This article on Genesis 1:3-5 is about light and the sun on the first day of God's creation.

Source: Clarion, 1989. 2 pages.

Genesis 1:3-5 - The First Day

sea🔗

"And God said"🔗

"And God said." Repeatedly throughout Genesis 1 we read those words, "God said," followed by an act of creation. God speaks and it is there. God creates by speaking. What does this mean? In seeking an answer, we must be governed by what Scripture tells us. Several passages come to mind.

One can think of Psalm 33:8 and 9. "By the word of the LORD, the heavens were made and all their host by the breath of His mouth … He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood forth" (compare also Psalm 148:5b, "…He commanded and they [i.e. His created works] were created"). God created by His word.

What was involved with the creation by the Word is made clearer as we go to the New Testament. As the reader of Scripture knows, "the Word" is a name for the Son who was involved in the work of creation! "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:1-3, 14; cf. 1 John 1:1-3; 5:1; Revelation 19:13). The reference to the Word in creating is further also illuminated by 1 Corinthians 8:8, "Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." One can also think of Colossians 1:18 and 17, "For in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (cf. Revelation 3:14).

If we read the words "and God said" in Genesis 1, in the light of Scripture, then what is not immediately obvious in Genesis 1, becomes more clear elsewhere. God's creating by the word involved the Son. The word that God spoke was not without content. It was a powerful and living word. The word by which He called into being things from nothing was powerful for it was spoken in and through the Son.1 Our confession can summarize the biblical truth on this point according to the testimony of the Scriptures (cf. above) as follows, "We believe that the Father through the Word, that is, through His Son, has created out of nothing heaven and earth and all creatures" (Belgic Confession, Article 12).

"'Let there be Light' and there was Light"🔗

After God's creation of heaven and earth, His first work of creation was light. Light as we know it is part of creation. It was made. God spoke and it was there.

The importance of light is evident, not only from its place in God's work of creation, but also from our own experience. Who can imagine the possibility of life without light?

light

It is significant that light was created independently of the sun, moon, and stars which were created on the fourth day. Although we will be coming back to this in a future article, suffice it for now to note that "There was a time when men said that this was a scientific error, but men do not speak like that anymore."2 Rather than ridicule this order, we should carefully consider the implications of this sequence of God's first creating light and later the sun, moon and stars. This order of God's creation work shows that light comes from God. He made it. Light does not come in the first instance from the sun. Light is a gift of God, not of the sun! What a tremendous gospel this is for our naturalistic age in which people speak of the sun as if it alone makes life possible. For this reason people can even fret about the future horror of a spent sun. For Israel this order of God's creating activity was also of great comfort over against the pagan religions which worshipped the sun. Not the sun, which is a part of creation, but the Creator who alone gives light, is to be adored.

"And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:4). God's work was pleasing in His eyes. It was as He wanted it to be so that the light could serve the purpose for which it was made. Notice that the phrase "God saw that… (it) was good" was not used with verse 2 where we read: "The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep." God's creation was not yet as He wanted it. The earth was not yet suitable for the purpose for which God had called it into being.

The fact that the created light was pleasing to God does not mean an end to darkness. No. God makes a separation between light and darkness. Each gets its place. God had made both (cf. Psalm 104:20; Isaiah 45:7). Both are needed. Think, for instance, of how darkness helps in sleeping! What the place of light and darkness is, is clear from verse 5.

"God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night" (Genesis 1:5a). It appears from this verse that the light which God had made functioned in a way similar to the sun; that is, it was not always to be daytime. Also nighttime was to have its regular place. It has been suggested that this could point to a light source outside and beyond the world with the earth rotating. In any case, the fact that God assigned names to the periods of light and darkness is significant. This shows God's power and sovereignty. Think of Psalm 74:18a, "Thine is the day; Thine also the night." God made the separation between light and darkness and God gave each their name.

"And there was evening and there was morning, the first day" (Genesis 1:5b); that is nighttime and daytime making one day. From Exodus 20:11 we know that God created heaven and earth in six days. We may therefore assume that the first day began in darkness with God's work of creation in the beginning (vv. 1, 2). This darkness was followed by the creation of light. The first day ended with the coming of evening, which was counted with the following day (Genesis 1:8; similarly with the other days, cf. vv. 13, 18, 23, 31). In view of the way the first day was made, it is understandable that the Bible reckons a day from evening to evening (e.g., Leviticus 23:32; Psalm 55:17; Luke 23:54).3

What did day one and the other days of the week of creation consist of? What constituted a so-called "creation day"?

Endnotes🔗

  1. ^ Cf. further on this, H. Bavinck, Gereformeerde dogmatiek, II (1967; this edition first published in 1907), pp. 385-389.
  2. ^ E.J. Young, In the Beginning (1976), p. 40.
  3. ^ Our custom of starting the day at midnight derives from the Romans. G.F. Hasel, "Day," The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia I (Revised Edition, 1979), p. 877.

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