Without Genesis 1:3 we would still be in the dark, and I mean that in two ways. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. The initial act of God made a watery wilderness and wasteland that was in the dark. In verse 3 God illuminates the wet lump. The earth was formless and dark and the Spirit was ready “And God said, ‘Let there be light.‘”

We would also be in the dark apart from Genesis 1:3—and the whole account in chapter one—about the process of creation itself. Now there is light to dispel darkness and light to dispel ignorance. What we know about the origin of the universe comes from the light of revelation. Man has not and could not investigate the cause on his own. God said, “Let there be light” for our understanding.

Beginning in verse 3 God begins to speak the world into form by His word. “And God said” occurs ten times in this chapter, both in creative and commissioning acts. He created the cosmos by His word; His word caused the earth to take shape. And His word causes our minds to take shape about how the earth took shape. His word creates categories for us to think about creation. He spoke and things happened. He spoke again (through Moses) about how He spoke and things happened. God’s Word accomplishes the purposes for which He sends it (see Isaiah 55:10-11), including His purpose to shape what we believe about Him and His work. The most profitable word to teach and correct and train our views on earth are God’s words. And God sees that it is good.

Let me try to say it another way. God speaks through general revelation (His world) and through special revelation (His Word). But special revelation tells us about more than things that general revelation can’t (such as God’s love and grace), special revelation also tells us about general revelation. We can learn a lot about the world by studying things in the world, but we cannot learn how the world got here by studying the world. Only the Bible reveals that.

Genesis 1 has only ever been read in a Genesis 3 world. That is to say that the revelation of God about creation came to a people in rebellion against God. We should study Genesis 1. But the point of study is surrender, and we will have trouble studying it if we don’t plan to surrender. Are we willing to be called anti-intellectual in order to believe what God has said? The gospel is foolish to the unbeliever, and so is creation (since it also requires faith per Hebrews 11:3).

The most obvious way to outline Genesis one is by days. Each paragraph begins with “And God said,” introducing a new creative act. And each paragraph ends with the day formula, “And there was evening and there was morning, the [ X ] day.”

While Moses tells the story in chronological sequence, there also seems to be another pattern that divides the week into two parts. The first part of the week, days one through three, involve God shaping and structuring the earth He created that was “without form” (tohu). The second half of the week, days four through six, involve God filling the newly formed planet since it was “void” (bohu). There even seems to be a parallel in the days. For example,

So on the first three days God is creating the environment. God sets up His planet and prepares it for life and inhabitants.

The First Day (Sunday) (verses 3-5)

Actually, day one activities/festivities began in verse one, as God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. The lump of clay was thrown onto the Potter’s wheel so to speak. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, ready to light up the world.

That’s exactly what He did later on day one. Moses doesn’t tell us how much time the universe spent in the darkness but it was at least long enough to warrant comment.

God’s first specific, verbal act was to create light. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Fiat lux (Vulgate). In Latin fiat means a decree, a command. Creation came about by divine command and there was no dilly-dallying amidst the darkness.

As quickly as light came into being, God saw that the light was good. He was delighted with the light. There was something preferable and right about the light that was not true of darkness. In God’s economy, light has precedence.

Yet He didn’t get rid of darkness altogether. And God separated the light from the darkness. He distinguished between them; He assigned them boundaries and gave each a name. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

And there was evening (that is, darkness and night) and there was morning (that is, the return of light and day), the first day. The light time was the daytime, when God did His work. The dark time was the nighttime when God did no work. His dividing of light/dark, and defining of day/night further demonstrated His authority over them.

Some moderns conclude that this cannot be a literal, 24-hour day as we know it today because the sun and moon weren’t created until day four (verses 14-19). So, they say, obviously there could be no sunset and sunrise, so this couldn’t be a solar day.

The biggest problem with that approach is that Moses doesn’t have a problem with it. Not only does he describe two different creative words and works of God ( And God said, “Let there be light” [verse 3] as well as, “Let there be lights” [verse 14]), but Moses distinctly puts the sun and moon and stars on day four. The narrator did that and wasn’t concerned about a conflict. The light on day one, therefore, must have been from another source than the sun. The implication is that God is the ultimate source of light and He must be worshiped rather than any star. (There will also be “no need of lamp or sun” later when “the Lord God will be their light” as Revelation 22:5 describes.)

Without the sun and stars, a day was still defined by a cycle of light and darkness. What really gets me are statements like this from my ESVSB.

By a simple reading of Genesis, these days must be described as days in the life of God, but how His days relate to human days is more difficult to determine. (50)

The cross-references (Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8) are used which say that one day is as a thousand with God and a thousand as one day. But this is a way to speak about God’s patience not how He calculates time. Also, why doesn’t anyone argue the second half of the statement with “a thousand years as one day” making each of the seven “days” worth 0.001 days? “God’s” days are defined by God in Genesis one. Yes, His relationship to time is different than ours, but He names light/darkness as Day/Night and calls it a day. That “day” is the same standard of time when God sets the sun and stars to measure the standard on Thursday.

Day one includes God’s creation of time. “In the beginning” only makes sense in a time realm. Day one only makes sense with more to follow.

I’ll have more to say in coming messages about the Hebrew word for “day,” yom. Yet it was so refreshing to read Calvin’s commentary on Genesis. He doesn’t even mention what amount of time “day” refers to because there wasn’t any doubt.

The first day of the first week was defined by the same cycle of light and darkness that we experience right now. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Day one is done and God has created, enjoyed, and named Night and Day in providing measurement of time.

The Second Day (Monday) (verses 6-8)

As God continued to form the earth, on day two He created an atmosphere in which inhabitants could live and breath.

We know from verse 2 that there was water, a lot of water. Now God puts some of that water above and leaves some of that water below, leaving an “expanse” in between that God called “Heaven.”

And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. The waters that were above were some sort of water canopy above the troposphere (the lowest region of the atmosphere, extending four to six miles).

Unlike what we know about other planets, the earth’s atmosphere is uniquely suited for man. Henry Morris suggests that this was probably a water vapor canopy, and points out that:

• Water vapor has the ability to transmit incoming solar radiation and to retain radiation reflected from the earth’s surface, serving as a global greenhouse of sorts, maintaining an essentially uniform and pleasurable temperature all over the earth (ready for the sun on day four).
• With nearly uniform temperatures, great air-mass movements would be hindered and windstorms would be unknown.
• With no global wind circulation, the hydrologic cycle would have been non-existent, at least as we see it today.
• The combination of warm temperature and adequate moisture everywhere would be conducive to lush vegetation all over the world with no barren deserts or ice caps.
• These waters would provide the reservoir from which God would send the great flood.

This was apparently a big deal. Not only do we find the phrase, And it was so, highlighting the reality of accomplishment, but also this is the only work done on day two. Compared to day three that gets dry land and vegetation, or day four that gets the sun and moon and stars, or the last two days with living creatures, day two may seem small in comparison.

But consider the energy it would take to lift water into the sky, and hold it there. According to the United States Geological Survey website there are 17.38 million gallons in one-inch deep water over a square mile. The entire earth is roughly 197 million square miles (currently 57 million square miles of land and the remaining 140 of water). So that would be over three billion gallons of water in that one inch covering the earth. Then there are approximately eight pounds in a gallon, multiplied by over three billion, would equal over twenty-seven billion pounds in just one inch of water covering the planet.