The First Day, Part Two
Darrell Nichols
Genesis 1:3-5 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (2) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (3) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (4) And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. (5) God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (ESV)
CREATION’S DESCRIPTION (continued)
In our last blog, The First Day, Part One, we studied Genesis, chapter 1, verse 2. We noted three things that were absent: an absence of landscape, an absence of life, and an absence of light. In today’s blog, we examine Genesis 1, verses 3-5 and discover three things that were present.
In verse 3, God provided what was desperately needed—light. Darkness completely enveloped the earth prior to this. In His perfect wisdom, God knew that a world in continuous darkness was not a good thing. Therefore, in verse 3, “…God said, ‘Let there be light…'” and He waited…and He waited…and He waited some more…and finally, light appeared! —No, that is NOT the way it happened. “God said, ‘Let there be light’, AND THERE WAS LIGHT.” The light was immediate. The light was instantaneous. The light was miraculous. The light was the work of the divine Originator and Creator, Jehovah God!
The Presence of Power
The word “light” in verse 3 refers to illumination. To illuminate something means to supply or brighten with light. The creation of light in this verse demonstrates the presence of power. “God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.” Now that is power—power that only Jehovah God possesses!
Let’s try to illustrate, if possible, how mighty God’s power is. When you enter a room that is dark, you simply flip a switch on the wall and the lights come on. But that’s not really using your power. That’s using the power of electricity! What if, however, you entered the room and caused the lights to come on (illuminate) just by speaking? Could you (without modern technology) illuminate the room using only the power of your spoken word? Of course not. No mere human is able to provide pure light simply by speaking it into existence, but that is exactly what God did! Isn’t Jehovah God a great and mighty God? Absolutely! Praise His name!
The Presence of Perfection
Now look at verse 4. “And God saw the light, that it was good.” According to the Creator, it is good that we have light. First, there was a need, then He supplied it by speaking it into existence. He proclaimed the result to be “good.” The word “good” in this verse means pleasing. God looked at the light He had created and was pleased. We see here the presence of perfection. The light was perfect. God created the universe (“the heavens and the earth” – verse 1) and it was a dark universe. Then God created light, and earth became illuminated. Question: Where did the light come from? It couldn’t be from the sun because in verse 4 it had not yet been created (see verse 16). So, where did the light come from? [Hint: it wasn’t from Edison, either. ☺] No, the light came from God. There is no other reasonable explanation. No other conclusion is a valid one. God created the light. He is the Source of the light! The Bible teaches us that the light of the world is Jesus, the Son of God—the second member of the Trinity. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). God provided His perfect light to illuminate the world!
The word “good” is found seven times in Genesis 1. In addition to verse 4, He pronounced His works of creation “good” in verses 10, 12, 18, 21, and 25. And the last verse in the chapter (31) tells us that God looked at His entire creative work—the big picture—and called it “very good” (emphasis added). He liked what He had created. Considering the words of Scripture, it seems important to God that His creation be pleasing. Why is that important? Because He knew for whom He was creating the light. He wasn’t creating it for Himself. Think about it…God needed neither an earth upon which to live nor a light with which to see. He was creating all the things mentioned in this chapter for all of us, for all of humanity.
The Presence of Purity
The next word I’d like us to notice is the word “separated.” That’s an unusual word to be used when the topic is creation, isn’t it? In the middle of God’s creative work, He chose to do some dividing. The word “separated” can conjure up negative thoughts or feelings. Isn’t it sad when homes divide because of sin and end in divorce? There is some sadness associated with a son or daughter who has grown up and is now leaving home. Entering college or the military can generally be considered a good thing, but there’s still an element of sadness to it. From a parent’s perspective, the family might appear to be dividing.
Early in Genesis, God begins dividing. When God separates, it is a positive thing, not a negative one. In verse 4, God divides the light from the darkness. “And God separated the light from the darkness.” He wanted to establish a distinction between light and darkness. He wanted there to be clear differences between light and darkness. In Genesis 1, God began His divine practice of separation by dividing light from darkness. In verse 5 the Bible says, “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.” The term Day came from God. The term Night came from God. Why did God divide—separate—these two entities? In part, to demonstrate the presence of purity. God’s holiness requires a separation of light from darkness. A personal study on the divisions and separations in the Bible would be time well spent. As you study Scripture, you’ll see how God separates holy from unholy; wheat from chaff; sheep from goats; good from evil; day from night; and so on. From the beginning, God literally divided light from darkness, and the principle of separating “light” from “darkness” can be clearly seen throughout the Scriptures and even today it’s a good principle to follow.
In our next blog (The First Day, Part Three), we will examine the last sentence of the verse, “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”