The following is an excerpt of an article by Ken Ham taken from a 
magazine named "Creation Ex Nihilo" November 1985. 

                  Why Did God Take Six Days?

    Genesis chapter 1 seems to say that God created the world, 
the universe and everything in them in six ordinary 
(approximately 24 hour) days. However, there is a view in our 
churches that has become prevalent over the years that these 
"days" could have been thousands, millions or even billions of 
years in duration. Does it really matter what length these days 
were anyway? Is it possible to determine whether or not they were 
ordinary days or in fact long periods of time?  The word for 
"day" in Genesis 1 is the Hebrew word 'yom'. It can either mean a 
day (in the ordinary 24-hour sense), the daylight portion of an 
ordinary 24-hour day (ie."daylight as distinct from the night"), 
or occasionally it is used in the sense of an  indefinite period 
of time (eg. "In the time of the Judges" or "In the day of the 
Lord"). Without exception, in the Hebrew Old Testament the word 
'yom' never means "period", (ie. it is never used to refer to a 
definite long period of time with specific beginning and end 
points). Furthermore, it is important to note that even when the 
word 'yom' is used in the indefinite sense, it is clearly 
indicated by the context that the literal meaning of the word 
'day' is not intended. 
    Some people often say that the word 'day' in Genesis may have 
been used symbolically and so we are not meant to take it 
literally. However, an important point that many fail to consider 
is that a word can never be used symbolically the first time it 
is used! In fact, a word can only be used symbolically when it 
first has a litteral meaning. In the New Testament we are told 
that Jesus is the 'door'. We know what this means because we know 
that the word 'door' means an entrance.  Because we know its 
literal meaning it is able to be applied in a symbolic sence to 
Jesus Christ. The word 'door' could not be used first in this way 
unless it first had the literal meaning we understand it to have. 
Thus, the word 'day' cannot be used symbolically the first time 
it is used in the book of Genesis. Indeed, this is why the author 
of Genesis has gone to great lengths to carefully define the word 
'day' the first time it appears. In Genesis 1:4 we read that God 
separated the "light from the darkness". Then in Genesis 1:5 we 
read "God called the light day, and the darkness he called 
night". In other words, the terms were being very carefully 
defined. The first time the word 'day' is used it is defined as 
"the light" to distinguish it from "the darkness"  called 
"night". Genesis 1:5 then finishes off with, "and the evening and 
the morning were the first day." This is the same phrase used for 
each of the other five days and shows that there was a clearly 
established cycle of days and nights (ie. periods of light and 
periods of darkness).  
    The periods of light on each of the six days were when God 
did his work, and the periods of darkness were when God did no 
creative work. 

                      A Day And The Sun 
  
    But how could there be day and night if the sun wasn't in 
existence? After all it is clear from Genesis 1 that the sun was 
not created until day 4. Now Genesis 1:3 tells us that God 
created light on the first day, and the phrase "evening and 
morning" shows there were alternating periods of light and 
darkness. Therefore, light was in existence being directed from 
one direction upon a rotating earth resulting in the day and 
night cycle. However we are not told exactly where this light 
came from. The word for "light" in Genesis 1:3 means the 
substance of light was created. Then on day 4 in Genesis 1:14-19 
we are told of the creation of the sun which was to be the source 
of light from that time onwards. 

    The sun was created to rule the day that already existed. The 
day stayed the same. It merely had a new light source. The first 
three days of creation (before the sun) were the same type of 
days as the three days with the sun. One of the possible reasons 
God deliberately left the creation of the sun until the fourth 
day is that He knew that down through the ages, cultures would 
try to worship the sun as the source of life. Not only this, 
modern day theorys tell us that the sun came before the earth. 
God is showing us He made the earth and light to start with, that 
He can sustain it with its day and night cycle and that the sun 
was created on day four as a tool of His to be the bearer of 
light from that time. 
  
    Probably one of the major reasons people have tended not to 
take the days of Genesis as ordinary days, is because they have 
beleived scientists have proved the earth to be billions of years 
old. But this is not true for there is no absolute age-dating 
method to determine exactly how old the earth is. 
    Besides this, there is a lot of evidence consistent with a 
belief in a young age for the earth, perhaps only thousands of 
years. 

                         Why Six Days? 
  
    God is an infinite being. This means He has infinite power, 
infinite knowledge, infinite wisdom, etc. Obviously, God could 
then make anything He wanted to in no time at all - He could have 
created the whole universe, the earth and all it contains in no 
time at all. Perhaps the question we should be asking is why did 
God take as long as six days anyway? After all six days is a long 
time for an infinite being to make anything! The answer can be 
found in Exodus 20:11. Exodus 20 contains the Ten Commandments. 
It should be remembered that these comandments were written on 
stone by the very "finger of God" for in Exodus we read, "And 
when he had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he 
gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, 
written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18). The fourth 
commandment in verse 9 of chapter 20 tells us that we are to work 
for six days and rest for one. The justification for this is 
given in verse 11, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and 
the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the 
seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and 
hallowed it". This is a direct reference to God's creation week 
in Genesis 1. To be consistent (and we must be), whatever is used 
as the meaning of the word 'day' in Genesis 1 must also be used 
here. If you are going to say the word 'day' means a long period 
of time in Genesis, then it has been already shown that the only 
way this can be is in the sense of the 'day' being an indefinite 
or indeterminate period of time - not a definite period of time. 
Thus the sense of Exodus 20:9-11 would have to be 'six indefinite 
periods shalt thou labour and rest a seventh indefinite period'! 
This however makes no sense at all. By accepting the days as 
ordinary days, we understand that God is telling us that He 
worked for six ordinary days and rested for one ordinary day to 
set a pattern for man - the pattern of our seven day week which 
we still have today! In other words, here in Exodus 20 we learn 
the reason why God took as long as six days to make everything - 
He was setting a pattern for us to follow, a pattern we still 
follow today. 
    
                   Day-Age Inconsistencies
    
    There are many inconsistencies for those who accept the days 
in Genesis as long periods of time. For instance, we are told in 
Genesis 1:26-28 that God made the first man (Adam) on the sixth 
day. Adam lived through the rest of the sixth day, through the 
seventh day, and then we are told in Genesis 5:5 that he died 
when he was 930 years old. (We are not still in the seventh day 
now as some people misconstrue for Genesis 2:2 tells us God 
"rested" from His work of creation, not that He is resting from 
His work of creation). If each day was, for example, a million 
years, then there are real problems. In fact, if each day was 
only a thousand years long this still makes no sense of Adam's 
age at death either! 

