There was a time when light and darkness was mixed–but even through that confusion God could “see the light” and knew “it was good.” And he separated the two from each other. Adding to the mix of the “formless void” was the mixture of light and dark….they were different, but not separate. I dont know that we can imagine such a sight as a visual. We can see it in other terms, such as someones personality who is embracing both light and dark, and they seem to appear confused and in the extreme maybe schizophrenic. And, as in creation, only God can truly separate the two conflicts. That God divided the light from the darkness – So put them asunder as they could never be joined together: and yet he divided time between them, the day for light, and the night for darkness, in a constant succession. Tho’ the darkness was now scattered by the light, yet it has its place, because it has its use; for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night. God has thus divided between light and darkness, because he would daily mind us that this is a world of mixtures and changes. In heaven there is perpetual light, and no darkness; in hell utter darkness, and no light: but in this world they are counter – changed, and we pass daily from one to another; that we may learn to expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God. That God divided them from each other by distinguishing names. He called the light Day, and the darkness he called night – He gave them names as Lord of both. He is the Lord of time, and will be so ’till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity.
NOTES: In Gen 1:4, God separates light from dark. I would have to run on the assumption that somehow light and dark were mixed somehow up to that point. Since one will be called night and the other day, would it be, in effect, time that creates the separation? Would this, in effect, be the beginning of time? And the end of the age, darkness would, in effect, be destroyed when time ceases to exist? (Rev 22: 5: There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light). Now the only problematic verse is Rev 22:2: On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month…………and I am not sure what to do with the suggestion of “every month.”
