.
• Gen 1:14-18 . . And God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky
to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark
seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the
sky to give light on the earth.
. . . And it was so. God made two great lights--the greater light to govern
the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God
set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the
day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.
At this point in biblical history, "stars" no doubt indicates all luminous
objects in the heavens seeing as how it would be a very long time before
humanity began categorizing some of the stars as planets.
I think it's important to emphasize that in the beginning God "set" the stars
in the sky just as he set the Sun and the Moon in the sky, i.e. celestial
objects didn't arrange themselves all by themselves sans any intelligent
supervision whatsoever; no, they were placed; and not only were they
placed, but also set in motion-- nothing in the entire cosmos is standing still,
though many things appear to be.
According to Gen 1:15, stars illuminated the Earth on the "day" that God
made them.
Well; the only stars whose shine is of any practical use as illumination are
those of the Milky Way; which is estimated 100,000 to 180,000 light years in
diameter. Obviously then; if left entirely up to nature, light from stars
nearest our location in the galaxy would begin dousing the earth with
illumination long before those at the far side.
For example, light from Alpha Centauri takes only about 4½ years to reach
Earth while light from Alpha Orionis (a.k.a. Betelgeuse) takes about 640.
There are quite a few stars whose illumination reaches Earth in less than 50
years. But whether 4½ years, 50 years, 640 years, or 180,000 years; the
time involved is insignificant if we but allow that the days of creation were
eras rather than 24-hour events.
But what's the point of putting all those objects out there in space? Well, for
one thing, they're not only brain teasers; but they're actually quite pretty.
Celestial objects decorate the night sky like the ornamentation people put up
during holidays. The night sky would sure be a bore if it was totally black.
Decorated with stars; the night sky is like a beautiful tapestry, or a celestial
Sistine Chapel.
"The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky proclaims His handiwork."
(Ps 19:2)
The universe makes better sense that way than to try and find some other
meaning for it. Objects in space are simply a magnificent works of art— just
as intriguing, if not more so, than the works of Picasso, Rembrandt,
Michelangelo, Monet, Vermeer, and/or da Vinci —testifying to the genius of
an engineer-artist without peer.
Sadly, a number of very intelligent people-- e.g. Carl Sagan and Neil
deGrasse Tyson --look to the sky for the wrong reasons. Why not just look
to the sky for inspiration instead of only exploration and discovery? What's
so bad about visiting the sky as a Guggenheim or a Louvre displaying your
maker's many-faceted talents?
"For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it
evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes
of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived
in what He has made." (Rom 1:19-20)
One of the things "He has made" is mankind. By observing ourselves, we
can know quite a bit about our maker.
• Gen 1:27a . . God created man in His own image, in the image of God He
created him
Seeing as how Man is a physical being whereas God is a spirit being, then
we are safe to conclude that Man's image and likeness of God isn't as some
sort of doppelganger, rather, Man's characteristics exhibits some of God's,
e.g. He's sentient, self-aware, disciplined, responsible, intelligent, sociable,
verbal, imaginative, artistic, resourceful, reasonable, and conscionable. No
doubt He constructed Man in His image and likeness so that He and Man
could relate on a meaningful level.
_