Bible Study Genesis Part 10-And God Said, "Light Be"

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

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The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold.

And we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There's truly nothing more important to you.

Now, join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Now, last time we were together a few weeks ago, we talked about how extensively Scripture uses darkness as a symbol.

The image of darkness is found all over the Bible as a tool by which God communicates certain aspects of truth to us.

Well, as you can probably guess, light is just as ubiquitous.

In fact, in at least half of the times darkness is mentioned, light is not far behind in Scripture.

So when darkness is mentioned, light is right behind it as the contrast.

That's important to God that you know the contrast between light and darkness.

And let's face it, that's really what this is all about.

Now, just like darkness, like light conveys vital imagery in God's Word.

In fact, it's said that the Bible is actually wrapped in light.

You see, light is mentioned at the very beginning, though you're quite familiar with it by now.

Let me just quote from Genesis chapter one, verses three and four.

We just mentioned three a moment ago.

We're going to repeat it and then add verse four.

It's important to this discussion.

And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.

As close to the beginning of Scripture as possible, light is introduced.

So it's there at the start.

Light is at the start of Scripture.

And then likewise, light is found at the very end.

Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible says, we're going to start at verse 5, and there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

So light is at the beginning and it's found at the end.

I know it's excruciating for me to move on from Revelation 22, 5, but I don't want to get us too far off track.

You know me, I'm focused.

So light is at the beginning and light is at the end.

Light serves as the Bible's book ends.

Light is enclosing the Bible.

Now, something else that should strike you about those two passages of scripture that we just read is that in both circumstances, God is in complete control.

He is the master of light.

He commands it and he bestows it.

He tells light what to do.

He is light's boss.

Those two books and verses make it quite clear light serves God.

As powerful as we perceive light to be, it's still a servant of the Almighty, just like you and me.

And you know, the Bible is unique in this.

The pagans, they were obsessed with the sun, moon, and stars.

And there are still some pagans on the planet to this day who are obsessed with the sun, moon, and stars.

But let's talk about the pagans of old.

They worshiped the sun, moon, and stars.

They feared them.

They did all they could to appease them.

All because to them, these were the bodies responsible for giving that all-important, life-giving and life-sustaining light.

Now it's hard to blame them, of course.

They knew how vital light is, but they just missed the worship target.

But we know better now, don't we?

Thanks to his word and his son, we now know that light would be of no value to us if God didn't control its every move.

Listen to me, light is not random.

Light does what God tells it to do.

That's how powerful he is.

Throughout scripture, God demonstrates that light is no less of a tool at his full disposal than anything else.

And again, that includes you and me.

In fact, Psalm 148 reminds these same heavenly luminaries in an anthropomorphic way, the ones the pagans bowed down to.

This psalm sets the record straight as to who is truly worthy of worship.

Listen to this, starting at verse 1: Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights, praise ye him, all his angels, praise ye him, all his hosts, praise ye him, listen to me, praise ye him, sun and moon.

Praise him all ye stars of light.

The stars, the sun, the moon, they're being told to worship God.

Isn't that unbelievable?

Praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created.

Nothing displays the infinite power God possesses, quite like his total authority over light.

Now, from a purely physical point of view, as we inferred, light is vital to all life.

We know that from biology, but we also see that from scripture.

Again, referring back to the first chapter of Genesis, we see that God can only restore life after He's bringing, after He's brought back light to it.

God could not restore or would not restore life to this earth until light was here.

And God said, Let there be light and there was light.

Light had to be present so that life could be created and maintained.

Now, let me say again for emphasis: I do not believe verse three is when God creates life.

I think by the time verse three comes along, light has been in existence for a very long time, perhaps even eternally.

Now, I can't prove that to you, but biologically speaking, complex life is not possible without light.

Now, the reason why I'm referring to this is because remember, it is our theory, it is my theory that what we are now in is a recreative process.

There was a creation prior to this creation, and the only way that could have happened is if light happened back then.

God is not going to create life without light because that is the way he designs things.

