p. 92 | TO CORRESPONDENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 11, 1879

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

38.—JOB'S CHILDREN.

WERE Job's children destroyed, as the messenger reported? or was it a false report, seeing we find in the last chapter of Job the same number mentioned as at first? W. S. D.

ANS. The idea has been suggested by some that Job's children were not killed at all, it being a false report suffered to come to him for the purpose of testing him. But the opinion generally prevails that his children were really slain, and that those mentioned in the last chapter were born to him after his prosperity returned. It will be noticed that his flocks were just double in the end what they were in the beginning. So the same number of children being given him as at the beginning, will make double the number in the end, provided they all have part in the first resurrection.

39.—LIGHT BEFORE THE SUN.

In Genesis 1 we find that light appeared on the first day, and yet the sun, moon, and stars were not made till the fourth day. How can this be explained? W. S. D.

ANS. We suppose the sun was created when the earth was, and not on the fourth day. All that was done on the fourth day in reference to the sun and moon was to constitute them the light-bearers to this earth. This could be done in two ways: either by taking the light which was spoken into existence on the first day, and clothing the sun therewith, or clearing away the mists and clouds, so that the sun should then appear as the great light-bearer to the solar system. This latter is the view of Prof. Bush; and as he gives a very clear and interesting note on the subject, we can do no better than to present it:—

“Let there be lights, &c. It is unquestionable that the Scriptures generally describe the phenomena of the natural world as they appear, rather than according to strict scientific truth. Thus the sun and moon are said to rise and set, the stars to fall, and the moon to be turned into blood. Consequently, if this history of the creation were designed to describe the effects of the six days' work as they would have appeared to a spectator, had one been present,—a supposition rendered probable from its being said, ‘Let the dry land appear (Heb., be seen),’ when as yet there was no eye to see it—then we may reasonably conclude that the sun was formed on the first day, or perhaps had been created even before our earth, and was in fact the cause of the vicissitude of the three first days and nights. But as the globe of the earth was during that time surrounded by a dense mass of mingled air and water, the rays of the sun would be intercepted; only a dim, glimmering light, even in the daytime, would appear; and the bodies of the heavenly luminaries would be entirely hidden, just as they now are in a very cloudy day. Let it be supposed then that on the fourth day the clouds, mists, and vapors were all cleared away, and the atmosphere made pure and serene; the sun of course would shine forth in all his splendor, and to the eye of our imagined spectator would seem to have been just created; and so at night of the moon and stars. This effect of the divine power, according to the usual analogy of the Scriptures, is described from its appearance, and the language employed—‘let there be lights in the firmament,’ and ‘he made two great lights and set them in the firmament’—is to be interpreted on the principle above stated. They might then be said to be ‘made,’ because they then first began to be visible, and to perform the office for which they were designed. The original word for ‘made’ is not the same as that which is rendered ‘create.’ It is a term frequently employed to signify constituted, appointed, set for a particular purpose or use. Thus it is said that God ‘made Joseph a father to Pharaoh,’ ‘made him Lord of Egypt,’ ‘made the Jordan a border between the tribes,’ ‘made David the head of the heathen;’ and so in innumerable other instances. As therefore the rainbow was made or constituted a sign, though it might have existed before, so the sun, moon, and stars may be said to have been made and set as lights in the firmament, on the fourth day; though actually called into existence on the first, or previously. The same result had indeed been really effected by the same means during the previous three days and nights, but these luminaries were henceforth, by their rising and setting, to be the visible means of producing this separation or succession.—¶ Lights. Heb. מאורות, light-bearers, instruments of illumination, light-bearers, light-dispensers. The original word is different from that rendered ‘light.’”