The Fourth Day of Creation

I am back up and running and settled into my new home.  I hope to reinstate a regular schedule of blog posts.  I'm aiming for 100 plus!

 

 

I am picking back up where I left off in the story of the creation from the Books of Abraham and Moses in the Pearl of Great Price.

 

And the Gods organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven, and caused them to divide the day from the night; and organized them to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years, and organized them to be for lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. (Abraham 4: 14, 15)

 

There are many fundamental believers who take the story of creation literally and believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six 24-hour earth days.  I will not argue with them and support their right to so believe.  I, however, believe that God was referring to six creative periods the length of which we do not know.

 

In the beginning of the fourth such creative period, God "organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven."  To my understanding, this means that God did not place earth and the other planets in their orbits around the sun until halfway through the creative eons.  This would mean that there would be no 24 hour earth day in place before then.  Even after this point, it may have taken additional expanses of time for these orbits to regulate themselves into what we know enjoy: 24 clock hours in one rotation of the Earth; 365.25 day year based on one revolution around the sun, and roughly a 28 day lunar month based on the revolution of the moon around the earth.  This idea of creative periods comfortably allows for a 2.5 billion year age for our earth.

And the Gods organized the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light they set the stars also;

And the Gods set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to cause to divide the light from the darkness.

 

And the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed.

And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that it was night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that it was day; and it was the fourth time.  (Abraham 4: 16-19)

 

In verse 16 of Moses 2 and Genesis 1, God states that the stars also were made even according to my word.

 

And all of these things were created to set the times and the seasons and for signs in the heavens, such as the star that guided the Magi and foretold Jesus' birth to the Nephites.

 

"I am commanded: therefore, I am."

 

Only the Book of Abraham tells us that God waited to see that he was obeyed after he commands the elements to do His bidding.  Professor George S. Tate, speaking at Brigham Young University in 1995, stated: The kernel of the idea came to me some time ago when I was thumbing through a book by the remarkable Jewish thinker Abraham Heschel, entitled Who Is Man? Toward the end of the book, I came upon a subheading that jarred me. It read: I am commanded—therefore I am. (Emphasis added)

 

 

He goes on to say: These passages caused me to notice, as I had not really done before, how central the idea of obedience is to creation, especially in the account given in the book of Abraham. Over and again, at each stage of creation, the text says, “And the Gods saw that they were obeyed” (Abraham 4:10, 12). At the creation of the sun and the moon, we can almost see the outstretched, ordering hand as we read, “And the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed”(Abraham 4:18; emphasis added). In the biblical account, God pronounces the work of each day “good” (Genesis 1:10, etc.); in the book of Abraham, this goodness is equated with obedience. For example, as the fishes and birds are created, we read, “And the Gods saw that they would be obeyed, and that their plan was good (Abraham 4:21, cf. 25; emphasis added). In Genesis, God pronounces the work of the sixth and last day “very good” (Genesis 1 :31); in the book of Abraham we read, “And the Gods said: We will do everything that we have said, and organize them; and behold, they shall be very obedient”(Abraham 4:31; emphasis added). Very good and very obedient are one and the same. The goodness of creation depends upon obedience.

 

All of creation - the elements, molecules, and atoms - are required by divine law to obey God's command.  It is this irrevocable law that keeps harmony and order in the universe.  Without it, all would be chaos.  That is why when Jesus said, "Peace, be still," the storm immediately abated.  It "heard" the voice of its creator.

 

Only man, through his divine agency, is given the choice to obey or not to obey.  Nothing else in creation has that luxury, as it were.  And yet the law of obedience shows us there millennium of examples that disobedience brings disharmony. We can choose our actions, but we cannot choose a consequence inconsistent with our action.  Wickedness never was happiness. 

 

Perhaps we should learn from our Navajo neighbors to seek for hozho, that harmony that comes through being at one with our creator.  If we could obey as the storm obeyed, we could say to our lives, "Peace, be still."  Let us walk in beauty.  Let us walk in obedience.

 

 © Gebara Education, 2016