“There was evening and there was morning,” records the Book of Genesis as each creative period comes to an end. The first chapter of the first book in the Bible gives a progressive account of all things coming into being. As each epoch builds the essential blocks of the universe we inhabit, the commentary of each period of time is, “there was evening and there was morning.” Now, according to the Genesis creation account, the sun was not made until the fourth time frame so evening and morning imply something more than the apparent meaning of the words in English.
The Hebrew words used in Genesis are ehreb for evening and boker for morning. In English the words evening and morning normally imply a period of time, such as, the latter part and close of the day for evening, and, the time from sunrise to noon for morning. However in Hebrew the words ehreb and boker suggest what is coming rather than a period of time. Ehreb means the coming darkness, often connected to the time of sunset. Boker means the coming light, often connected to the sunrise.
When we speak of the elements of creation, the coming darkness corresponds to chaos and the coming light equates with order. The creative process of God brought order out of chaos to form the universe and this planet upon which we reside. This is indicated by the prologue of the creation account, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.” “There was ehreb and there was boker.”
Using this phrase from Genesis, the Jewish culture structured each day beginning at sunset rather than our current time structure of beginning each day at midnight officially, or daylight for most of us. So, for example, the Jewish feast of Passover begins at sunset, not sunrise nor midnight. Each Sabbath Day begins with the evening not the morning.
In Psalm 90 verse six it is recorded: “You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the boker (morning) it flourishes and is renewed; in the ehreb (evening) it fades and withers.” The concept of the Hebrew words is maintained that morning brings order and newness with optimism; evening contains chaos and decay, often leading to pessimism.
The amazing message of the Bible is that God always promises better things to come. The order of life itself exists from the chaos of nothingness. Light comes after darkness, a very optimistic concept illustrated by the sayings, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” and “Everything will fall into place, just be patient.” The story of the Christ is one of resurrection from the cross, life from death, always ending on a positive note, as the saying goes, “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.”
God promises that people can move from this world into a new world that God is building. As good and wonderful or as challenging and trying as this life can seem at times, there is something even better coming. The Genesis phrase is true; there was ehreb and there was boker. When the Bible indicates that Christ will come again to this world, it will be like a new day, a morning, a boker. The ehreb of this existence will be replaced by something amazing. Our world has moments of order and hopefulness but so easily descends into chaos, ehreb. But the boker is coming. As Cat Stevens and Eleanor Farjeon penned to give hope into what can come, “Morning has broken like the first morning; Blackbird has spoken like the first bird; Praise for the singing, praise for the morning; Praise for them springing fresh from the world.”
“There was evening and there was morning.” Remember that phrase as we move into new possibilities from the current pandemic. Keep that phrase in mind as we journey to reconciliation from conflict. Believe in the God-promised rhythm of ehreb to boker. There is a lot more in the phrase than first appears, “there was evening and there was morning.”
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
