Page 26 - Genesis: Book of Beginnings and Science Behind it

Or you might say to someone, "This has been a beautiful day," and you're referring to the daylight
portion of it. You use the word the same way the Hebrews used it.

When yom is modified by a number, universally and without exception, it refers to a normal solar day
in Scripture. Sometimes, "day" is used in Scripture to refer to some period of time not precisely
defined. Job said, "My days are vanity." Psalm 90, verse 9 says, "Our days are passed away." And
that's not defined, but we understand what that means, a period of time. But even at that, day still
means some finite succession of normal days, not some vast age of millennial years or millions of
years.

If God is that powerful, why take six days? Why not do it all at one moment? The answer is He took
six days because He wanted to establish a pattern. In Exodus chapter 20, He gives us the pattern.

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days you shall labor, do all your work. But the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your
daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle, or your sojourner who stays with you. For
in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the
seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

God wanted to establish a pattern for mankind. And that pattern was, you work six days, and you
have one day when you set it aside to rest, replenish your body, and focus on worshiping God.
God chose to do it in six days to set a pattern for us. God established the seven-day week during His
creation in Genesis.

Now, if it took Him billions of years, then the pattern is ridiculous. God's work of creation set the
pattern for man who bears His image...six days you work, and one day you worship. Man's life will be
for all future established in weekly cycles.

The numerical qualifier demands a 24-hour day.
The word "day" appears over 200 times in the Old Testament with numbers (i.e., first day, second day,
etc.). Without exception, it refers to a 24-hour day in every single case. Each of the six days of the
creation week is so qualified, and therefore, the consistency of Old Testament usage requires a 24-hour
day in Genesis 1 as well.

The terms "evening and morning" require a 24-hour day.

The words evening (52 times) and morning (220 times) always refer to normal days, where they are
used elsewhere in the Old Testament. The Jewish day began in the evening (sunset) and ended with the
start of the evening the following day. Thus, it is appropriate that the sequence is evening-morning (of
a normal day) rather than morning-evening (= start and finish). The literal Hebrew is even more
pronounced: "There was evening, and there was morning, day one. . . There was evening, and there was
morning, day two," etc.

When Jesus Christ lived, it's interesting that to the Jews, the day began in the evening or at dusk. The
evening begins at around 6:00 PM, the morning (light) continues until 5:59 PM, and a new day is entered
into. (It actually begins when the first three stars are visible in the night sky.) The Sabbath day began on

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