The fourth day of creation, Yom Reve’ee, was completed with evening and morning.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not suppressed it” (John 1:1-5).
For a complete copy of this Torah portion, the readings from the Prophets, gospels, letters, and study questions, please purchase Open My Eyes: Wonders of Torah.
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