OT: Genesis 1 – Calvin’s Insight

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen 1:5).

In his commentary on this verse Calvin notes: “It did not, however, happen from inconsideration or by accident, that the light preceded the sun and the moon. To nothing are we more prone than to tie down the power of God to those instruments the agency of which he employs. The sun and moon supply us with light: And, according to our notions we so include this power to give light in them, that if they were taken away from the world, it would seem impossible for any light to remain. Therefore the Lord, by the very order of the creation, bears witness that he holds in his hand the light, which he is able to impart to us without the sun and moon.”

What tremendous insight, especially the recognition that the very order of creation bears witness of the truth that the power of God is not tied down.