Day One
Gen. 1:3-5:
And God said: Many verses tell of how powerful the word of God is. His power is such that He speaks, and what He says happens. God can’t lie. (Titus 1:2) Therefore, what He says must come to pass. Here, we see the first sign of that.
It also shows that God loves to speak. He loves to communicate with His creation, and longs to fellowship with each of us. It’s certainly understandable when some neurological problem causes one to be unable to communicate well. However, communication was created to allow us to get along with others, as well as for God to communicate with us. Even among the heathen, Paul says, after the Fall, God didn't leave Himself without witness; even though they didn’t have His word. He was still good to them, and provided rain, food, and so on. (Acts 14:17)
Consider all the different ways God could have created the world. He could have just started a process, and let it continue. Some scientists claim the Big Bang was like this, but this so takes away from the loving involvement of God in His work. He could have formed everything wordlessly, but then how would we know anything about Him? The distant or absent person is not going to be able to have a true impact, because they will never be known to those they are trying to help. Only through a relationship can we really have meaningful growth in anything. An absentee business owner, of course, may be successful of he or she has a good manager for the affairs of the business. However, then it is the manager who becomes the face of the business in the public’s eye, not the owner.
In the same way, God is not absent or distant. He is involved in every minute detail. His face, his handiwork, is visible to all who those to see it. He tells this molecule to do something, and it does it. He tells this seed to fall, and up springs a tree. The fact that He spoke, from the very beginning of Creation, shows how involved He is with everything. This involvement has always been a part of who God is.
Let there be light: Those who complain that the sun wasn’t created till day four miss several important facts. First, the sun is only a star that creates light through chemical processes, just as many other stars do. However, more importantly, this was not just a light created through chemical means. This is a different word than the “light” used in Gen. 1:16 to describe the sun and the moon. Strong’s concordance records that it can mean lights in Heaven, but it can also be used for other “lights,” including the light of life and the light of prosperity.
It was good: There are numerous reasons God could see that it was good. The distinction between day and night, causing a natural time for work and one for rest, is one of them. The feeling that light creates is another one.
Consider a spring day, with sunlight flooding a home. It is not just a bunch of rays that provide warmth. It is so much more than mere science can describe. It raises hopes, and allows life to function. The idea of a night lasting for months, as in the Arctic in winter, is depressing to most people. Yes, artificial light allows one to function at night, but that fact itself proves the point. If there was no artificial light, that life and activity which modern people engage in at night can’t occur anywhere.
Not only that, but light comforts. The beauty reminds one of all that is good, for Christians it can remind us of all that Christ has done. Because Jesus, the light of the world (John 8:12, et. al.), conquered death, and rose from the dead on a spring day 2000 years ago. Death was swallowed up in victory! He had conquered the darkness that surrounded us, just as when light floods a dark room.
Jesus is God, of course; without Him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:3) He had a part is creating that light, speaking it into existence, because part of His plan was to divide the light from the darkness. If we simply put our trust in Christ, we can cast all our cares on Him, and let Him guide us in life. Christ said, "It is finished" on the cross, and so the battle has already been won. Those dark recesses of our fears have been vanquished. For if you have Christ in you, you are in the light.
The light He created at this time was real, and also foretells the goodness that He would bring us, and how He could sweep away the darkness that is in our minds and in our lives at times. Thus, He separated the light from the darkness.
The first day: I don’t know if the radiance from God shone on the world while it spun like our sun does. I only know that Rev. 22:5 says that in the New Earth, there will be no need for a candle, or for the sun, because God will be the light. But, we don’t have to know exactly how it worked. As with other things, God will reveal them in His time, that being when we, who see through a glass darkly now, will see Him face to face.
However, we do know it was a literal, 24-hour day.
First, numerous peoples, besides the Hebrews, considered the day to begin in the evening, as if the darkness had come before the light. John Gill covers these more specifically in his commentary on Genesis 1:5. Also, every human society has a seven-day week. This is completely arbitrary, as opposed to the month, which is based on the moon, or the day, which is based on the earth’s spinning on its axis. More will be mentioned on this when we consider Genesis 2:2-3.
This raises the question, in some minds, about where God was when He was doing this. The answer? The physical world is not all that there is. There are more than three dimensions. Time is considered its own dimension by many. Some scientists believe there may be even more dimensions that we can’t understand. The important thing is, God did not have to be in a physical place the way we perceive it. The Spiritual realm is different, and connected in ways which we, as mere mortals, can’t comprehend. It would be like trying to explain to an insect the joy of creating a fantastic work of art.
