And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. – Genesis 1:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 19, 2012): Genesis 1

How do you know that there is light? I know, it sounds like a stupid question, but how do you know? And the answer is fairly easy (thus the reason it is a stupid question.) I know that there is light for two reasons. The first and most important clue is that I can see. If there was no light, sight, at least with the naked eye, would be impossible. So if I can see, then there must be light. But the second reason I know that there is light is because I can see the source of the light.

As I write this, I am sitting at a desk in my office. I can see, so there must be light. But I can also see the sources of the light. One of the sources is my computer screen. While I can’t say that the screen is lighting up the room, if it was a little darker the light that it is shedding would be a little more obvious, but still I recognize that my computer is a source of light. A second source is a lamp that is standing in the corner across from my desk. I can’t actually see the bulb, but I can see the evidence of the bulb as the light splashes out from the lamp creating lighted streaks on the wall of my office and on the couch that is sitting just below it. A third source of light is that I am writing this in the daylight. Again, I can’t see the sun. But I see the evidence of it in the light and shadows that are playing just outside my window – on the ground and on the house next door. I can see the light.

To me, one of the most fantastic things about the creation account is that God creates light on the first day of creation – but he doesn’t create the sun (and the moon) until the fourth day. Light exists before the objects that create the light come into existence. I think it is probably for this reason that the Bible plays with the idea of light. Here, in the reality of God and absolutely nowhere else in the universe, does light stand apart from its source. Or maybe to put it a bit differently, here is the most obvious place where we can see that light emanates only from the presence of God.

There is one other thing that I want you to notice about the days of Genesis 1. The first few chapters of Genesis lean heavily on poetry. And that is really noticeable when we look at the days in Genesis 1. One of the features of Hebrew poetry is the idea of dualism or finding two ways to state the same thing. So in Genesis 1, Day One (The creation of light and dark) matches up perfectly with Day Four (The Creation of the sun and the moon.) In the same way Day Two (the separation of the water and the sky) matches up with Day Five (God creates fish for the water and birds for the sky.) Finally Day Three (the gathering of the water in pockets allowing dry land to appear) matches perfectly with Day six (The creation of animals to crawl along the dry ground and then, finally, the creation of man.) Every step of God’s creative energy finds a counterpart.

  

And with these words and pictures – everything has begun.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 2


Note: Last week`s message (The Cafe of Christ - The Meal) is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Cafe_of_Christ___The_Meal.htm