“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 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 1:1-5
LIGHT FOR NOW: The light in the beginning is Jesus.
In our previous study, we discovered that our key text or Genesis in general is an analysis derived from a vision. Let’s observe our key text closely; notice in verse 2, Moses did not say God created darkness, he rather said “darkness was upon”; hence, the action of God in verse 3 “God said, let there be light and there was light”. This utterance of God in the beginning (Genesis 1:3) is actually a revelation of who He is (shortly, this will open up). He spoke “light” because light is who he is. No wonder John echoed in his epistle “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”. We have established the fact that the darkness in verse 2 is not an action of God; rather, the action of God is the light he spoke because that is a revelation of who He is. If you just read “and darkness was upon the face of the deep” without reading the next statement “And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”, you would have in a hurry concluded that the darkness is literal; that is, the darkness could have been referring to the night. But such a conclusion will be out of place because if the next statement says “And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”, then the “darkness being upon the face of the deep” will not be literal but a spiritual truth communicated figuratively (that is, as a figure of speech). By careful observation, it could be ascertained that the statement “and darkness was upon the face of the deep” is a personification; same way the statement “and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” is also a personification. Thus, these two statements were figures of speech and what could Moses mean by using these figures of speech? Moses now continues in his explanation and now says in the next statement “And God said, let there be light: and there was light” (verse 3). An understanding of the verse will unfold what the figurative expression (we saw earlier in verse 2) meant and other figurative expressions between verse 1 to verse 5. So, let’s stay tuned as this will unfold in subsequent days. Hallelujah!!!
INSTRUCTION: Bible interpretation requires the scrutiny of every detail; you cannot afford to be in a hurry.
Prayer: The eyes of my understanding are enlightened in Jesus Name, Amen
QUOTE: When the bible is studied in a hurry, important details could be missed out and a vital truth could be lost.
DAILY BIBLE READING: MORNING: GENESIS CHAPTER 1; EVENING: 1JOHN CHAPTER 1