A Look at Genesis 1:1-3 Let there be Light

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Let's see this carefully

Gen 1:14  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.
Gen 1:17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it was] good.
Gen 1:19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Light was created twice?
No!
Light wasn't created until vs14!

Same way water (the sea, oceans) wasn't created until v10, but it was mentioned in "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." v2

The Light in v2-3 is the Light of the gospel of Christ




Compare this with 2Cor 4
2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness... Let there be light..

...hath shined in our hearts [and there was light in our hearts]

...to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
[so this "light" is nothing but the knowledge of the glory of God]...

...in the FACE of Jesus Christ
Remember, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the FACE of the waters"


So Moses was playing with symbolism there
God's Spirit moved upon the FACE of the waters and commanded light to shine unto hearts

"waters" in its plural form is often used to symbolise the dispersed-abroad nature of the knowledge of God by preaching

Isa 11:9  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

So Paul explained that
"darkness upon the face of the deep" ==> "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath BLINDED the minds of them which believe not"

So where did the light shine on?
Hearts

Where was the darkness?
on minds

Genesis 1:1-3 summarized
QED

My Thoughts

It appears Genesis and maybe the entire book of Moses lack that "organisational structure" in the way the world would want it. It is full of 'digressions'. I'll explain what I mean.

One would think "In the beginning" means he wants to begin to talk about creation, but we just saw now that he is instead talking about something else from v2 to at least v3. He talked about waters twice, light twice, even creation of man in ch1 and also ch2.

However, when you understand the purpose of that book you're carrying, you'll come to know they are not 'digressions'. In fact, it is those 'digressions' that form the main theme. The purpose of Moses was not to give the christian religion what should be their own view of creation. It is not to tell us the 'true account' different from other world religions. These are ok anyway. Moses' purpose of writing Genesis was to preach the gospel and testify about Christ. Therefore, no matter how long his story is, no matter the stories of war he would mention, he must keep 'digressing' to point to Christ. Actually, it is the story of creation, of wars, of disasters, of sacrificings and ceremonies etc, that are the 'digressions' here because if it must be given by the inspiration of God, then it must be able to make one wise unto salvation thru faith which is in CHRIST.


So, to read Genesis 1, be aware of the jumps and digressions and repetitions. For instance, Gen 1 is better read like this:

When God created heaven and earth, there were people He shone the light of the knowledge of Christ to. While some received this light in their hearts, others did not because it was 'hid' by the god of this world through unbelief. God spoke well of His Light, and divided, separated, made it clear that it's different from darkness... and then Moses went back to the sequence of how things were created on the first, second, third...

Thank you for reading