GOD’S WORK OF RESTORATION AND FURTHER CREATION FOR THE PRODUCING OF LIFE
Verse 3 says, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Light comes in to produce life. Where darkness is, there is death. Where light is, there is life. In Genesis 1 light came in mainly for life, not for creation. Genesis 1 is not mainly a record of creation but a record of life. Verse 4 says, “And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” The separation of the light from the darkness is for producing life. When we were saved, the divine light came into us and that light did a separating or dividing work. The things of light were separated from the things of darkness. Light comes in for life, and this light divides or separates the positive things from the negative things. Verse 5 says, “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Today we reckon our days from the morning until the evening, but the Bible reckons a day from the evening until the morning. The biblical way is better than the human way. The human way goes down from morning to evening, but the biblical way goes up from evening to morning. There was the evening, but now there is the morning. There was darkness, but now there is light. There was death, but now there is life.
Verses 6-8 record what happened on the second day: “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven.” The word “firmament” can also be translated “expanse.” An expanse is a space full of air separating the waters beneath from the waters above for the producing of life. First, the light was separated from the darkness, and then the air separated the waters under from the waters above. Formerly, the waters under and the waters above were one, but the air came in to separate these waters, not for creation but for producing life.
On the third day, there was a third step of separation. All the waters were gathered together into one place and the dry land appeared (v. 9). All the waters had to be gathered together so that the land might come out of the death waters. The first step of separation was to separate light from darkness. The second step was to separate the waters under the expanse from the waters above the expanse. Then the third step was to separate the land from the waters under the expanse. Light, air, and land are for the producing of life. After these three steps of separation, different forms of life came out of the land. Verse 11 mentions grass, herbs, and trees. In the vegetable life, grass is the lowest form, and the trees are the highest. The grass, the herbs, and the trees are different kinds of plant or vegetable life, the life without consciousness.
There was the need of some higher life with consciousness. As a result, the higher light was needed. Without the higher light, there cannot be the higher life. Thus, on the fourth day the light became more solid, more substantial. There were two great lights: the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night (v. 16). In addition to these two great lights, there are the stars. On the fourth day, the light became intensified. This fourth day light is for the higher life.
On the fifth day, there was the higher life with consciousness—the animal life in the death waters and the life that could fly in the air (vv. 20-21). The life that is able to move in the air is a transcendent life and is higher than the life in the death waters.
On the sixth day, the earth brought forth all the living creatures. These creatures are mainly of three categories: the cattle, the creeping things, and the beasts (1:24). On the sixth day, God made the highest life forms among the animal life. Also on the sixth day, there was the highest life, the human life. First there was the plant life, then the animal life, and finally the human life. The human life not only possesses consciousness but also possesses the image of God, the likeness of God, and is entrusted with the authority of God (Gen. 1:26). The highest created life is the human life. Eventually, in Genesis 2 the highest life is revealed, and that life is the divine life (v. 9).
In God’s restoration and further creation in the universe, everything that God called into being was declared to be “good.” On the first day, “God saw the light, that it was good” (Gen. 1:4). On the third day, the dry land appeared and out from the dry land came the plant life. God also said that this was good. The land coming out of the death waters was a type of Christ in resurrection. Just as the land appeared on the third day, Christ was resurrected from the death waters on the third day, and all the aspects of life came out of this resurrected Christ. On the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars became visible, and God saw that this was good. On the fifth day, the animal life came into being. God not only said that this was good, but He also blessed the animals that they might be fruitful and multiply. Eventually in the last verse of Genesis 1, “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” With all the other created items, God only saw that they were good. By the end of Genesis 1, God said “very good” because man was there. Man is a very good item in God’s creation because man is the center of God’s creation. God said “very good” because by that time He had a man to fulfill His purpose by life and in life.
(The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
