06.0.4.2. The First Day

II. -- THE FIRST DAY THE work begins with light. God said, "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), and at once light shone where all before was dark. God says, "Repent ye -- the kingdom of heaven is at hand:" then our darkness displeases us, and we are turned to light. (Note: Aug. Conf. l. xiii. c. 12.) Thus of all those blessings hid in Christ from everlasting, and which are predestinated to be accomplished in the creature, light is the first that is bestowed: "God shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). But the "heaven" announced "at hand" is yet unformed. No sun yet shines, no fruits adorn the creature. Many steps remain before the image of God will come, the man created in righteousness, to rule all things. But the light is come, and it is good: "truly the light is sweet," though as yet we cannot add, "and a pleasant thing it is to see the sun" (Ecclesiastes 11:7). It is, however, yet "light" rather than "lights;" (Note: The word here translated "light," is different from that used on the fourth day, and which is rendered "lights." The Vulgate translates the first by lux, the latter by luminaria, thus marking the difference. The LXX also translate with two different words, using phos [G5457] in the third verse, and phosteres [G5458] in the fourteenth.) not defined as it shall be; for as the voice differs from the word, so this light differs from that sun which appears in due season. Whether it is the reflected light of faith resting on the Church’s witness, or the direct light of truth from Christ Himself within us, or whether it be something more undefined, is not yet perceived: it is at least "light," and "it is good." "God saw the light that it was good." After awhile the day-star too shall rise within (2 Peter 1:19).

Then at once comes a division between what is of God and what is not; between the natural darkness in the creature and the light which God has made (Genesis 1:4). The darkness is yet unchanged, but it is bounded by the light; each by its nature more clearly shewing what the other is: and these not mingled together, for "what fellowship hath light with darkness?" but separate, as it is written, -- "God divided the light from the darkness." This is a well-known stage. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness comprehends it not. Two conflicting powers are striving each to gain the day, making the old domain of darkness a continually shifting but ceaseless battle field.

Then a name is given by God both to light and darkness (Genesis 1:5); that is, the character of each is learnt according to the mind of God. It is not yet seen indeed how the creature’s darkness, like death, will bring to view still greater wonders of God’s work in worlds of light innumerable. This is seen at a later stage, when in our night and darkness, yea even by it, the countless forms of God’s light in heavenly places, which the day hides from sight, are made manifest. But now the darkness has at least a name. What God calls it, we call it. His thoughts are not altogether strange to us. Natural as the darkness may seem to the creature, God calls it "night," or deviation. It is a turning from the right or straight line. (Note: The word layelah [H3915], night, means deviation, from a root [H3883] signifying to wind or turn. See Parkhurst’s note on the word.) The light is "day," or movement: there is a disturbance of the darkness. Death rules no longer; life with light is come. (Note: The day, yohm [H3117], "from y-m, motion, from the agitation of the celestial fluid, under the influence of the light." "A good telescope (on a hot day, the naked eye) will shew us what a tumult arises in the air from the agitation of the rays of light at noonday," &c. -- William Jones’s Principles of Natural Philosophy, p. 241, quoted by Parkhurst, sub voce.) Besides in this name there is a form given to both. Until now light and darkness were unformed, but "day" and "night" intimate order and distribution. Night is darkness put within limits. So with light; it is not "day," till it is arranged and put in form and order. (Note: Aug. de Gen. ad lit. lib. imperf. c. 26.) When thus arranged, we can say, not of night only, but of darkness, "The day is thine, the night is thine also" (Psalms 74:16). And though as yet on the face of the creature little is wrought, though as yet salt and barren waters may extend everywhere, a change has been effected by the light, the importance of which none can fully estimate but those who from being once darkness are now light in the Lord, and which shall advance step by step till God’s will is done in the earth as it is in heaven. Of this day I only add, that on it the creature’s state is very slightly, if at all, realised. Whether waters cover it, -- whether there is or is not a heaven, -- (there is, I need not say, no heaven upon the first day,) -- whether firm ground exists or not, this is not yet noticed. The second day must come before the tossing waves, which are uppermost everywhere, begin to be perceived. So with us. There is at first a general sense of sin; but what is the exact state of things is not perceived. There is light and darkness; but that no heaven is formed within, no firm earth, this as yet is overlooked. And great mercy is it that we learn what we are and lack by degrees; else surely we should at first despair.