THE GOD THAT DIVIDES
Man, his world, and the entire universe owe their existence to the wisdom and power of God (Genesis 1:1). As we read through the first chapter of Genesis, the scriptures define that what God created was good. Beginning on day one all the way through day six, each thing created had a purpose. It was a purpose designed by God Himself. The seventh day, God rested, not from being tired but to show to man the need to cease from labor. Each of the seven days then gives us insight to God and the planet on which we live. No other star or planet in the entire universe has such interest as God displayed on earth. On day one, we find that God spoke light into existence (Genesis 1:3). Then, the mind of God is revealed in that God divided the light from the darkness (verse 4). The light and the darkness, therefore, served the purpose of God. By means of dividing, God made a difference between day and night. Contrary to the foolish thinking of man trying to make this event be eons of time, God showed us the purpose as well as the length; the evening and the morning were the first day. The division, therefore, made a difference, but it also framed a time period. It was not eons of time but time as we mark it, an evening and a morning, day and night.
God put lights in the great expanse of the heavens (verse 14). The purpose of the lights was to divide the day from the night. At this time, on day four, God created the sun and the moon. The sun rules the day while the moon rules the night. In simple language, Moses, through inspiration, writes that God also made the stars. Where would our world be today if there was no division by God and hence no day and no night? Because of the economy of the world, man now finds himself working both day and night. God, by dividing the day from the night, made it possible for man to mark time and also to evaluate what a man does with that time.
Is life about just working? Why is it that as a general rule man rests better in the darkness of night than in the light of day? If one returns to the creation of the world and the creation of man on day six, we would not see the lights of cities as we do now. Adam and Eve would have understood on day six that as night was all around them, their activities would have been changed. God, as part of His creative work in that first week, planted a garden (Genesis 2:8). When God created man on day six, he placed the man in the garden and gave him the responsibility of dressing it and keeping it (verse 15). This task of “dressing and keeping” would have had to have been done in the portion of the day that is called "day." Adam and Eve would have understood, by the division which God had made, that the darkness signaled a different activity from work.
We would not wish for anyone to arrive at a wrong conclusion at this point. It is not wrong for man to work a night shift at some plant or some store. The message is that man needs to learn that work at some point must cease and other things are to be done. God, by dividing the day from the night, teaches us great lessons about priorities. Work is both good and profitable. It enables a man to provide for his family. When he works, he honors God by using what he gains from work to give back to God and to provide for his family. The person who hoards what he makes with no thought of God fails to understand the lessons of priority, which God taught us beginning with day one.
Why does a man work? It is the relationship, which exists with things around him. Perhaps it is before a man gets married. He works to provide for himself. In time, if marriage comes, he works to provide for a family. The growth of a man’s love for his wife and the wife for her husband is in harmony with the will of God. Such harmony should cause individuals to expand their caring for others. A man, therefore, works because of all of these relationships, which come into existence.
The night has different sounds and movements. It is not a thing to be feared but respected. It teaches us about God and His intent for us. Indeed, it was “good."