God is not likely to have created the universe just to fill it with simple, non-reactive organisms because there are some organisms deep in the oceans that don't necessarily need life, but they're simple.

They don't interact, they don't react.

God created everything in order to interact with it.

Simple, non-light dependent bacteria.

Life is not very useful toward that end.

What's your point?

I believe light existed at least as far back as verse one, but perhaps even much further back than that.

Well, then someone who's very brilliant would ask me, well, listen to Genesis 1:3 again, John.

Genesis 1:3

And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

How do you explain that?

Well, to be honest, I can't.

I admit verse 3, actually, verses 3 and 4 read as if light was created at this very moment.

In fact, the original is even more direct and to the point.

The Hebrew is closer to, and God said, light be and light became.

That's not something I can work out in my mind as fitting my theory, but I'm sticking with it.

It's not the first time I leaned on something that doesn't have a lot of evidence backing it up, but let's get back to talking about light in scripture.

I just want to make sure people understand it's important to me that you, everyone that listens to this program, understands that I want to be consistent in the things I'm teaching.

And I want people to understand that I think about these things deeply and they I don't just take them as if they're light.

So I wanted to make sure you see that I was consistent.

All right.

So the most obvious quality of life, excuse me, the most obvious quality of light both in and out of the Bible, but here we're concentrating on its use in the Bible.

Therefore, the most obvious quality of light from a biblical standpoint, listen to me, is that light expels darkness.

Darkness doesn't chase away light.

Light is always the conqueror of dark.

Light in God's universe is always on the heels of the dark.

Light, listen to me, light is always the pursuer.

Darkness in God's plan is the prey.

That is constantly emphasized in the Bible.

Now, as I said, we're taking our time discussing these things because they're so emblematic of the conflict between God and the forces of evil.

We must closely study this dynamic between light and dark if we're going to fully understand this record that God has left us in his word.

So back to my point.

In Scripture, light is always seen as the victor over darkness.

And by the way, it's that way in the physical world as well.

When light arrives, am I right?

Darkness is nullified.

It is never the other way around.

Darkness does not approach light and light leaves.

It's always the other way.

And you don't have to be religious to agree with that point.

In our individual lives, can't it be said that when light arrives in our own personal darkness, it's almost always perceived as if we've been visited by some sort of benevolence.

Now, although that sounds a little mystical, I don't think any of you would disagree with me on it.

I don't think I need to explain it every any further.

Everyone understands what I'm talking about.

And once again, can I say you don't have to be a Christian to feel this way?

All of mankind relies on light.

We count on light.

We use light to protect us.

We use light to aid us in our everyday lives and work.

We need light for our crops.

We need light for our work.

Without light, we wouldn't know where to fit the widget into the hoozes.

Now, John, you're not being very kind.

You're not being very sensitive to those who are blind.

Well, I don't think there is a single blind person who wouldn't trade everything they had to regain, or in most cases, just to gain access to light.

We all know instinctively that light is important.

Maybe instinct is not the right word, but somehow we just know that without light, there would be no order.

There would only be chaos, precisely as described in Genesis 1.2.

We have a couple of people on this call from New York City.

Do you remember the big blackout?

Remember the chaos following the blackout?

That is exactly the way the entire world would be without light.

And believe me, the darkness of New York City that night was nothing compared to the darkness that Satan wants to descend on this earth.

Light is of immeasurable value to all of human civilization, because without it, there'd be no such thing.

We as a people cannot function without light.

So light is important to us regardless of whether we believe in the Bible or not.

And because of all of that, because all of that is so true to our basic human understanding, this idea of light having great importance is a natural and clear symbol in Scripture.

Biblically, light is seen as having a sort of jurisdiction.

Let's read Genesis 1:16 to help us make this point.

Genesis 1:16

Listen to me.

And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.

Now, this is not poetry.

And the idea of this verse is that light exercises dominion and authority.

God wanted you to get the understanding that He made two great lights, one was to rule the day and one was to rule the night.

You know, perhaps if one were to sit and think about it, the most obvious thing to say about light is that it seems so far beyond our ability, our ability to grasp what it really is.

