How did the plants which were created on the third day survive when the sun was not alight until the fourth day? 

Where did Cain get his wife from?

Two very common questions next month.  Common and yet seemingly endlessly asked, so let's spend a little time considering them.

For the first question, let's look at the verses involved:

Genesis 1:11-15

Here we find the fact that the plants were created before the sun was set alight.  We tend to believe that plants need the sun to stay alive and therefore this presents some of us with a dilemma.

In actual fact, there are two ways in which we can approach this problem.

First:  Using human reasoning we could say that as the days were only 24 hours long, the time between creating and sustaining the plants was not extensive, therefore they could have survived until the sun shone.  But this arouses the thought that the Creator was not very tidy or systematic in His approach! This can’t be true, and so all it does is show that using human reasoning alone is often out of place when reading the Bible! And yet we must hear reasonable explanations!

Second: A more certain answer (because it is Bible-based) is the information that the changes on this planet started with light. 

Where did this light come from? 

Not from the sun or the moon, but from the Creator Himself on the very first day.  It was His power that sustained the plants until the sun took over.

So the simple answer to the problem is that the LORD God not only created the vegetation, but that He also kept it alive until He handed the job over to His agent, the sun.  This was VERY TIDY AND SYSTEMATIC because it tells us that we should look past the symbols and see the reality whenever we read the Bible, for the Son of God is not only the Creator, but also the Upholder of the universe who keeps the sun burning.

This we are told in the following verses.

Hebrews 1:1-3

The second question is, "Where did Cain get his wife from?"

Such a prickly question with such a simple answer! Just as Adam married a person who had come from himself, so Cain married one of his sisters. All the men of the second generation had to do that. (Jewish tradition tells us that Adam and Eve had 97 children.). There was no problem in those days because of inbreeding, as there is today. The species came from the hand of the Creator pure in all ways, and even after the leap into sin it took quite a few generations before the effects of sin showed up enough in the human body for the LORD to advise against close relation marriages.

Even then we are told that as late as 2000BC Abraham married his sister!

Genesis 20:10-12

Admittedly, she was from another mother, but they shared the same father.

In the 130 years before Seth was born there was plenty of time for other children, we’re just not told about them. Women in particular are not mentioned much in the Bible, but there were sisters born in that period, and so Cain married one of them, as did Abel. Both were grown men with children of their own when they came to offer their sacrifices as priests of their respective families.

Genesis 4:1-4

The reason that individual women are not pointed out in the Bible is that most of them were too busy doing the right things in God’s world, bringing up the children and caring for their families. Only in unusual cases does the Spirit find it necessary to bring them to the forefront in the record – but they were there.

When Cain left the area, we are told that he built a city in which to live with his siblings and family.

Genesis 4:17

"And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, ‘Enoch’.

Although we only know the name of this one son, he is not necessarily the first child in the family. By the time of his birth, there were enough rebels in Adam’s family for them to build and maintain a city so there had been many children born.

Of course, a few of Adam’s children remained faithful to God and stayed with him and Abel’s family, so that in a short time there were two obvious groups on earth.  After the murder it is recorded that,

"Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: ‘For God,’ said she, ‘has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.’ And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call themselves by the name of the LORD."

It is probable that Enos was born about 200 years after Adam’s creation.

Genesis 5:3.

"And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth."

Although the Spirit tells us that Seth was the son of Adam and Eve this does not mean that he was the third child, or that he was even the third son literally!  His importance is that he followed in Abel’s footsteps. There would have been many others not mentioned in the inspired record. 

So we need to see that the Bible record is truthful, but does not give all the details. Many centuries and hundreds of people are covered in just six chapters extending 1656 years from creation to the Flood. There was a like situation regarding the record of the life of Jesus as we can see in the following verses.

John 21:24-25

This is the disciple which testifies of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

Although God asks us to "come and reason" He also mentions "together". Isaiah 1:18. Only as we work with the Spirit will we come to a correct understanding of what is written. So perennial questions such as these two will eventually all be answered to those who are willing to listen and be told.

James 4:6-8

But He gives more grace. Wherefore He says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.

How can we resist the devil and his temptations?