The Fourth, Amazing Day
2/13 Reading Portions: Genesis 46; Mark 16; Job 12; Romans 16
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2/13 Reading Portions: Genesis 46; Mark 16; Job 12; Romans 16
Genesis 1:14-19
And 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, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
WEDNESDAY
Friday the 13th is bad luck for the superstitious, unbelieving world. It may be why unbelievers so readily acknowledge that Christ was crucified on Friday when we so adamantly preach about “Good Friday.” Yet subconsciously they won’t receive the gospel because their worldly flesh vehemently opposes the critical disconnect between our argument that the world was created in six literal days and at the same time we waffle on three literal days and nights for Christ’s burial in the tomb. Jesus Himself said,
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:39-40
Are we so arrogant in our arguments to suggest that the Creator of the heavens and the earth was now being intentionally allegorical about the most important events of history—His crucifixion and resurrection? God forbid! Now, I will explain the literal three days and nights in an article a little later today, but first, we will meditate upon Christ’s crucifixion falling upon the fourth day, Wednesday, the middle of the seven-day week, and how it is foreshadowed in the creation account.
The lights in the second heavens (outer space) were placed there as foreshadowing fulfillments of the first day (Let there be light), because they are directly connected to the Center of the universe: the Lord Jesus Christ, who is “the Light of the world” (John 8:12). They were established by our triune Creator God to rule over the day and night because they were meant, He states in verse 14, for signs, Hebrew לְאֹתֹת (l’-ō-TŌT) and and for seasons, or more literally “set times” or “appointed times,” the Hebrew וּלְמְוֹעֲדִ֔ים (oo’-l’-mo-e-DEEYM). Interestingly, moediym can be literally broken down in our English as meaning “from His witnesses.” The appointed time for Christ Jesus to fulfill the promise of salvation from Genesis 3:15 would be when His feet were pinned to the cross and His heel was bruised by its piercing. When the Lord Jesus was crucified on that Wednesday…
…from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. Matthew 27:45
That’s because the Light of the world paid a debt He did not owe, for a debt we owe and cannot possibly pay. The only light available on the earth until Christ’s witnesses proclaimed His resurrection, was from the sun, moon, and stars. The Light of the world had been crucified and buried for three days and nights, risen on Saturday at sundown, and the women, arriving at the tomb before morning light (John 20:1)—before the sun rose, while it was still dark. Christ’s light would not truly shine and overshadow the light of the sun, moon, and stars, until He, and His gospel, was proclaimed by His witnesses. Hallelujah! What a Savior!