Let’s trace this principle throughout the Bible. Return with me to the creation of the earth. When God created the planet, it was formless and void, and darkness covered the waters. After the darkness, God said, “Let there be light.” Notice that the darkness preceded the light.
This establishes an important principle. When God begins something new, He always starts with darkness rather than light. First the darkness, then the light.
God then begins to create life forms on the earth. The Scripture says, “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.… And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.… And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day,” and on and on until the seventh day.
Notice that the evening came first. God’s day starts with darkness, not light. It begins with evening, not morning. And when the seventh day arrives, God rests. The Scripture does not say, “And there was evening, and there was morning—the seventh day.” On the seventh day, there is no evening and no morning mentioned. We are simply told that God ended His work and rested on that day.
Now what caused God to rest? He saw His image and likeness in the earth. Behold, I show you a mystery. When God sees His image and His likeness in the earth, He can rest.
So God’s beginnings start with evening. What we call the end of the day, God calls the beginning. In fact, every life form begins in darkness. There are nine months of darkness for a human, and then the human sees light. At night when we are asleep, our bodies are resting and restoring, but we are unaware of it until morning. To put it another way, God’s beginnings are our nights. What we call the end, He calls the beginning.
Consequently, what may appear to be the end in your eyes is the beginning in God’s. Our day starts out in the morning with birds chirping, newspapers thrown on the lawn, and fresh coffee percolating. But God’s work begins in the evening. It begins with darkness. And then He brings the morning along with the light.
So we touch an important principle here. God takes away to establish, and what He establishes is always better. He takes away the darkness to establish the light. He takes away the evening to establish the morning.
Taken from Revise Us Again by Frank Viola