God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
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Genesis 1:4-5 sits inside this longer paragraph.
God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Parallel Translations
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God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.
God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
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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.
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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 there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
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Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (21)
- Psalms 74:16 (v5) The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 2:13 (v4) Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.
- Genesis 1:18 (v4) and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
- Ecclesiastes 11:7 (v4) Truly the light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the sun.
- Isaiah 45:7 (v5) I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
Show all 20 cross-references
- Psalms 104:20 (v5) You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5 (v5) You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,
- Genesis 8:22 (v5) While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
- Jeremiah 33:20 (v5) “Yahweh says: ‘If you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, so that there will not be day and night in their time;
- Genesis 1:8 (v5) God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
- Psalms 19:2 (v5) Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge.
- Genesis 1:31 (vv4–5) God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
- 1 Corinthians 3:13 (v5) each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of…
- Ephesians 5:13 (v5) But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
- Genesis 1:12 (v4) The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God…
- Genesis 1:23 (v5) There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
- Genesis 1:13 (v5) There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
- Genesis 1:19 (v5) There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
- Genesis 1:10 (v4) God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good.
- Genesis 1:25 (v4) God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its…
20 distinct cross-references across this passage (21 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv4–5 4 And God saw the light Here God is…
4 And God saw the light Here God is introduced by Moses as surveying his work, that he might take pleasure in it. But he does it for our sake, to teach us that God has made nothing without a certain reason and design. And we ought not so to understand the words of Moses as if God did not know that his work was good, till it was finished. But the meaning of the passage is, that the work, such as we now see it, was approved by God. Therefore nothing remains for us, but to acquiesce in this judgment of God. And this admonition is very useful. For whereas man ought to apply all his senses to the admiring contemplation of the works of God, we see what license he really allows himself in detracting from them.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4–5 Hebrew, between the light, and between the darkness.
Hebrew, between the light, and between the darkness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–5 Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that [it…
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Ver. 4. And God saw the light that it was good.] - Moveover he foresaw, so one renders it. {a} He saw this long before, but he would have us to see it; he commends the goodness of this work of his to us. Good it is surely, and a goodly creature: "sweet," saith Solomon; {Ecc 11:7} "comfortable," saith David. {Psa 97:11} Which when one made question of - "That’s a blind man’s question," said the philosopher. {b} What is it then to enjoy him that is light essential? The Platonists (who were blind in divinis, and could not see afar off) could say that he was a blessed man, who enjoyed God, as the eye doth enjoy the light. {c}
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And God divided the light, &c.] - Let not us confound them, {2Co 6:14 1Th 5:5-7} and so alter God’s order by doing deeds of darkness, in a day of grace, in a land of light. What make owls at Athens? or such "spots," σπιλοι χαι μωμοι, among saints, as "count it pleasure to riot in the daytime?" {2Pe 2:13} It was a shame that it should be said, There was never less wisdom in Greece, than in the time of the seven wise men of Greece. {d} It was a worse "shame," that it should be said to the Corinthians, that "some of them had not the knowledge of God"; {1Co 15:34} and that such fornication was found among them as was not heard of among the heathen. {1Co 5:1} For what fellowship hath light with darkness? {2Co 6:14} Surely none. Our morning shadows fall as far as they can toward the west, evening toward the east, noonday toward the north, &c. Alexander having a soldier of his name, that was a coward, he bade him either abandon the name of Alexander, or be a soldier. {e}
{a} praeviderat autem - Zaberellus
{b} τυφλου το ερωτημα, Aristotle
{c} Beatum esse moninem Deo fruentem, sicut occulus luce. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, l. 3.
{d} Lactant.
