1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
READ THE WHOLE CHAPTER →The Bible opens in the dark. “Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep.” No shape. No order. No life. Just darkness and water. If you were standing there, you would not have seen much to hope in.
But you would have missed something. “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” God was already there. Before anything was made right, before there was even a sunrise, His Spirit was present over the chaos. That is worth remembering when your life feels formless and dark. The darkness is not proof that God is absent.
Then God speaks. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” No struggle. No strain. He speaks and it happens. The first thing God creates is light, and He does it with a word. Then He looks at it and calls it good. He separates the light from the darkness. He names them, day and night.
Notice the order Genesis uses. “And there was evening, and there was morning.” The Hebrew day in this chapter is counted from evening to morning. Darkness comes first, and then light. I do not want to build a whole theology on that pattern, but it is a picture worth sitting with. In God’s world, the night does not get the last word. Morning comes.
Now jump ahead a few thousand years. The apostle Paul looks back at this very scene and sees something new in it. He writes, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Paul is saying the same God who spoke light into creation speaks light into a human heart. Salvation is a creation miracle.
Think about what that means. Before Christ, your heart was a lot like Genesis 1:2. Dark. Empty. Without form. You could not fix it yourself any more than the deep could light itself up. But God spoke. Through the gospel, He shined into you. You saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus, crucified and risen, and you believed. That was not you pulling yourself together. That was God saying, Let there be light.
Paul says it again in the same letter: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” Every believer is a walking Genesis 1. Something that was dark has been made bright by the word of God.
So what do you do with this on a Tuesday morning? First, if you are in a dark season, remember that God’s Spirit hovers over chaos. He is not intimidated by your mess. Second, keep coming back to His Word, because that is still how He brings light. Third, if you do not know Christ yet, you can ask Him to do for you what He did on the first day. He still speaks light into darkness.
Open the blinds this morning and watch the light come in. Let it remind you of who made it, and of the Light who came into the world to save sinners. “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
ʼôwr is the ordinary Hebrew word for light, used here for the first thing God speaks into being. It can refer to daylight, a light source, or, in poetry, to life and joy. In Genesis 1 it is simply light, created by God’s word before the sun and moon appear on the fourth day.
OPEN H216 IN THE DICTIONARY →God of creation, You spoke light into the dark at the very beginning, and You have spoken light into my heart through Jesus. Thank You that You were present over the chaos before anything was made right. Where my life still feels formless and dark, shine again. Let me see Your glory in the face of Jesus Christ today. Keep me close to Your Word, where Your light still comes. Make me a person who carries that light to others. In Jesus' name, amen.
Watch the sunrise or the first light through a window today, and use that moment to thank God by name for one dark place He has brought light into.
- Where in your life does it feel like the earth was formless and void right now?
- How does Paul’s use of Genesis 1 in 2 Corinthians 4:6 change the way you think about your own salvation?
- Who in your life is still in the dark, and how could you point them to the light of Christ?