Summary: And God said "Let there be light" and there was light. He is the communicating God-His first order of Creation is light, Light, and all creation obeys His command. He seeks those today who reflect His glory and communicate His goodness.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

And God Said

1. He Spoke

He speaks.

This is unique. This is just one of the reasons God and only the Creator God, deserves all glory honor and praise.

The psalmist understood this.

1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

2 Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?”

3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.

4 But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see;

6 they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;

7 they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. Psalm 115

God is the communicating God. Those who worship Him become like Him.

God Speaks to us through His Spirit.

Adam was just mud until God formed him from the dirt, and breathed into him the breath of life.

Noah was a nobody; nobody would have heard of except God spoke to him and told him to build a boat.

Abraham was a pagan, a worshipper of idols, a tradesman, until God spoke to him and told him to move from Ur of the Chaldeans, and he obeyed the voice that spoke. When God spoke to Abram and told Abram He would give him a son in his old age, through Sarai, who was, also, 90 years old, He changed their names to Abraham and Sarah-in each case He added breath, Ruach, Spirit to their names.

God’s spirit came on Bezalel and he taught him how to create great works of art for the temple.

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14

He Speaks to us through His Commandments.

As New Testament believers we tend to underplay the importance of God’s commandments. Yet Jesus said

“15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command . . . . 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. . . 23 “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. . .”

Whether it is the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule (do to others as you would have them do to you) or the Law of Love (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself) when we have a decision to make and are not sure what God wants us to do, His commandments speak of His nature and guide us in what we should do.

He Speaks to us through His Word.

Hundreds of times the Bible says “the Word of the Lord came to . . .” He spoke to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua.

He spoke to Samuel and called him as a child to be His prophet. It was the Word of the Lord that made Samuel a prophet, and every prophet who came after him:

“And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:9-12

We often look to nature, expecting God to speak to us through it (after all, “this is my Father’s world”). Yet too often nature seems to obscure His voice. As C S Lewis argued in Mere Christianity, the brutality of nature, red in tooth and claw, seems to reflect a nature contrary to that of the Creator described in the Bible. We also see fractures in the image of god in humanity’s inhumanity as reflected today in Iraq, and Syria, in Gaza and Israel, in North Korea, and in Jammu Kashmir.

Yet in His Word, we see Him.

Finally, He speaks to us through His Son.

With such majestic words the writer of Hebrews describes Jesus

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” Hebrews 1:1-2

He is the communicating God

Those who worship Him become like Him.

2. “Let there be light . . .”

The First Order of Creation is Light

God creates light, a reflection of His glory.

The Light of God cannot be extinguished. As Paul said

God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:15-16

Light is life (John 1:4) . . . ‘and the darkness has not overcome it” . . .

As C S Lewis said

“Man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” –C S Lewis

The Light of Eternal Life (Psalm 27:1)

Think about the nature of light-when it travels it moves in waves and has no mass; its speed is the upper limit of acceleration in the universe, and for light, as it travels, time stops.

When light interacts with matter and stops traveling it has mass, and releases energy. This energy drives ALL LIFE ON EARTH.

This is the first order of creation because it indicates the End or Purpose of all creation-light and life. We’ll talk more about that next time in The God of Genesis Part 4.

3. “and there was light”

Creation Leaps into Existence at the Word of the Lord.

All of creation-including this first order of creation-leaps to obey His voice.

Light, water, plants, birds, fish, the seas, the dry land, the sun, moon and stars-all obey the voice of God.

The first in creation to oppose His word was the serpent- “You shall not surely die”

The second was Eve, who listened to the serpent rather than the word of God, and was deceived as a result.

The third was Adam. He, knowing he was disobeying God’s word, directly defied and disobeyed .

Humans led the universe in disobedience to God, in setting the standard for disobedience, and for NOT fulfilling the calling for which God made us.

A return to obedience is seen in Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses Joshua, and David (etc.). Yet none of them serves as a perfect example of obedience to God.

The prime example of obedience is Jesus.

He is the new Adam.

Adam had the chance to follow the course of creation, to leap in obedience to God’s commands, but he failed.

Jesus, the second Adam, said over and over that He came to do the will of the One who sent him. He lept in obedience, the Light of the World. He gave humanity a new start-a way to re-enter the world of obedience to God.

Perhaps the line most frequently attributed to Dwight L. Moody . . . is the famous quotation: “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”

In fact, Moody did not originate the line. Henry Varley, a British revivalist who had befriended the young American in Dublin, recalled [a conversation]

“Do you remember your words?” he said.

I replied, “ . . . I do not recall any special utterance.”

“Don’t you remember saying, ‘Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him?’ ”

“Not the actual sentence,” I replied.

“Ah,” said Mr. Moody, “those were the words sent to my soul, through you, from the Living God. As I crossed the wide Atlantic, the boards of the deck of the vessel were engraved with them, and when I reached Chicago, the very paving stones seemed marked with ‘Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.’ Under the power of those words I have come back to England, and I felt that I must not let more time pass until I let you know how God had used your words to my inmost soul.”-Christianity Today/Christian History magazine.

The first church was a small congregation of about 120 people who met in an upper room, waiting for God’s Spirit, seeking to live in complete obedience to His Word.

Each generation God requires the witness of a community that is willing to heed this call to obedience.

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak at an engagement. At the end of my address I said “the world has yet to see what God will do with a couple fully consecrated to Him. Will you be that couple?”

And today, I believe, we have a choice to make. Will you be that man or woman? Will yours be that family? Will we be that campus where God gives testimony through our community to His creative power and glory as we leap to obedience to his Word? Will we be that church?

He is the communicating God. Those who worship Him become like Him.

His first order of creation is Light-light is life, and eternal life for those who believe

At the beginning all of creation lept in obedience to His word. He seeks those who will obey Him today and, thereby, communicate His word and will to the world.