Genesis Deeper ④ The Day He Hung Lamps in the Sky — what marked the days when there was no sun? (Genesis 1:14–19)
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.
God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
— Genesis 1:14–19 (World English Bible, public domain)
1. Everything was ready, but the sky was empty
Look around at the end of day three and a great deal is already in place. There is light. There is sky. There is land and sea, and grass and trees have come up out of the ground.
And yet the sky is empty. Nothing hangs in that wide space opened on day two. There is light, but nowhere to look up and find where it comes from.
Day four fills that empty sky. God puts lights in the expanse of the heavens. English hides something here that the Hebrew says plainly: the word is not “light” but a thing that gives light. A light-bearer. What we would call a lamp.
2. Hanging the lamps, handing out the shifts
God does three things on day four. He makes (v. 16), He sets (v. 17), and He gives them charge (vv. 16, 18).
What He makes is two great lights, and the stars. Watch where the stars land. The text describes the two lights at length and then closes with “He also made the stars.” Every star that fills the night sky passes by in five words.
Next God sets them in the expanse of the sky. The lights did not climb into place on their own. They were put there.
Then He hands out the work. The greater light rules the day, the lesser light rules the night. And notice that the Bible never names them. A greater one and a lesser one, each with a stretch of time to keep. That is all.
3. Going deeper — what marked the days when there was no sun?
Read day four and something catches up with you. Genesis 1 has been counting the days since day one with “there was evening and there was morning.” But the sun that makes evening and morning does not arrive until day four.
So what marked the first three days?
The Bible does not answer that. Genesis 1 never explains how evening and morning passed without a sun. Where Scripture does not speak, we do well to stop too.
But there is something the text does say. The lights were not put there to make time. “Let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years” — the work is to put markings on time that is already running.
The order says as much. The days were already being counted from day one. Before the sun rose, evening was still evening and morning was still morning. What was hung on day four was not time, but something to read time by.
And so day four pairs with day one. On day one there was light; on day four a lamp was hung to carry it. Light did not come from the sun, and neither did time. God was counting the days before there was any sun to count them by.
4. Mo‘adim — what “seasons” is really saying
“Lights” in verse 14 is me‘orot (מְאֹרֹת) in Hebrew. It grows out of or (אוֹר), the word for light, but it does not mean light itself. It means the fixture that holds it. The singular of the same word stands in verse 16, behind “the greater light.”
“Seasons” in that same verse is ulemo‘adim (וּלְמוֹעֲדִים). The root carries an appointed time, and with it a time set to meet. It is the very word Scripture later uses for the feasts. So what the lights announce is not only that the weather is turning, but that an appointed time is coming near.
“To rule” in verse 16 reads like a verb in English, but in Hebrew it is lememshelet (לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת), a noun. Memshalah (מֶמְשָׁלָה) means rule, dominion, a governing charge. Translated flatly it is “for the dominion of the day.” It names not a task performed but a post held.
Put it together and the things hung in the sky were given a post instead of a name. And even that post was not taken. It was handed to them when they were set in place.
5. A fourth day
Day four closes with the same sentence as the rest. “There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.” This is the day the sun first rose, and the ending does not change. The way God counts a day did not change when the sun appeared.
6. For us today
What stays with you from day four is the lesser light. Scripture separates the two lights only as greater and lesser. And to the lesser one it still entrusts a stretch of time. The night belongs to the lesser light. Beside the day it looks like very little, but when night falls there is nothing else that will do its work.
People live much the same way. Some posts are always in full view. Others are kept at hours when no one is watching. Praying before dawn is one. Putting the house back together after a child is asleep is another.
Genesis 1 records only that the charge was given. It never makes size the qualification.
One more thing: the times are appointed. However long the day looks, evening comes; however deep the night, morning comes. If this feels like a season when your turn has not arrived, it is not that there is no turn. It is that the time has not come yet.
“God who appoints the times, I praise You for hanging lamps in the sky so that we could count our days. When my post looks small, let me remember that You placed me in it, and keep faithfully the hours You have entrusted to me. Even when my turn seems not to have come, I trust the days that You are counting. Amen.”
🕊 Using this in ministry
Opening question
“If there were no sun, how would you know what time it is?” When someone says shadows, follow it with “so does the sun make time, or does it tell us the time?”
Activity
Put the empty sky image on screen first and ask “what is missing here?” As they name the sun, the moon and the stars, have them tape a big paper circle, a small paper circle and paper stars to the wall one at a time, then switch to the lights image. Make the point: “they did not climb up there by themselves. God hung them.”
Application
Put the day and night image on screen and split the room into a “day team” and a “night team”. Have each person name one thing they do in that stretch of time, then ask “which one matters more?” and close with “both are time God has entrusted to someone.”
🖼️ Today’s four images · press and hold or right-click to save
The sky that was empty |
Lights in the expanse of the sky |
He set them in the expanse |
To rule the day and the night |
📄 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.
Article text is CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial use with attribution.
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