{e} Plutarch
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4–5 He observed with approbation that it was pleasant and…
He observed with approbation that it was pleasant and amiable, agreeable to God’s purpose and man’s use; and made a distinction or separation between them in place, time, and use, that the one should succeed and shut out the other, and so by their vicissitudes make the day and the night.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–5 And God saw the light, that it was good,....…
And God saw the light, that it was good,.... Very pleasant and delightful, useful and beneficial; that is, he foresaw it would be good, of great service, as Picherellus (k) interprets it; for as yet there were no inhabitants of the earth to receive any advantage by it; see Ecc 11:7 besides, it was doubtless good to answer some present purposes, to prepare for the work of the two following days, before the great luminary was formed; as to dispel the darkness of heaven, and that which covered the deep; to rarefy, exhale, and draw up the lighter parts of the chaos, in order to form the wide extended ether, the expanded air, and the surrounding atmosphere, while the Spirit of God was agitating the waters, and separating them from the earthy parts; and which also might serve to unite and harden those which were to form the dry land, and also to warm that when it appeared, that it might bring forth grass, herbs, and fruit trees:
and God divided the light from the darkness: by which it should seem that they were mixed together, the particles of light and darkness; but "by what way is the light parted", severed and divided from darkness, is a question put to men by the Lord himself, who only can answer it, Job 38:24 he has so divided one from the other that they are not together at the same place and time; when light is in one hemisphere, darkness is in the other (l); and the one by certain constant revolutions is made to succeed the other; and by the motion of the one, the other gives way; as well as also God has divided and distinguished them by calling them by different names, as Aben Ezra, and is what next follows:
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(k) In Cosmopoeiam, p. 267. (l) Milton in the place above referred to says, it was divided by the hemisphere. Paradise Lost, B. 7. l. 243, &c.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v4 Verse 4. God divided the light from the darkness.]…
Verse 4. God divided the light from the darkness.] This does not imply that light and darkness are two distinct substances, seeing darkness is only the privation of light; but the words simply refer us by anticipation to the rotation of the earth round its own axis once in twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, and four seconds, which is the cause of the distinction between day and night, by bringing the different parts of the surface of the earth successively into and from under the solar rays; and it was probably at this moment that God gave this rotation to the earth, to produce this merciful provision of day and night. For the manner in which light is supposed to be produced, see Ge 1:16, under the word sun.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv4–5 Gen 1:4. God saw the light, &c. — He…
Gen 1:4. God saw the light, &c. — He beheld it with approbation, as being exactly what he designed it to be, pleasant and useful, and perfectly adapted to answer its intended end. God divided — Made a separation between the light and the darkness, as to time, place, and use, that the one should succeed and exclude the other, and that by their vicissitudes they should make the day and the night. Though the darkness was now scattered by the light, it has its place, because it has its use: for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night. God has thus divided between light and darkness, because he would daily impress upon our minds that this is a world of mixture and changes. In heaven there is perpetual light and no darkness; in hell, utter darkness and no light: but in this world they are counter-changed, and we pass daily from the one to the other, that we may expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v4 Good; beautiful and convenient: --- he divided light by…
Good; beautiful and convenient: --- he divided light by giving it qualities incompatible with darkness, which is not any thing substantial, and therefore Moses does not say it was created. (Calmet) --- While our hemisphere enjoys the day, the other half of the world is involved in darkness. St. Augustine supposes the fall and punishment of the apostate angels are here insinuated. (L. imp. de Gen.) (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4–5 divided the light from darkness--refers to the alternation or…
divided the light from darkness--refers to the alternation or succession of the one to the other, produced by the daily revolution of the earth round its axis.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v5 5. God called the light Day — By whatever…
5. God called the light Day — By whatever means or method God caused “the light to shine out of darkness,” (2Co_4:6,) it is important to observe that he called that light Day. Why now should we take it on ourselves to say, as so many expositors have ventured to do, that “day” in the first chapter of Genesis means a vast cosmogonic period or age? Shall we permit the sacred historian to define his own terms, as he most certainly assumes to do, or foist into his words the speculative theories of modern times? “The Hebrew word yom, (day,)” says Professor Guyot, “is used in this chapter in five different senses, just as we use the word day in common language: 1. The day, meaning light, without reference to time or succession. 2. The cosmogonic day, the nature of which is to be determined. 3. The day of twenty-four hours, in the fourth cosmogonic day, where it is said of the sun and moon, ‘Let them be for days, and for seasons, and for years.’ 4. The light part of the same day of twenty-four hours, as opposed to the night. 5. In Gen_2:4, the week of creation, or an indefinite period of time.” — Creation, or the Biblical Cosmogony, pp. 50, 51.
Could any thing be more uncritical, arbitrary, and dogmatic than this deliverance of a Christian scientist? If we may put five different meanings upon one simple word, when the writer himself so definitely gives his own meaning, what may we not make the Bible say? The definition No. 4 above is the one which we adopt, (not, however, limiting it to twenty-four hours,) as being that of the sacred writer himself, and this, we believe, will be sufficient to meet the demands of this entire narrative of creation. The length of this day is not told. It was the period of light, whether twelve hours or a much greater length of time. So far as mere length of time is here denoted, there may have been but one day and one night in a year of our time. This would accord with Professor Warren’s hypothesis of the beginning of human life within the Arctic circle. (See his Paradise Found; the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole. Boston, 1885.)
