Before the Spirit of God moved, darkness was upon the face of the deep.
THE FIRST DAY
“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light. 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.” Genesis 1:3-5
The prophecy continues. In Genesis 1:1, God began to declare the end from the beginning. He foretold his plan of salvation even before he created Adam and Eve. Now he continues in Genesis 1 to unfold not only the brilliance of his strategic creation, but also revelation of the correlation of these individual days to the coming one thousand-year time periods.
The first day was one morning and one evening, not one thousand years. The Hebrew word is YOM or YAMIN, which we find again in Exodus 20:11 signifying a 24-hour period. It’s also important to remember the light created on Day 1 isn’t from the sun or moon or stars, because God didn’t create those until Day 4. So, what was this light?
There is an element of light within an atom. An atom is composed of protons and electrons. If the protons are positive and the electrons are negative, then what keeps the electrons from crashing into the positively charged nucleus? If the nucleus is completely made of positive material, what holds it together? Wouldn’t it fly apart because of the like charges? No force is really strong enough to keep electrons away from the nucleus or to keep the nucleus together. No force, except the power of God.
“Christ existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.” Colossians 1:17. Could it be that Christ is the light that holds atoms together?
- All things are held together by molecules and atoms. Light is actually known to be a part of the atom and may most likely be the thing that is responsible for holding it together.
- Light is not a particle; it doesn’t have a mass, but it moves things and shakes things. You can’t figure it out. The only other option is that it’s a wave or a vibration. But a wave eventually wears out. Light does not run out. You can run it into something else, but it never changes, it never decays. It never loses what it is. You can measure its power and speed with Nano technology and track its direction, but the easiest measurement is either on or off.
- Light is the fastest thing in the world – 186,000 miles per second.
- Light brings not only clarity but also security. No one ever says, “I don’t want to go down that bright alley!”
The first day of creation was phenomenal. We’re not only introduced to the creation of light, it’s speed, power, and eternal qualities; but also, it’s source and power in our lives, Jesus, the Christ. Remember that Jesus is the Word of God. When God created light, he “spoke it” into being.
What does light reveal and what is there about light that pertains to prophecy?
God dropped more clues:
“All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 13-4
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:1-5
“[God] has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right had of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:2-3
Jesus was already there. “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.” Colossians 1:15-17
“I and my Father are one.” John 10:30. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6. “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” 1 John 5:7.
But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:18-20
FIRST THOUSAND YEARS
Imagine a world with absolutely no written laws. Just do whatever you want. Adam and Eve first had two children, Cain and Abel. You could say they embodied light and dark, good and evil. Cain killed Abel and God cursed Cain – probably because he refused to repent.
The Book of Genesis reveals God’s heart and passion to build a relationship with his children perhaps as much or more than any other book in the Old Testament. He also reveals his prophecy for every one of us individually and lays the foundation for the coming Christ.
Adam and Eve were given specific details about the consequences of their actions before they were barred from (kicked out of) the garden. Because Adam listened to his wife and did what she said instead of trusting God, God told Adam the ground would now be “cursed”. Thorns and thistles would be a constant problem and working to provide bread would “cause his face to sweat.”
No doubt Adam and Eve had an attitude problem. No longer in paradise, life was hard. Then they had two sons: Cain and Abel. It appeared Cain was the gardener and Abel took care of the sheep.
We’re not told every conversation God had with this family, but he did not abandon them. In his loving passion for them, he continued to try to teach them how important their relationship with God would prove to be. One of those lessons appears to have been to honor God with gifts, called offerings. Cain brought veggies from his garden and Abel sacrificed a lamb. While we don’t have written proof of the conversation, we know it took place because both Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. If there had been no conversation, why would Abel think killing a beautiful, one-year-old lamb would please God?
God had respect for Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. At first glance his disrespect for Cain’s offering might not seem fair, however God did tell Adam that as a result of their disobedience, the ground would be cursed. Maybe Adam forgot to share that piece of information with Cain. Maybe Adam didn’t connect the cursed ground to the offering. Maybe Cain didn’t bring his best fruit. Maybe it wasn’t the offering, but the condition of Cain’s heart. But the resulting message was clear. Cain’s offering did not receive God’s respect.
Cain was angry and upset! But God checked in with him to share some insight. God said, “Why are you so angry? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? But if you don’t do well, sin is crouching behind your door. He is waiting to attack and destroy you, but you can rule over him.” Genesis 4:6-7
God was mentoring Cain. He was trying to lead him to victory over the evil influence of Satan. It actually looked like Cain was even going to make amends with his brother as later, he was talking with Abel and they went out to the fields. But then suddenly Cain killed his brother. Cain’s anger, jealousy, refusal to listen and obey brought cursing instead of blessing.
God still mentors us. God has given simple instructions – with analogies for clarity. Abel’s gift was God’s promise to you and me. Our reaction to that promise is a firm prophecy for our future.
“God paid a ransom to save you from the empty manner of life received by tradition from your fathers. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was paid with the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom from evil long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sakes.” I Peter 1:18-20
Another prophetic lesson: Don’t compare gifts. “The body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, ‘I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,’ that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,’ would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.” 1 Corinthians 12:14-18. God works in different ways, giving each of us different gifts, different ways to glorify him, but he is the same God that works in all of us.
The next son of Adam and Eve was Seth, who obeyed God and told his children about God for many generations. When you follow the genealogy and run the numbers, you will see that because people lived hundreds of years, Seth, who lived to be 912 years old, was 800 hundred years old when his father, Adam, died. Seth was 492 years old when Enoch was born, and Seth was 857 years old when Enoch was translated (also called raptured). “And all the days of Enoch were 365. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:23-24
Speculation. Do you wonder how Adam and Eve got over losing Abel? Did they repent finally? Did they mend their hearts to God? Did they diligently teach Seth about God? Or did God just reach out to Seth directly?
Just thoughts. Thoughts about you and me and how God is still mentoring us to follow him.
The first thousand years was a period of light and dark, mirroring the creation of light in the dark by the word of God on the first day. However, in the midst of lawlessness, by the end of the first thousand years darkness had completely overtaken the light with the exception of one family. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God was sorry he had made man and was determined to destroy them. “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repents me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:7.
“The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22
“We know the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murders of fathers and murderers of mothers, for fornicators, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for kidnapers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” Ephesians 1:8-9
“For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Corinthians 4:6-7
What If Jesus truly is the light of the world, both literally and figuratively? We have a tendency to downplay God’s creation and his ability to impact our lives directly. What if we’ve missed one of the biggest breadcrumbs to understanding God and who we could be in him?
REFERENCES
“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
John 8:12
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not overcome it.”
John 1:1-5
“For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness’, has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”
2 Corinthians 4:6-7
Next Up: Day 2