On Day 1, God created Light. This devotional reading looks at how God judged what He created on Day 1.
Nuggets
- God judged the light as good.
- God created day and night.
- God wants good and evil, light and dark, day and night to be separated.
- God created day and night.
- God knew salvation was essential, so He made provisions for it the first thing.
After creating the heavens and earth, God brought Light into it. I think that Light was Jesus.
We are to the point where God judges His creation on Day 1.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Celebrating Creation’s Story series
Judgment of the Light
“And God saw that the light was good ...” (Gen. 1: 4 NLT)
God judged the light as good.
When I record a song for music day, while I am singing, I am evaluating if I am satisfied with my singing. If I am not, I sometimes do a retake from a good starting point. Other times, I give it up and start from the beginning again.
I never am satisfied with doing one take.
We aren’t told if God accomplished work in one take or not — but I bet He did. We know He was satisfied when He was done because He judged the work to be good.
I am sure that God sees His work more clearly than I see my work. He is all-seeing.
We should want to see things as God sees them. He will look at things to see if they are the best for our souls. The status of our spiritual condition should always be our priority.
I like what Spurgeon had to say. He wrote, “Spiritual light shows us our emptiness, our poverty, our wretchedness, but it reveals in blessed contrast His fulness, His riches, His freeness of grace.”
Resource
These revelations should increase our gratitude towards God. We should thank Him in everything.
The light was pure, as God is. “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I Jn. 1: 5 ESV).
We think of Jesus being the light, but not God. If you need a reminder, go back to the last devotion and read the list of verses about Light again.
One of the big reasons we see Jesus as the Light is because He said He is the Light of the world. He is the illumination of God that was seen here on earth.
But if light has to do with purity, then Jesus and God are the same. They have the same nature.
Ooo, baby. How many times do we fall into the worldview definition of success? We have to be earning more, showing by our possessions that we are. We have to not be making any — or at least many — false steps.
Our ability to accomplish that isn’t God’s definition of success. His definition is that we are obedient, not the outcome of what we are doing.
I have no clue how many people actually read these devotions. But I am successful because I am being obedient to God in writing them and putting them online. More importantly, I am successful because I grow so much in writing these. I learn so much about Him and His Word.
How could that be anything but successful?
The Psalmist had an interesting take on light. “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent” (Ps. 104: 1-2 ESV).
My first thought when I read this was, we are in the presence of God when we are in the light.
Separation
“... Then he separated the light from the darkness” (Gen. 1: 4 NLT)
God wants good and evil, light and dark, day and night to be separated.
I know. How can darkness — the absence of light — be in the presence of light and still be darkness?
Again, it can only be darkness (chosek), then light (owr). Good then evil.
Ooo, baby. Good and evil can both be with us. As disciples, we have been made new creations. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (II Cor. 5: 17 NLT).
But we are still in these fleshly bodies. We still sin.
Good and evil are still struggling within us.
Jesus tried to help us with that. He told us to be in the world but not of it. “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you” (Jn. 15: 19 NLT).
That is kind of what, I think, was said in the The First Day sermon. It says, “It is very remarkable that the creation work and the redemption work of God were both alike shrouded in darkness.”
Resource
God’s work at creation and at the cross are both mysteries. We aren’t given explicit explanations of the how of either.
Each must be done with a backdrop of sin to show God’s purity and that He will crush sin in His time.
There are so many people who believe God is only about unity. They see God is called love, and therefore, they think that extends to tolerance.
Don’t fall into that worldview trap. God, since the fourth verse of the first book of His Word, has been in the business of separating and dividing those who are obedient to Him from those who are not.
God called Isaac. He did not call Ishmael, the firstborn.
God called Jacob. He did not call Esau, the firstborn.
On Judgement Day, Jesus will separate people. “All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Mt. 25: 32 NLT).
God calls us to separate ourselves from the world.
- “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you” (Jn. 15: 19 NLT).
- “Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you” (II Cor. 6: 17 NLT).
- “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rom. 12: 2 NLT).
- “Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them” (Eph. 5: 11 NLT).
I like what Monod said. He wrote,
“The creation of the world affords us a new lesson as to the manner in which God acts in the dispensation of grace. There again, all that God makes is good, and very good; what is evil proceeds from another source.”
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We say evil comes from Satan, but does it?
Doesn’t it come from us? Satan doesn’t make us choose to sin. We choose that ourselves.
Satan isn’t a dictator any more than God is.
Now that the Plan of Salvation has been accomplished, the Light can also truly judge the world.
“And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed” (Jn. 3: 19-20 NLT).
We are condemned until we choose Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer.
Making the Connections
“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all” (1 Jn. 1: 5 NLT)
The Light had to be good because God is also the Light.
Remember, God and Jesus are One. Not only is their nature One, but everything about Them is also the same.
That means Both are Light. Both are pure.
How Do We Apply This?
- Grow to have a healthier spirit.
- Realize that we can learn from the night.
- Walk in the Spirit.
Resource
Father God. We do not want to be of the world. We want to be in You: buried in Your Word, walking in Your Will. We don’t want any part of the darkness.We want to live always in Your light. Amen.
What do you think?
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