Let There Be Light: Genesis 1:3-5 Explained

Scriptures for Today:

Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Introduction

We’re back in the book of Genesis. Does anyone remember what Genesis means? It means “beginnings”. In this book we find the beginning of all things as we know it. Think about some of the most common questions people have about life…

Where did everything come from?
Why am I here? What’s my purpose?
Why is the world broken? Why is there suffering?
Why do people die?

All these questions and way more are answered right here in this book of beginnings. Genesis is the first of the five books of the Law (Gen, Ex, Lev, Num, Deut)—written by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.

The book of Genesis is the foundational pillar of all of scripture. It reveals God, who is the eternal creator. It describes the origin of all things as we know it. It explains the corruption and the fall of mankind. It introduces us to God’s eternal plan to redeem His creation. It establishes the one and only way to obtain salvation (receiving the righteousness of God through faith).

A little over 18 weeks ago we started studying Genesis Chapter 1. Josh went over just the first 2 verses. Let’s look at a short recap of what we learned so far.  

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Here we have the first verse in the Bible. A powerful opening statement that declares the beginning of heaven and earth. This includes the beginning of time, space, and all matter, but NOT the beginning of God.

Remember God is outside of all of creation because he made everything…

Nehemiah 9:6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven (explain), the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

Think about how big our universe is. We cannot even begin to comprehend how large and vast it is.
Even with it being so vast and large, God cannot be contained by the universe.

1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?

He is not bound by time…

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Understand God is from everlasting to everlasting. He has no beginning and no end.

Some might say, “How is that possible for God to not have a beginning?”
We are finite people meaning we have defined limits that are set by God himself. He is outside of our understanding. We can only understand things within the limits that God set for us.

“Beginning” is a concept that only applies to things that are bound by time. (Like this building for example, there was a point in time where we can say that was the beginning of this building. In 1989)
But since time is created by God, “beginning” does not apply to God.

It’s impossible for us to understand the full nature of God. Because if we fully understood God, then He would not be God.

And God made it that way for a reason…

Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

So when we read, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” We must have faith that God spoke everything in this universe into existence. He is eternal, without a beginning or an end.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

So we know all three persons of the Godhead were present and at work during the creation of all things. The Scriptures clearly teach us that…

1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

We clearly see the Spirit of God here in verse 2. But where is Jesus Christ in Genesis 1?

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Keep in mind how creation has unfolded up to this point in verse 2. God created the heaven and the earth. The earth is unformed, void, and empty. (a mass of deep waters.) And everything is surrounded by darkness.

And that brings us to today’s lesson starting in verse 3…

Verse 3

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

The first thing we see is that God creates by His Word. “And God Said”. He doesn’t gather materials. He doesn’t use tools. He speaks. And when God speaks, all reality obeys.

Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

There is no authority greater than the God of all creation. Everything obeys at the sound of His voice.

Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

When we build things on this earth, Like a house or a building, it takes us a lot of time, a lot of effort and energy, it takes many resources and planning. It can be a lengthy process. There are different stages of construction.

But God simply framed the entire universe by the breath of his mouth. How awesome is that?!

I want you to notice the immediacy of God’s power…
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.“

There is no delay. No process. No evolution. (There are Christians that say, “Evolution is real, the earth is billions of years old, God just created the process of evolution.”) That is false. There are no gaps, there is no drawn-out process. His creation comes into existence immediately.

Let’s talk a little bit about this light for a moment. This light that we see in verse 3 is before the sun is created. God doesn’t create the sun and the moon until later in this chapter on day 4.

So this is not the sun turning on. This is God introducing light itself.

One thing we know about God’s nature is that He is light.

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Psalm 104:1-2 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. 2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

Something that we have to understand is that God’s light is not the same as created light.

We cannot see God’s light right now. Remember God is not contained by creation. If it were possible for us to see God’s light right now we would be seeing it, because he fills heaven and earth. Jeremiah 23:24. In Colossians 1 it talks about Jesus Christ…

Colossians 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

God is currently invisible to us. If God revealed His light to us in our current sinful state we would all be destroyed by the brightness of His glory.

So this light in Genesis 1:3 is physical light that is a creation. It’s not the same light that God is, because it has a beginning. God spoke it into existence into our natural world. The light that God created has order, it has measurable properties. We can measure how fast light travels. We can measure how bright it is.

God’s light is immeasurable and understood by no man. But this created light offers just an incredibly small glimpse of God’s glory.  

Verse 4

Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

God evaluates His work and declares it to be good. God is not experimenting or taking multiple tries to get it right. Like when we make things, we make a lot of mistakes along the way.

There is a saying, “Measure twice, cut once”. There are times where we can measure twice and still get it wrong. God doesn’t need to measure twice; He doesn’t need to measure at all. He speaks once and creation happens perfectly.