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And the evening and the morning were the first day — Better, And there was evening and there was morning, one day. That is, the first day had its evening and its morning. We are not to understand the morning as equivalent to the day, and the evening to the night, nor are we to construe one day as grammatically in apposition with evening and morning. The simplest meaning is, that this first day, like all other days, had an evening and a morning. Evening was probably mentioned before morning in accordance with the ancient custom of reckoning days from evening to evening; not to indicate that the primeval darkness constituted the first evening.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–5 4. And God … good] This phrase is repeated…
4. And God … good] This phrase is repeated (Gen_1:10; Gen_1:12; Gen_1:18; Gen_1:21; Gen_1:25, and in slightly amplified form, Gen_1:31) at each successive creative act, except on the second day (Gen_1:8, where see note). The purpose of this sentence is to express (1) that the phenomena of the natural world, in their respective provinces, fulfil the will of the Creator, (2) that what is in accordance with His will is “good” in His sight.
and God divided … darkness] By this simple and concrete expression it is implied, that God assigned their own places to “light” and “darkness” respectively, and that, before the moment of separation, the light had been confused and entangled in the darkness. The two elements were now divided, and apportioned to different dwelling places, cf. Job_38:19 quoted above.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–5 (4) And God saw.—This contemplation indicates, first, lapse of…
(4) And God saw.—This contemplation indicates, first, lapse of time; and next, that the judgment pronounced was the verdict of the Divine reason.
That it was good.—As light was a necessary result of motion in the world-mass, so was it indispensable for all that was to follow, inasmuch as neither vegetable nor animal life can exist without it. But the repeated approval by the Deity of each part and portion of this material universe (comp. Psa_104:31) also condemns all Manichæan theories, and asserts that this world is a noble home for man, and life a blessing, in spite of its solemn responsibilities.
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And God divided . . . —The first three creative days are all days of order and distribution, and have been called “the three separations.” But while on the first two days no new thing was created, but only the chaotic matter (described in Gen_1:2) arranged, on day three there was the introduction of vegetable life. The division on the first day does not imply that darkness has a separate and independent existence, but that there were now periods of light and darkness; and thus by the end of the first day our earth must have advanced far on its way towards its present state. (See Note, Gen_1:5.) It is, however, even more probable that the ultimate results of each creative word are summed up in the account given of it. No sooner did motion begin, than the separation of the air and water from the denser particles must have begun too. The immediate result was light; removed by a greater interval was the formation of an open space round the contracting earth-ball; still more remote was the formation of continents and oceans; but the separations must have commenced immediately that the “wind of Elohim” began to brood upon and move the chaotic mass. How far these separations had advanced before there were recurrent periods of light and darkness is outside the scope of the Divine narrative, which is not geological, but religious.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–5 And God saw the light, that it was good.…
And God saw the light, that it was good. The anthropomorphism of this verse is suggestive, as teaching that from the first the absolute and all-sufficient Elohim was an intelligent Spectator of the operation of his own laws and forces, and was profoundly interested in the results which they achieved an amount and degree of interference with the vast machine of nature which would satisfy any rational theist of today. God saw, i.e. examined and judged the newly-finished product, investigated its nature and its properties, contemplated its uses, admired its excellences, noted its correspondence with his own Divine idea; and in all these respects he pronounced it good. Afterwards it is the particular arrangement effected, or condition induced, by the creative word that evokes the Divine commendation; here it is the creature itself as the one object in nature which forms the fittest representation of the Creator himself, who is Light, and in whom is no darkness at all, (1Jn_1:5) and of the true Light, which lighteth every man" (Joh_1:9) (Macdonald). And God divided between the light and the darkness. The celestial, bodies not having been constituted light-holders for the earth until the fourth day forbids the supposition that the luminous matter, on being eliminated from the chaotic mass, was forthwith transported towards and concentrated in the sun. The sun itself, it is now well known, is "a solid mass of highly igneous matter engirt by a bed of dense clouds, on the top of which there lies, encircling all, a floating phosphorescent or luminous atmosphere, the lower part of it splendid, but the upper of luster altogether dazzling, from which streams the flood of light that enlivens all surrounding spheres" (Nichol"s "Cyclopedia," art. Sun). "If, therefore, with Laplace, we may assume that the physical history of the sun was the archetype of that of the various planetary bodies that compose our system, we must think of them also, in the process of condensation, developing luminous atmospheres, which would continue encircling them, and in fact making them suns, until, through their further condensation, those phosphorescent bands were broken up, and, becoming disengaged from their parent globes, were attracted towards, and subsequently centralized in, the photosphere of the sun. So far as our earth is concerned, that happened on the fourth day. On the first day the light would either ensphere it in a radiant cloud, or exist apart from it, like a sun, though always in the plane of its orbit" (Delitzsch). If the former, then manifestly, though revolving on its axis, the earth would not experience the vicissitude of day and night, which some conjecture was not at this time established; if the latter, then the same succession of light and darkness would be begun as was afterwards rendered permanent by the fourth day"s work. The chief reasons for the latter alternative are the supposed necessity of understanding the term day as a period of twenty-four hours, and the apparent impossibility of explaining how the light could be divided from the darkness otherwise than by the diurnal revolution of the earth. The Hiphil of ldB; however, means to disjoin what was previously mixed, and may simply refer to the separation of the luminous particles from the opaque mass. By that very act the light was divided from the darkness. It was henceforth to be no more commingled. "The light denotes all that is simply illuminating in its efficacy, all the luminous element; the darkness denotes all that is untransparent, dark, shadow-casting; both together denote the polarity of the created world as it exists between the light-formations and the night-formations the constitution of the day and night" (Lange).
