In the previous episodes, I have been trying to show that we must read Genesis as story telling us why our universe and we humans exist because it is was written to give meaning to our existence.

If we remove ourselves from interpreting it as a timeline of events describing the creation process, it becomes possible to think about the text with fresh eyes. To demonstrate this, I want to look at day one and the creation of light. Here I will follow the Apostle John’s way of reading Genesis.

Notice John says that there was a spoken Word as God said, “let there be light.” The Word was Jesus, and He is life, and this life was the light of men. That demonstrates that John is using Genesis as a metaphor. Something does not have to be read literally to be truthful. Jesus told many parables that were not to be taken literally except for the truth they taught.

We have to pay attention to a couple of cues that will tell us how to read these verses. God creates light and then divides it from the darkness, and he names the two divisions day and night. If we are to be literal, we know that day is when the sun is up and night is when it is hidden. If you don’t read it this way, one has to realize they are making up a concept that does not have reality attached to it.

Why would God turn it off the light if it was a vacuum? Why allow darkness? That is very hard to comprehend! The people Moses wrote this to would have no concept of the earth rotating around the sun, which we didn’t figure out until thousands of years later. They would only know that the sun comes up and then disappears.

We also have to think in terms of what darkness means. Today we have lights everywhere, but for the ancient people, light wasn’t with them constantly. If you have ever been away from any light and there was no moon, you realize how dark it can be. You will also recognize that it is terrifying because you have no idea what is around you. You could trip over a rock or fall off a cliff, walk into a tree, or a dangerous animal. Darkness is chaos; it is disorder. Light then is the exact opposite. It is beauty and order.

I know that many have struggled with what this light could be because they believe the sun was not created until day four. We will deal with this in more detail later. However, I will say this now. It does not say the heavenly bodies were created on day four because the word bara was not used. Instead, what we are reading on day four is God telling us He made these celestial bodies for our timekeepers.

As our knowledge of the heaven/sky has increased, this truth has not been found faulty but is become more defined. We define our universe by light, and when astrophysicists describe the size of the universe, it is with lightyears, and light is what defines our space and time dimensions.

However, the genius in Genesis is that it talks about Jesus long before He stepped foot on the earth. Besides what we have read in John, we have other references to Jesus and the light that brings order into our world.