We have so many benefits from light.
Visible light allows us to see—very beneficial.
Because of how our bodies are designed, light helps us produce vitamin D.
Light is good for our mood and mental well-being.
Light that is outside of our visual range gives us x-rays, radio, and cell phone signals.
The Lord designed light to be beneficial.
This is going to come up A LOT while we go through Genesis 1 and 2 so let’s start breaking this down. Genesis 1 and 2 weren’t written to debate creation versus evolution. Stay with me. Genesis 1 and 2 were written to explain to the world two life-shattering truths: there is an all-powerful being Who has revealed Himself to creation, and He has created everything.
At the time of Moses (when Genesis was written down), every culture in the known world had a god (or gods) and a creation story. They all believed their god(s) made everything.
Genesis 1:1 comes along and says, “No. Your so-called gods didn’t do anything. This God is the true One and He made everything.” Moving on to Genesis 1:2 and into Genesis 2, Scripture tells us how the Lord created. We don’t have a lot of details, but we have enough.
Now, here’s what I really want you to understand: evolution is a religion with its tenets, priests, ideologies, and assumptions. There is also faith involved with it. While I’ll not handle each issue, a disciple of Jesus must understand that modern evolution is an attempt to defy the existence of God. It starts off on the wrong foot. Genesis 1:1 addresses that directly.
But that was last week. Moving into Genesis 1:3-5 for this week, we read:
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Genesis 1:3-5
New International Version
In the Ancient Near Eastern world, many cultures believed light came from the moon and sun. We understand these phenomena scientifically, but when Genesis was written, these verses flew in the face of what people believed.
The point of this passage is not to explain how the Lord created the electromagnetic scale or how He made radiation. It addresses the more practical issues of the regulation of time: day and night.
I can’t move on from this without addressing the question of “day” in this passage. In English, we can use the word “day” to reference periods of time: in the day of King Authur, for example.
But Genesis wasn’t originally written in English; it was in Hebrew. In Hebrew, the word we translate as “day” (yom) only ever refers to a twenty-four-hour day. The original hearer of this passage would never think that “day” would mean billions, millions, thousands, or dozens of years. They would only have thought of one sunset to the next sunset.
When the Lord calls the light “good,” it isn’t anthropomorphic (giving human characteristics to something that isn’t). Light isn’t alive, nor is the text implying it.
Instead, the Lord is calling it beneficial. The light that He created is beneficial for not only His creation in general but for humanity in specific.
Don’t forget as we go through Genesis 1: it’s told from the perspective of a human standing on the Earth and watching it all unfold.
What are we to take away from this study at this point?
First, the Lord created light to be beneficial to us. He set the light we see and do not see. His creative power caused the universe to light up. His sovereignty created time and started the clock ticking.
The next time you see a sunrise or a sunset, thank the Lord for the beautiful benefit of the first thing He created: light.
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Life Meets Theology 