“But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:8-10 (KJV)

I have been doing a lot of thinking about Genesis and the creation of the world in only 7 days, or a 24 hour period like we would normally call a day. I feel like the Holy Spirit has been illuminating some things recently that has led me to believe that in the beginning, a day was not just a 24 hour period but actually a period of 1,000 years. To me, that seems to make more sense because creating the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets would take a lot longer to create than a 24 hour period, or at least that’s what I think because of how patient He has been in renewing me. That’s more His character than quick and instantaneous, not that He’s not capable of being instantaneous either. Look at the trees and rivers, not to mention the wonders of this world. Erosion in its own respect takes thousands of years for water to dig a hole through the ground. God is very patient and would not rush things to fit into what we would consider a day or a 24 hour period.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” Genesis 1:1-8 (KJV)

I feel like to get the atmosphere or firmament just right to sustain life would take longer than a 24 hour period. The slightest change in our ozone layer would be catastrophic to life on this planet. The radiation from the sun alone would kill us. That protective layer took a lot of thought and creativity to get it just right. The firmament is also mentioned to be draped over us like a blanket, which is why the sun and the moon is bigger when they rise and set. You can also think of it as a giant lens. There’s no way evolution could have possibly happened to the point of creating an atmosphere for us to thrive in. So right away, on the second “day,” that completely takes out the idea that evolution is even a possibility.

“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place (Pangea), and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.” Genesis 1:9-13 (KJV)

After the second “day” comes the third “day” where dry ground starts to appear out of seemingly nothing and nowhere. If you have watched plants grow, you know that it takes a lot longer than 24 hours for a seed to push through the soil. It takes days and weeks and sometimes even months depending on the specific plant. For trees, it takes years and decades for them to become full grown and reach maturity. Some trees, like the bristlecone pine in California, have even been around for almost 5,000 years, which incredibly enough is very close to when they estimate the time of the flood would have been. And recently, I came across a video that said that a lot of mesas and butte’s are not rock formations, but actually gigantic trees that were knocked down to leave stumps and petrified around the time of the flood. If that is in fact true, which I believe it is, then those trees would have taken thousands of years to get that big to leave stumps that size. Devil’s Tower in Wyoming is one example of what I believe to be a petrified tree trunk.

“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: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”    Genesis 1:14-19 (KJV)

Then comes the fourth “day” with the creation of the Sun and the Moon. These two bodies of lights are very special. The Sun gives light and life to everything on this planet. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to function physically and the plants wouldn’t be able to grow at all. The moon controls the ocean tides and devoid of the moon, this world wouldn’t have anything to regulate the tides. If both the Sun and the Moon were any closer or any further away, life on Earth would be impossible. God had to get both of them just the right distance away from us, otherwise life wouldn’t be viable.

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” Genesis 1:20-23 (KJV)

The fifth day is when things start to get interesting. That’s when He makes the birds and all sea life. There are no longer just plants, land, and water on the earth but living creatures that breathe air and/or water. That’s when the earth really started to come to life. Every kind of bird, from the hummingbird to the ostrich was flying and walking the planet. From the tiniest algae to the largest whale was swimming the seas. There’s even talk of a huge leviathan creature mentioned in the book of Job, all of which was created by the Lord. (Job 41:1-8)

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind,  and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them…And God saw every thing that He made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”               Genesis 1: 24-27,31

Finally, the 6^th day or 6,000 years, comes all the land mammals, reptiles, etc. on the planet. I have a feeling that somewhere in between the 5,000 and 6,000 years, God probably made bugs and amphibians too. Not exactly sure where they fit in but I know bees and birds are crucial to pollination, though their part might not have been as crucial in the beginning. This last part is speculation but I really feel like all of this had to take place before mankind could walk the earth.

Man finally comes onto the scene after everything else. God saved His most prized creation for last; His children: Adam and Eve. I feel like on his rest “day,” they were able to spend 1,000 years with God before the serpent tempted Eve in the garden. God wanted to give them choice and the serpent or devil took full advantage of the situation after he was thrown down from heaven. I also know that if they ate from the Tree of Life, in essence, they would have been immortal, therefore, they wouldn’t have aged as long as they were eating from the Tree of Life. There have always been quests for this specific tree and I believe at one point it was on this planet but I also believe God might have taken it out with the flood to prevent man from finding it and eating from it again.  

And now the thing that has been bothering me that I haven’t been able to figure out until the Holy Spirit just revealed it to me was that evening is ʿereḇ in Hebrew and can mean more than just evening. It can also mean days or evenings and ‘ereb referred to as such in Leviticus 15:19, Deuteronomy 16:4, Daniel 8:14, and Daniel 8:26. The next word to consider is morning. That one is a little more straightforward which is bōqer, which is day in Hebrew. Only when it is paired with ʿereḇ does it mean days like it is mentioned in the previous verses I just mentioned. Then word yôm in Hebrew is day, but it also means time, period, days, years, leading me to believe that when you look more deeply at the text and don’t take the word at face value like it is in English, it leaves open the possibility that it wasn’t just talking about a 24 hour period in Hebrew. The Hebrew language is a lot richer because it is an idea based language and one word has multiple meanings.

I am still growing on my walk with Christ and feel strongly that after getting to know His character more and more, I firmly believe that my God is not a God who rushes things. I whole heartedly believe that creation took a lot longer than a 7 day period, especially with the rate that plants and animals grow today. Before the flood, the atmosphere was different because of the lack of water pressure and before the flood, things were able to live longer and grow bigger than they can nowadays. If it took Adam almost a thousand years to die after eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it’s not that much of a stretch to consider that all of creation took thousands of years to become fully mature than a few days. Pray about this and don’t just take my word for it and let the Word reveal this mystery to you too.