Genesis 1:3-5
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Right off the bat, God, the hero of creation, turns the lights on. The rabbi’s explain this order of events like this:
R. Isaac said, Light was created first of all. Parable of a king who wished to erect a palace and the locality was in darkness. What did he do? He lit torches and lanterns to know where he had to fix the foundations. Similarly was light created first.[1]
We see that our God has the power to speak things into existence and has no need to actually “get his hands dirty with creation”. He speaks and matter obeys. Isa 55:11 KJV - So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it. From the very beginning obedience to God is the foundation of all things good. It is so interesting to me that the only thing that it mentions he actually forms is man. Man does not tend to be obedient, which adds weight to the fact that man was the only creation where it says that God formed him[2]… giving the impression that for us to be obedient God generally has to roll up his sleeves, get down and dirty in the mud, and physically mold us and shape us. This seems appropriate when we see God doing this very same thing on a daily basis with us, stories of this approach throughout scriptures, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came down to earth and got down and dirty with us so that we may have the option to become obedient to him.
God’s first creation is light. He floods the chaos and destruction of the world with clarity, revelation, and truth. (Quick side question, if God is light[3], and His nature is to radiate light, why was it only now that light was shed on creation?) If we think of our lives as new creations[4] the first step God does in our new existence is shed light on our lives. Countless new believers come to our Lord’s loving call only to begin to realize how dark their lives had been. My mother is a prime example of this. She grew up in East Germany shortly after WWII and was raised to believe in Soviet ideals. Even when she moved over to West Germany to attend school, much of the atheistic philosophy stuck to her. When she finally opened up her life to the Lord, she did not need anyone to tell her that a lot of her viewpoints were way off base. The Lord had begun a new work of creation in her and the first step was to turn the lights on. 2 Peter has a great parallel verse that supports this first step. 2 Peter 1:5: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. If we are saved by faith, then that is the foundational transformative event. The next step is virtue. The word used here for virtue is a word that denotes a mindset that you know right from wrong… or light from dark… or day from night. When you get to that point in your walk, while it is not complete, God steps back and says, “It is good”[5]. Take heart Christian… while the journey has just started and much creation is needed still, our Lord is pleased with you!
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