Before we study the creation of man, we need to consider, as a parenthesis, the matter of the fourth-day lights. In Genesis 1, it is recorded that on the first day of restoration God summoned the light. The first day was a day of light and that light may be called the first-day light. On the fourth day, God did something further regarding light. He made the light bearers—the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Bible does not tell us what kind of light was present on the first day, and there is no need for us to guess. The light of the first day was not very solid, strong, or definite. It was not given a specific designation; it was simply called "light." However, the lights of the fourth day—the sun, the moon, and the stars—were definite and solid, strong and available.
If we pay attention to the record of Genesis 1, we can see that God's restoration with His further creation was accomplished in six days. These six days were not for God's original creation. God's original creation was accomplished in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. After creation, there was a great change which occurred somewhere in chapter 1, verse 2, and God came in to judge the universe. After that judgment, there was a long period of time. Then, God came in to restore and to have some further creation. This restoration with its further creation was accomplished in six days which may be divided into two sections: the first three days considered as the first section; the last three days considered as the second section. Each section begins with a day of light. The light of the first day was the first-day light; the lights of the fourth day were the fourth-day lights. On the first day, God called for the light. On the fourth day He restored the sun, the moon, and the stars. This is very meaningful.
These days of light mark the beginning of God's creation of life. According to the revelation of the whole Bible, light is for life. Once again, we see that God's creation is completely focused on life. All that God created and made was focused on life and was for life. Thus, there is the need for light. Light and life always go together. On the contrary, darkness and death always go together. Before God's restoration, darkness covered the death waters, meaning that darkness and death were one. Death is abstract and no one can see it. Therefore, the Bible uses water to signify death. The deep water of the ocean is a picture of death. Before God's restoration, there were only two things—darkness and death.
God is life and light, the exact opposite of death and darkness. The very God of light can never tolerate darkness, so He came to dispel it. Also, the God of life can never tolerate death, so He came in to swallow it up. When you read the Bible, don't take a scientific view—take God's view. If we read the Bible from God's point of view, every line will be full of light and life because the Bible is a record of the Divine Being who is light and life. The God of light and life came in to eliminate darkness and death.
On the first day, God commanded the light to come and light came. Then, God divided light from darkness. That division was a limitation to the darkness. The God of light seemed to say to the darkness, "Darkness, listen to Me. You have been prevailing for a time and you have filled the whole universe. Now, My light comes in to limit you. You can only prevail during the night. There is no room for you in the day. I limit you. I divide light from you. Never again can you occupy the whole universe. For at least half the time the universe must belong to Me." Hallelujah!
This was good; however, it was only half good. A certain amount of darkness remains. God is still working to eliminate this dark part until we arrive at Revelation 21 and 22 where there is the declaration, "night shall not be there" (21:25b). Hallelujah! One day there will be no more night.
God limited the darkness on the first day and, in the same principle, He limited the death waters on the third day. In Jeremiah 5:22 we read that God limited the death waters with sand, the smallest particles of rocks. God told the death waters, "This is your limitation. You cannot go beyond it." Thus, the dry land appeared, making a separation between the land and the sea. After the first day of God's restoring creation, it was half light and half darkness; after the third day, it was half land and half water. God is still working to eliminate the second half of the night and the second half of the death waters. In the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no more sea (Rev. 21:1); in the New Jerusalem, there will be no more night (Rev. 21:25b; 22:5). This means that both darkness and death will be completely eliminated.
Check with yourself. How much darkness do you have? How much death do you have? You need to answer to the Lord. If in your Christian life, you are constantly growing in the Lord's presence, one day you will be able to tell Satan, "Satan, I have no night. My day is twenty-four hours long. There is no death water with me. In my whole Christian life, everywhere, in every corner and on every avenue, there is dry land. There is no more sea." We all must be like this.
To be like this we need the fourth-day lights. The first-day light only eliminates half of our darkness and half of our death. The fourth-day lights will bring us to another world where there is no night and no sea.
All the truths in the Bible were sown as seeds in the book of Genesis, especially in the first chapter. Genesis 1:14-18 is a wonderful seed of the light revealed throughout the Bible. According to the principle of life, the fourth-day lights are not for generating life; they are for the growth of life. On the third day, perhaps at the last part of that day, after the Lord called out the dry land and the land emerged out of the death waters, life was generated. By that time there were light, air, and land—three elements necessary for generating life. After the dry land appeared, plant life was generated. Although God was not happy at the end of the second day—He did not say that it was good—He was surely happy at the end of the third day when He saw the light, the air, the dry land, and all the plant life. God saw the grass, the herbs, and the trees, and said that it was good. Before that time, there had been no created life on the earth.
Starting with the plant life, life was generated. But that was the lowest life, the life with the lowest consciousness, unable to walk, unable to talk, and unable to understand God. God may speak to a lily a thousand times, but the lily cannot respond to Him because the life of a lily is too low. Although life was present, it needed to grow. The fourth-day lights were needed for the growth of life. The first-day light was for generating life; the fourth-day lights were for the growth of life. On the fourth day the solid lights were prepared; no other work was done.
Many of you young people have received the first-day light, but I doubt very much whether you have entered into the fourth-day lights. The fourth-day lights are different from the first-day light. The first-day light was indefinite; the fourth-day lights are definite. Now we need to see what the sun, moon, and stars prefigure in typology.