Ver. 4.
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The value of light.
I A DIVINE CREATURE.
1. Mysteriously fashioned. Philosophers can analyze light, unfold the seven prismatic hues that lie concealed in its pure bosom, theorize with much exactitude concerning its transmission, calculate its incredible velocity, elucidate the laws of its dispersion, utilize the wondrous potencies that are treasured up in its mystic beams; but they can neither make light nor explain its production. Notwithstanding all the restless activity of modern scientific discovery, Jehovah"s two interrogations (Job_38:19, Job_38:24) remain unanswered "Where is the way where light dwelleth?" and, "By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
2. Exquisitely beautiful. The first made of God"s creatures, it is likewise one of the most radiantly fair. Streaming forth direct from the golden sun, or reflected in silver beams from the pale moon, painting the orient dawn with roseate hues, or bathing the western hills in a sea of glory, shimmering in whiteness through the summer air, or lying across the rain-cloud in its many-colored bow, it fascinates the eye of every intelligent beholder with its incomparable splendor.
3. Essentially immaculate. "Hail, holy light, offspring of Heaven, first born!" sings the immortal bard. "Bright effluence of bright essence," it could scarce be other than stainless in its purity. It is the one of all God"s mundane creatures that has carried with it none of the chaotic darkness. Effectually divided from the darkness at the first, it now descends upon this lower earth from celestial realms. And being pure in itself, wherever it appears it communicates its own bright nature; it refines, beautifies, and purifies.
4. Absolutely incorruptible. As it brings no contamination in its beams, so it can receive none. The atmosphere may be polluted, the land may be defiled, the waters of the ocean may be rendered impure, it can in no degree be tainted. Excluded from our presence, admitted to the darkest and the foulest abodes, captivated and compelled to be our servant, absorbed by the dull sod, stored away in coal-fields all these it may be, but not touched by earth"s impurity.
II A DIVINE GIFT.
1. A universal gift. It belongs to no one nation, country, class, or condition, being equally the heritage of all the wise and the unwise, the unthankful and the grateful, the evil and the good. (Mat_5:45) It was God"s first gift to the race.
2. A free gift. It costs nothing. The poorest beggar as well as the grandest monarch enjoys it on the same terms money and without price." So free was it to the first man that it anticipated his arrival on the earth; and to this day the seeing eye is ever preceded by the light wherewith to see. And, like the light, all God"s gifts are free. "He simply gives unto all men;" and, anticipative of man"s wants, "he prevents us with his goodness.
3. A useful gift. Many of man"s gifts are worthless; not so this of God"s. Directly or indirectly, all the earth"s glory is dependent on the light. Without light, neither would the loveliness of form be discerned, nor the beauty of color exist. Light is indispensable for the production, preservation, and enjoyment of life. In almost every department of human industry its aid is sought. It is serviceable to the man of science, to the agriculturist, to the mechanic, to the sailor, to the Traveler. "Upon whom does not his light arise?" inquires Bildad. We may ask, "Unto whom is not his light useful?
4. A silent gift. It is ever gentle and noiseless in its coming; with incredible velocity rushing through the depths of space, yet with no appearance of hurry or confusion. Almost instantaneous in its swiftness, as if, having been the first to come in contact with the living word of the Creator, it had caught the Divine property of annihilating space.
5. A welcome gift. "Truly the light is sweet," &c.. ; (Ecc_11:7) Welcome by all, it is specially so by them that "wait for the morning". (Ps 130)
III A DIVINE EMBLEM.
1. Of God, (1Jn_1:5) in respect of its glorious appearance, pure essence, diffusive character, quickening influence.
2. Of Christ, (Joh_9:3) as enlightening, healing, purifying, directing.
3. Of the Holy Spirit, (Act_2:3) m respect of its celestial origin, mysterious nature, sudden and unexpected movements.
Light an emblem of the gospel.
I THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE METAPHOR. Light and the gospel resemble one another in respect of
1. Their source God.
2. Their purity.
3. Their influence.
4. Their gentleness.
II GOD"S WILL RESPECTING LIGHT.
1. That the world should be filled with gospel light.
2. That every man should have the light.
3. That Christians should be the light.
Application.
1. Have you this light in your hearts, in your families, in your neighborhoods?
2. Are you doing what you can to diffuse the light?
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v5 And God called the light day, and the darkness…
Gen_1:5
And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night:--
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Light, natural and spiritual
The Holy Ghost mysteriously quickens the dead heart, excites emotions, longings, desires.
I. DIVINE FIAT: God said, Let there be light, and there was light. The Lord Himself needed no light to enable Him to discern His creatures. He looked upon the darkness, and resolved that He would transform its shapeless chaos into a fair and lovely world.
1. We shall observe that the work of grace by which light enters the soul is a needful work. Gods plan for the sustaining of vegetable and animal life, rendered light necessary. Light is essential to life. It is light which first shows us our lost estate; for we know nothing of it naturally. This causes pain and anguish of heart; but that pain and anguish are necessary, in order to bring us to lay hold on Jesus Christ, whom the light next displays to us. No man ever knows Christ till the light of God shines on the cross.
2. Next observe it was a very early work. Light was created on the first day, not on the third, fourth, or sixth, but on the first day; and one of the first operations of the Spirit of God in a mans heart is to give light enough to see his lost estate, and to perceive that he cannot save himself from it but must look elsewhere.
3. It is well for us to remember that light giving is a Divine work. God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
4. This Divine work is wrought by the Word. God did not sit in solemn silence and create the light, but He spake. He said, Light be, and light was. So the way in which we receive light is by the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Christ Himself is the essential Word, and the preaching of Christ Jesus is the operative Word. We receive Christ actually when Gods power goes with Gods Word--then have we light. Hence the necessity of continually preaching the Word of God.
5. While light was conferred in connection with the mysterious operation of the Holy Spirit, it was unaided by the darkness itself. How could darkness assist to make itself light? Nay, the darkness never did become light. It had to give place to light, but darkness could not help God. The power which saves a sinner is not the power of man.
6. As this light was unassisted by darkness, so was it also unsolicited. There came no voice out of that thick darkness, Oh God, enlighten us; there was no cry of prayer. The first work of grace in the heart does not begin with mans desire, but with Gods implanting the desire.
7. This light came instantaneously.
8. As it is instantaneous, so it is irresistible. Darkness must give place when God speaks.
II. DIVINE OBSERVATION. And God saw the light. Does He not see everything? Yes, beloved, He does; but this does not refer to the general perception of God of all His works, but is a something special. God saw the light--He looked at it with complacency, gazed upon it with pleasure. A father looks upon a crowd of boys in a school and sees them all, but there is one boy whom he sees very differently from all the rest: he watches him with care: it is his own child, and his eye is specially there. Though you have come here sighing and groaning because of inbred sin, yet the Lord sees what is good in you, for He has put it there. Satan can see the light and he tries to quench it: God sees it and preserves it. The Lord watches you, and He sees the light. He has His eye always fixed upon the work of grace that is in your soul.
III. DIVINE APPROBATION. God saw the light, that it was good. Light is good in all respects.
1. The natural light is good. Solomon says, It is a pleasant thing to behold the sun; but you did not want Solomon to inform you upon that point. Any blind man who will tell you the tale of his sorrows will be quite philosopher enough to convince you that light is good.
2. Gospel light is good. Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see. You only need to travel into heathen lands, and witness the superstition and cruelty of the dark places of the earth, to understand that gospel light is good.
3. As for spiritual light, those that have received it long for more of it, that they may see yet more and more the glory of heavens essential light! O God, Thou art of good the unmeasured Sea; Thou art of light both Soul, and Source, and Centre.
(1) It must be good from its source. The light emanates from God, in whom is no darkness at all, and, as it comes absolutely and directly from Him, it must be good.
(2) It is good, again, when we consider its likeness. Light is like to God. It is a thing so spiritual, so utterly to be ungrasped by the hand of flesh, that it has often been selected as the very type of God. Ignatius used to call himself, Theophorus, or the God bearer. The title might seem eccentric, but the fact is true of all the saints--they bear God about with them. God dwelleth in His saints as in a temple.
(3) It is good, also, in its effect. It is good for a man to know his danger--it makes him start from it. It is good for him to know the evil of his sin--it makes him avoid it, and repent of it.
(4) It is good, moreover, because it glorifies God. Where were Gods glory in the outward universe without light? Could we gaze upon the landscape? Spiritual light shows us our emptiness, our poverty, our wretchedness, but it reveals in blessed contrast His fulness, His riches, His freeness of grace. The more light in the soul, the more gratitude to God.
(5) Let me say of the work of God in the soul as compared to light, that it is good in the widest possible sense. The new nature which God puts in us never sins: it cannot sin, because it is born of God. What! say you, does a Christian never sin? Not with the new nature; the new nature never sins: the old nature sins. It is the darkness which is dark: the light is not darkness; the light is always light.
IV. DIVINE SEPARATION. It appears that though God made light there was still darkness in the world: And God divided the light from the darkness. Beloved, the moment you become a Christian, you will begin to fight. You will be easy and comfortable enough, as long as you are a sinner, but as soon as you become a Christian, you will have no more rest.
1. One part of the Divine work in the soul of man is to make a separation in the man himself. Do you feel an inward contention and war going on? Permit me to put these two verses together--O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. How can these two things be consistent? Ask the spiritual man: he will tell you, The Lord divideth between light and darkness.
2. Whereas there is a division within the Christian, there is certain to be a division without. So soon as ever the Lord gives to any believer light, he begins to separate himself from the darkness. He separates himself from the worlds religion, finds out where Christ is preached, and goes there. Then as to society, the dead, carnal religionist can get on very well in ordinary society, but it is not so when he has light. I cannot go to light company, wasting the evening, showing off my fine clothes, and talking frivolity and nonsense.
V. DIVINE NOMINATION. Things must have names; Adam named the beasts, but God Himself named the day and the night. And God called the light day, and the darkness called He night. It is a very blessed work of grace to teach us to call things by their right names. The spiritual aspirations of Gods people never can be evil. Carnal reason calls them folly, but the Lord would have us call them good. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lessons from the night
1. One of the first lessons which God intends us to learn from the night is a larger respect for wholesome renovation. Perhaps this may not show itself in any great lengthening of our bodily life, but rather in a more healthy spirit, less exposed to that prevailing unrest which fills the air and which troubles so many minds.
2. The night is the season of wonder. A new and strangely equipped population, another race of beings, another sequence of events, comes into and fills the world of the mind. Men who have left their seal upon the world, and largely helped in the formation of its deepest history--men whose names stand up through the dim darkness of the past, great leaders and masters, have admitted that they learned much from the night.
3. The next thought belonging to the night is that then another world comes out, and as it were, begins its day. There is a rank of creatures which moves out into activity as soon as the sun has set. This thought should teach us something of tolerance; senses, dispositions, and characters are very manifold and various among ourselves. Each should try to live up to the light he has, and allow a brother to do the same.
4. Such extreme contrasts as are involved in light and darkness may tell us that we have as yet no true measure of what life is, and it must be left to some other conditions of existence for us to realize in anything like fulness the stores, the processes, the ways of the Kingdom of the Lord which are provided for such as keep His law.
5. Let us learn that, whether man wake or sleep, the universe is in a state of progress, the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together.
6. Let us learn to use day rightly and righteously, to accept the grace and the forces of the Lord while it is called today, and then the night shall have no forbidding, no repulsive significance.
The evening and the morning were the first day
The first day
I. THINK OF THE DAYS BEGINNING. Evening came before morning. Light issued out of darkness. The first goings of creative power were in obscurity.
II. THE DAYS CHARACTER--Evening and morning. In all life are alternations of darkness and light--shadow and sunshine. Rest is the condition of labour, and labour of rest.
III. THE DAYS RELIGION. There was a morning and an evening sacrifice.
IV. THE DAYS END. That which began in darkness is followed by darkness, which ushers in a new day. The night cometh. (The Preachers Monthly.)
The evening and the morning
I. Let us reflect on what is Gods way of estimating THE PERIODS OF HISTORY. I do no unjust disparagement to the common way of recording the course of human history, when I say that it takes the form of a record of failures and catastrophes coming down upon splendid beginnings of empire. It is the morning and the evening that make the day; not the evening and the morning. For one Motley to tell the story of the Rise, there be many Gibbons to narrate the Decline and Fall. History, as told in literature, is a tragedy, and ends with a death. So human history is ever looking backward; and the morning and the evening make the day. But it is not so that God writes history. The annals of mankind in the Holy Book begin in the darkness of apostasy; but the darkness is shot through with gleams of hope, the first rays of the dawn. The sentence of death is illuminated with the promise of a Saviour: and the evening and the morning are the first day. There is night again when the flood comes down and the civilization and the wickedness of the primeval world are whelmed beneath it. But the flood clears off with a rainbow, and it is proved to have been the clearing of the earth for a better progress, for the rearing of a godly race, of whom by and by the Christ shall come according to the flesh: and the evening and the morning are the second day. And again the darkness falls upon the chosen race. They have ceased from off the land of promise. They are to be traced through a marvellous series of events down into the dark, where we dimly recognize the descendants of heroic Abraham and princely Joseph in the gangs and coffles of slaves, wearing themselves out in the brickyards of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. And this--is this the despairing evening of so bright a