Genesis 1:4 - Light Separated from Darkness
Genesis 1:4 - And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness
We know from Genesis 1:3 that God had Jesus remove any hindrance to neutralizing the darkness over the deep. We also know that Jesus did it, and the light in the sky began to grow. The scripture gives no indication how long the process took, though scientifically we know it could have been over a billion years. What we do know is that the process, the “letting” of light, had begun, and at some point God saw the light, and He saw that it was good.
Also, God separated the light from the darkness. This is interesting, apparently God wasn’t replacing all of the darkness, and the light was being separated from whatever darkness remained. What is the nature of this separation? Thankfully, the scriptures provide an answer… twice in fact:
When He drew a circle on the face of the deep - Proverbs 8:27b
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? … Or who stretched the line on it? - Job 38:4a, 5b
The separation between light and darkness is a line, stretched on the earth’s foundation, drawn on the face of the deep. Knowing that the darkness originally referred to was the dark sky, and that now half the sky would be light, it is easy to identify the circle God drew. Viewed from space, it is the line separating light half of the earth from the dark. Viewed from a position hovering over the deep, but directly beneath the sun, the line would essentially be the complete horizon.*
Having established the existence of a worldwide ocean 3.9 billion years ago (Ga), the time in history when Jesus “let” there be light, we can see that Proverbs 8:27b is quite accurate, saying that the circle was drawn on the deep, saying nothing of any land.
But then what of Job 38’s use of the word “foundation”? Well, in a literary sense, the earth’s “foundation” would seem analogous to a building’s foundation, that is, the thing the earth was built upon. Realizing however that the earth doesn’t really sit upon anything (a point which God makes in Job 38:6), we should then see “foundation” as a reference to what God “built on” in the sense of what He added to or started with, relative to His first creative pronouncement… and that is the an earth covered with an ancient ocean, as the mainstream has established scientifically, and as Proverbs 8:27 accurately records.
In summary, “God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”
NOTE: *If you are unsure or onconvinced of whether the alititude necessary for the horizon to completely overlay the line could really be considered “hovering”, then rest assured in the following:
- At mid-day, the hoverer would be in the light, and completely separated from the dark part of the sky, which is all Genesis 1:4 actually requires.
- The line was drawn/stretched around the deep, regardless of its visibility to someone hovering, which is all Job and Proverbs actually require.
- Jesus drew the line upon the deep, even if He couldn’t see the entire line at once.
My reason for even suggesting they’re the same line is more an aid to help visualize the line between night and day as a circle around the earth.