The light that God made was good. Notice he didn’t see the darkness that it was good. He saw the light, that it was good. He sets the standard for what good is. The standard for good is not established by mankind. The creation does not get to tell its creator what is good and what is evil.

But that’s what man has been doing for a very long time…

Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Man has been deceived into calling evil good and good evil. Man has put darkness for light.
Fame, Riches, lustful pleasure, material possessions are all considered good by the world. But those things are not good in the eyes of God.

God does not blur the lines between categories. Notice the second half of verse 4…

Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Very early on at the beginning of creation, God establishes order and makes a distinction between things that are different. He divides light from the darkness. Later on he divides land from sea. He divides different kinds of creatures.

These divisions are important because they bring order and stability. The devil hates God’s order and wants to blur the division, and he tries to reverse what God has established.
The devil has deceived man into blurring the line between light and darkness. (People stay up all night in darkness doing evil and sleep during the day.)

He has deceived man into merging male and female on a physical, mental, and emotional level.
Men think they can be women, and women think they can be men.

Satan wants chaos and destruction. God demands order and stability, through division.
” God divided the light from the darkness.”

Verse 5

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night…

Notice that out of this division of light from darkness God establishes a system of time. He calls light Day and darkness Night.

And that matters because God is laying the groundwork for how life on earth is going to operate. God didn’t just create light only so things could be seen—He created a rhythm for life: a time to work, and a time to rest.

Psalm 104:22-23 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. 23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.

John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

This is part of God’s order and stability. The devil pushes confusion—up all night, asleep all day, no structure, no boundaries. But God builds structure into creation itself. He gives a time to labor and a time to stop.

Another thing to point out is that even though God did not declare darkness to be good. He still names it and has total control over the darkness. Night exists as part of God’s design and is there for the purpose of ceasing from work and resting.

Psalm 74:16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

Man uses darkness to try to hide evil, but nothing can be hid from the creator of all.

Let’s look at the last part of verse 5…

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

It’s important to understand God’s order here:

Light is Day. According to God, a day starts when light rises over the earth. That light lasts on average for about 12 hours.
When darkness comes, night has started. That darkness on average lasts about 12 hours.

12 hours of day plus 12 hours of night equals a 24 hour day.

So when it says ” the evening and the morning were the first day.” God is declaring the completion of that entire first day of creation. It starts in the morning, then you have 12 hours of day in which work is done. And then from the evening to the next morning is the completion. And the cycle repeats.

And remember God didn’t just create light here, He also created the starting point for us to be able to measure time. And time itself is under God’s authority. Our lives work best when we live within the order that He established.

Josh has several sermons on this topic of Day and Night. Understanding how day and night works in the Bible is very important and helps you understand different timings for different events throughout scripture. Like the feasts of the Lord. The timing of the Passover. The timing of Jesus’ death, and resurrection. And many other things.

If you go on our website and go to sermons and search “day” in the search bar, you’ll find multiple sermons on this.

Conclusion

We could continue to study these few verses and go deeper and deeper. That’s the amazing thing about God’s Word. It’s living. It’s powerful. It’s infinite. I want to quickly look at some spiritual application.

So far we see that God spoke light into existence.
God saw the light that it was good. He divided the light from the darkness.
He called the light day and he called the darkness night.
He established order and a system of time in which His creation would be bound.

But we also see how God reveals Himself through His creation in many ways. The Bible even says, “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).

Even the creation account itself is full of pictures that point forward and foreshadows God’s redemptive plan.

It’s not an accident that God saw the light, that it was good. He could have said the darkness was good. But He said the light was good. Because God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

When we read about that light piercing through the darkness on the first day of creation, we can remember the light that Jesus Christ brought into this world.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

That’s the problem with mankind. — people love darkness because it hides sin. Darkness gives cover. Darkness lets people keep their deeds. That’s why men resist the light.

But praise God, Jesus didn’t come to leave us in darkness.

John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

Notice it doesn’t say, “whosoever cleans up his life,” or “whosoever fixes his habits.
It says, “whosoever believeth on me.” Faith is how you step out of darkness.

Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

When you believe in Jesus Christ, your eyes are opened, you’re turned from darkness to light, and you’re brought out from under Satan’s power unto God.

And here’s the connection back to Genesis 1…

2 Corinthians 4:5-6 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The same God who said in Genesis, “Let there be light,” is the God who shines light into our dark hearts. God doesn’t ask darkness for permission. God commands light — and light comes.

And now that we’re saved, God calls us to live like we are in the light.

Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

If you believe in Jesus Christ today. I want to encourage you, don’t try to go back to the darkness. You are light in the Lord.

Remember your creator. When the light enters your room in the morning. Give thanks to God. Give Him the first fruits of your day. Let’s walk in the light together. And let’s share the light with everyone we possibly can while it is day. Because the night is coming when no man can work. Let’s pray.