Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/56

24 a word, and a world. The word of God, that is, his will and the good pleasure of it, is quick and powerful. Christ is the Word, the essential eternal Word, and by him the light was produced, for in him was light, and he is the true Light, the Light of the world, 1 JohnJohn 1. [sic] 9.—9. 5. The divine light which shines in sanctified souls is wrought by the power of God, the power of his word, and of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, opening the understanding, scattering the mists of ignorance and mistake, and giving the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, as, at first, God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, 2 Cor. 4. 6. Darkness had been perpetually upon the face of fallen man, if the Son of God had not come, and given us an understanding, 1 John 5. 20.

III. That the light which God willed, when it was produced, he approved of; God saw the light that it was good. It was exactly as he designed it, and it was fit to answer the end for which he designed it. It was useful and profitable; the world, which now is a palace, would have been a dungeon without it. It was amiable and pleasant; truly light is sweet, Eccles. 11. 7, it rejoiceth the heart, Prov. 15. 30. What God commands he will approve and graciously accept of, and be well pleased with the work of his own hands. That is good indeed, which is so in the sight of God, for he sees not as man sees. If the light be good, how good is he that is the Fountain of light, from which we receive it, and to whom we owe all praise for it, and all the services we do by it!

IV. That God divided the light from the darkness, so put them asunder, as that they could never be joined together or reconciled; for what fellowship has light with darkness? 2 Cor. 6. 14. And yet he divided time between them, the day for light, and the night for darkness, in a constant and regular succession to each other. Though the darkness was now scattered by the light, yet it was not condemned to a perpetual banishment, but takes its turn with the light, and has its place, because it has its use; for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night, and draw the curtains about us, that we may sleep the better; See Job 7. 2. God has thus divided time between light and darkness, because he would daily remind us that this is a world of mixtures and changes. In heaven there is perfect and perpetual light, and no darkness at all; in hell, utter darkness, and no gleam of light. In that world, between these two there is a great gulf fixed; but in this world, they are counterchanged, and we pass daily from one to another; that we may learn to expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God, peace and trouble, joy and sorrow, and may set the one over against the other, and accommodate ourselves to both, as we do to the light and darkness, bidding both welcome, and making the best of both.

V. That God divided them from each other by distinguishing names; he called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. He gave them names, as Lord of both; for the day is his, the night also is his, Ps. 74. 16. He is the Lord of time, and will be so, till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity. Let us acknowledge God in the constant succession of day and night, and consecrate both to his honour, by working for him every day, and resting in him every night, and meditating in his law day and night.

VI. That this was the first day's work, and a good day's work it was; the evening and the morning were the first day. The darkness of the evening was before the light of the morning, that it might serve for a foil to it, to set it off, and make it shine the brighter. This was not only the first day of the world, but the first day of the week. I observe it, to the honour of that day, because the new world began on the first day of the week likewise, in the resurrection of Christ, as the Light of the world, early in the morning. In him, the day-spring from on high has visited the world; and happy are we, for ever happy, if that Day-star arise in our hearts.

6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

We have here an account of the second day's work, the creation of the firmament: in which observe,

I. The command of God concerning it; Let there be a firmament, and expansion, so the Hebrew word signifies, like a sheet spread, or a curtain drawn out. This includes all that is visible above the earth, between it, and the third heaven; the air, its higher, middle, and lower regions; the celestial globe, and all the spheres and orbs of light above: it reaches as high as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is called here the firmament of Heaven, v. 14, 15, and as low as the place where the birds fly, for that also is called the firmament of Heaven, v. 20. When God had made the light, he appointed the air to be the receptacle and vehicle of its beams, and to be as a medium of communication between the invisible and the visible world; for though between heaven and earth there is an inconceivable distance, yet there is not an unpassable gulf, as there is between heaven and hell. This firmament is not a wall of partition, but a way of intercourse. See Job 26. 7.—37. 18. Ps. 104. 3. Amos 9. 6.

II. The creation of it. Lest it should seem as if God had only commanded it to be done, and some one else had done it, he adds, And God made the firmament. What God requires of us, he himself works in us, or it is not done. He that commands faith, holiness, and love, creates them by the power of his grace going along with his word, that he may have all the praise. Lord, give what thou commandest, and then command what thou pleasest. The firmament is said to be the work of God's fingers, Ps. 8. 3. Though the vastness of its extent declares it to be the work of his arm stretched out, yet the admirable fineness of its constitution shows that it is a curious piece of art, the work of his fingers.

III. The use and design of it; to divide the waters from the waters, that is, to distinguish between the waters that are wrapt up in the clouds, and those that cover the sea; the waters in the air, and those in the earth. See the difference between these two, carefully observed, Deut. 11. 10, 11, where Canaan is, upon this account, preferred to Egypt, that Egypt was moistened, and made fruitful, with the waters that are under the firmament; but Canaan with waters from above, out of the firmament; even the dew of heaven, which tarrieth not for the sons of men, Mic. 5. 7. God has, in the firmament of his power, chambers, store-chambers, whence he watereth the earth, Ps. 104. 13.—65. 9, 10. He has also treasures, or magazines, of snow and hail,