14 Consider the Sun (light) Rules the Day; the Light of the Moon and Stars Rule the Night

Consider the following verses:

Genesis 1:16 “And God made two great lights; the greater light (the sun) to rule the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to rule the night, he made the stars also.”

Psalm 136:8-9 “The sun to rule by day: his mercy endures forever: The moon and stars to rule by night…”

Jeremiah 31:35 “Thus saith The Eternal, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night….”

Psalm 148:3 “Praise ye him, sun and moon, all ye stars of light.”

It is correct to say that the sun’s light controls (rules) the day. The sun’s light (which rules the day) is manifest during the day. As we will next learn, there are (in general terms) 12 hours in the day. There are also 12 hours in the night.

The following events or sequence of time is what we witness every day (bear in mind clouds do not block the view). We know the day is evident:

  * from the time of the sun's first illuminations in the morning, which occurs at dawn, before the sun has actually risen above the eastern horizon and continuing with sunrise and through the morning light,
  * then late morning into midday; noon,
  * continuing with the sun’s light, during the afternoon,
  * then late afternoon (the declining of the day),
  * then during the going down of the sun and at sunset, during the evening,
  * finally, concluding with the twilight, which is the sun’s diminishing light still illuminating the earth after the sun has dropped (set) below the western horizon.

Once the sun’s light is gone, no longer visible, then the dark and night commences.

As the Scriptures teach, the sun’s light rules the day, and the day comes to an end when the sun’s light (illuminating the portion of the earth on which the observer is standing), is no longer present, when the sun's light no longer controls (or rules) the day. The sun is the greater light and the greater light is evident during the day.

Once the sun's light is “all gone,” when it rules no longer, then the day has ended. And as we have read, the evening ends the day, as the evening occurs at the end of the day. The action of the sunset occurs during the evening of the day. Once the evening is over because the (sun’s) light of that day is no longer evident, then the night of the new day commences.

A new day begins at the commencement of night, when the night light of the moon and/or the stars is evident and begins to rule.

Notice Nehemiah 4:21:

"So we labored in the work: and half of them held their spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared."

Clearly we can understand the entire measure of the day (12 hours of light – generally speaking – see below John 11:9) is from the rising of the morning (the dawn) until the stars appeared (no more sunlight visible).

Consider Psalm 104:20-23 as pertaining to the sequence of activity within the day (complete 24 hours).

“Thou makest darkness and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God, the sun ariseth, they gather themselves together and lay down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor, until the evening.”