Light didn’t exist until God said, “Let there be light.” As a result, light is something created by God who is beyond light. So the uncreated God clothed Himself in something He created. Why did God do this? Were Adam and Eve wrapped in light prior to the fall and realized their nakedness after the fall because of the absense of light surrounding them? What will it be like to have a resurrected body that is clothed in light? These are a few of the questions we discuss in the midst of this teaching as we explore God being wrapped in light.

Tim Miller

Creation

A. Last week, we continued our exploration of Genesis 1. In 2 Peter 3:3-7, the apostle Peter informs us that in the last days a scoffing spirit will emerge on the earth concerning the Second Coming of Jesus. This scoffing spirit can find expression in many different ways. “God isn’t really going to judge the earth… He’s not really going to send Jesus to the earth again….” The scoffing spirit, Peter says, produces a wicked lifestyle of “following evil desires.”
B. Peter tells us that one of the factors that will contribute to this scoffing spirit is the deliberate forgetting of what God in Genesis 1. We are intentionally remembering the truths of Genesis 1 in order to produce the opposite effect: the cultivation of a sharp and alert spirit. We don’t want to be lulled to sleep by the routine of life. We don’t want to be deceived by the constant bombardment lies that take our gaze off of our blessed hope of the Second Coming.
2 Peter 3:5 (NIV)
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
Titus 2:13
…while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ…
C. Last week, we focused our attention mostly on the structure of the heavens. We discussed how in Scripture the heavens and the earth are likened to a household. The heavens are the upper chambers of God’s house and the earth the lower chambers. When God created the heavens, He stretched them out like a tent. He made the earth out of water and by water. We explored different dimensions and levels of the heavens.
D. We discussed how the lower heavens seem to include the air or atmosphere immediately around us, the sky, and the visible universe where the stars, moon, and sun are situated.
E. We also saw that there is some part of the heavens presently occupied by fallen principalities and powers in rebellion against God. This includes Satan. These powers will be purged from the heavens at Jesus’ Second Coming. Revelation 12 tells us that the heavens long for this day.
F. We explored what the Scriptures say about the third heaven. The third heaven is an indescribably beautiful paradise.
G. We also discussed the highest heavens. When God created the heavens and the earth, He established His throne in the highest heavens. A throne is the place of government and authority. A king sits on a throne and rules a kingdom from a throne. The highest heaven is the central headquarters of God’s government and authority over all creation. The earth is His footstool which is dynamically connected to His throne in the heavens. God is the King and Governor over His household of the heavens and the earth. His household is His kingdom.
Isaiah 66:1 (ESV)
Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?
H. At present, part of God’s household is in rebellion against Him. One day, God will send Jesus to the earth a second time to remove all wickedness from His household. At the Second Coming, the Messiah’s kingdom will be established on the earth and the prayer burning in Jesus’ heart and ours will be answered.
Matthew 6:10 (NIV)
“…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”

