And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Ver. 5. And God called the light day, &c.] He taught men to call them so; day ירם, from the noise and hurry; night לילה, from the yelling of wild beasts. Darkness he created not, but only by accident; and yet not that, without some notable use. Much less that darkness of affliction which he is said to "create". Isa 45:7 "Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness," Psa 112:4 yea, light by darkness, as to Paul, whose bodily blindness opened the eyes of his mind. Luther said that God's works are effected usually by contraries. a Opera Dei sunt in mediis contrariis
And the evening and the morning, &c.] Thales, one of the seven sages, had learned this truth by going to school in Egypt. For being asked whether was first, the day or the night? he answered, that the night was sooner by one day: b as who should say, afore God had created the light, it must needs be confessed that out of him there was nothing but darkness. Evening separates by darkness, morning by light; so the one disjoins day from night, the other night from day. Only this first evening separated not, because light was then uncreated. Yet it was of God appointed, even then, to stand between light and darkness. In the first evening was heaven and earth created, and in the first morning the light, both which make the civil day called νυχθημεζον by the apostle. 2Co 11:25 And this (which doubtless is the natural order of reckoning the day, from evening to evening), was in use among the Athenians, c and is to this day retained by the Jews, Italians, Bohemians, Silesians, and other nations. Our life likewise is such a day, and begins with the dark evening of misery here; but death is to saints the daybreak of eternal brightness. Mourning lasteth but till morning. Psa 30:5 Nay, not so long; for, "Behold at eventide trouble, and before the morning he is not." Isa 17:14 It is but a "moment," yea, a very little moment, and the indignation will pertransire, be overpast, saith the prophet; Isa 26:20 so "little a while" as you can scarce imagine, saith the apostle. ετι γαζ μικζον οσον οσον , Heb 10:37 If it seem otherwise to any of us, consider:
1. That we have some lucida intervalla, some respires, interspiriates, breathing whiles. And it is a mercy that the man is not always sweating out a poor living, the woman ever in pangs of childbirth, &c. Gen 3:16-19
2. That this is nothing to eternity of extremity, which is the just hire of the least sin. Rom 6:23
3. That much good accrues unto us hereby. Heb 12:10 Yea, this "light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out unto us that far more excellent and eternal weight of glory." 2Co 4:17 Oh, pray, pray "that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened by that Spirit of wisdom and revelation, we may know what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," &c. Eph 1:17-18
a Laertius.
b Dια των εαυτων ενανια οικονομειτια ινα και μαλλον δαυμαξηται - Nazianz .
c Pliny, l. 2. c. 7.