"And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in he expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. And God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night - and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day."
This is the Biblical account of the fourth day of the world. This is the day that God made the sun, the moon and the stars and the day that He hung them in the heavens. Like most days in the creation story, this day too has its questions and mysteries, but personally, this day has more questions and mysteries than others.
It was on day one that God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. It was on day one that He gave the world something to break through the darkness; however, what was the light He gave on day one if didn't put the sun, moon or stars into place until day four?
This was something that I noticed for the first time today as I was rereading the creation account. I didn't catch it at first, but then when I thought about it, I had to wonder why God would make more lights if the world already had light. Why would He need to create "two great light" if the world already had light enough for plants, vegetation and life to grow?
I don't know the answer to this, and I'm not a theological expert, but I have a guess: What if the light from day one was simply God Himself? What if He was the one giving light to the world? I may be reading the creation account wrong, but I really do wonder why there's light on day one, enough light to have plants on day three and then two other 'great' lights are created on day four. It's just so cool to me in my head to think about God actually being all the light that's needed for the entire earth. It's like that picture we get in Revelation of the new Heaven when the world doesn't need the sun or the moon anymore because God will be the only light we'll need. I feel like Genesis was just a foreshadowing of what's to come in Eternity.
God made the sun, the moon and the stars because He knew we'd need them, but one day we won't. I'm pumped for that day.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: God is and has always been the true Light of the world, even before the sun, moon and stars.