Image generated with ChatGPT by OpenAI. Description: Our viewpoint is just above an immense, dark ocean. Newly appearing light sweeps across the waters, revealing subtle waves and luminous suspended mist. The foreground remains shadowed while the distance fills with radiance—without a sun or a conventional sunrise. This connects verse 3 with the waters described in verse 2.
“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
Genesis 1:3 NIV
Today we explore one of the early acts of creation in Genesis 1:3. The first two verses of the Bible found in Genesis tell us that “God created the heavens and the earth,” and that all was “formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” A very dark, forbidding place, but even at that point in the infinite timeline of God, the Trinity existed — God, the Father; God, the Son, Jesus Christ; God, the Holy Spirit.
Then God spoke the words, and light came into the universe. Study Scripture, and you soon come to understand the symbolic use of light and darkness to represent good and evil. In the book of John, Jesus explains this to His disciples. For example, in John 8:12 He says “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Earlier in John 3:19-20, Jesus was speaking with the great Jewish teacher Nicodemus and told him that “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”
He explains in these verses what all Christians should understand: Jesus is the light of the world, darkness represents evil, the absence of God. Since God spoke the words “Let there be light,” we have had light and darkness in this world — both literally and spiritually. This binary situation of light/dark good/evil will exist until God creates the new heaven and the new earth:
“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.”
David Guzik of Enduring Word provided this succinct commentary on this verse:
a. Let there be light: The first step from chaos to order is to bring light. This is also the way God works in our life.
When I was a skeptic, I thought I could find all sorts of “mistakes” in Scripture, beginning with the early verses in Genesis. One “mistake” I fell for is actually quite common — so common that GotQuestions.org actually has a complete article devoted to it: “How could there be light on the first day of Creation if the sun was not created until the fourth day?”
In that article is the simple, but powerful answer: “This is only a problem if we fail to take into account an infinite and omnipotent God. God does not need the sun, moon, and stars to provide light. God is light!” When I finally wrapped my skeptical brain around the concept of that “infinite and omnipotent God” as Creator and opened my eyes to the reality of His Creation rather than the theories that try (and fail) to explain our existence, my belief snapped into place and cannot be shaken.
Also from Enduring Word:
b. Then God said: God did not have to fashion light with His hands. It was enough for God to merely speak the words, Light be! And there was light.
i. “I must have you notice that this light came instantaneously. The Hebrew suggests this far better than our translation–it is sublimely brief. ‘Light be: light was.’” (Spurgeon)
Spurgeon’s comment prompted me to look at the original Hebrew, which is the same phrase repeated twice with slightly different inflection:
יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר׃
or “hāyâ ôr; hāyâ ôr.” God’s Words perfectly describe what science refers to as “The Big Bang,” the creation of our universe from nothingness. I won’t get into the science, but let’s just say that there is a lot less certainty in the scientific world about Creation than there is in the world of believers. If you’re up for some exploration of the endless arguments about how all that exists came to be, feel free to click on some of the reference links in this paragraph from Wikipedia:
As a description of the origin of the universe, the Big Bang has significant bearing on religion and philosophy.[171][172] As a result, it has become one of the liveliest areas in the discourse between science and religion.[173] Some believe the Big Bang implies a creator,[174][175][176][177] while others argue that Big Bang cosmology makes the notion of a creator superfluous.[172][147]
God gives His first command, and so begins the ordering of a world wrapped in darkness, eventually leading to life. Light appears before God creates the sun and stars on the fourth day of Creation; it does not depend on those created heavenly objects.
It is fitting that Genesis 1:1 starts with the words “In the beginning”. For me, giving up the stubborn insistence that there needed to be a scientific explanation to the question “Why are we here?” was the beginning of a deep and ever-growing faith in God, and a peace in my heart and mind. If you have doubt, I pray that you study Genesis and place your faith fully in God.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Today’s prayer comes from Knowing Jesus:
Loving Father,
You are the Father of light and I thank You that I am Your child. Help me always to walk in the light of Your truth, live in the light of Your love, and reflect the light of the lovely Lord Jesus, in Whose name I pray.
Amen.