I am attempting to start the 2020 Plan a day early. In past years, I found I could do about 2/3rd’s of the plan which is about 2,400 chapters in a year. Not the full 3,600. That was still about like reading through the whole Bible twice. Enough for me.
I did notice the little word “Let” in today’s 2nd reading Genesis 1. It’s surprising how powerful that word echos throughout the chapter.
Usually it is preceded by the word “said” and written as a Capital: “And God said, Let”
Old John Gill wrote:
And God said,…. This phrase is used, nine times in this account of the creation; it is admired by Longinus the Heathen in his treatise “of the Sublime”, as a noble instance of it; and it is most beautifully paraphrased and explained in Psa 33:6 as expressive of the will, power, authority, and efficacy of the divine Being; whose word is clothed with power, and who can do, and does whatever he will, and as soon as he pleases; his orders are always obeyed. Perhaps the divine Person speaking here is the Logos or Word of God, which was in the beginning with God, and was God, and who himself is the light that lightens every creature. The words spoke were,
BTW looking up the Hebrew text, the word let is not actually in the text, it is part of the English translation of meaning of the action/command that God is described as doing at that moment of time.
Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
The first reference, in v3 “Let there be” is a Hebrew word, but in other instances the created subject matter is more the emphasis. What is consistent is the Word of the Lord:
H559 אמר ‘âmar
BDB Definition:
1) to say, speak, utter
1a) (Qal) to say, to answer, to say in one’s heart, to think, to command, to promise, to intend
1b) (Niphal) to be told, to be said, to be called
1c) (Hithpael) to boast, to act proudly
1d) (Hiphil) to avow, to avouch
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root
Which is echoed again in the words of John’s Gospel:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
H1961
היה
hâyâh
BDB Definition:
1) to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out
1a) (Qal)
1a1) —–
1a1a) to happen, fall out, occur, take place, come about, come to pass
1a1b) to come about, come to pass
1a2) to come into being, become
1a2a) to arise, appear, come
1a2b) to become
1a2b1) to become
1a2b2) to become like
1a2b3) to be instituted, be established
1a3) to be
1a3a) to exist, be in existence
1a3b) to abide, remain, continue (with word of place or time)
1a3c) to stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word of locality)
1a3d) to accompany, be with
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to occur, come to pass, be done, be brought about
1b2) to be done, be finished, be gone
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root [compare H1933]
Rainbow Trout 