When we sit and we think God created two lights, what does that mean?

Well, light ironically is shrouded in mystery.

Now, not mystery in the sense that it's something we're afraid of or something we dread.

As God can be said of Himself, light is wonderfully intriguing.

We want to know more about it because it just seems so fascinating.

It's almost as if it bestows its blessings on us in a silent, cryptic way.

Again, not only is that true in the physical world, but the Bible treats the subject in much the same way.

Let's read from the book of Job to demonstrate this point of the mysterious nature of light.

As we've already said, the subject of light and dark is quite ubiquitous in this, the oldest book of the Bible.

I've got a heckler apparently over there.

So let's start with chapter 38, verse 19.

Book of Job.

I said the book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible.

You may not know that.

It doesn't cover the oldest subject, that's Genesis, but it is apparently the oldest written book of the Bible.

Someone told me that.

I can't prove that to you.

Job 38, 19.

Where is the way where light dwelleth?

Job is asking, where is the way where light dwelleth?

And as for darkness, where is the place thereof?

In other words, where does light come from and where does it go?

Light must originate somewhere, but we just don't know where.

Now someone is going to say, Well, we do know where light comes from, it comes from the sun.

Well, I want to point out to you that light was mentioned in Genesis before God created the sun.

Let that sink in for a bit.

To us, our light comes from the sun.

But light was here before the sun.

How did light get on us before the sun?

Fascinating, mysterious, intriguing.

Back to Job chapter 38, we're going to stay in chapter 38, this time, verse 24.

Job 38 · chapter mention

By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?

We simply know very little about this vital element we call light.

Now, the mention of the presence of actual physical light is common in the Bible and obviously a means by which God tells much of his story.

When the physical presence of light is mentioned, God is telling us something.

For example, there were lamps in the tabernacle in the wilderness.

There were lamps.

God told Moses to build some lamps and put them in the tabernacle, and he did so.

And those lamps became an essential part of the Jewish worship.

Exodus 25, 37, and thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof, and they shall light the lamps thereof that they may give light over against it.

Now, one of these days we'll get into a very detailed study of the items of the tabernacle.

There was a time we taught extensively on the tabernacle.

We'll get there again eventually.

But for now, let me just say there is a great deal of symbolism in those lampstands.

There is symbolic significance in those lampstands.

It's construction, the numbers associated with it, the materials, all of that tell a story.

But for our current purposes, let me just say, listen to me, that the light emanating from the lampstand is symbolic of our Lord Jesus.

He himself once said, John 8, 12, I am the light of the world.

He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

As you remember, the fifth chapter of Ephesians tells us that his light should also shine through us.

Verse 8 and 9.

For ye were once, says sometimes in the King James, for ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the world.

Walk as children of light.

For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.

The light coming from that lampstand was a crucially important element of the story that the tabernacle was telling.

And the entire story of the tabernacle is our Lord Jesus.

Therefore, light is associated with him.

God was very specific about it.

Leviticus 24, 2.

Command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light to cause the lamps to burn continually.

That means they were to burn eternally.

The light that comes out of the tabernacle was to shine eternally.

That lampstand and the light emanating from it continued to be an important part of Jewish worship long after the tabernacle in the wilderness was replaced by the more permanent temple planned by David, but built by his son Saul.

Solomon, God made sure those lampstands stayed in the temple.

When the tabernacle was no longer in use and the temple was built, God wanted those lamps inside the temple because the light was telling a story.

Now, the properties of light are often used in the Bible to describe what we perceive as the presence of God.

For instance, as the children of Israel wandered in the desert by night, they were protected by a column of fire.

The light of that column of fire protected the people against the perilous desert darkness.

And the Israelites knew that light was God's presence.

Now, in the tabernacle and the temple, there was also what is known as the Shekinah glory.

And it was also a physical representation of God's presence.

As a matter of fact, those are one and the same.

The Shekinah glory and the column of fire and the cloud during the day, all of that is the Shekinah glory, but I want to pass, that's that's for teaching for later on.

But I'm just describing the Shekinah glory.