patriarchal age as that gone by? No, no! it is so that men reckon, but not God. This is the evening, not of yesterday, but of tomorrow. The elements of a new civilization are brooding there in that miserable abode of slavery: of a civilization that shall take the learning of the Egyptians and infuse into it the spirit of a high and fraternal morality, that shall take its religious pomps and rituals and cleanse them of falsehoods and idolatries and inform them with the spiritual worship of the one invisible God. The holy and priestly civilization of David and Solomon, of the sons of Asaph and the sons of Korah, is to come forth out of that dark chaos of Egyptian slavery. And the evening and the morning shall be the fourth day. We need not trace the history of humanity and of the Church on through all its pages. We have only to carry the spirit of this ancient story forward into later times, and the dark places of history become irradiated, and lo! the night is light about us. We behold the decline and fall of the Roman Empire--that awful convulsion of humanity; nation dashing against nation; civilization, with its monuments and records, its institutions and laws, going down out of sight, overwhelmed by an inrushing sea of barbaric invasion, and it looks to us, as we gaze, like nothing but destruction and the end, ruin and failure. So it seems to us at this distance: so it seemed to that great historian, Gibbon. But in the midst of the very wreck and crash of it sat that great believer, Augustine, and wrote volume after volume of the Civitas Dei--the city of God, the city that hath foundations, the kingdom that cannot be moved. This awful catastrophe, he tells the terrified and quaking world, is not the end--it is the beginning. History does not end so. This is the way its chapters open. The night was a long night, but it had an end: and now we look back and see how through all its dark and hopeless hours God was slowly grinding materials for the civilization of modern times. So long, so long it seemed: but the morning came at last. And the evening and the morning made the day. And we, today, are only in the morning twilight, after just such another convulsion and obscuration of the world. I have spoken to you now of this principle of the divine order, which begins the day with the evening, as illustrated, first in creation, and then in history; and now, can I safely leave it with you to make the more practical application of it--
II. TO THE COURSE OF HUMAN LIFE? For this is where you most need to know and feel it, and where, I suspect, you most fail to see it. It has been such a common blunder, from the days of Job and his friends down to the days when Christ rebuked the Pharisees, and from those days again down to ours--the blunder of supposing that the evening goes with the day before, and not with the day after--that the dark times of human life are a punishment for what is past, instead of being, as they always are to them that love God, a discipline and preparation for what is coming. There are many and many such eventides in life--times of enforced repose; hard times, when business stagnates or runs with adverse current; times of sickness, pain, seclusion; times of depression, sorrow, bereavement, fear. Such are the night times of life; and blessed are they who at such times have learned to look forward, and not back; to say, not, What have I done, that this thing should befall me? but, rather, What is God preparing for me, and for what is He preparing me, that thus He should lovingly chasten and instruct me in the night season? Then lift your heads, ye saints, and answer: No, no! this is not the end; this is the beginning. The evening is come, and the morning also cometh; and the evening and the morning are the day. Look! look at the glory of the evening sky. It shall be fair weather in the morning, for the sky is red. So shall it come to pass that at evening time it shall be light. (L. W. Bacon.)
The first day
The evening and the morning were the first day. The evening came first. Gods glorious universe sprang into existence in obscurity. There was the hiding of His power. It is very remarkable that the creation work and the redemption work of God were both alike shrouded in darkness. When God spake, and the worlds were made, it is said, darkness was upon the face of the deep. When Christ hung upon the cross, having finished His work of love, it is said, There was a darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. What a lesson does this teach us! The glory was so exceeding that it needed to be overshadowed: for us the veil was thrown over Jehovahs brightness; the light would have been too strong for mortal eyes; the diadem of the King of kings would have been too dazzling to meet our gaze, had it not been dimmed for our sakes. Nevertheless, hidden as He is in unapproachable majesty, His secret is with them that fear Him; and while the evening lasts, they wait with longing expectation for that morning when they shall see no longer through a glass darkly, but rather face to face. The evening and the morning were the first day. It was the alternation of light and shade which constituted this first day; and is it not so with the spiritual days of a Christian? Darkness and light succeed each other. If, then, thou art one who, ass child of God, art sitting in darkness, there is comfort in this word for thee. If it is evening now, the sunlight shall arise again. Even the record of Gods creation speaks to thee of consolation: there is in it a promise of joy to come; thy day would not be perfect, if there were not a morning to succeed thy night. But if thou art one with whom there is the brightness of sunshine in providence and in grace, this sentence speaks to thee in warning. Although now thou canst look up to an unclouded sky, and there is light in thy dwelling and in thine heart; remember the evening shadows. The longest day has its sunset. God hath ordained the alternation of light and darkness. As