Genesis 1:5-10

2006.Mar.28 20:26

In which God names (and makes) stuff

Read Genesis 1:5-10 | Full Chapter

In Genesis 1:5, God names something for the first time recorded. He calls the light (that is the separated from darkness light) “day”. God is actively creating language as well as “stuff”. In particular, he is creating a vocabulary, introducing those things which he wants us, humans, to identify distinctly. He then calls darkness, “night”, and in verse 7 distinguishes between “earth” and “sea”. As with separating light and darkness, God is using words to train us to think in distinctions, in boundaries.

Okay, that’s not where I thought I was going with this. But it makes sense.
Then, the question is why this would be so important to him as to occupy a fair part of the creation story–or perhaps, so important to those who wrote it–begging around twenty questions; since I choose to believe God could speak even through us crazy humans, I’m not going to indulge them at the moment. It seems, he is building up to the distinction between the trees, and between righteousness and sin.

It is important that these distinctions relate to where it is easiest for humans to thrive. Humans are better suited to land than water, to light than darkness. Both the sea and darkness impede our natural abilities, the former through a less suitable environment, the latter through loss of sight. While we can survive in these situations, trying to act out normal tasks is draining and difficult. On the other hand, night is when we tend to get rest. The heavens, likewise a domain ill-suited for humans, is one which we equate with God, oddly enough. Again, it is distinguished from the earth, but it also has its own set of water–clouds, I assume–again, distinct.

So, even the less hospitable of the pairs provide good things. So, what am I saying here? I have no idea. Perhaps because the tree of knowledge does contain something good: knowledge (2 Peter 1:6, tells us to grow in knowledge among other things). However, it is also destructive. It is that choice between living with something that brings both bad and good, versus living only in good. Could any of us really have chosen the latter? Would it have been better had we not eaten of the forbidden fruit. Well, now, that is a complicated question.

None of the above makes much sense, does it? Oh, well, these are my rambling thoughts.