Bible Study Genesis Part 15-Might Be the Sun and the Moon

Day and night show up before the sun, and Genesis doesn’t stop to explain it. We’re camped out in Genesis 1:14-19, where God creates the “lights in the firmament” to govern time and mark seasons, and we face one of the most jaw-dropping details in the entire Creation account: day one has light and darkness, but day four brings what we assume are the sun, moon, and stars. Why would the Bible tell the story this way, and why does it even leave the “two great lights” unnamed?

We talk honestly about why passages like this become a breaking point for modern readers and why God seems unmoved by our demand for extra information. The deeper theme is faith under pressure: God is not always “transparent” in the way we want, and the Creation story can function like a filter that exposes whether we will trust God’s Word or insist on proof first. That lands in real life too, where pain and loss often come with no neat explanation, and where belief has to live in the same house as unanswered questions.

To sharpen that point, we go to John 6 and listen to the crowd ask Jesus for a sign, for something tangible, for their own version of manna. We connect that instinct to today’s obsession with what we can measure and see, even down to our awe over space imagery, and we weigh it against Genesis’ blunt understatement: “He made the stars also.” If you’re searching for a serious Bible study podcast that doesn’t dodge hard texts and still calls you toward trust in Christ, this conversation is for you.

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Transcript

God’s Word Above Everything

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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. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. 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, but 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.

Genesis 1:14 Begins

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We are in Genesis. We are in Genesis chapter one. We're just about to start verse 14. We've probably talked about it a couple of times. We're going to look at it a little bit closer this week and then continue to move on. So why don't we go and do that now? No need uh for us to read the previous verses. That's just gonna take us too much time. I know we did that a lot when we were in Ephesians. I feel like that was taking too much of our time. We may do that when we go back to other books, but I don't think it's necessary here since we're taking such a slow pace. So we're gonna start with Genesis 1:14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. Verse 15, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good. Verse 19, and the evening and the morning were the fourth

The Sun And Moon Conundrum

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day. Now, this is one of the most magnificent and really perplexing sections in all of Scripture. It's as much jaw-dropping as it is head scratching. Now, the first thing I want you to notice is something very strange. Up to this point, in the previous three days of creation, in those previous three days, God makes things and then he gives names to those things. This time he doesn't name anything. Here the ging the King James says that God made two great lights, but then no mention of names. That's weird, isn't it? Now here's another related conundrum. It's a conundrum, at least, for me. Only a few days prior, God divided the light from the darkness. Then on that same day, he calls the light. I'm chuckling because every time I think about this, it makes me laugh because it's so what? He calls the light day and the darkness night, right? You remember that from verses four and five? Well, what's strange is that it's not until what we can only assume is the sun and the moon, we have to assume because he doesn't name them here for us. On day one, he creates the day and the night, but it's not until day four that we are told about the creation of the sun and the moon. Isn't that mind-blowing? I know I've said this all before in previous lessons and sometimes off camera with the group that meets here, but I don't want you to miss this incredible mystery. Day and night are created by the separation of the light from the darkness, but that happened three days ago. It's not until the fourth day that God makes the sun and the moon. Why? Well, John, what's your explanation? I honestly don't have one. And you know what? This is where God loses most of the world. This sort of unusual section of scripture just seems so out of step with what we see around us. And so the world, because it can't make sense of it, says it's nonsense. Yeah, it's right there in the word. It's nonsense, it doesn't make sense. There's no sense to it. And you know, God hasn't bothered apologizing for that? And what's more, he doesn't seem to think any of this needs further explanation. Who does he think he is? He says it and then moves on. Why does God at times make things so hard to understand? Why doesn't he give us enough information on which we can base our faith? You know, someone might say, hey, listen, God, I want to believe you, but you give me no choice. I have to have more information if I'm going to make up my mind about you. You tell me day and night or may, but you hadn't created the sun and the moon yet. How am I supposed to believe something like that? Why does God do things like this? Well, he never says why, but if you study his word long enough and you live the life of a Christian long enough, you realize this isn't the only time something's going to come along that you can't explain.

When Life Gives No Answers

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If I can't explain something, does that mean it matters not? Listen, I can't explain to you why my father died when I was a little boy. I can't explain why my mother, who up to that point was a housewife and therefore no work experience, I can't explain why God took my dad from her when she had six kids and one on the way. I can't explain why my best friend from elementary school got leukemia in his 40s. I mean, he was a Christian. He had lots of people praying for him, including me. But God decided to take him anyhow. I can't explain that. I can't explain why God allowed that sweet family in California to be murdered. I can't explain why I live in such a lovely home while others have nothing. I'm surrounded by love and have been as long as I can remember. But for the life of me, I don't know why. And I can't explain why God decided that I was worth saving. I've not lived a saintly life. I have no obvious skills that he can use to grow the kingdom. I can't seem to get through one day without falling into the grips of not quite debilitating, but certainly limiting doubt-filled anxiety. That's not a very Christian way of doing things, but he sticks with me. I can't explain that. Listen, as far as shining the light of Christ to a dying world, I'm as dim as they come. But before the foundation of the world, he placed my name in the Lamb's book of life. If you don't want the explanation for those things, don't ask him for the explanation for others. Because listen to me, you may not like the explanation. I may not like the explanation as to why God decided to save me. He knows how unworthy I am, and yet he saved me anyhow. And I can't explain it, and he's never seen fit to give me a good answer.

