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. (Genesis 1:14b-15, ESV)
I can buy a watch and a Daytimer for someone, but God, the ultimate Giver, creates the sun, moon, and stars and sets them in motion in such a way that they will serve as the first calendar and timepiece humanity ever had.
Why did God give us time markers? And why, since then, has humanity been keeping track of time?
Time has always been a marker for age. Before death entered the picture, time would have been nothing but delightful. It wouldn’t have mattered if Adam had been 77 or 377, other than to know for fun. But once death entered, age became a countdown to death.
When I was 8, I wasn’t aware of that. But at 28, I sure am. And if God spares me to be 98, I’ll know it that much more.
But the markers God put in the sky didn’t only mark death. As time went by, it began to mark . . calamities . . battles . . weddings . . festivals . . kings . . dynasties . . inventions . . the footprints of humanity. And the whole time that time was marking, there was an underground current, a whispering hope, a mysterious prophesy, that sin could one day be reversed.
That current, that hope, that prophesy was called birth.
Right after the fall, Eve had been promised something extraordinary by God. A promise passed down from generation to generation to generation, over thousands of years . . . a promise that had come through a curse God had given the serpent:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, ESV)
And so . . marking time became more than just logging deaths.
Marking time became all about genealogies.
Because one day, a supernatural descendent of Eve would come to reverse the curse of death . . . so that time could once again be . . . the delightful chapters of eternity with God.
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. (Genesis 1:14b-15, ESV)
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