“Let there be light!” These are the first words spoken by God as recorded in Genesis 1:3. Is it not fascinating that light existed before there was a sun, a moon, or stars? By God’s creative command, light streamed through the universe!

Yet, in spite of the vast progress of scientific knowledge, scientists today still struggle to accurately define light. The particle theory attempts to define light as the streaming of particles. The wave theory defines light as the generation of wave motion and energy. Neither theory is fully adequate to fully explain the phenomenon that we know as light. There is increasing evidence that even the speed of light is not constant!

Our human eyes are equipped to experience and observe a tiny portion of the full electromagnetic spectrum. For example, we cannot see infrared light—instead, we feel it as heat. Beyond the other end of the visible spectrum, we cannot see ultraviolet light—what is commonly known as black light. Instead, we experience it as sunburn. Gamma rays, delta rays, and x-rays are also light, in a very real sense. Yet we cannot see or experience these forms of light at all.

The Bible gives a clearer statement than any scientist can give. The Apostle John wrote, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). God is light. It is not merely that light comes from God or that God created light. God is light. Light is one of God’s essential attributes, a part of His essence.

Because God is light, light existed even without the sun. Because God is eternal, His light is eternal. Genesis 1:3 records the moment when by the Word of God, the light of God streamed through time and space to illuminate the created earth which was yet without form and void, when darkness was upon the face of the deep.

According to Revelation 21:23, the future New Jerusalem will have God alone as its light source. “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” As it was before the beginning, so it will be after the end of time. Light will exist without need for the sun and the moon because “God is light.”

Throughout the first five books of Moses, fire, light, and illumination reveal this attribute of God rather than merely a physical manifestation of measurable energy produced by man. Let’s consider the following four examples.

The Burning Lamp of the Covenant

When Jehovah established His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, the presence of the Lord was displayed by a burning lamp passing through the pieces of flesh that Abraham had slaughtered and divided. “And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces” (Genesis 15:17).

The Burning Bush

While camping in the backside of the desert near “the mountain of God” at Horeb, Moses saw an unforgettable sight. “And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed” (Exodus 3:2). This was no earthly fire, for the bush would have been consumed by the flames. This was a heavenly fire, the fire of God’s own presence.

The Pillar of Fire

When the Lord led His people out of Egypt, He led them with the light of His presence. “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night” (Exodus 13:21). The light that led the Israelites was not the light of the sun or the light of the moon or stars. It was God’s own light. The psalmist says, “In thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:9).

Lightning and Fire on Mount Sinai

When Jehovah gave His Law from Mount Sinai, one of the sensory displays was that of fire. “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16). There was the sound of the trumpet—but no trumpet. There was the noise of thunder and the flash of lighting—but no storm. According to Exodus 24:17, “And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.”

All these manifestations of light demonstrate the fact that God is light. In no case mentioned above was any combustible material the source of the fire or the light. God Himself was the light thereof!

May God give us the grace to acknowledge Him as the ultimate source of light and to reflect His light to a world in darkness. We are to be, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).