Q—-1. Gen. 1:1616And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. (Genesis 1:16). Why the " two great lights" mentioned in the fourth day's work, seeing that the sun is really the center of our planetary system? and how could it have been dark (ver. 2) if the sun was then in existence?
Q—-2. Gen. 1:29, 30; 2:16; 3:1829And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. (Genesis 1:29‑30)
16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (Genesis 2:16)
18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; (Genesis 3:18). By comparing the sustenance of man and beast in Gen. 1:29, 30; 2:1629And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. (Genesis 1:29‑30)
16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (Genesis 2:16), with 3:18, does it not seem as if man was reduced to level of beasts in the field-" thou shalt eat the herb of the field "-and after that it goes on to say " dust thou art, &c.? "
Q—-4. Luke 4:1818The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Luke 4:18). What lesson is to be learned from the insertion of " recovering of sight to the blind" in Luke 4:1818The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Luke 4:18) though absent from Isa. 61:11The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; (Isaiah 61:1)? E.N.
A.—-1. The two "great lights" were constituted as they still are (not created then) in relation to the earth prepared for man, like the work of all the six days. The dense darkness that prevailed in the chaotic state which preceded these days easily accounts for the gloom, though the sun, moon and stars were already in existence since God created the heavens and the earth, which took place, it may be, ever so long before the great geologic ages previous to the Adamic race. Not that scripture is occupied with these material processes; but it leaves ample room before the first day in ver. 3.
A.—-2. There was no " reducing " man to fruit and vegetable as his early food till the deluge, when animal fare was allowed with prohibition of the blood with good and holy reason assigned. Man enjoyed even before far beyond " beasts of the field." Yet even so through sin his body is as reducible to the dust as any beast's. But why omit that he only has a soul immortal (for good or for ill) through the inbreathing of Jehovah Elohim He only was, solemnly in divine council, made "in our image, after our likeness "; the most distinct separateness from, and elevation above, every other creature on earth. Why lose sight of this?
A.—-3. Can there be conceived a weightier announcement, after sin had entered with death ensuing, than Jehovah Elohim made in pronouncing the curse on the Serpent? " I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel." While countless souls are by grace associated for all blessing and triumph with the woman's seed, One is marked out, on Whom all the blessed of similar seed depend, Who should suffer the deepest anguish, yet live (again, as we can add) to crush him who was the liar and the murderer from the beginning, and all who, refusing grace, perpetuate the enmity of Satan.
A.—-4. It would seem that the Seventy, who translated the O. T. into Greek, added here from elsewhere in the prophet Isaiah, another beneficent fruit of Messiah's presence and power, the bestowal of sight on the blind. Dean Alford in his note to this text refers to Isa. 58:66Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6). If this be correctly represented, it is hard to discover the link literally or spiritually. It may be more simply and fairly referred to Isa. 35:55Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. (Isaiah 35:5), where the sense is the same, though the words differ. Luke cites here and elsewhere from the Septuagint. No other lesson seems intended.