Troublesome Topic: Light
Lesson 4 of 13Genesis 1:3
Translation
And ELOHIM said,
“Oh light,
come into being,”
Go to footnote numberand light came into existence. (See comment below.)
Paraphrase
And THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS said, “Listen up, oh light which resides inside of me, I command you to reveal yourself, now!” Then light revealed itself, becoming a physical reality. (See comment below.)
Light
Light was often taken to mean “salvation, joy, righteousness, life and knowledge.” The fact that God created light was the first hint that God would soon create life; light is necessary for life, thus God was setting the stage for the creation of living beings. All the ancient people groups from what we today call the “Middle East” had their maps oriented toward the East because that is where the light of the sun comes from. They understood that light, and therefore the sun, are necessary for life. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life and that life was the light of mankind.” The wording of Genesis 1:2 not only sets the stage for the creation of life, but signals to the reader that he should anticipate the coming of living beings in this creation narrative.
The next lesson is: Water and Light Are the Foundations of the Physical Universe
Footnotes
1
In English, our command verbs are good for commanding things that already exist to do something, but not very good at commanding things to appear from nothing. The Hebrew says, “Be light.” The options “May light appear,” or “let there be light,” seem too mild to me. Yes, they are grammatically correct command forms in English, but since they include the little words “may” and “let” they almost seem to imply that light had the option to appear or not appear. Everyone understands that when God commanded light to appear, light did not have a choice, it could only obey. But my point is that our language struggles to adequately convey what really happened. Maybe I am the only one troubled by this dilemma. I find the solution through remembering that, before speaking the words, God already possessed in Himself the properties and qualities that light would demonstrate, and He had already pictured what it would look like when His inner qualities became outward realities or manifestations. So the only thing that was needed was for Him to command that light which already existed within Him be revealed outside of Him. But now I have created another dilemma by saying there is an inside and an outside to God, who, in truth, encompasses all things. This goes to show how incapable we are of fully understanding and expressing these things.