A Filter For Real Trust

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This very tough section of scripture, so light on the details, in my opinion, is no accident. From the very beginning, God has been setting us up. He's getting us ready for a life of believing with very little knowing. I'll say it again. This is where he loses the men and women of the world. This is just not the kind of God they want. They want to worship someone who will worship him, them first. They want to worship someone who will worship them first. Serve only after being served. The only God the world will trust would be one who is willing to be completely transparent, one who's committed to full disclosure. I'll trust you, God, only if you give me a reason, though. Once again, in my opinion, the creation story is structured to serve as a filter. Are you going to murmur and complain when you read things like this? Why doesn't he tell me more? I want to know more. Will you abandon him because he doesn't make sense to you? Or are you going to commit to him and trust him no matter what the devil tells you or what the world tells you, or even your own human intellect tells you?

John 6 And The Demand

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John chapter 6, starting at verse 28. Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then? Again, something to laugh at. What are you going to do to make me believe in you? What dost thou work? Verse 31, Our fathers, the disciples speaking still, our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then they said unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. This is an age-old problem, and it isn't going to get any better. People will declare that they want to serve the Lord. We want to serve you, God. They'll say, Look, God, I really want to get on board with this whole share the gospel thing, but you're really going to have to give me something more to go on. Those disciples Jesus was talking to there in John chapter 6, in my opinion, showed real interest in doing the right thing. And so they sincerely, again, in my opinion, they sincerely asked Jesus what they had to do. And he said, in essence, it's not doing that God is looking for, it's believing. But they weren't listening, were they? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? They wanted to approve before they believed. Those disciples wanted something more than just believing. Are you kidding? Give me something tangible. Pull a miracle or two. Give us some manna. Our parents got manna. What are we gonna get? We'll serve you if you give us something to bite into. Show me the manna. One of the most persistent criticisms of evangelical Christianity is this insistence on faith. The what shall we do that we might work the works of God crowd won't accept the believe on him who he hath sent answer? That's too easy. Believing isn't painful enough, and it's certainly no way to show off. Believing is not easy to be a show off. We want to prove to God, well, mostly those lesser Christians, but I guess God, yeah, but no, mostly those other people that come to my church, I want it to be obvious that I am worthy and holy, especially holier than thou. God should really give us more than just believing. And you know, the only people who think that believing is easy are the ones who've never tried it. Certainly God doesn't think it's easy. Believing that God made day and night before he made the sun and the moon, now that's tough. And he's testing you. I haven't given you enough information. Are you still gonna believe? Living by God's word alone with very little manna to chew on is not the kind of life that can be described as leisurely. Listen, we're less than 20 verses into the Bible, and most of the world has already had enough of God. The world cannot tolerate a God that doesn't give them sufficient manna to live on. Day and night without sun and moon for three days, I'll starve if I have to live on that. I hope I'm making my point.

Light Before Stars And Sun

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And perhaps the biggest question that arises from this statement about what happened on the fourth day is where was, or even what was the light if it wasn't coming from the sun and the stars? Remember, he also puts the stars in the sky on this fourth day. Let's read verse 16 again. And God made two great lights. I assume that's the sun and the moon, but he didn't say. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God has a way of understanding the miraculous, doesn't he? Remember, we talked about how many stars are out there. There are trillions and trillions of stars, and we get five words. He made the stars also. People are losing their mind over this web telescope. Like, oh my God, I cannot see. Can you did you see the pictures how wonderful they were? And God made the stars also. That's all he cares about. He would, he, he wants to see out. Don't get me wrong, he gave us the web telescope. I think I told you that as well. But we are not to base our beliefs on seeing what the web telescope is gonna tell us. You know how I know? Five words. He made the stars also, not that important. Sun, moon, stars. That's all I can understand here. And two of those three happen to be guesses, sun and moon. I'm just guessing. But again, light existed already. How and where? In what capacity did light exist? I want you to think about that for a minute. At the moment, all you and I know are things that emit light or reflect light. Where does that light come from? The Bible solidly infers that light is something separate from the things that emit it and the things that reflect it. That's just too much for my brain. I was studying today and I had to push this away from because I started to think about that. What is light? Now perhaps you see why it's taken us months to get this far. This is an extraordinary story. One we thought we were already familiar with, right? If before all of this studying through the book of Genesis, if someone were to ask you if you heard how God created the world, you say, Yeah, of course. But do you see now how much of the story we weren't really actually familiar with? And by the way, don't think you deserve the blame for not knowing that. Those who are in charge of your Christian upbringing failed you. They told you what they wanted to tell you because, frankly, they either didn't understand or didn't believe the rest of it. And most of the time, both. But now, are you seeing that this really isn't something you can race over and then tuck away somewhere in your G Wiz file drawer? This isn't just some legend about the beginning of the world. And to be honest, there actually isn't a whole lot about that topic. Genesis chapter one isn't a narrative, it's a sermon, it's a message. I hope you're starting to see that we've really underestimated God's word. I hope you can now see, or you're soon going to be able to see, there is no book in the world quite like the Bible.

Final Thoughts And Support

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Still so much more to discuss, still so much to discuss in verse 14. But we're gonna have to wait until next week on that. It's packed with wonders. Too much to talk about tonight, so we'll pick it up there next time.

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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. Please join us again soon. New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often. For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com. And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page. Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible. It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.