Genesis 1:14-19 (ESV)

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 the 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.

The most significant thing about this passage (at least when it was written) is something we don’t even notice today – the sun and the moon aren’t gods. Back then, there were as many creation stories as there were civilizations, typically polytheistic dramas with lots of personality conflicts. They made for great story-telling but not much else.

Moses delivered an insulting contrast. There is no sun god or moon god or rain god. All were created by the one true God.

This wasn’t easy for them to accept. People looked to their gods for protection. They wanted life to be safe and controllable. In a drought they wanted to be able to bring rain by sacrificing virgins or whatever. Polytheism made life less frightening. It gave everyone a reason for why bad things happened – a reason they could manipulate.

But Moses tells of a creator who isn’t safe – a creator who is far less controllable than the “personalities” everyone else is worshiping. The one true God embarrasses us with His power and His goodness. He cannot be comprehended, and He cannot be manipulated.

That’s intimidating.

We’re not immune to the natural human tendency to believe in the God we’d like to have instead of the real one. That’s why so much of modern Christianity is that syrupy, “Smile. God loves you” bumper sticker pablum.

We hear all the time that we need to accept Jesus as our savior. What happened to, “Lord”? Aren’t we supposed to swear allegiance to Him as our Lord? Aren’t we also supposed to act like He’s our Lord? Isn’t heaven reserved for the ones who take His Lordship seriously?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 7:21 (ESV)

Ask God to purge us of the ways that we distort our view of Him to suit our wishes. We tend to be in denial about who He is. Pray for clear vision. The goal is to take Him more seriously.

But we can’t make progress just by trying harder; we have to ask for help.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies