The narrator's
point of view shifts to a specific location on the surface of the earth only when the
moment approaches to create human beings. God chose a sunset in that location as the
beginning of the fourth day. On that day God delegated governing authority to the
sun. The sun would also be a sign, but for whom? It can only be a sign to
intelligent creatures. In two days governed by the sun, God created the animals and
the human couple, and finished His work.
God and we understand signs: We humans are similar to God in
various ways. These similarities distinguish us from the animals. One
important way, mentioned prominently in Moses' narrative, is our ability to understand
complex, massive systems of signs. The narrative says that God put lighted objects
in the heavens to serve as signs, to indicate days, seasons, and years. These signs
are hardly for God's benefit. Surely God needs no clock to tell Him what time it
is. Neither are these signs for the animals. The most advanced of them is very
limited in its ability to understand signs. All great systems of signs are for
modern humanity.
Writing and speech use signs: A child learns to speak before
learning to read and write. Once humans appeared, it was inevitable that they would
learn to write in a short time, because the art of writing is so useful. When an
extremely useful invention appears almost simultaneously in more than one place, it means
that humanity is ready for it. The art of writing appeared about 5,000 years before
the present. Almost simultaneously three different systems of writing appeared in
widely separated areas of the ancient world. This must mean that people began to
speak fully developed languages only a few thousand years before. Moses agrees with
this idea. He situates the appearance of humans able to comprehend and use great
systems of signs somewhat more than 5,000 years before the present.
Fossils
similar to human bones have been found. Some say they were human precursors who
lived millions of years ago. But the precursors left nothing in writing. It
may be true that some of the writing materials were perishable. The bones were
certainly perishable! Yet we have the bones, but nothing in writing. It
appears that the precursors left no writing because they were not sufficiently intelligent
to write. Otherwise, why would they wait a million years before inventing
writing?