‘And God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light.'
This is God's first ‘action'. Here was a ‘big bang' indeed. The writer is brief and to the point. God speaks and light is. That which was without form and empty now experiences that which makes it spring into positive existence. That which was permanently lacking light, now receives light. And as light (electro-magnetic waves) is the basic essential of the universe we recognise that it is also necessary in the bringing into usefulness of earth. It is separate from Him and yet provided and sustained by His word. Let Him say, ‘Let light not be' and the universe would collapse into itself. So by His word God produces positive out of negative.
From our perspective we know that when God spoke He acted through His Word, Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3), Who created all things and upholds the universe through His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3). It is through His sustaining that the universe continues as an inhabitable cosmos.
It is significant that what is positive in the world is seen as not initially there in what was created, but produced from it by His word, a reminder that the whole universe and the whole of life on earth depends upon His continual sustenance (Colossians 1:17). It will be noted that pantheism, which believes that everything is part of God, is excluded by all this. His work of creation was separate from Himself, although He remained intimately connected with it. He acted on it from ‘outside' and it was by His word of command that the means of it being held together came into being.
“And God said.” This phrase introduces each phase in God's creative activity. It is the creative word indicating God's transcendence and demonstrating that all is done in accordance with His will and command and through His power. Not for this writer a god who interplays with others in a complicated scenario. God but speaks and His will is accomplished. It is God's world and only He has a say in it. This stresses that all that takes place results from God's word. We may investigate a hundred scientific hypotheses, but behind the outworking of them all we hear the words, ‘God said'.
Eight actions will now be detailed in a ‘six day' framework. The making of light and darkness; of water below and above the atmosphere and therefore of the atmosphere itself; of land and sea; and then of plant life. Then sun, moon and stars to control light and darkness; fish and birds to inhabit water and atmosphere; animals to inhabit land and sea and to partake of the plant life; and then finally man. The point being made is that in each case God made provision for what was to come, and that that provision is from Him. We may complicate the process by our theories, we cannot evade the fact. Note the parallels between first and fourth, second and fifth, and third and sixth, while at the same time there is continual progression. Note also that the eight resultants are fitted into a six period (yom) framework. It was necessary for all to be depicted as within the divine ‘seven' in order to bring out its perfection. To ancient man anything else was unthinkable. Even the seven spoke of God.