Genesis 1:3

[AJTruth]

God said: Let there be "Light". The stars, sun & moon don't come until day 4. What was this "light".

 

[inquiring mind]

God's light... something out of nothing... doesn't require the sun, moon or stars?

 

[miamited]

God said: Let there be "Light". The stars, sun & moon don't come until day 4. What was this "light".

Hi ajtruth,

That's one that a lot of people stumble on, and quite frankly, there isn't really any definitive answer to that question explained in the Scriptures. However...

The Scriptures do tell us that God is light. In the eternal existence we are told that there will no longer be a need for the sun or moon because God is our light. The light of His city.

Based on such claims of the Scriptures, I believe a reasonable and likely explanation for the light that God first commands to exist in this realm, is Himself. One might look at as living on different planes of existence.

One of the fascinating christian authors that I have read, so far as christian fiction, is Frank Peretti. In his books, This Piercing Darkness and This Present Darkness, he paints a picture, that would follow the teachings of the Scriptures, that we live in a realm of existence that overlays the exact same area as the angelic realm. In both of these books we find that angels and demons are all around us, which is what the Scriptures describe, we just can't see them. They exist on a different plane of existence or our eyes are not set to see them as they move about right around us.

Following such an explanation of the reality of such an existence, then it could well be that God's first command was that His light, the light that is Him, stepped from the unseen angelic realm into the realm seen by our eyes. In a plane that was dark and void, but had always been, God brought His light and then continued to build that overlapping realm into what we see today. He created the earth and then flung the stars far and wide across this secondary realm.

I'm sure there will be other explanations forthcoming, but this one does fit any of the clues in the Scriptures concerning the realm of heaven and the realm of our own physical lives.

God bless you,
In Christ, ted

 

[archer75]

Maybe the light was diffuse and then was scooped up into clusters (stars and things)!

 

[RaymondG]

The same light that lighteth every man that comes into the world...

 

[tansy]

I haven't time now to do any research on the web and am not a scientist - however, I think I may have read something somewhere about this, but can't remember what . But (and depending whether you are a Big Bang afficionado or whatever), supposing God started out by creating all the basic elements, can't remember what they are , I think it's about three which combine, perhaps those would have made light. Sort of like when you mix a couple of chemicals in the chemistry lab at school and it makes a bright flash. And then from the basic elements, the sun and stars were formed.
I'm fairly certain that light per se doesn't necessarily emanate from the sun and stars, though I may be wrong.
I know this sounds very muddled, but perhaps someone who's done science beyond age 13 would be able to enlighten us a bit further.

 

[hisdelight831]

Maybe the light was diffuse and then was scooped up into clusters (stars and things)!

What a fun idea. I like pondering these things. Another fun one is how was there "evening and morning" on the days before the sun and moon??

 

[AJTruth]

Genesis 1:3 Jesus is the ""light"" In Genesis 1:3 God said: Let there be ""Light"". What was this ""light"". The stars, sun and moon don't come until day 4?

1 John 1:6-7
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the ""light"", as he is in the ""light"", we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

John 12:35-37
35 Jesus said to them, “The ""light"" (HIM) is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the ""light"", lest darkness overtake you.

36 The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the ""light"", believe in the ""light"", that you may become sons of ""light."”

37 When Jesus had said these things, departed and hid himself from them.

John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the ""light"" of men.

5 The ""light"" (Jesus) shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5

2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let ""light"" shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

John 8:
12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the ""light"" of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did ""light"" it, and the Lamb (Jesus) ""is the light"" thereof."—Revelation 21:23.

John 9:
5 Jesus Said; As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

JESUS WAS/IS THE LIGHT!

 

[Mark51]

According to J. W. Watts’ translation, that verse reads: “Afterward God proceeded to say, ‘Let there be light’; and gradually light came into existence.” The translation by Benjamin Wills Newton gives the same picture of continuing development of a process once started: “And God proceeded to say [future], Let Light become to be, and Light proceeded to become to be [future].” (Brackets are Newton’s.) The light that penetrated to the surface gradually increased in intensity, and the process proceeded on into the future.

The first creative day did not complete the “creation” of light with respect to the earth. The sources of it existed before that first day but were invisible from the surface of the earth. (Genesis 1:1) At that early point, something-perhaps a mixture of water vapor, other gases, and volcanic dust-must have prevented sunlight-as we experience-from reaching the surface of the earth.

Only the penetration of diffused light would have been visible on the earth. This was possible by the thinning of such translucent layers that enveloped the earth like “swaddling bands.” (Job 38:9) This type of illumination gradually increased with the thinning of the interfering layers.

 

[Ancient of Days]

God said: Let there be "Light". The stars, sun & moon don't come until day 4. What was this "light".

That's an assumption that there can only be light from the sun and stars. He put them in place so that "we" could see, not him. When I walk into a dark room and say "Let there be light" and flip on the light switch then the room is illuminated. Remember when God speaks, things come into existence. That's what makes the bible so powerful. They are the words of the living God. The bible is literally "alive"

 

[dreadnought]

God's light... something out of nothing... doesn't require the sun, moon or stars?

Interesting question. It isn't until the fourteenth verse that he talks about "lights." So maybe he is talking about the light in our mind, like the expression "walking in the light" in the previous verses.

 

[Yekcidmij]

God said: Let there be "Light". The stars, sun & moon don't come until day 4. What was this "light".

It's probably the light in day 4 (it even says he called the light, "day"). Day 1 parallels day 4. Just as days 2 and 3 parallel days 5 and 6.

Day.......................................Day
1 - day and night..........4 - lights/sun moon stars
2 - water/sky................5 - birds and sea creatures
3 - land.......................6 - land animals

The parallels can be seen easily.

 

[Ron Gurley]

"Light" is the absence of darkness.
Out of the void/nothingness was created "Light".

Let there be light...Hebrew 216...'owr...
I.light
A.light of day
B.light of heavenly luminaries (moon, sun, stars)
C.day-break, dawn, morning light
D.daylight

John 8:12 [ Jesus Is the Light of the World ]
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying,
“I am the Light of the world;
he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness,
but will have the Light of life.”

 

[ewq1938]

God said: Let there be "Light". The stars, sun & moon don't come until day 4. What was this "light".

Here God creates light from a different source:

Exo_13:21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: