Day is separated from Night

It is quite evident that God makes a clear distinction between day and night, because from the inception, when God renewed the face of the earth He divided the light from the darkness, and the light He called day, and the darkness He called night. The separation of day and night is of such intrinsic importance, that important events are clearly differentiated by the inclusion of the phrase, day and night. Here are some examples:-

When the Lord instructed Noah to go into the ark, He specifically said to him; “For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth, forty days and forty nights”…‘And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:4,120).

2.      When Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments, it is stated that; “…Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 24: 18).

3.       After the first set of Tablets of stone were broken, because the children of Israel were worshiping the golden calf which Aaron had made, Moses went and have the Covenant renewed, and again, “…He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither eat bread nor drank water,   and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Exodus 34:28).

4.      When the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, he was in the belly of the fish,”Three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17).

5.      Before Jesus Christ began His ministry, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry” (Matthew 4:1-2).

6.      To prove to the Scribes and Pharisees who asked for a sign, to prove that He is the Messiah, Jesus said to them; “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days, and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12: 39-40).

A day therefore is made up of two periods of time, the first period is called day, and the other period is called night. To those who hold tenaciously to the belief that the day begins in the evening, whether sunset or at midnight, how do we reconcile this belief with the following directives:

a.        “On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves [fast] and present an offering by fire to the Lord.’ “…It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves; on the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath” (Leviticus 23: 27, 32).

The question is, if the day as generally believes begins in the evening, a period of twelve hours of darkness, why is the evening which begins the fast on the Day of Atonement is attributed to the ninth day, and not be named the evening of the tenth day?

b.        The Manna was a sign to test, and prove to the children of Israel that the Lord is their God. For thus the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go and gather a certain Quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily” (Exodus 16:4-5).

So, I beg to ask the question, at what time they gathered the manna! And the durability of the manna was it not from morning until morning? So then, when did the day begin! In the evening or in the morning? The Lord said to Moses again; “I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel. Speak to them saying, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.” And Moses instructed them saying; “Let no one leave any of it till morning” (Exodus 16: 12-13, 19).

Again I pose the question, when did the day begin, was it in the evening, or in the morning? “Notwithstanding they did not listen to Moses, but some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them” (Exodus 16:20).

Then came the sixth day when they gathered twice as much bread, because Moses said to them; “This is what the Lord has said; “Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.” So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you shall not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none” (Exodus 16: 23-26).

I beg to ask the question again; at what time did they go out to gather on the seventh day, and did not find any, was it in the evening, or in the morning? “Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses; “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.’ So the people rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:27-30).

Remember the manna was a daily quota, it was gathered in the morning, and expired next morning, it had a life expectancy of just one day. It was only on the sixth day that its edibility was extended to another day to accommodate the Sabbath rest. Therefore, all the days of the week begins at the dawn of the day, and ends at the dawn of the new day. The evening is a period of time which separated a day from the other.

These times of ignorance God has overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

To be continued