Genesis 1
The Creation of the World
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Technically I guess this is not the first manifestation of God's glory, but maybe it is the first.
God's Spirit is present, hovering over the face of the waters.
The word "kabod" or "glory" when used of God has to do with His abiding presence. His glory has to do with His great great and weighty reputation and importance.
Light is shiny, as is the Shekinah glory of God. Hmm.
So, since this post contains my thinking on the subject of "glory", I 'm going to say that this is the Bible's first mention of God's glory. The problem is that the word "glory" is not in the text, but the concept is certainly there.
God's Word begins with the light of His glory shown on the face of the deep.
No, light is not God, but it is used over and over again as a symbol of God's work and presence. Since God is spirit, having no physical body, He both creates and then uses physical things to show us what He is like.
This statement is true.:
The first verses of the Bible found in Genesis 1 remind me of 2 Corinthians 4:6. This verse supports the idea that the Bible begins with a manifestation of the glory of God.
Light is shiny, as is the Shekinah glory of God. Hmm.
So, since this post contains my thinking on the subject of "glory", I 'm going to say that this is the Bible's first mention of God's glory. The problem is that the word "glory" is not in the text, but the concept is certainly there.
God's Word begins with the light of His glory shown on the face of the deep.
No, light is not God, but it is used over and over again as a symbol of God's work and presence. Since God is spirit, having no physical body, He both creates and then uses physical things to show us what He is like.
This statement is true.:
1 John 1:5
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
In the context of 1 John 1, the Apostle is talking about God's sinless moral character. It is about His holiness in contrast to our sinfulness. Darkness is used as a symbol of sin, and light as a symbol of sinlessness.
Some are tempted to turn the phrase "God is light" around, but that is not correct grammatically in the Greek.
Some also try to turn around the phrase "God is love", saying that "Love is God" in the same way. That was a popular interpretation of the Hippies, as you can well imagine. One of God's attributes is love, as in He is loving. We dare not deify love itself, as many pagan religions do.
1 John 4:8
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
The first verses of the Bible found in Genesis 1 remind me of 2 Corinthians 4:6. This verse supports the idea that the Bible begins with a manifestation of the glory of God.
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Here is part of Matthew Henry's commentary on Genesis 1:3-5
"We have here a further account of the first day’s work, in which observe, 1. That the first of all visible beings which God created was light; not that by it he himself might see to work (for the darkness and light are both alike to him), but that by it we might see his works and his glory in them, and might work our works while it is day. "
"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."
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