Scripture
14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Audio Commentary
Abstract
On the fourth day God fashions the sun, moon, and stars — set, against popular imagination, not at the center of the story but in service to it, for the true drama is humanity and Christ’s gospel unfolding on earth. Given as lights for signs and seasons, they impose the order and predictability on which survival depends, and their very existence testifies to both God’s power and His love in furnishing so vast a creation for so small a creature. Whether counted great by usefulness rather than size, these lights rule only as deputies under God’s authority — so that the heavens which declare His glory should call forth worship of the Maker, never idolatry of the made.
Brief Observations
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The lights made on the fourth day — God creates the sun, moon, and stars; where popular culture places them at the very beginning, Scripture reveals the weightier activity to be on earth, the stars themselves serving the central narrative of humanity and Christ’s redemption.
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A testament of power and of love — That God gave these immense, beautiful bodies for humanity is a witness both to His magnificent power and to His love in providing so lavishly for us.
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Signs and seasons, and the usefulness of order — Made for signs and seasons — the moon stabilizing the earth’s tilt to yield predictable weather — the lights show that order and structure are what make creation useful; unformed potential is useless until definition and limits are applied.
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The Father of lights — God Himself is light and the Father of lights, and as Jesus taught of a lamp set on a stand, light is made to be revealed for the good of those it reaches.
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Why the second day was not called “good” — The firmament of day two was not pronounced good, plausibly because until the lights were set in place it was not yet serviceable for humanity — and the consistency of the seasons they govern is essential to survival, telling us when to plant and to harvest.
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Made for humanity — and the real hubris — Secularists scorn the claim that so vast a cosmos was made for humanity, but the true arrogance is to insist the lights shine for themselves; the fitting response to such love is gratitude, praise, and diligent use of life, since to waste it on hedonism is a sin of omission.
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Greatness measured by usefulness — The sun, though smaller than countless stars, is named the greatest light for its usefulness to earth, and the moon likewise counted a greater light not for grandeur but for service; “He made the stars also” draws no line between stars and planets, because Scripture’s purpose is to reveal God and transform the inner person.
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Deputy-rulers under God, not objects of worship — The sun, moon, and stars rule day and night only as deputies under God’s sovereign authority, never beyond His command. To say “the universe is telling me” or rewarding or punishing me is to idolize the cosmos for the light it gives — whereas the duty of the wise and humble is to worship the God who made all these things with us in mind.
Full Commentary
In this passage we see God creating the sun, the moon, and the stars. In popular culture when the creation of the universe is portrayed you often see these elements coming at the very beginning. I think is portrayal is a combination of secular influence concerning the Big Bang as well as a misplaced sense of importance among Christians. There is no doubt the grandeur of the stars inspires us to worship. The stars and the solar system testify of the glory of God — so this is a proper response.
But in the sight of God as revealed in scripture, the most important activity is actually happening on Earth. The creation of humanity and Christ’s gospel of redemption is the central narrative of scripture — the stars and outer space itself work to serve this narrative. That’s why when God creates these heavenly bodies He describes their purpose in reference to the Earth. God says, “Let there be lights in the expanse of heaven 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 for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.”
Scripture revealing the God-ordained purpose of the sun, moon, and stars and showing that God gave these immense, beautiful pieces of the creation for us is a testament of His love for us. Their creation is also a testament of God’s magnificent power. Job 26:13 says, “By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens.” Another way of thinking about this is the breath of His word. God breathes and galaxies form. The stars adorn the firmament to reveal the beauty of the highest heavens but also to bless the lower world of the Earth. We’ve come to depend on this blessing for all sorts of things like navigating the oceans, cartography, and inspiring all forms of planetary science including space exploration. And that’s just the stars. Billions upon billions of stars all of which — according to scripture — God calls by name.
This passage tells us God created the great lights to be for signs and seasons as well. We know one of the principal benefits of the moon is to stabilize the Earth’s axial tilt and provide for consistent, predictable seasons of weather. The sun itself is the driver of virtually all energy necessary for life on Earth. If the sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day, then what was the light God created in the very beginning? I think it’s possible “let there be light” refers to the creation of the phenomenon of light itself. So it would have been a disordered, unformed light with no obvious source. On the fourth day when God says, “let there be lights in the firmament” He’s talking about establishing natural sources of light — the stars, the sun, etc. The creation of these heavenly bodies represents entry into an increased level of order. Such is the pattern with God’s creative works: He begins by creating unformed material out of nothing, then He imposes structure and order to this material, changing it into what we recognize today.
Increased levels of order and structure are what make this material useful. Unformed potential is useless — it’s not until you apply restrictions and limitations that unformed potential gains definition and becomes useful. Babies are born with the phonetic ability to speak any language on Earth. As they begin to learn their native language, they lose the ability to shape the phonetics of foreign languages. The more limited they become in phonetic ability, the more refined their native language becomes and eventually they’re capable of intelligible speech. So it’s as if they die into their native language. The unformed potential in the beginning, while theoretically capable of developing into any language, is unintelligible baby-babble. As the phonetic potential becomes more restricted, so the sharpness of their articulation in their native language increases. Restriction implies definition and definition implies usefulness. Of course people can re-learn the phonetics of foreign dialects and become multilingual — but this is not something that comes natural to us.
