Genesis Deeper ① Let There Be Light · Why was there light before the sun? (Genesis 1:1~5)
A series that takes one Bible passage at a time and looks a little deeper. Every post comes with images you are free to use in worship, class, or on social media.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:1~5 (World English Bible, public domain)
1. The place where nothing was
The first thing the Bible shows us about creation is an absence. The Hebrew is tohu wa-bohu (תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ), rendered “formless and empty.” It is less a picture of tangled chaos than of something that has not yet been given a shape, and has nothing inside it. The bowl has not been thrown, and nothing has been poured in.
Over it lay darkness. The text says darkness was “on the surface of the deep.” That word for the deep is tehom (תְהוֹם), water with no floor to it. No light, no shape, nowhere to stand. The Bible does not hide this scene; it puts it in the opening frame of the creation story.
And yet Someone is already there. “God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.” Nothing has begun, but God is present in the empty place first.
2. The first thing He called for was light
Facing that absolute darkness, God’s first act was not to build. It was to speak. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
In Hebrew it is startlingly short. The command is yehi ’or (יְהִי אוֹר, let there be light); the fulfilment is wayehi ’or (וַיְהִי אוֹר, and there was light). Between the word and the thing done there is no explanation, no process, no gap in time. God spoke, and it was so.
So the first step of creation was splitting the darkness and calling in light. He did not gather materials for a house. He first made it possible to see.
3. Going deeper · why light before the sun?
This is where many readers stop. The sun, moon and stars: the lights were made on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14~19). Yet light was already there on day one. Is the order wrong?
The sequence is making a point. Light does not originate with the sun; it originates with God himself. Before any sun rose, there was light where God was.
This lands harder once you know the world Genesis was written into. In that world the sun and moon were commonly objects of worship. Genesis will not even name them. It calls them “the greater light” and “the lesser light.” The Hebrew ma’or (מָאוֹר) is the word for a lamp, a light-fixture. Not gods: lamps God hung in the sky.
So the Bible’s first page reaches its last book: “The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it” (Revelation 21:23). At the beginning there was light without a sun; at the end no sun is needed. Light always comes from God.
4. He divided, He named, He called it good
Having made light, God immediately divided the light from the darkness. The verb in Genesis 1:4 is wayyavdel (וַיַּבְדֵּל), the causative hivdil (הִבְדִּיל) of the root ב־ד־ל, “to separate, to set apart.” Creation was filling, yes, but it was also sorting what was mixed and drawing boundaries. Order came to disorder; endless dark received the rhythm of day and night.
Then He named them. Light is “day”; darkness is “night.” To give a name is to say that a thing has its place. Darkness was not abolished. It was assigned a place of its own.
“Good” is worth a look too. Hebrew tov (טוֹב) can mean beautiful, but in the creation account many scholars read it closer to fit for its purpose. What God made was, from the start, exactly right where it stood.
5. There was evening and there was morning
Day one closes like this: “There was evening and there was morning, the first day.” The order runs opposite to ours. The day begins not at sunrise but at evening. To this day the Jewish day begins at sundown.
So a biblical day starts in darkness and ends in light. The direction of the day itself runs from dark toward light. That direction was set on the very first day of creation.
6. For us today
When life goes dark we usually look first for “something that could become light”: a situation resolving, a person helping, circumstances improving. Then, we think, it will brighten.
Day one reverses the order. Conditions do not produce light; a single word from God brings light into being. There was light with no sun. Into your own formless and empty place, He is still the One who can say, “Let there be light.”
And one more thing. Before there was any light, God’s Spirit was already hovering over those dark waters. Even where nothing has changed yet, He is there first.
“God who splits the darkness, speak ‘let there be light’ over the deep dark in my heart today. I believe You are here first, in this place where nothing has changed yet. You are the source of my light. Amen.”
🕊 Using this in ministry
Opening question
“If we turned off every light in this room, what would disappear first?” When they say “we couldn’t see anything,” step into day one.
Activity
Turn the lights off for a moment with the first image (the dark sea) on screen, then switch to the second image as you say “Let there be light.” Let them see a scene change at a single word.
Application
“Where is it still dark in me?” Have each person write it down and fold the paper. Close with: “God’s Spirit is over that place too.”
⬇ Today’s four images · free to download
 Formless and empty |
 Let there be light |
 Dividing light from darkness |
 Day Four · sun, moon, stars |
📄 Image licence CC0 (Public Domain) · Use, modify and redistribute freely, no attribution required.
🤖 These images were created with AI (Grok).
🎨 Week 1 Creation · 28 free images · transparent PNG · CC0, day one through day seven
🇰🇷 한국어 · 🇺🇸 English (current) · 🇰🇭 ភាសាខ្មែរ
Origin Bible · Mission Zedero
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✍️ This article was written with the help of AI and reviewed by a person.
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