No Detail Too Small to Study

Written by Tyler S. Fulcher | Bible Study

Learning to study the Bible well requires us to ask more questions.

We shouldn’t leave any stone unturned when we engage a passage of Scripture deeply. Even the details we think are obvious can yield important insights when we slow down and reflect on them.

You can find examples on every page of Scripture.

I was recently reminded of one from Genesis 1:14-19 (NRSV).

About the author

Tyler S. Fulcher writes about the Bible, Theology, and Church History. He is a biblical scholar based in Springfield, MO. Click here to contact.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day.

You’ve probably read this passage many times over the years. It details the objects God made on the fourth day of creation.

A straightforward and correct reading understands this passage as a claim that God made the sun, moon, and stars. The God of the Bible is responsible for light during the day and night.

If you dig a little more into the text, you may discover that Day 4 of creation corresponds to Day 1 in the same way that Days 5 and 6 correspond to Days 1 and 2, respectively.

On Day 1, God created the light. On Day 4, he further ordered the structure of light during the day and at night.

This kind of observation reveals that the God of the Bible is a God of order. Creation is not haphazard. It is highly organized.

If you take your investigation a step further, you may discover that the idea of an ordered creation contradicts other creation accounts known from the ancient Near East. Instead of a peaceful creation, other ancient accounts imagine the creation of the earth as a cosmic battle between opposing forces.

Each of these observations is valuable and illuminates an important part of the passage’s message.

Yet, we can miss an additional insight unless we reflect on the significance of the objects created on Day 4: the sun, moon, and stars.

In Theology: The Basics, Alister McGrath writes,

“The Genesis creation account stresses that God created the moon, sun, and stars. The significance of this point is too easily overlooked. Each of these celestial entities was worshipped as divine in the ancient world. Many of these were worshipped as gods by Israel’s neighbors. By asserting that they were created by God, the Old Testament is insisting that they are subordinate to God, and have no intrinsic divine nature.” (p. 38)

McGrath’s quote is a great reminder that we can easily overlook important details because we don’t operate with an ancient Near Eastern worldview.

If we take some time to explore how the ANE and OT thought of these celestial bodies, we’ll come to see the powerful message baked into Genesis 1:14-19.

The Sun

Egypt

If you browse through ancient Egyptian literature, you’ll discover they worshipped the sun as a deity named Re or Ra. The Pharaoh had a special relationship with Re and mirrored the sun’s authority over the cosmos in his rule over Egypt.

The following quote is part of a prayer from the king to the sun-god:

“Hail, O Re, in your beauty, your splendor, On your thrones, in your radiance!”

In the following example, Pharaoh Teti is purified and guarded by the sun-god:

“Re will purify Teti, Re will guard Teti from all evil!”

Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia, the sun was worshipped by the names Shamash or Utu. Since the sun hovered over the earth and shed its light on all of creation, the Mesopotamian people often worshipped the sun as the god of judgment who could see everything.

In the following example, a priest asked Shamash to reveal the truth to him through the practice of divination:

O Shamash, I have laid out for you the plentiful yield of the gods, the radiance of the grain goddess, O Shamash, lord of judgment, O Adad, lord of prayer and divination. In the ritual I perform, in the extispicy I perform, place the truth!

Old Testament

When we explore the Old Testament, we can find traces of sun worship in the text. These examples arise from times when God’s people committed idolatry or incorporated foreign practices into their worship of YHWH. They were explicitly prohibited numerous times.

Deuteronomy 4:19 warns the people not to worship the sun or other celestial bodies as divine

And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.

2 Kings 23:11 references idolatrous objects that were associated with the sun:

He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts; then he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

The Moon

Egypt

Egyptians worshipped the moon by the name of Thoth. They developed a mythology around the moon that explained its waxing and waning. While Thoth is a deity in its own right, Egyptians considered it subordinate to the sun-god, Re.

Hail to you, Moon, Thoth, Bull in Khmun, dweller in Hesret, Who makes way for the gods! Who knows the secrets, Who records their expression, Who distinguishes one speech from another, Who is judge of everyone.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian religions often worshipped the moon by several names: Nanna, Suen (Sîn), and Ashimbabbar. Unlike the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians worshipped the moon as superior to the sun.

The following example records part of a prayer to the moon. The prayer shows that the moon was the preeminent celestial deity.

May Sîn, the king of the gods of heaven and the netherworld, joyfully cast his favorable look upon me and every month, in rising and setting. (COS 2.123A)

Old Testament

Since many names in the ancient Near East included portions of divine names, there may be traces of lunar worship in ancient Israel’s past. For example, the name Jerah and Jaroah are both related to the Hebrew word for the moon (Gen 10:26; 1 Chron 1:20). Additionally, Jericho may also be related to moon worship.

Jeremiah 8:1-2 describes the desecration of Judah’s dead leaders because they worshipped the celestial bodies:

At that time, says the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs; and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have followed, and which they have inquired of and worshiped; and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground.

The Stars

Egypt

Like other ancient cultures, the Egyptians worshipped stars as deities. In the following passage, the king is granted permission to become one of the stars in the sky and escape from the underworld.

Make your seat in heaven, Among the stars of heaven, For you are the Lone Star, the comrade of Hu!

Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia, stars could be associated with royal figures, too. The following example may have been used as a yearly marriage renewal between the king and the queen. The queen is associated with the star goddess Inanna, who may have been associated with the planet Venus.

The queen marveled at by the nation, the lone star, the morning star, the queen hovering where heaven is founded, has seen fit to come forth warrior–like on high, and all lands do tremble before her. (COS 1.172)

Old Testament

In the Old Testament, we see that God knows every star by name (Psalm 147:4) and that they function as God’s army or celestial beings surrounding him (1 Kings 22:19).

Amos 5:26-27 describes idolatrous practices associated with specific stars and the subsequent punishment from God:

You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves; therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Conclusion

You may be wondering why I would take the time to introduce you to so many ancient Near Eastern references to celestial deities.

It’s a fair question.

As I mentioned at the beginning, learning to interpret the Bible well requires us to ask more questions.

When we read Genesis 1:14-19, we can breeze right past the references to the sun, moon, and stars. We understand these as physical objects in outer space. Few of us credit them with any divine attributes.

Our proximity to the sun enables life to exist on Earth.

The moon reflects the sun’s light at night and affects the oceans’ tides.

And many of the stars have their own solar system surrounding them, millions of light-years away.

Yet, when we pause to reflect on references to the sun, moon, and stars in the ancient Near Eastern context of Genesis 1, we uncover a valuable insight.

The very objects that other people worshipped as divine beings are nothing more than a part of God’s creation.

The God of the Bible is sovereign over everything.

The temptation to worship celestial bodies, which so many people have fallen prey to, is nothing but an idolatrous trap. A temptation to worship the created thing instead of the creator.

Genesis 1:14-19 declares in an easily overlooked but undeniable way that God alone is worthy of worship because he is the creator of everything in the universe.

But you might not notice that unless you take some time to ask more questions when you study the Bible.

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