Genesis 1:14-15 - The Sun, Moon, Stars and Planets (Part 1)

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

“Let there be lights...' - We have here the start of Day 4. Previously, God had already created light, but now he creates the sun, moon and stars to shine that light. God assigns them their roles, and they obey his will. Everything in creation is under God's command, we must obey him. We also see here that God issues a command, and as per usual it is obeyed (Verse 15 b). A good quote by Paul Washer was pointed out to me the other night:
“Here stands God on the day of creation. He looks at stars and He says “all you stars move yourself to this place and start in this order and move in a circle and move exactly as I tell you, until I give you another word. Planets-pick yourself up and whirl, make this formation at my command, until I give you another word. He looks at mountains and says “be lifted up” and they obey him. He tells valleys “be cast down” and they obey him. He looks at the sea and says “you will come this far”, and the sea obeys. Then, he looks at you and says “come” and you shout “no!"" We are nothing, yet we, unless converted all naturally disobey God and want to live our own way.


 'to separate the day from the night' - Previously God separated light and darkness, not he separates night from day. So far we have seen 3 complete days, where God had been keeping time, now God sets the sun and the moon to govern the course of what we call 'day'. 

'let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years' - Here we have God setting out how the sun and the moon will be used - to serve as signs. This I would say includes setting out the seasons, which are signs of when to plant and harvest food, but also includes our systems of months and days and years and weeks. This does not give a biblical basis for astrology though. This also probably refers to festivals (Especially Jewish festivals).


"let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” - God gave the stars their purpose, ad likewise he has given us ours. Like the stars, we are called to be 'salt and light' - to be a repellent of sin and to show who God is through our lives, for his glory. This is why we were created - Are you shining forth God's light? Are you sharing the gospel?


'And it was so' - We see again God's infinite power, He speaks and it happens, he does his will, He reigns, we are called to serve him. God made the stars with a few words, He is worthy of all honour glory and praise! This phrase also means that it was fixed, that it remained the same, it was firmly established. 


So what should we learn from this? We should glorify God, because he set all things which we know in place. He gives time of enjoyment, he sets out how we live our lives. He created day and night, and he causes it to continue onward. He has created everything wonderfully and causes it to work together amazingly, he is worthy of all praise.