WHY GOD CREATED TIME
One of the greatest evidences that God is real is TIME. Have you ever thought about where time came from? Humans are NOT the inventors of time. Did you know that God is the Creator of time? Have you ever thought about why God created time even before humans sinned? What is the purpose of time from the beginning when He created humans to live forever? Remember, in Genesis God created this world in six literal 24 hour days and on the seventh day He rested, blessed, and made it holy as a blessing for all humanity. From the beginning, even before sin entered this world, God created the seventh-day Sabbath as a special time that completes a seven day week cycle. The seventh-day Sabbath is the only day in God’s Creation that God commanded us to remember.
What is the purpose of time without an anticipated appointment? The seventh-day Sabbath is the only specific anticipated appointment that God has given throughout His Creation. If you come at a different time other than the specified time set for the appointment, you will miss it. The creation of time is centered on this divine appointment of the seventh-day Sabbath. Without time, the seventh-day Sabbath could not exist. During the other six days of the week, God wants us to look forward with great anticipation to the Sabbath. Time points to a weekly Sabbath. The seventh- day Sabbath is a special time that unifies us to God. If God did not want to have a special time to unify His people, coming together for this sanctified time to worship, there would be no reason to have time. Think about it.
Time was not created for the sole purpose of just counting days and years gone by. What would be the purpose of time especially in the context of eternity? In the new Heaven and Earth you would have no reason to keep track of your age. Can you imagine someone asking you in the new Heaven and Earth, “How old are you?” Your reply, “I’m one million, four hundred thousand, nine hundred and sixty-two years old.” The only reason we track our ages now before eternity is because of the anticipation of growing old and death. But even before sin and death, God created time for the divine appointment of His people coming together on the Sabbath day.
Even in the new Heaven and new Earth, throughout the ceaseless time of eternity, God will still have a seven-day weekly cycle. At the end of each week we will ALL unify to meet on the seventh-day Sabbath to worship our Creator. Isaiah 66:22, 23 says, 22“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. 23And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.”
The creation of time which points to the Sabbath is proof of the existence of God and His power. Let’s take time and study TIME that God created at the beginning of the world that proves His existence and power.
1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form [desolation-no shape], and void [empty]; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
Darkness is the absence of light. It cannot be measured. It has no speed.
Genesis 1:3 - “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
God made visible light. Notice, on the first day of creation God did not make the sun. God’s word illuminated a dark world by suspending light in space without the aid of a sun. Visible light is electromagnetic waves with illuminating energy that penetrates darkness and illuminates our space allowing us to see our surroundings and its objects. Visible light is measured by its illuminating speed as it cuts through darkness. Light can travel 186,282 miles per second! That’s approximately 671 million miles per hour. When a light wave travels from the sun to light the earth it takes at least 8 minutes and 17 seconds to get here.
Genesis 1:4, 5
4 “And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
This is the introduction of time to the earth. Light = day. Darkness = night. “Evening” is defined as dusk or sunset at the beginning of darkness. Time was created on the first day of Creation.
Again, the first day is defined by the separation of light and darkness. Do you remember when an official day begins? Think about this. When God created the earth on the first day, what was first the light or darkness? Darkness, of course. The light divided the darkness. The first day began in the dark until God penetrated it with light.
In Genesis 1:5 it says, “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” At the end of each day of Creation, God said that the evening and the morning was the day. You see this same pattern at the end of each day of the Creation week in Genesis 1:8, 13, 19, 23, and 31. So the day began at evening or sunset and continued throughout the next morning until the next evening when the next day would begin. Each day was a complete 24 hour day.
All over the world the measurement of time is the same. Why? God designed it that way to point to His special seventh-day Sabbath and as a sign of His awesome power, glory, and promises.
According to Genesis 1:14-19 the sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day of Creation. Before the sun was created it is obvious that light was suspended in space to light the world. On the fourth day God gathered the visible light and put it in a round star we call the sun in the midst of space. This round earth orbits around the sun as it rotates on its axis. Also, on the fourth day, God made the moon to revolve around the earth to reflect the light of the sun at night. He also gathered the light and put it in distant stars millions of light years away from our planet that can only be seen at night.
Why did God make the sun and the moon?
Genesis 1:14 - “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”
1. Divide day from night
2. Seasons (determined by the position of the earth and tilt of the axis as it orbits around the sun – spring, summer, fall and winter.)
3. Days (24 hours, evening [sunset] to evening – one complete literal day.)
4. Years (one complete rotation around the sun)
(Notice: The sun and the moon are the earth’s physical clock that tracked time before sin.)
5. Signs
1) Monument
2) Evidence-Proof
3) Distinguishing Mark.
In other words, the sun and the moon are monuments, proof, and God’s special distinguishing mark of His Creation, power, glory, and promises. The sun and the moon are God’s time clock to count the days (24 hours), months (12), seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter), and years as a monument or sign of His power, authority, Creation, and promises. It is also the mark of His authority over the creation of time and its management. Psalms 19:1-3 says, 1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” “Declare” in Hebrew means “to inscribe.”
So the heavens inscribes a line in the sky bearing the signature of God as a perpetual monument that speaks loudly to us of the glory, magnificence, and power of our Creator. People all over the world can understand its message for “there is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”