Our Creator is one of order and purpose. In the six days of Creation in Genesis 1, God sets up His system of order by ‘separation’. Shaping the world to be inhabited was not a few random acts, but rather an orderly process because God is not the author of chaos, confusion or disarray.
Day 1 – Separation of Light and Darkness
The ‘light’ in Genesis 1:3 to 1:5 seems to be all the same kind of light. This is the light emanating from the face of God (His glory). The Hebrew word is pronounced ‘ore’. Genesis 1:14 introduces a different flavor of the word light, which is a ‘luminary’… in other words, the sun, moon, planets and stars. It is a compound word, with the root word containing ‘ore’. It is pronounced ‘maw-ore’. It seems that the words are related, but distinct. It might be something in English like the words ‘father’ and ‘grandfather’. Father and grandfather are distinct, however you see the relationship with the root word father. Both forms of the word ‘light’ are all throughout the Bible. Which form being used is often easily determined by the immediate context.
‘Darkness’ is defined as that which is concealed. In the dark, it is hard to see due to the lack of light. The term darkness occurs in the Bible many times, under two categories:
1). Physical darkness. Literally, difficult or impossible to see. Think of nighttime and the lack of daylight… or even physical blindness.
2). Spiritual darkness. The unwillingness and even inability to understand spiritual things.
God separated the light from the darkness! He set them distinct from each other in a divine act demonstrating His desire for order. It seems that it is physical light being separated from physical darkness (see Genesis 1:31).
Day 2 – Separation of Water from Water
This is the waters above, quite probably at vapor canopy, divided from the waters on the earth (the oceans, rivers, seas, ponds, etc).
Day 3 – Separation of Dry Land and Water
God used the dry ground for the all sorts of vegetation and fruit trees which would reproduce themselves ‘after their kind’. After their kind means that apple trees will produce apples, which have seeds that will then produce other apple trees. A pine cone has seeds that will reproduce pine trees. An orange tree will never produce a watermelon, banana or blueberry.
This is the first occurrence of the phrase, “… and God saw that it was good”, which will be used throughout the rest of chapter 1. “Good” is another one of those words that have various nuances in the original language of Hebrew.
Good in this context means, “fertile and fruitful soil, capable of producing excellent vegetation”.
Day 4 – Separation of Day and Night
God created the sun, moon, planets and stars. The purpose was to use them for marking off seasons, days and years (v.14). Good in this verse is “serviceable, sufficient and pleasing”. The sun, for instance, makes our planet the exact right temperature range to sustain life. It promotes the growth of plants. Solar power has been harnessed and used as a source of energy. And… a sunny summer day is always pleasing to us!
Day 5 – Separation of Creatures Above and Below
God made creatures intended to fly above in the sky. He also made the water-bound creatures that live in the oceans, seas and rivers. After their kind: sparrows produce sparrows; sharks produce sharks.
Good in this verse is hard to determine. Based on how the other ‘goods’ are used, it could be similar to Day 3, “capable of producing; fruitful”; or even like the animals created on Day 6.
Day 6 – Separation of Animals and Mankind
God created animals “after their kind”. Exactly the same terminology as the plants reproducing after their kind. Lions produce lions. Beetles produce beetles, etc. God saw that the beasts of the earth were “good” (v.25). That is, they were fat. They were healthy and beautiful.
Also on Day 6, God created man in His image (v. 26-27). God never says he created man “after his kind”. And that is because every man and woman is created “after God’s kind”, that is, in His image!
In verse 31, God beheld all that he had made and determined that it was “very good”. Good here means that it was excellent. There was nothing to improve upon!
What is the Lesson For Us In God’s System of Separation
There are at least two object lesson from this system of separation:
1). It is demonstrating the importance of thinking in terms of black and white. Learning to separate truth and error. Ability to distinguish right from wrong. Yes and no. Choosing the good over the bad, righteousness above evil.
2). But maybe more importantly, it teaches us to look for other “separations” in God’s Word. We see that there is a separation between what is holy and unholy, clean and unclean, saved and unsaved!
In Leviticus 10:10, the Lord tells Aaron not to drink wine or strong drinks at the tent of meeting: “… so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane; and between the unclean and the clean” (see also Leviticus 11:47). Similarly, Leviticus 20:26 tells us, “Thus you are to be holy to me, for I am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine”.
The Bible clearly tells us that our sins have separated us from God! Isaiah 59:2, states it as plainly as possibly, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear”. This is a serious problem with only one remedy:
Ephesians 2:12-19, states that the blood of Jesus was necessary in removing the wall of separation between us and God that was caused by our sin:
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
15 by abolishing in His flesh the hostility, which is the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two one new person, in this way establishing peace;
16 and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near;
18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.
Establish my footsteps in Your Word ~ Psalm 119:133 