How Long Did the First Three Days Last?
In the first three days God governed the day by separating the light from the darkness. Only later, on the fourth day, did He delegate to the Sun the authority to govern the day. The Bible does not say how long the first three cycles lasted, but in Isaiah 40:26 God invites us to look up and see--Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. In the 20th century we built the first telescopes and satellites that allow us to see all the way back to the last light of the first morning. Before the first morning was the first evening. It may have been very brief, but there was certainly darkness before there was light, just as the Bible says. We will also see that it took three cycles of darkness and light to form the Earth. We have already begun to describe those cycles. We will later devote a chapter to each of the three evenings and to each of the three mornings and examine more details.
At first God separated the light from the darkness. He was not obliged to limit the duration of any of the first three days to what would later become the usual duration of a day on the surface of the Earth. Before the Earth was formed it didn’t have a surface. Later, on the fourth day, He delegated the function of separating light from darkness to the Sun. We know how the Sun separates light from darkness. We know, though Moses did not, that the Earth spins on its axis and revolves around the Sun. The Sun cannot rise one morning and say “Today will be a special day.” At present the Sun is separating light from darkness on the Earth. It has been doing so from day four on. We may be sure that all days the Sun has governed between the polar circles of the Earth have been 24-hour days. That is the way the Sun does it.
At first God separated the light from the darkness. He was not obliged to limit the duration of any of the first three days to what would later become the usual duration of a day on the surface of the Earth. Before the Earth was formed it didn’t have a surface. Later, on the fourth day, He delegated the function of separating light from darkness to the Sun. We know how the Sun separates light from darkness. We know, though Moses did not, that the Earth spins on its axis and revolves around the Sun. The Sun cannot rise one morning and say “Today will be a special day.” At present the Sun is separating light from darkness on the Earth. It has been doing so from day four on. We may be sure that all days the Sun has governed between the polar circles of the Earth have been 24-hour days. That is the way the Sun does it.
