Genesis 1:3-5 (ESV)

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 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.

These three verses describe a lot. The first two verses of Genesis seem to cover the creation of space and matter. These seem to cover the creation of energy and time (or maybe even all the laws of physics). This is yet again, beyond our understanding, but we’re still expected to read it and come away with something. God gave us these verses for a reason.

The key word in this passage is “separated” (badal in Hebrew). It literally means separate, divide, distinguish, or set apart. What makes this so interesting is that this separation is an aspect of light but not, for example, of sound. Sound travels around corners; light does not. So, in a shadow, with nothing else around to generate or reflect light, the darkness is pitch black.

This is important in space. If you’re on the dark side of a spaceship or a planet, the only light is starlight or moonlight. You cannot see the sunlight streaming past unless you poke your head out of the shadow and into the light. If this weren’t true it would be virtually impossible to get any usable pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. But in fact, as long as it’s not pointed towards the sun, the light streaming by doesn’t interfere at all.

At this point in creation, the sun and moon don’t exist yet. We aren’t told where the light is coming from, but some places are lit, and some aren’t.

So, picture a globe – all alone without the sun or the moon. Light exists and has been made distinct from darkness. Some of the globe is in the light, which is called Day. Some of the globe is in the dark, which is called Night. The boundaries between the two are evening and morning.

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

As mind boggling as this is, it’s almost as mind boggling to think of the human effort involved in getting these words to us. Thousands of people, over thousands of years, carefully copied these passages. Then thousands more worked on translating them into English. Even though it may not look like it, this was a coordinated, team effort.

You are part of that team. You may not be involved in translation, but you have some calling to help spread God’s word to the world. Furthermore, that calling can change over time. Right now, your calling could be something like make coffee before church. That used to be my calling.

Never stop asking God what he has in store for you next. Serve Him more and He will use you more.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies