And God set them in the firmament of the heaven
He not only ordered that there they should be, and made them that
there they might be, but he placed them there with his own hands;
and they are placed, particularly the sun, at such a particular
distance as to be beneficial and not hurtful: had it been set
nearer to the earth, its heat would have been intolerable; and
had it been further off it would have been of no use; in the one
case we should have been scorched with its heat, and in the other
been frozen up for the want of it. The various expressions used
seem to be designed on purpose to guard against and expose the
vanity of the worship of the sun and moon; which being visible,
and of such great influence and usefulness to the earth, were the
first the Heathens paid adoration to, and was as early as the
times of Job, ( Job
31:26-28 ) and yet these were but creatures made by God, his
servants and agents under him, and therefore to worship them was
to serve the creature besides the Creator. To give light
upon the earth;
this is repeated from ( Genesis 1:15
) to show the end for which they were made, and set up, and the
use they were to be of to the earth; being hung up like so many
lamps or chandeliers, to contain and send forth light unto the
earth, to the inhabitants of it, that they may see to walk and
work by, and do all the business of life, as well as be warmed
and comforted thereby, and the earth made fertile to bring forth
its precious fruits for the use of creatures in it: and it is
marvellous that such light should be emitted from the sun, when
it is at such a vast distance from the earth, and should reach it
in so short a space. A modern astronomer F13
observes, that a bullet discharged from a cannon would be near
twenty five years, before it could finish its journey from the
sun to the earth: and yet the rays of light reach the earth in
seven minutes and a half, and are said to pass ten millions of
miles in a minute.