Prayer
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the new day that you have given to me. All praise to you, my Lord and my God. Truly God I good to Israel! To those who fear his name. Lord, you have lifted my life up from the grave, you have set my feet on a rock. You have trained my hands for war and I praise you. I thank you for new strength, and your sustaining grace. I praise you that your steadfast love never ceases, and that your mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Please bless your word to me now, as I come to seek your face. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reading
Psalm 27 & 1 Timothy 6.
Genesis 1:2-5.
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
Meditation
Having laid the foundation of the light on day one in our previous meditation, there’s more that we need to say about the significance of the light on day one. For not only do we see that God is light in scripture, but secondly we see that light represents God’s presence. Light in God’s word is a symbol and revelation of God’s presence and glory. The scriptures, in building on the foundation of day one, make this clear – and certainly the Israelites in Moses’ day, his original audience, would have made this connection. At the mention of light, they would have been thinking about Moses’ face shining with light after he’d been in the presence of God (Ex 34:29-30). More importantly, they would have thought about the Tabernacle, which represented the presence of God in the camp of Israel. The Tabernacle was the place where God met with his people, it was the earthly manifestation of his presence. Inside the Tabernacle, one of the chief features that we find is the lampstand with seven lights constantly burning. Every Israelite would thus associate light with the presence of God, and perhaps the seven lights of the Tabernacle would have served as a reminder of the seven days of creation. Just as God dwells in the light of the Tabernacle, then, so too he announced that creation itself would be his dwelling place when he said: “Let there be light.” Creation was to be a place where his presence would be manifested, for light represents God’s presence. God dwells in unapproachable light, after all, as Paul tells Timothy.
To further emphasise and establish this, the rest of scripture continues to use light in the same kind of way. The Psalms are particularly rich with this creation-light imagery. Psalm 27:1, for example, says: “The LORD is my light and my salvation”. In Psalm 56:13 we read: “For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.” The psalmist here represents walking in the presence of God as walking in the light of life. Psalm 90:9 is even more explicit: “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” Interestingly, Psalm 90 is the only psalm written by Moses, and so it’s no surprise then to find creation light imagery used here. In Daniel 2:22 we read that “Light dwells with him”, and 1 Timothy 6:16 affirms that he dwells in “unapproachable light.” Light represents God’s dwelling place, and so when God says “Let there be light”, he’s showing that his intention for his creation is to dwell in it, shining out and manifesting his glory and presence.
So, why do you exist? According to day one of creation, we may say clearly and confidently that there is one central and basic answer to this question: You exist to dwell in the light of God’s presence. You exist to be a reflection of his light, both knowing him, and seeing and showing his glory to all around you. Now one question that follows on from this is: What does it mean to dwell in God’s presence?
I think that we can answer this question by considering another insight into the nature of light. As we’ve seen: God is light and light represents God’s presence. Let me add to these two insights by saying that: Christ is light. The Pentateuch, and especially Genesis, lays the foundations of everything God reveals to us as his people, and the rest of the Bible then builds on that foundation. We see this very clearly in many ways, including in the way that the rest of scripture builds on the light imagery of day one. We’ve already seen that light gives us a picture of God’s presence, and as we come to the full revelation of Christ in the New Testament, the scriptures show us that Christ fulfills this imagery. Christ is the full realisation of what God initiated on day one. Let me open that thought up further.
Consider what we find in John 1:1 and following: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Do you see what John is doing here? He’s deliberately echoing the creation imagery of Genesis 1 and applying it to Christ’s eternal, divine nature, as well as his incarnation! God said “Let there be light” at the start and that light is at last fully realised in the incarnation of Christ. In John 9:5 Jesus said: “I am the light of the world”. So when God says: “let there be light”, he’s saying that his purpose for creation is to fill the creation with his glory and presence, and that that purpose is then fulfilled through the Incarnation of the Son of God. SDG.
Be ye doers of the word…
If the purpose of creation was to be filled with the light of God’s glory, and our calling is to dwell in the light of his presence, there’s an obvious question that follows: How do we do that? In the most basic sense, the answer is very simple, we must believe in and follow Christ. In John 8:12 Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So too in John 12:46 “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” Have you believed? Are you continually following Christ? God said “let there be light” And that light still shines in the hearts of men, women, and children as they come to believe in the Lord Jesus, the Son of the living God.
A second word of application follows on from this: we are now called to be bearers of the light. Firstly, God has brought us into the light of his presence through belief in Christ. In Ephesians 5:8 we read: “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Light by nature must shine! In Acts 13:47 Apostle Paul says “the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”” What are you doing to shine God’s light out to others? As we testify to the truth of the gospel, telling others about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we become bearers of the light. Now let me ask you, let me ask all of us: Are we hiding that light? In Matthew 5:14 Jesus said ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
As we live as Christians, there’s a lot at stake. God has placed his plan for the world in our hands and he calls us to go as light bearers to fulfill that plan. To share the good news of the gospel, to live and walk in the light. In Philippians 2:15 we read that God’s will for us is “that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world”. Stay near to Christ, and grow in him. Let his word dwell richly in you. It is only as we do that, that we will be able to be the light-bearers that he calls us to be.
And as a word of encouragement, let me say this: even our failures will glorify God. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” So says the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7. Maybe you feel inadequate as a light bearer. Maybe you feel weak and not up to the task. Maybe you feel ashamed at the way you frequently fail to do it. And I’m not going to lie – we are weak, inadequate, and we frequently fail in our sin. But there’s a reason why God has allowed sin to coexist in us until we die, and that reason is so that it will be very obvious that the cause of the gospel will be done in God’s power, not ours. For every good thing we do as followers of Christ, held up next to our failures, it will be obvious to all that it was God who did it, and all glory will go to him – as it should.
We have this light contained in jars of clay. Let us not use that as an excuse to sin, but by all means, be encouraged by that as you are constantly aware of your own failures and weaknesses as a follower of Christ. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Heavenly Father, I thank you and praise you for the light of your presence, and for shining your presence even into your creation through the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you that Jesus is the light of the world. O Lord, without Christ, I have nothing. You are my all in all. Please, Lord, as I walk through this life, having your light in this vessel of clay, be near to me. I am prone to wonder, please spare me from the weakness of my own flesh, let me not stray from you. Please make the light of your presence to blaze in my heart so brightly as to banish all traces of darkness. Because of your promise, I know it shall be so at the last, and yet still I pray – let the light of your presence burn brighter and brighter within me. More love to thee, O Christ! Be merciful to me in this, I pray, even this day. Spare and protect me from the tempter’s power, who would quell the presence of your light about me if he could. Draw me nearer to your side, blessed God. And in the lives of all the saints, I pray, make the light of your presence to brighter and brighter, until the dawning of that final day when my Lord will return. I look forward to that last, bright and glorious day – come, Lord Jesus! Amen.
Day 12: God's presence in creation (Gen 1:2-5).