Set Apart by God
God Creates New Things
In Genesis 1, God keeps creating new things that are different from the old things and then setting them apart from the old things.
Genesis 1:2 describes the universe as “formless and void” and covered in darkness. The Hebrew word for “formless” paints a picture of what it was like:
tohu (noun)
• formlessness, nothingness, empty space
• wasteland
• place of chaos
After seeing how empty the darkness was, God decided to create something completely different from the darkness: light.
God doesn’t just make physical light, but Corinthians says that he also makes spiritual light within us. Before God intervened, our hearts were formeless and void—an empty wasteland of chaos. God saw that darkness in our hearts and then decided he wanted to make something different, so he created spiritual light.
God “Sets Apart” the New from the Old
Then in Genesis 1:4 God separated the light from the darkness. He took the light and “set it apart” from the darkness.
Throughout the rest of Genesis 1, God sees the old, makes something new, and then separates the new from the old. It seems like setting things apart is a part of his nature.
The Hebrew word for “holy” actually means “set apart,” so when I read about God “setting things apart” in Genesis, I am immediately reminded of the way he sets apart his people. He sets us apart and makes us holy.
When I collected Pokemon cards as a kid, I would take the ones that I favored the most and put them in a special place in my binder. I would “set them apart” from the rest of my cards because I cherished them. I would often flip directly to that section of my binder and just admire those favorite cards I had set apart.
That’s what God does with us. He cherishes his people so deeply that he sets us apart and keeps us separate from everything else just so he can delight in us.
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