Studies in Genesis 1
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:14-15 ESV)
We are faced with a conundrum. On the first “day” God created light. Actually, He said “be light, and there was light” (Genesis 1:3 ESV). He created all of the material in the universe and there was darkness over “the face of the deep.” He then said “be light” and He separated darkness from light.
Here, God says “be lights.” Where there was nothing He created specific bodies which provide illumination. There is a difference between the word “light” and “lights.” “Light” means illumination without designating a source. “Lights” are the actual sources of light. It takes a lot of imagination to realize God is the source of light during the first three “days” of creation, just as God is the source of life created on the third “day.”
Our conundrum is one of imagination. Because of the laws of nature, written and implemented by God, we know without light there is no life. We cannot imagine light without a physical source. Yet, for the first three “days” God did not designate a physical source of light, but there was light and still created life. Vegetation demands physical light to germinate, grow and propagate. There was physical light and this light could have sustained life for as long as God demanded.
We know what God has told us. On the fourth “day” he created the physical sources of light, the sun, stars and moon.