Does God open His book by explaining how He created everything? The Bible is about God’s relationship with us, ultimately through Jesus Christ. The fact that everything exists only because of God is important, and yet, that seems to be taken as a given in verse one. I believe the first chapter of this amazing book reveals both how God created and why.
On the first day, God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3 ESV). He wouldn’t create the sun, moon, or stars for three more days. However, that made no difference because this Light eternally exists. This Light is Jesus. The apostle John spoke of this at the beginning of his gospel:
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. . . . This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person (John 1:4–5, 9 NASB)
John told us that Jesus was with God in the beginning, and that all things came into being through Him. He first referred to Jesus as the Word, and in the creation account we see that all things were created through the spoken Word. My heart tells me this took place on the first day because God didn’t want one day to go by in His creation without His presence filling it. “‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:24 ESV).
Jesus is the Light of the world. But before Jesus, God’s chosen people were to be that light. The very reason for God’s creation was the union He desired to have with His creation, and that union starts and ends with Israel. That is, first with ethnic Israel and then with the true Israel. Now when God saw that it was good, He wasn’t acknowledging that He is good. That goes without saying. Rather, He was acknowledging that His presence in creation was good.
God took the Israelites out of the darkness and made them His people—a light to shine in the darkness. Only by separating the light from the darkness could the source of the light be known. God used His people to conquer the nations living in darkness, often overcoming impossible odds to display that He was the source of the light.
We, being grafted into the vine, are now called to do the same. “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV). Again, Paul demonstrated his understanding of this doctrine of light and why God called the light day and the darkness night. “For you are all children of light, children of day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5 ESV). Therefore, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 ESV).