THE HIGHER LIGHT FOR THE HIGHER LIFE
Genesis 1 reveals that the higher light always comes in for the higher life. On the first day, God said, “Let there be light.” Then on the fourth day, there was the intensified light. Finally, on the seventh day, there was the biggest light, God Himself. The starting light was for the unconscious life, the bigger light was for the conscious life, and the biggest light was for the divine life. Genesis 1 is such a record of life.
FOUR STEPS OF SEPARATION
We have also pointed out that there were four steps of separation in Genesis 1: the light was separated from the darkness, the waters under the expanse were separated from the waters above the expanse, the land was separated from the death waters, and on the fourth day the day was separated from the night. Before the fourth day, the days were not so solid. On the fourth day, God made the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. Then the day was solidly separated from the night.
The human life came in after the fourth day, after all the four steps of separation. After these steps of separation were completed, God was able to make man according to His image and likeness. The human life, which has the image and likeness of God, is the highest created life. God created man after His likeness. All the other lives are after their kind. The human life, however, is not after the human kind, but after God’s kind.
GOD’S FURTHER CREATION ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF LIFE
God created all things according to the order of life. The plant life, the animal life, the human life, and the divine life are the four levels of life in Genesis 1 and 2. These levels of life are mentioned in order from the lowest to the highest. The different types of plant life and animal life are also mentioned according to degree, from the lowest to the highest. The lowest level in the plant life is the grass. Then there are the herbs and the trees. In the animal life first there are the fish and then there are the fowl, the birds. The human life is a wonderful life because this life resembles God. This is the God-like life, the life after God’s kind, with God’s image, with God’s likeness, and committed and entrusted with the divine authority to become God’s representative on this earth. The human life is the highest among all the created lives. It is only lower than the uncreated life, the divine life.
GOD’S INTENTION
After such a study, we can realize that God’s intention in Genesis 1 was to show us that His heart’s desire is in the matter of life. Eventually, in Genesis 2 the tree of life is presented to the created man. The record of Genesis 1 and 2 leads us to this one point of life. God’s intention is that man would take Him in as the divine life. The record of God’s creation is so simple because God did not mainly pay attention to all the items and aspects of His creation. That was not God’s intention. God focuses on one thing—the matter of life. God’s intention from the very beginning was for man to receive Him as the divine life in order that man might become God’s expression in this universe.
(The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
