Episode #152 Rediscover God’s Light from Genesis to Revelation – Cultivate Wonder

Hey friends, it's Jen and thank you for joining me for this episode of Good God Talks. It's incredible that our good God talks with us. And I thought it would be good to spend a few episodes here looking at visuals and imagery and themes that we see throughout the grand story of the Bible and what we see on display about God in our day to day lives.

And so today, and then again in our very next episode, we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at light. Now, light is a common theme that's talked about in scripture. I'm sure even as I'm saying this, you're thinking of verses or Bible stories that relate to this concept of light. And the one I want to start with today is from our creation story in Genesis and how God brings light to the world. And it happens in a way that I didn't realize until really sometime last year. And so I'm going to share that insight with you.

Now, most of us are probably familiar with the creation story that's outlined at the beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter one, and it goes through the creation of the world in sequential order, with God seeing what he's made and calling it good at the end of each day.

And so I'm going to start by reading for us Genesis 1:1-5.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5)

Okay, anyone who's ever read the first few lines of the Bible is probably familiar with that part of the story.
But for some reason I didn't realize that God lit the earth before he created the sun. Verses 14 through 19:

“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. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.” (Genesis 1:14-19)

So God said, let there be light, and there was. And He separated the light from darkness and created day and night on Day One. But it wasn't until Day Four that he created the sun.

How incredible is that?

We have always known and experienced day and night by the placement of the sun. But the originator of our light was never the sun. 1 John 1:5b says, “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.”

The original light on earth came from God himself.

And if that feels weird to you to consider, I understand. It felt weird for me to consider two, but I'm going to jump ahead all the way to the end of the Bible and read a passage of scripture from the Book of Revelation. It's Revelation 22:3-5. And this is about Christ's second coming and the new heaven and the new earth and it says:

“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:3-5)

In our creation story, he lights the earth by himself before he creates our sun. And in Christ's second coming, God establishes his kingdom here with us. And he's like, Hey, you're not going to have a need for a lamp or sun anymore. I will be your light.

We have this opportunity today to marvel at God. To wonder at him.

I don't know all of what this means, but I know I've missed it before. I know I didn't pick up on those details in scripture. I thought of God as light as more of a literary phrase or a beautiful concept about his character. Not an actual reality of how he shows up in our world, or what hope he offers us for how we'll experience him in the future.

And so today we're just marveling at that together and we're going to ask God to talk with us more about it. And so here's our question:

God, what do you want to show me about how you are light?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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