Genesis 1:3-5
Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Matthew Henry: [Observe] 3. That the light which God willed when it was produced, He approved of: ‘God saw the light, that it was very good’. If the light is good, how good is He that is the fountain of light, from whom we receive it.
Clay Miller: If you consider light, what it is, what it does, and how it is useful, this passage suddenly becomes a big deal. Tonight I met with my friends Aron and Jim. We meet each Wednesday night and are studying through issues with books supplementing us. It is an accountability/study time. We are going through Battle for the Beginning by John MacArthur. Tonight’s reading was about this passage and MacArthur gave several interesting, though complex to my mind, facts about light. Here are some:
1. Physicists struggle to explain light. It has characteristics of particles and waves. Light photons behave like particles. Sort of like dust except dust has volume and light photons do not. These photons move at a measurable velocity and this is where we get the idea of the speed of light.
2. Light also has the characteristics of a wave with variable frequencies. In waves, energy is transferred from point to point without the transfer of matter. So this is different from particles which transfer energy with the transfer of matter.
3. Light is a form of energy. It is essentially electromagnetic radiation with frequencies. There are long wave radiation, radio waves, microwaves, and infrared rays at the high end…with ultra violet rays, gamma radiation and X-rays at the low end. The middle is visible light with all the colors. Without light, there are no colors.
4. Did you listen to the radio today? If you did you were listening to a signal that was using technology that was taking advantage of the properties of light. There are short wave frequencies that travel vast distances, and long wave frequencies (FM) that are more localized.
That is just a few details. The point is, “God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light” is a BIG DEAL and a very intelligent, powerful act. I may never read this passage again without thinking “wow”! Yes light was “very good.” And light is absolutely necessary for us to be sustained…yet God is not sustained by light but sustains light. Light is complex indeed, and powerful beyond comprehension…but it is harnessed and controlled by God…so How complex and powerful must He be!