it is with individuals, so it is with the whole Church of Christ; and now it is peculiarly with her the night time, the deepest night she has ever known, and, blessed be God, the last night. She standeth now beneath the darkened sky of that tribulation which is to issue in the millennial brightness of her coming Bridegrooms kingdom. How often does she inquire, Watchman, what of the night? and the answer is, The morning cometh, still as yet there will be night: if ye inquire already, yet must ye return; come and inquire again (Isa_21:12, Geneva version). It shallbe darker yet with her, ere the breaking morn appeareth: but how glorious will be the dawn of that light, when the Sun of Righteousness Himself shall arise with healing in His beams. Truly, said David, when he saw the glory of the King of kings and spake of Him--He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun ariseth, even a morning without clouds. Even so, Saviour, come quickly, The evening and the morning were the first day. I cannot help noticing another thing in the consideration of this subject. The evening of a natural day is the season of rest from labour: Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening. In the darkness of the night, the various occupations of busy men are laid aside, and the world is hushed in silence, waiting the returning morning. Is there nothing of this in the Christians experience? Can he work when the night sets in upon his soul? Does not he, too, wait and long for sunrise? The evening and the morning were the first day. There is yet another lesson in these words, which I would notice. What is it which constitutes the evening of a natural day? It is not that the position of the sun is changed; but that the inhabitants of the earth are turned from Him. Let us not forget that it is so with the evening of the soul. There are some in the religious world, who seem to be just like the philosophers of a former day, who believed and taught that the sun moved round our planet; they speak as if the light of the Christian were caused by some change in Christ, the eternal Sun of Righteousness. Nay, it is not so. Our Saviour God is ever the same, in the glory of His salvation, in the brightness of His redemption; but we alas I turn away our faces from Him, and are in darkness, it is sin which causes it to be evening with us; it is our iniquity which has made it dark. There is one thought connected with the evening and the morning, which is so precious to me, that I cannot pass it over. There was, under the law, a sacrifice appointed both for the morning and the evening. Ah! when it is daylight with thee, Christian, and thou goest into the sanctuary, having boldness to enter into the very holiest, having free access unto the Father; thy soul can there offer its sacrifice of willing, loving praise. But the evening cometh, and then thou dost shrink back from saying aught to God, from bringing thine offering with so heavy a heart. Still, go even then; and pleading the blood of that richer sacrifice which never faileth to bring down a blessing, lay the tribute of thy broken heart beside it, and ask thy God, for His sake not to despise it. He will not do so, for, in the provisions of His temple service, there was a sacrifice for the evening too. (The Protoplast.)
The record of the first day of creation reminds us of the first day of human life
How rapidly do the few days which succeed the first evening and morning in the life of man, pass away. I think I have somewhere read of a philosopher who was seen in tears, and on being asked, Why weepest thou? answered, I weep because there is so much for me to do, and my life is too short to do it in. Whether the philosopher said so or not, I am sure my own heart has said it oftentimes, and so, I doubt not, have the hearts of others. Sorrow and sickness are the two great means by which many a young heart has become aged; the mind is early matured, and the stranger wondering says, How old such an one is in character! Yet every day of natural life has its burden, as foreordained of God. There is one thought connected with the day, that is a very solemn one. The evening and the morning will succeed each other, without break or change, year after year; but a day will come upon us, the evening of which we shall never see; a sun will rise that we shall never see go down; the morning will come and find us in a body of sin and suffering, and before the evening we shall have passed away. (The Protoplast.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 The word "day" is used in Scripture in three…
day
The word "day" is used in Scripture in three ways:
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(1) that part of the solar day of twenty-four hours which is light Gen 1:5; Gen 1:14; Joh 9:4; Joh 11:9.
(2) such a day, set apart for some distinctive purpose, as, "day of atonement" (Lev 23:27); "day of judgment" Mat 10:15.
(3) a period of time, long or short, during which certain revealed purposes of God are to be accomplished, as "day of the Lord."
evening
The use of "evening" and "morning" may be held to limit "day" to the solar day; but the frequent parabolic use of natural phenomena may warrant the conclusion that each creative "day" was a period of time marked off by a beginning and ending.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4–5 1:4 Light is antithetical to chaotic darkness (1:2); the…
1:4 Light is antithetical to chaotic darkness (1:2); the light is declared good but the darkness is not (cp. John 1:5). God is the source of this light (cp. Gen 1:14-19). God separated the light, as he did water (cp. 1:6-8), by his creative word. Light is associated with life and blessing (Job 38:19-20; Pss 19:1-6; 97:11; 104:19-20; Isa 60:19-20) and sets a boundary on the darkness that would destroy cosmic order. Darkness often typifies terror, death, and evil (see Gen 15:12; Job 18:6, 18; Ps 88:12; Eph 5:11-12; 1 Jn 1:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.