Today’s prayer, or your own
Father, we thank you for giving us to the privilege to call you Father. We also thank you for speaking to us from your written Word and ask that you open the eyes of our understanding that we might see your message for us today. We pray also for those that do not have your Word to guide them in this troubled world. Show us your mighty works and help us to understand them. Help us to appreciate your great love for us and let today’s reading reveal something special to each of us. We give you thanks and praise in the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen.
The verse
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:4-5 · NKJV
And God saw that the light was good. And God 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 1:4-5 · ESV
With the Hebrew notations
And GodH430 sawH7200 (H853) the light,H216 thatH3588 it was good:H2896 and GodH430 dividedH914 H996 the lightH216 fromH996 the darkness.H2822
And GodH430 calledH7121 the lightH216 Day,H3117 and the darknessH2822 he calledH7121 Night.H3915 And the eveningH6153 and the morningH1242 wereH1961 the firstH259 day.H3117
The words
And God (ELOHIM) saw (looked upon) the light, (illumination) that it was good; (good, wonderful, perfect) and God (ELOHIM) divided (separated) the light (daylight) from the darkness. (absence of light)
God (ELOHIM) called (named) the light (daylight) Day, (the lighted period from dawn til dusk) and the darkness (absence of daylight) He called (named) Night. (the dark period from dusk til dawn) So the evening (dusk or sundown – roughly 12 hours of darkness or night) and the morning (dawn or daybreak – roughly 12 hours of daylight) were the first day. (a 24 hour period)
What we learned
God’s first words were, “let there be light”, and, immediately, there was light. Psa 33:6 Psa 33:9 His might and power are revealed when He speaks. We can only understand things based on our human experiences, so we have no way of knowing what existed before Genesis 1:1.
God finished His first day of creation by separating light from darkness and giving us the period of time that we call a day. God Himself lives outside of time and He is His own light. This proves to me that, the universe, the earth and the whole human experience was created exclusively for us.
The creation of light also points us to God, who is the Light. 1 Jn 1:5 Jam 1:17 1 Ti 6:16 Rev 22:5 Daylight was created by the power of God’s Word. He said, Let there be light; he willed and appointed it, and it was done immediately. Christ is the Word, the essential eternal Word, and by him the light was produced, for in him was light, and he is the true light, the light of the world, Jhn 1:9 Jhn 9:5
In the original Hebrew, anytime evening and morning are included, DAY always means a 24 hour Day. The “day” with the Hebrews began in the evening. It went from 6 p.m. to 6 p.m.
We also learned
We understand that God completed His creation in 6 physical days and rested on the seventh day. The Old Testament Law called for work 6 days, not 6 ages (each day was an age theory). Exo 20:9-10 This supports our understanding that creation took only six 24 hour days, not millions or billions of years. If each Day were an age, the Sabbath Day would also be an age. Exo 20:11
We also learn that Jesus, who is the Word Jhn 1:1-3 and the Light Jhn 1:4-5 is present in scripture from the very first verse to the last.
The verses, paraphrased
God was pleased with what he saw. Then, he separated the light from the darkness, and named the light period daylight and the dark period night. This ended the First 24 hour day.