It was described in the Bible, the Shekinah glory was described in the Bible as a cloud.

But some scholars say what is meant here is actually that it was a luminous cloud or a lit up cloud.

There was light emanating from those clouds.

That same glorious cloud, the Shekinah glory, also settled on Mount Sinai as God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.

And even afterwards, upon returning to the people from the mountain, the Bible tells us something specific about Moses' face.

We are told after he met with God, his face shone.

He had to wear a veil to hide the shining of his face.

Why?

Because he was talking to God.

In fact, the appearance of light is so symbolic of God's visits to us that we find it so, we find it even so when the angels announced the birth of our Lord Jesus.

Certainly you all remember this next verse.

Most of us who grew up in some sort of Christian family have heard this at least once a year for our entire lives.

Luke 2, 9.

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord what?

Shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

The glory of the Lord mentioned in this account from the Gospel of Luke is also the Shekinah glory, the one we just spoke of a moment ago, the one that was found in the temple and the tabernacle, as well as the walk in the desert.

Listen, there may have been thousands of years between the instances of the mentioning of the Shekinah glory, but it isn't going to change.

We may change, but God doesn't.

The Shekinah glory is the Shekinah glory, and it will ever be the Shekinah glory.

Listen, the big mistake people make is they think that because we because maybe we don't like the way God was in the past, that He should change.

Some people think that.

Some people say that.

Or there's the other extreme.

There are some in the liberal church that insist that God has changed, that he's finally gotten with the program, that he's finally decided that our way of thinking is better than his.

And so he's somehow become more civilized, that somehow our intellect and high functioning has tamed this once angry, out of control, holy hot head.

He's not mad at us anymore, they tell us.

Now, according to their way of thinking, they want you to believe that God has evolved.

He's much more tolerant than he was in those days.

So don't worry, live it up.

He's gonna overlook what he used to condemn because I mean because he loves us, right?

And love means letting someone do whatever they want, right?

That's the message we're getting.

That's the message from those shallow, spiritually dead people who dare to stand in the pulpits of God's house.

Yes, I get on my soapbox about churches.

I'm sorry, but there's corruption in our churches.

We have to start this, these little home churches that we we're involved in, the things that are going on in the rest of the world, people are saying, forget about the corruption of the church.

Let's worship God in our own families, in our own homes.

That's the way it used to be.

And let me tell you, when Jesus returns to the earth to wrap this dispensation up, he's going to look exactly the same as he did when he appeared in the days of old.

Malachi 3, 6, for I am the Lord, I change not.

Okay, back to Luke 2.9 for just one more point.

I won't keep you much longer.

I'm going to read it again.

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sure, they were sore afraid.

Now we got off track for just a second, but I wanted to point out something related to our current discussion.

The clock is telling me my time is up.

So you see the phrase shown roundabout.

The Greek word is perilampo.

I'm sure you picked up on it, but perilampo has the word lampo in it.

Lampo in the Greek means to, you guessed it, to shine.

We of course get our word lamp from it, paralampo.

And then peri, as you remember from our previous discussions, means around or through.

Remember, peripateo, it means to walk around.

This is paralampo to shine around.

When the Shekinah glory appeared and announced the birth of the Messiah, his light shone shone round about.

It pushed out the darkness.

It was light all around.

To those that were perceiving it, it was perilampo.

It was light everywhere.

And just as a side note, yes, I know this whole discussion is a side note, but here is a side note within our side note.

The Greek word perilampo is also found in Acts 26, 13.

I have a point.

Let's read it, but we'll include verse 12.

Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, this is Paul's conversion, by the way, verse 13.

At midday I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.

The one thing you, as an avid Bible student, cannot help but noticing is its consistency.

The Bible is consistent, its unchangingness is proof that it can be trusted.

When God appears everywhere in the Bible, there is light roundabout.

It pushes all of the darkness away.

You know what else is darkness?

Sin.

When God comes, sin flees.

That's important for you to understand.

Well, believe it or not, we're not done with this topic of light yet.

It's too important to try and hurry through.

So we'll pick it up right there next time.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

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