The Light of the Righteous
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that it was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called night.” -Genesis 1:1-5a
Why must the Spirit of God deem it noteworthy to tell us that light came out of darkness? Is this a physic’s technicality? Is this merely history? Should we even care? It seems to me that light cannot be defined apart from darkness. Light, from the first few verses of Genesis, was set in contradistinction to darkness. God then separated the two into phases of night and day. We can hardly understand light except by its absence. Surely we also know now that darkness is really nothingness, for it is simply the lack of light. This is a common way the bible defines words that are hard to understand. The physics of light is amongst some of the most difficult concepts in nature to grasp, being both a particle and a wave, many physics students have groaned when trying to grasp this antimony, I know because I was one of them. In its most simple terms however, darkness is the absence of light.
Peter used this same tool of contrast to define another complex word, “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” I Peter 3:10-12. Righteous here is defined through its contradistinction to, “those who do evil.” In essence, they will be the opposite of this. Do you do evil? Then there may be a question as to whether or not you are among those to whom the Lord looks. Is God’s face hidden behind a veil of mystery for you? Is he lost amongst the conflagrations of your sins? Surely saints do sin, we fail, but we are not defined by a life of sin. The apostle John boiled these two concepts of light and righteousness together to present a wonderfully simple statement. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” I John 1:7
Remember, the next time you see the sun rise out of the darkness of the deepest night, the Son of God has commanded, by the life he lived, for you to come out of darkness and walk in the light. May the Day Star arise in your hearts.
