LET THERE BE LIGHT
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
DARNKESS AND LIGHT
The early earth was formless and dark, God began to address this, "And God said, 'Let there be light'” (Gen 1:3). So God spoke and changed the situation.
When God spoke, light appeared on the earth - "The entrance of Your words gives light" (Ps 119:130).
We then read "God called the light 'day'" (Gen 1:5). So light is day, his word brought light.
"And there was evening and there was morning, the first day" (Gen 1:5). We can see quite clearly now the evening and morning are with the planet simultaneously. Genesis is scientifically accurate - it quite rightly states "there 'was' evening and there 'was' morning."
So if we look at the earth from the vantage point of the International Space Station, or the moon, we see light and dark together on the earth, there have been some beautiful photos of day and night, evening and morning captured from space.
We have a good lesson for us here because Paul in Romans 7:21–23 says, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”
Just as planet earth has darkness and light present with it, we too have darkness and light with us, but we are told to walk in the light, and put away the deeds of darkness: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph 5:11).
“God divided the light from the darkness” (Gen 1:4). Darkness and light cannot have fellowship with each other. Goodness and evil, holiness and unholiness cannot have communion with each other, one must give way. God has divided them, and what God has divided let not man put back together.
We read that on the first day God said, “let there be light,” he then separated the light from the darkness calling it day and night. This opening picture sets the scene for a parallel used throughout the rest of the Bible. The darkness came first but God has called us “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). We are children of the day and children of the light. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness, said the apostles Peter and Paul.
The Christian is translated from darkness to the light of God, so that he walks in this light, and his path is illumined by it. Some people remain in darkness, “the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble” (Prov 4:19).
These days we understand that planet earth is rotating on its axis and each rotation produces a day and a night. The speed of the rotation at the equator is 1038 mph so if someone was able to move at that speed they could be in constant daylight. A supersonic jet could, in theory, stay in daylight, although refuelling would be a problem, but that’s not a problem for the Holy Spirit: we notice that early on in Genesis, “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters” (Gen 1:2). Yes, God’s Spirit was “moving”. The moving of the Spirit of God is important because he moves within us and he is able to help us walk in the light, not the darkness.
If we know Christ, we are aware that darkness exists, but we are not in the darkness. And one day soon we will be in the eternal day. “There will be no more night” (Rev 22:5).
“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Help us Holy Spirit to walk in the light.