REVIEW

A. Genesis 1:3-5 tells us that on the first day, God created light. The Spirit was hovering over the waters. The God spoke, and there was light. God saw the light was good. He liked making light.
Genesis 1:3-5 (ESV)
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
B. Question: Genesis 1 tells us that the sun, moon, and stars were not created until the fourth day. So when God said “let there be light” on the first day, what light do you think the Scriptures are talking about?
C. What color was this light? What did this light do? Light moves very fast.
D. One interesting thing to note about light is how Scripture says it relates to how God has arranged and organized the “form” of His being in the heavens to make Himself accessible to creation. God exists outside of His creation. God has always been. Before the heavens and the earth were created, God always was. Even the highest heavens cannot contain God.
1 Kings 8:27 (NIV)
“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven (Hebrew shamayim), cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!
E. Yes, God is beyond the highest heavens. He is infinite. The created order cannot contain Him. And yet when God created the heavens and the earth, He desired to dwell in intimate friendship with His creatures. He wanted to interact with His creation. He didn’t just want to be an abstract idea or concept in the minds of His creatures. But if God is beyond even the highest heavens, how would His creatures be able to access Him? How could He arrange and organize His Being in such a way that angels could draw near and hear Him singing? How could He organize His Being in relationship to creation so that it accurately reflected who God always has been even before the event of creation– one God in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? How could He make Himself available to creation so that angels and human beings could actually look upon Him in a way with which they could relate?
F. One of the things God did when He created the heavens and the earth was to clothe Himself in light.
Psalm 104:1-2 (ESV)
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, 2covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent (NIV – “He wraps himself in light as with a garment”)
G. Light didn’t exist until God said, “Let there be light.” Light is something created. God is beyond light. So the uncreated God clothed Himself in something He created. Why do you think God did this?
H. God is humble. In humility God the Father wrapped Himself in light when He created the heavens and the earth. He wanted us to be able to “get” to Him. He wanted Himself to be accessible to angels and human beings. We need light in order to see. Before God created us, He knew we would need this. So He wrapped Himself in that which He knew would penetrate and fill our eyes.
I. When God in love and humility wrapped Himself in light, He arranged this light in the form of a majestic Body that could be felt, touched, seen, and heard. This Body of light makes Him accessible and visible to His creatures in the heavens and to those human beings who have seen the throne room.
Isaiah 6:1-4 (NIV)
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
Daniel 7:9-10 (NIV)
9 “As I looked, “thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. 10A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
J. Perhaps the most spectacular glimpse we have of God on His throne is in Revelation 4. Here we learn that at least some of the light with which God wrapped Himself is a glowing, fiery red color. Also, emerald or green light covers His throne in the form of a rainbow. The rainbow in Scripture is a sign of covenant, mercy, and long-suffering (Gen.9). When I think of green, I think of plants and life. God’s emotion and passion for creation is red-hot and eternally burning.
Revelation 4:1-3 (NIV)
1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders.
Jasper (left) and Carnelian (right) (Wikipedia)
<a href="http://danieltrainingnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Picture1-Jasper.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-7121" src="http://danieltrainingnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Picture1-Jasper.jpg" alt="Picture1-Jasper" width="253" height="335" /></a><a href="http://danieltrainingnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Picture2-Carnelian.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-7122" src="http://danieltrainingnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Picture2-Carnelian.jpg" alt="Picture2-Carnelian" width="319" height="207" /></a>
<img src="https://api.danieltrainingnetwork.org/app/uploads/2021/09/jasper-opt.png" alt="">
K. God’s body is also full of color. When light and water come together, you see colors. When God arranged a “focal point” for His Being in the heavens and gave Himself a Body, did He do this by interweaving light with water somehow? Last week we talked about how there is a lot of water in the heavens. Did God bring some of that water in the heavens together with light to form a Body by which His creation could relate to Him? God eagerly desires relationship.
L. In the above visions, God’s Body on His throne has hands, a head, feet, and legs. The Scriptures say that God made the earth out of water, and that God made us from the dust of the earth. We need water to live. They also say that He made us in His image. Does this mean that we have hands and feet and heads and hair, because in the heavens God first wrapped Himself with a Body of light and water that had those parts?
M. Again, that God is sitting on His throne in the heavens in a Body of water and light is not because He needed to. He is beyond the heavens. They cannot contain Him. It was because He wanted to.
N. Jesus is like His Father. Just as the Father in humility voluntarily clothed Himself in light (and possibly water), so the eternal Word of God, the Son, followed His Father’s example and voluntarily wrapped Himself in human flesh (made of water) for our salvation. Like Father, like Son.
Philippians 2:4-11 (NIV)
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