God Himself is light, and so He is the Father and former of lights. Jesus said, “Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light.” This biblical principle of revealing the light for all to see is demonstrated when God established the lights in the firmament. It’s a common grace of God that the sun, moon, and stars shine for all of us to benefit from — even the wicked and unrepentant. God’s love is such that even His enemies are not left in total darkness.
Notice how in the second day of creation when God created the firmament itself, He doesn’t explicitly say that it was good like He does with each other day. One possible reason is because before the stars were in place, the firmament was not serviceable for humanity. It wasn’t providing anything. Scripture says the sun was given to govern the day and the moon was given to govern the night. The sun is what provides us a distinction between day and night. When the sun sets, we call it night. When the sun rises, we call it day. The position of the sun relative to Earth’s revolution determines seasons like summer and winter. This continual, consistent play of light on the Earth is what we use to determine the passage of time and to structure appointed times.
We take it for granted, but the consistency with which our seasons occur is crucially important for our survival. We know when to plant crops and when to harvest them because we can predict the timing of our seasons. A consistent, 24-hour day also allows us to create routines of work and sleep. Jesus said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” Each new day gives us the opportunity to reset and focus on the duties in front of us. We need this daily reset in order to keep ourselves from losing track or becoming overwhelmed. Sometimes life becomes so difficult that the promise of a new tomorrow is the only hope a person can cling to. It is a grace of God that He has separated the day from the night and given us this opportunity to reset.
When secularists hear me talk about the grandeur of the universe, including its innumerable stars and trillions of galaxies, they think it’s insane that I suggest these were made for humanity. What kind of hubris must it take claim the lights in the firmament do not shine for themselves nor for the spiritual realm above it, but for us? The funny part about that is, the scripture asked the same question long before the secularists knew anything about it. Psalm 8:3-4 says, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?” The love God has for humanity doesn’t make rational sense, especially when we’re held up against the grandeur of the universe. The scripture acknowledges that.
Our only response to this kind of radical love must be gratitude, praise, and diligence to use what God has given us. It is a sin of omission to waste our lives on hedonistic pleasures when God has done so much to facilitate our daily work. He has given us great purpose and great work and upholds us in a magnificent universe that we may accomplish it. God made the sun, moon, and stars to serve us and these bodies do it faithfully. They shine in their appointed patterns without fail. As Christians we, too, have been established as lights for the world. We’ve been redeemed and sanctified for the purpose of serving God — just as the stars serve us — yet how often do we come up short? How often do we fail to meet the purpose we’re designed for?
So we know the sun, moon, and stars are all the work of God’s hands. Certainly there are stars much larger than the sun, but there is no star more important to humanity than the sun — and so it is given in scripture as the greatest of the lights in the firmament. The sun represents a noble instance of the Creator’s wisdom, power, and goodness. How powerful must God be to create such a thing? How good must He be to ensure it provides us energy and warmth? Listen to what the first six verses of Psalm 19 say about the stars and the sun and how their majesty testifies of God’s glory:
“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.”
The moon is another example of a heavenly body which, objectively speaking, is not nearly as impressive as other stars and galaxies. However, scripture counts the moon as one of the greater lights because of its usefulness to the Earth. It doesn’t matter that the light of the moon is simply a reflection of the sun’s light — the office of the moon as ruler of the night makes it more significant than other bodies like stars. The spiritual lesson to be learned from the moon is that God values those who are most serviceable and most obedient to faithfully do good. Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant.” Talent, power, and gifts mean nothing in the sight of God if the person isn’t using them with humility and obedience. In fact their giftedness may serve to condemn them because they have less justification for their refusal to do the work.
When we read in this passage that God “made the stars also” we notice the text makes no effort to distinguish between stars and planets. This is because the purpose of scripture is to reveal God to us and transform our inner-person. It’s not a science textbook and it holds no interest in explaining the physical workings of the universe. The extent to which the scripture endeavors to report how the universe was made doesn’t go far beyond simply telling us God made it. The most important part of the creation account is revealing God Himself as our Creator.
When we think of the sun ruling the day and the moon and stars ruling the night, it’s important we understand this as deputy-rulership under God’s sovereign authority. The governance offered by these heavenly bodies does not extend beyond that which God commanded them. They are to give light, establish seasons, and in the sun’s case give energy. It sounds rather elementary to underscore this, but the cosmos is routinely used to inspire idolatry and worship of the creation itself.
Many times you’ll hear secularists say things like, “The universe is telling me this or telling me that. The universe is punishing me or rewarding me. The universe has such and such planned for my life.” All of these sentiments reveal how easy it is for idolatrous humans to appeal to the universe as a replacement for God. This kind of idolatry is especially offensive to God because all of the creation belongs to Him including the stars in the firmament. He created these things to serve us, and yet we turn around and serve them as gods.
One reason we tend to idolize the cosmos is because it does in fact give us light. To live a life of good works such that your existence is a light to other people is to command great respect. People love the person whose life brings light to their own. We’re called to carry the light of Christ into the world but it’s important we remember humanity’s proclivity to idolize such light-bearers. Even if we become saints in this world, we must always point back to Christ and give Him the praise He is due. We must remember that like the heavenly bodies in the cosmos, we too are servants.
With enough wisdom, faith, and proper humility, we can remember our daily duty to worship God who made all these things. We can remember He made them with us in mind. Day and night has been given to us by His adornment of the universe, and so day and night we can offer a solemn sacrifice of prayer and praise. Day and night we can delight ourselves in meditation on His holy scripture.