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Over the last couple weeks, we’ve seen that God’s presence and glory are visible as light. This is consistent both in heaven, where he resides, and on earth, where he appears occasionally as visible light to deliver an important message. But his presence isn’t God’s only interaction with light. God also controls the light that we see on earth: the sun, moon, and stars and the lightning that we see in storms.
God Controls Sources of Light
We saw in Part 1 that God created light, including the sun, moon, and stars. As their creator, he controls when they shine and when they don’t.
Jeremiah 31:35: This is what the Lord says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the Lord Almighty is his name:
Job 9:7: He speaks to the sun and it does not shine;
he seals off the light of the stars.
Matthew 5:44-45: 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Even though God set the sun, moon, and stars in motion, he still has power over what they do, and he can make them do extraordinary things.
Isaiah 38:7-8: 7 “‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: 8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.
Can you imagine seeing the sun go backwards? What spectacular evidence that God is still in control! He didn’t just set things in motion and walk away. He is intimately involved in their continued work.
God doesn’t only control the typical sources of light that we think of—the sun, moon, and stars. He also controls the weather, including the lightning that lights up the sky.
Job 37:3: He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.
Job 37:11: He loads the clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
Psalm 135:6-7: 6 The Lord does whatever pleases him,
in the heavens and on the earth,
in the seas and all their depths.
7 He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth;
he sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
I don’t know about you, but I love thunderstorms! The lightning and thunder are spectacular. It is a great reminder of the glory of God and his power over his creation.
God Uses Light for War
The Bible also provides a lot of imagery related to God using light for war. One of the best examples of this is when God made the sun stand still for Joshua so the Israelites could defeat the Amorites.
Joshua 10:12-14: 12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
The Psalms use a lot of imagery of God using both light and darkness to defeat the enemy.
Psalm 18:12-14: 12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
Psalm 97:1-5: 1 The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
Psalm 144:5-6: 5 Part your heavens, Lord, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy;
shoot your arrows and rout them.
The prophets also used imagery of God’s sword and arrows flashing like lightning.
Ezekiel 21:28: “And you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says about the Ammonites and their insults:
“‘A sword, a sword,
drawn for the slaughter,
polished to consume
and to flash like lightning!
Zechariah 9:14-15a: 14 Then the Lord will appear over them;
his arrow will flash like lightning.
The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet;
he will march in the storms of the south,
15 and the Lord Almighty will shield them.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get in the way when God is ready to slaughter the enemy! God will use every weapon at his disposal, including light, to defeat his foes.
God Uses Light to Display His Wrath and Judgment
Throughout the Bible, we see God use light, especially lightning, strategically to accompany his wrath or judgment on a particular people. We first see this in the plague of hail that fell on Egypt, which was accompanied by lightning.
Exodus 9:22-24: 22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt—on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.” 23 When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; 24 hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
God’s wrath devours anything in its path.
Psalm 50:1-3: 1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God comes
and will not be silent;
a fire devours before him,
and around him a tempest rages.
We also see God’s judgment poured out at the end of the earth. That judgment is accompanied by flashes of lightning and the scorching sun.
Revelation 8:5: Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
Revelation 16:8-9: 8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Revelation 16:17-18: 17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.
When God’s work has finished on this earth, when he returns to judge the earth, we will see his judgment visibly as light.
Conclusion
We often think of God as light in a glowing and radiant sense. But the verses we looked at in this lesson tell us that God uses light for much more than that. God controls the light and uses it as a weapon to defend his people and to judge those who refuse to worship him. Come back next week to see how God uses the absence of light—darkness.
Premium Resources
Each individual characteristic of God study will come with two resources: a word search just for fun (including an answer key), and a list of verses for if you want to investigate that individual characteristic of God more completely.
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