Commentary - Genesis 1:14-19

Bird's-eye view

We come now to the fourth day of the creation week, and it is essential that we see how it fits within the magnificent structure God is building. The first three days were days of forming, and the next three are days of filling. On day one, God created light and separated it from the darkness. Now, on day four, He fills that realm with the light-bearers. On day two, He separated the waters above from the waters below, forming the sky and the seas. On day five, He will fill them with birds and fish. On day three, He brought forth the dry land and vegetation. On day six, He will fill the land with animals and, as the pinnacle of His work, man.

This passage is not some ancient, pre-scientific myth. It is the inspired, inerrant account of God Almighty speaking the cosmos into existence, and doing so with architectural wisdom. He is setting the stage for the great drama of redemption. These lights are not merely functional lumps of gas and rock; they are governors, timekeepers, and sign-posts established by the King of Heaven. Their creation by divine fiat on the fourth literal 24-hour day stands as a direct polemic against the pagan idolatry that worships the celestial bodies. The sun, moon, and stars are not deities; they are creatures, servants of the Most High God, and their purpose is to serve His creation and declare His glory.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens...

Once again, the engine of creation is the spoken word of God. He does not struggle, He does not strive, He simply speaks. And what He says, goes. The modern materialist wants to tell a story of cosmic accidents over billions of years, but the Bible’s account is one of absolute, personal, sovereign authority. God said. That is the ultimate explanation for why there is something rather than nothing. Notice, these are "lights," plural. The light created on day one was light in and of itself. Now God creates the bearers of light, the instruments that will carry and dispense the light He has already made. This is not a contradiction, as some scoffers would have it. It is a demonstration of God’s methodical purpose. First the reality, then the vessels to carry it.

...to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;

Here we have the purpose clause, and it is threefold. First, their primary job is distinction. They are to separate, to divide. God is a God of order, not of chaos. From the very beginning, He is drawing lines. Light from darkness, day from night. This is a foundational principle of reality. Second, they are for signs. Before they are for farmers, they are for prophets. They are billboards in the heavens declaring God’s glory and, at times, His specific intentions. The star of Bethlehem was not an anomaly; it was a fulfillment of this original purpose. The heavens declare the glory of God, and sometimes they declare the coming of the Son of God. They are also for "seasons," which in Hebrew refers to appointed times, festivals, and sacred gatherings. God is building a liturgical calendar into the very fabric of the cosmos. The rhythm of worship is not an arbitrary human invention; it is patterned after the heavenly order. Finally, they are for days and years. They are our clocks and calendars, given by God so that we can order our lives, our work, and our rest in a way that reflects His created design.

v. 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.

This reiterates their function. They are servants. Their station is in the heavens, but their service is for the earth. This is a picture of glorious condescension. The great lights are placed on high, but their purpose is to shine downward, to give light to the place where man will dwell. And the verse concludes with that glorious, recurring refrain of divine efficacy: "and it was so." There is no gap between God’s decree and its accomplishment. His word is performative. It does what it says. When God speaks, reality conforms.

v. 16 So God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and also the stars.

Moses, writing under inspiration, now gives us the narrative fulfillment of the command. God made them. He is the manufacturer. The sun and moon, which were the chief deities of the pagan world surrounding Israel, are here demoted to mere artifacts. They are not named "sun" and "moon," likely as a polemic against the pagan deification of Shemesh and Yareah. They are simply "the greater light" and "the lesser light." Their greatness is relative, and their purpose is to rule. But their rule is a delegated, subordinate rule. They govern the day and the night under the ultimate authority of the One who made them. And then, almost as an afterthought, Moses adds, "and also the stars." The innumerable galaxies, the nebulae, the celestial wonders that fill modern man with awe, are mentioned in passing. This is not to diminish them, but to put them in their proper place. They are part of the "and also" of God’s creative power. He made the rulers, and He tossed in the rest of the host of heaven as well.

v. 17 And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,

God is not a distant, deistic clockmaker. He is an active, personal creator. He made the lights, and then He "placed" them. He is the one who set them in their courses. The intricate orbits, the gravitational forces, the precise mechanics of the solar system, all of this is the result of God’s personal placement. He set them right where they needed to be to accomplish their purpose, which is again stated: to give light on the earth. The whole system is geocentric in its purpose, if not in its mechanics. The earth, the stage of redemption, is the focus of the activity of these great celestial servants.

v. 18 and to rule the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

The theme of ruling and separating is repeated for emphasis. This is their job description, assigned by their Creator. They are middle-managers in the created order, exercising a delegated authority. And in this, they are a type of all legitimate authority, which is derived from God and accountable to Him. Their faithful, unswerving obedience in this task is what leads to the divine evaluation: "and God saw that it was good." It was good because it perfectly fulfilled the intention of its Creator. It was good because it was rightly ordered, beautiful, and functional. It was good because it did what it was told.

v. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

The day concludes, marked by the same formula as the previous days. An evening and a morning constitute a day. This is a plain, literal, 24-hour day. To twist this into long ages of time is to do violence to the text for the sake of appeasing a secular, unbelieving scientific consensus. The Bible is not trying to hide some secret meaning here. It is telling us, in straightforward prose, that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The fourth day is done. The heavens have been filled with their governors, and the stage is now set for the filling of the seas, the skies, and the land.

Application

So what does the creation of the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day have to do with us? Everything. First, it is a declaration of the absolute sovereignty of God. The things that men are most tempted to worship, powerful, distant, mysterious lights in the sky, are nothing more than God’s handiwork. They are creatures, not the Creator. This is the foundation of the first commandment. We are to have no other gods before the God who made all things, including all the things that other men call gods.

Second, it establishes that the universe is dripping with purpose. The sun is not just a star; it is a ruler. The moon is not just a rock; it is a timekeeper. The stars are not just gas; they are signs. God has invested meaning and function into every part of His creation. This means that our lives are also to be filled with purpose. We were not made by accident, but by divine design. We have a function, a role to play in God's kingdom, just as the sun has its role in the sky.

Finally, these lights point us to the true Light. John tells us that Jesus is the true light, which gives light to every man (John 1:9). The sun rules the day, but Christ rules all of history. The moon governs the night, but Christ governs both life and death. The stars are for signs, but Christ is the ultimate sign, the Word made flesh, to whom all the lesser signs point. When we look up at the night sky, we should be reminded not of our smallness in a random universe, but of the greatness of the God who made it all, and who sent His Son, the Bright and Morning Star, to redeem it all.