In the first article we discussed the Biblical truth that God is light. We looked at how the Bible views light and darkness in terms of spiritual kingdoms and activities. Here we will build upon this and discuss how God separated the light from the darkness and how we need to do the same thing in our own belief systems.

In the beginning

In the first four verses of the opening chapter of the first book of the Bible (Genesis) you can get one of the biggest revelations the Bible has about God!

Right at the start of the Bible, God wastes no time at all in telling us that He has separated light from darkness. He wants us to understand this immediately, so that we do not get confused about it later.

Genesis 1:1-4
:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

There are two very important points to see from verse 4:

1) God defined the light as ‘good’

Anyone who has read through the first chapter of Genesis will know that as God created, He would stop, look at what He had created and say, ‘it is good’.

In Genesis 1:10, God made the dry land and the seas and saw that they were good

Then, in Genesis 1:11-12 He made the trees, grass, vegetation etc and saw that it was good.

Right the way through Genesis 1, God creates something then defines it as ‘good’.

However, go back to Genesis 1:4 and notice that when God saw the light, He saw that it was ‘good’ but said no such thing about the darkness.

Light is good, Darkness is not good

Of all the things mentioned in Genesis 1, God never defined darkness as good. It is one thing that He never defined as good. Genesis does not say God saw that the light and darkness were ‘good’. No, He saw the ‘light’ and only called it good. God said nothing about darkness being good.

This is not a side thought or a minor issue. It is actually so important that it goes right to the core of many people’s theology, and if you are muddled on this point, you will be messed up and confused on many other points. If you can get this right, many other things will fall into place.

God saw that the light was good. He defined it that way right at the start and did not say the same about darkness.

This shows us that light is good and darkness is not. Also anything that is part of light and associated with light is good, and anything that is part of, connected to and associated with darkness is not good.

The Lord does not want us to be confused on this issue.

2) God separated (divided) the light from the darkness

The word translated ‘divided’ in Genesis 1:4 is the Hebrew, ‘badal’ meaning, ‘to divide, separate, distinguish, divide asunder, make separate

God divided (separated) light and dark. He split the two and said ‘light’ is on that side, ‘darkness’ is on the other side. He made a division between the light and the dark and He only defined one of them as good (light).

In other words He made a clear dividing line between what is light and what is dark, so that there would be no confusion. He did not leave them mixed, overlapping or muddled.

This shows that in God’s eyes, light and dark do not ‘overlap’ He has separated them, divided them, made a distinction between the two. He put light on one side, dark on the other. He then defined light as good, showing that everything that is on the ‘light side’ of the separation is good, and everything that is on the ‘dark side’ of the separation is not defined as good.

Spiritual light and darkness

There is a principle here that goes beyond just natural light and darkness. It shows us how the Bible views spiritual light and spiritual darkness. God separated them and only classed light as good.

He then told us that He is light (in other words on the good side of the line). He also told us that there is no darkness in him. (See the first article in this series on God is Light). This should be ample information for us to understand His character and nature.

He does not cross over the separation line between the two. He is only on one side of the separation and you will not find Him on the other side. You will never find Him crossing over into the areas of darkness, for any time, on any occasion, for anything!

This separation between light and dark is fundamental to God, and helps define what He does and what He does not do, what He is involved in and what He is not involved in.

If there is ever any question about God’s involvement in something, the way to decide is to separate the light from the darkness like He did.

How to understand God

Ask yourself, ‘what is light and what is darkness in all this’ Once you locate what is darkness, you know, ‘God has nothing to do with that. He is not behind it or involved in it in any way!’

• Light = Life = good
• Dark = Death = bad
• It IS that simple.

Swapping Darkness and Light

Isaiah 5:20

:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Here God says, ‘WOE to those… who put darkness for light…’. In other words, those who swap them around and make them interchangeable.

Those who cross the boundary between the two and remove the dividing line that God placed between them. God wants us to understand that light and dark do not go together and they cannot be switched and substituted for each other.

What is good is good, don’t call it evil, and what is bad is bad, don’t call it good.

The same is so for darkness and light, don’t try to swap them around, and claim that God, who is light, does dark things. Light and dark do not mix, and God is light, so He does not mix with darkness.

Don’t confuse light and dark

Is God confused about the boundaries between good and bad, and between light and dark or is He quite clear in His own understanding what is what?

He defined the boundaries all the way back in Genesis 1, and He has never and will never cross them. He is light and only stays on the side of light.

Does He want us confused about what is good and what is evil?

God quite clearly shows us what is good and bad in connection to performance (morals, ethics), yet in other areas (healing, prosperity) people get all confused and claim we cannot know good and bad! God is not confused, man is! God knows exactly what is on the side of light and good, and He tells us in His Word.

Light and life; Darkness and Death

The Bible shows that light and life are associated, they are partners, and darkness and death are associated. Darkness has partnered up with death.

