Forming the Light
The Hebrew Scriptures often use the word יָצַר yatsar, translated form, to describe the process of making an artistic work. A potter takes clay and forms it into a vessel. There must be raw material or some kind of resource available before an artist can form anything. In Genesis 2:7, God formed the man from the dust of the ground. The man was the artistic work God formed using dust of the ground as raw material. Chemical analysis of human remains agrees with the chemical analysis of the dust of the ground. But that dust came from the ashes of burned-out stars. We are made from stardust. Astronomers have been saying this recently, but the Bible said we are made from dust thousands of years ago.
Let’s go back much earlier than the formation of the first man, to the very beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. At the beginning nothing was visible, because everything was dark. Light was the first visible thing in all creation. The light then made other things visible. According to Isaiah, God must have formed the light from some resource He had created earlier. But what is the resource He used in forming light?
Light Shining out of Darkness
The apostle Paul was certainly aware of Isaiah’s meditation on the creation narrative. Paul meditated on the darkness of Genesis 1:2 and the light of Genesis 1:3. He wrote to the church he founded in Corinth: God said, “Let light shine out of darkness!” (II Corinthians 4:6). Paul quotes God directly. Moses also quotes God directly in Genesis 1:3, but he has God saying, “Let there be light!” According to Moses, there was light because God commanded it to be. Paul agrees with that, but he provides additional information. Moses does not name the source of the light, but Paul fills in the details. According to Paul, God’s command made the light shine, but He also commanded darkness to be the source of the light.
How can darkness be a source of light? Only in the last hundred years or so have we learned the answer. Invisible, that is, dark, energetic rays can collide and produce light and particles at the same time. We now understand how it is possible that at the beginning light shone out of darkness. At that time the first morning began.
Let’s go back much earlier than the formation of the first man, to the very beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. At the beginning nothing was visible, because everything was dark. Light was the first visible thing in all creation. The light then made other things visible. According to Isaiah, God must have formed the light from some resource He had created earlier. But what is the resource He used in forming light?
Light Shining out of Darkness
The apostle Paul was certainly aware of Isaiah’s meditation on the creation narrative. Paul meditated on the darkness of Genesis 1:2 and the light of Genesis 1:3. He wrote to the church he founded in Corinth: God said, “Let light shine out of darkness!” (II Corinthians 4:6). Paul quotes God directly. Moses also quotes God directly in Genesis 1:3, but he has God saying, “Let there be light!” According to Moses, there was light because God commanded it to be. Paul agrees with that, but he provides additional information. Moses does not name the source of the light, but Paul fills in the details. According to Paul, God’s command made the light shine, but He also commanded darkness to be the source of the light.
How can darkness be a source of light? Only in the last hundred years or so have we learned the answer. Invisible, that is, dark, energetic rays can collide and produce light and particles at the same time. We now understand how it is possible that at the beginning light shone out of darkness. At that time the first morning began.