There was evening and there was morning.

Well, this is the last post of this blog series, so I hope you had some fun with it. 

Today we finally get to what I think an answer is to why was evening before morning.

Remember that Genesis 1 is very poetic, and its poetic form is parallel poetry. As a recap, parallel poetry is saying the same thing in different ways but the meaning is the same. Genesis 1:1-3 therefore tells the general story of God hovering over chaos and emptiness, and this chaos and emptiness was called darkness. God then filled the darkness with light. And if you remember we touched on light usually means life. So Genesis 1:1-3 basically tell the same story just in different ways.

The key to this is that darkness was first. God hovered over darkness. God was present in darkness. There was no light, or life but the earth was filled with emptiness and chaos. 

In verse 3 God creates or fills the earth with Light, and he saw that the light was functional, it was good, and so he separates the light and the darkness, calling the darkness "NIGHT", and the light "DAY". 

Quick side note, I think God thought the light was functional (good) for a couple of reasons. One of these reasons was because light exposed everything in darkness for what it really was. 

In this poetic writing we are constantly reminded that God started from darkness which is night or evening, and he fills the earth with light or life, which brings to the earth a newness, a freshness, a new birth if you will. And this new birth of life is called day or morning.

I know that's pretty consistent with my experience with God. I wrestle through the dark areas of my life as God hovers over them, and as I name that darkness and allow God to do business with it there comes redemption and newness of life, a fresh start. Just like the morning sun rising in the sky giving a new day, so God's light exposes my soul and brings a newness of life.

I also think Jesus is pretty consistent with this as well. One example out of many would be when he interacts with a rich ruler. In this discussion Jesus discovers the darkness in the rich ruler's soul. And with one question Jesus exposes that darkness and the rich ruler begins to wrestle with his darkness. Because of his choice, the rich ruler didn't experience the newness of life. 

I also think this is consistent with what God is calling all of his followers to step into. What are the dark areas in the world that are chaotic, empty, and lacking life? God is hovering over those areas longing for his people to bring light and life to those areas. And when we do step into those areas of darkness with God, we get to look at redemption, transformation, recreation and worship that is now there as a result of God and say, "this is good, there was darkness but now there is light!"

An other way of saying that would be, "there was evening, but now, now there is morning."