“And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
And God saw that the light was good… As was seen in the previous three verses, God is creator. As is seen throughout the rest of Scripture, God is also good (Psalm 100:5). Therefore, when God creates, he creates good, and this light is good. Primarily, it is good because it reveals God himself. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God (John 3:21).
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night… God’s control is not limited to light. With ultimate power, he names light Day and darkness Night. God uses seasons of “night and darkness” for his purposes, and indeed, saves his people out of darkness (John 1:5). Just as day and night cycle through in nature, so the same thing happens in our lives. Nicodemus came “by night” to learn of his need to be born again (John 3:2). David addresses the issue in his songs unto the Lord. “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). And again, “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you” (Psalm 139:11, 12).
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day… Why did God reveal the first day as “evening and morning” rather than Day and Night? Which comes first, the morning or the evening? As has always been the case with God’s Word to his people, the desire is salvation revelation. Many thousands of years later, even as the world had gone dark, as hope for God’s people began to fade…
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth...”