1:3 - And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
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The author now takes us through each day of God's work in transforming the tohu wabohu and the darkness of the early earth, a place unfit for human habitation, into a place of delight and the realm of human stewardship. Vv3-5 takes us through the first day.
Each day of divine work begins with "And God said, Let there be . . ." The Bible knows of no one else who could speak and it is. It knows of no one else who spoke and it was. Each day is what it is because God said so, He willed it to be so. This fact is emphasized throughout the account by the common pattern that runs through each creative act, consisting of:
a) an announcement - "And God said . . ."
b) a command - "let there be . . ."
c) a report - "and it was so"
d) an evaluation - "And God saw that it was good"
e) a temporal framework - "and there was evening, and there was morning, the . . . day"
Claus Westermann observes, "These five elements are but parts of one coherent whole: a command. The whole of creation came into existence because God willed it, God commanded it."1
By this, Genesis asserts that God is not only the Creator but also the Law-Giver. The universe is His by His Sovereign initiative and it is, therefore, His to demand as He wills and chooses. In such a universe the most fulfilled people are those who have heard God's word for themselves and obeyed. They are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fitted into their proper spots. There the spaces fill their shapes, perfectly, uniquely. There they are in the places they were meant to be, and there they complete God's work of art that is the puzzle. Most of us live unfulfilled lives precisely because we do not listen and, not knowing where we are meant to be, we find ourselves lost amongst God's puzzle. Or we hear but would not obey, choosing, therefore, to be lost and unfulfilled.
Humans cannot, of course, exercise the power of speech the way God can. We cannot say and things just come to be. But we can exercise the power of speech in ways we often choose rather to ignore. We have the power to speak and mean what we say; we can, in a very real way, "speak and it is." We have the power to keep the promises we make. We have the power to refuse putting a spin on our claims. We have the power to speak words that heal, comfort, encourage, build up, edify. We can choose not to speak evil against our neighbours. We can choose to speak against the lies in our politics. We can choose to name exploitations, repressions, greed, bondages and sins for what they are. We have the power to speak the truth. These things we can choose to speak and there is no power in the world that can stand against us. The world may act against us. The world may ignore us for a while, but they cannot stand against us. God spoke and it was because He is the Lord of All. Our speech may be limited in scope but where we dare to speak the truth, where we dare cloth them with integrity and self-sacrificing love, our words can create new nurturing worlds and transform old dilapidating ones because, under God, we are lords of our lives. This is what preachers do when they are preaching as they should.
It is not by accident that the first act of bringing order out of the chaos was the commanding into existence of light. With light comes the possibility of discernment, and with discernment the prospect of order, assurance, security and hope. It would be strange for the author to narrate what God has done if they can't be seen. Besides, and though arising out of two different usages of the word 'light,' the very idea that God does His work in darkness would convey nuances that would be quite contrary to the key biblical assertion that God is "my light" (Psm 27:1), that He "wraps Himself in light" (Psm 104:2), that His very name is "the Light of Israel" (Isa 10:17). It is not surprising, therefore, that for John—who begins his Gospel in a manner similar to Genesis—light is such an important motif. He alone remembers Jesus' pronouncement, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (8:12). He reminds us then, that only in Jesus Christ are we able to discern things for what they are and, therefore, are we able to live in restfulness, security and hope.
With light comes the possibility of discernment, and with discernment the prospect of order, assurance, security and hope.
The darkness may make the situation frightful but notice that it is nowhere in this account understood as evil. In separating the light from the darkness and naming the darkness night, God sets darkness in its proper place and asserts His sovereignty over it. Even there He sets the moon and the stars to give it light.
Just as all the possibilities of life begins with a world filled with light but without the sun, so the ultimate new beginning of the New Heaven and New Earth will be illuminated by light without the sun, for "there will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light" (Rev 22:5).
You may wish to read the following commentaries-expositions:
Low Chai Hok
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