And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
God's determining will, expressed in His command, was followed immediately by result. Though the sun may have been created before the earth, thick fogs and vapors covered the globe with gloom. By God's command, light became visible; the murky clouds dispersed and rarefied, and light diffused over the waters. The Hebrew name for day signifies warmth and heat, while night means a rolling up, as night wraps all things in shade.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 1:3-5
Moses now introduces God speaking for the first time, yet the Word was active in all that came before, for nothing was made without Him. God did not put forth His Word visibly until the creation of light, when His wisdom began to show itself plainly. This alone confutes Servetus' blasphemy, that the Word had no beginning until God commanded light to be; the cause must be prior to its effect, and since all things came into being by His Word, we must infer the eternity of His essence.
AI summary
The chaotic earth was waste and void, a formless, lifeless mass, still undistinguished from the firmament. Darkness wrapped this heaving abyss of waters because the elements had not yet been separated and arranged; the coming creation begins when light appears to order the chaos.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 1:2-5