When we connect God to death, we are connecting Him to darkness. This is where we mess things up in our thinking.

Notice how the following scripture connects life and light:

John 1:4
:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Now notice how the following scriptures connect darkness and death:

Psalm 23:4
:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Shadows are associated with darkness. Here in Psalm 23 it talks about ‘the shadow of death’. Matthew also uses this phrase:

Matthew 4:16

:16 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.”

Matthew talks about people who ‘sat in darkness’ and then refers saying they, ‘sat in the region and shadow of death’. He connects darkness and death. Those who sit in darkness are sitting in the realm of death.

The realm of darkness is the realm of death! Luke also shows this:

Luke 1:78-79
:78 Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
:79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

According to these passages, God’s answer for those in darkness and death is light. Light brings life. Science has only recently discovered this, but God and the Bible have said it all along.

‘dayspring’ here speaks of sunrise, dawn. It is referring to Jesus, THE Light.

What happens when the sun rises?

The light comes.

There is life in the light. If we walk in the light, we will walk in life.
There is death in darkness. If we walk in darkness, we will walk in death and all that death has to offer!

So let us again think about the question we asked in the first article: Is there any darkness in God?

What about: Is there any death in Him?

If there is darkness in God, then there is death in Him.

Now this is where people get muddled, they will say there is no darkness in God, but then they connect God to death! When they do that they are also connecting Him to darkness. When you associate God with death, you associate Him with darkness.

Remember to make a distinction in your understanding between light and dark. Don’t mix and blur the two together. God separated them, now you need to separate them in your understanding (and in your beliefs) and see clearly which side God is on.

God has separated light and darkness. He split them and put them on opposites sides, and said they do not mix.

We need to divide the light from the Darkness

It is about time we separated the light from the darkness just like God did. We really need to define clearly within ourselves what is God and what is not, what is good and what is bad, what is light and what is dark.

God has already separated light from darkness, but in our thinking and in our believing we mix and muddle the two. Large portions of theology have been based upon mixing light and darkness and claiming God is involved in both.

God divided the light from the darkness. We need to do this within ourselves too. In your beliefs learn to separate, divide and make a distinction between light and dark. Then clearly understand and define which side God is on once and for all.

Stop confusing the issue and constantly putting God on the side of darkness. In our understanding of God, understand that He is light, and don’t confuse what He does with darkness.

We get muddled because we have never made the separation between the two in our beliefs and come to the place where we know which side of the line God is on and which side He is not on. We just muddle God into all of it.

How do I know what God is involved in?

He tells you in His Word. He defines light as ‘good’, and then says that He is Light. He clearly lets us know what is of darkness, and that darkness and death are associated. Anything of death is darkness and is not on the same side God is on.

He is the Healer – not the one who makes people sick
He is the Provider, not the one who makes people poor
He is the Saviour, not the one who puts people into captivity
He is the Redeemer, not the One who enslaves people

Make this distinction in your beliefs and stop blurring the boundaries between light and dark. We get confused because we have not put God on one side and the devil on the other. We mix their roles up. The Bible makes a clear distinction.

Jesus made this separation

John 10:10

:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Here Jesus does the same with Himself and ‘the thief’ as God did with light and darkness. He makes a clear distinction between the two, placing the thief on one side and Himself on the other. He shows that there is not a blur between what He is involved in and what the thief does.

Jesus says, the thief is on that side of the line, he kills, steals and destroys; I am on this side of the line, I came to give life. It IS as simple as that

Remember that light and life are connected, so when Jesus said He came to give ‘life’, He is again showing that He is on the side of Light.

Jesus never said there are times He is on the thief’s side, or that you can never really tell what is what, because it is all blurred and mixed! Modern theology tries to say that, but Jesus never did. He made a very clear distinction between the two.

We have failed to do what the first four verses of the Bible did! God did it right away, making a clear dividing line between the two. He defined right from the start the two, light and dark, and which is good.

How can we understand the rest of the Bible if we fail to make this foundational distinction which is defined in the first few verses of the Bible?

God separated the two. Put light on one side, dark on the other. Then He defined the two and told us through His Word which is good.

Also He says, ‘light is good and I am light’. Just so you know which side of the line I am on!

Your turn

Make this separation in your belief system and we will be able to sort out a lot of the confusion in the church. Huge doctrinal debates have arisen and continue to be fuelled into full flame, simply because people have not made this foundational and fundamental separation between light and dark, good and bad, God and the devil.

There are still Christians who think God makes people sick or that God is behind suffering. There are still Christians who actually believe suffering glorifies God!

Why do they hold to these beliefs?

Because they have not separated the light from the darkness. They have not done what God Himself did in the first four verses of the Bible.

The Bible does separate the light from the dark. There are no confused or blurred boundaries in the Word. Where there are confused and blurred boundaries is in Christian’s belief systems! We need to get our belief systems lined up with the Word in this area.