GOD'S BEING ON HIS THRONE IN THE HEAVENS

A. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, it says that they realized they were naked.
Genesis 3:6-7 (NIV)
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
B. What do you think it means when it says they realized they were naked?
C. Here is my opinion. Genesis 1:27 says that God made Adam and Eve in His image. God was and is wrapped in light. So I believe that Adam and Eve’s bodies, before death entered them, were also filled an interpenetrated with the light and glory of God. I believe that when Adam and Eve sinned, this light and glory was suddenly removed from their bodies. They now had bodies of death, and the absence of light from their bodies left them exposed.
D. When Jesus was raised from the dead, He was given a brand new body. This body was a real physical body of flesh and blood. And yet this body was and is also interwoven with the light and glory of God.
Luke 24:36-43 (NIV)
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” 40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
Revelation 1:12-16 (NIV)
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
E. Adam and Eve saw God wrapped in light when they walked with Him in the Garden. In our fallen sinful state, we have bodies of death. Because of this, we are presently unable to approach God’s light. But the biblical hope is that one day we will see God’s face again when we receive resurrected bodies. This was the yearning of Job’s heart.
1 Timothy 6:15-16 (NIV)
God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light (unapproachable in an non-resurrected state, cf. Dan. 7:13, Ps. 110:1) whom no one has seen or can see (i.e. since the Fall, in a body of death, cf. Genesis 3:8, Rev. 21:4, Dan. 7:13) . To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
Job 19:25-27 (NIV)
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet inmy flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
F. However, for followers of Jesus who persevere in the faith until Jesus returns, we will be once again filled with light. When Jesus returns, He will give us resurrected bodies that are like His resurrected body. These bodies will be full of light and the glory of God. When we no longer have bodies of death and are clothed in light, we will see God’s face wrapped in glorious, marvelous light. God will take His finger wrapped in light and wipe the tears from our eyes.
Philippians 3:20-21(NIV)
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Daniel 12:2-4 (NIV)
2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Matthew 13:41-43 (NIV)
41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Romans 8:18 (NIV)
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Colossians 3:3-4 (NIV)
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is yourlife, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Revelation 21:4 (NIV)
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
G. Jesus was resurrected in a body filled with light and glory. In that body of light and glory, He ascended and down at the right hand of His Father clothed in a Body filled with light. In a body full of light, he approached the Father. In his resurrected body, Jesus was able to eat and engage in life on the earth. He was also able to ascend into the heavens. In our resurrected bodies, we will also be able to do the same.
Mark 16:19 (NIV)
After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.
1 Peter 3:21-22 (NIV)
…It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Daniel 7:13 (NIV)
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.”

LIGHT AND THE RESURRECTED BODY

A. In the beginning, God wrapped Himself in light. When He created us in His image, He also wrapped us in light. This light was the glory of God. In the Fall, the light and glory of God departed from the human body. Now we have a body of death. But, as the apostle Peter says in Acts 3:21, when Jesus returns, He will restore all creation. This restoration includes the restoration of our bodies. Jesus’ resurrected body is full of light. He is the picture of what it means for a human being to be refashioned into God’s image, because God is clothed in light. God the Father is wrapped in light; Jesus, the image of God, is clothed in light. When Jesus returns, our bodies will again be infused with light and glory so that we shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father of light. But we must persevere. In this age of persecution and trial, we have this treasure in jars of clay. But this light and momentary afflictions will be eclipsed by an eternal weight of glory in the resurrection at the Second Coming.
2 Corinthians 4:4-11, 16-18 (NIV)
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But (in this age) we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body…. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (eternal glory to be given the human body in the resurrection). 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen (the present age marked by death) but on what is unseen (the age to come full of life). For what is seen (the present age) is temporary, but what is unseen (the age to come) is eternal.

CONCLUSION

Genesis 1

This teaching highlights the process of creation, God’s emotions in the midst of the creation account, God’s covenant with creation, and Jesus’ role in creation as the Alpha and the Omega.

Creation’s Importance

This teaching works through the structure and function of the heavens.

Structure of the Heavens

Light didn’t exist until God said, “Let there be light.” As a result, light is something created by God who is beyond light. 

God of Light

This teaching seeks to Biblically define what the Kingdom of God is, and ask several questions in references of the Kingdom throughout Scripture.

Defining the Kingdom

This teaching searches out the concept and nature of seed, and how it ultimately weaves into God’s plan of redemption through “The Seed” (Messiah), Jesus Christ.

The Seed

What was life like in the Garden? What role did the tree of life play in the perpetuation of human life?

Edenic Temple Complex

Light didn’t exist until God said, “Let there be light.” As a result, light is something created by God who is beyond light.