KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

The Lord was presented to us, in a previous article, as the Morning Star. He is now before us as the Sun of Righteousness - the day-spring from on High. How beautifully apt both these figures are, we have already seen, and this will become more evident as we proceed. We have seen the relation between these two characters in which the Lord comes. He comes as the Morning Star. He comes as the Sun of Righteousness. The Morning Star is the candle of the Lord that shines in the dark place of the heart, searching all the inward parts of the desires, affections and nature. The Sun of Righteousness is the arising of the glory of the Lord shining in His full strength and majesty, dispelling the darkness, bringing in the day of victory, life and glory. In scripture the sun is called the Day Star - it is the star of the day. It is the one star in God's vast universe which gives us the light of day.

Thus, in the prophetic scriptures the Lord is symbolized by the sun. The natural sun is the brightest luminary in the natural heavens. And to help us in correctly interpreting the meaning of the spiritual sun, I Jn. 1:5 informs us that "GOD IS LIGHT, and in Him is no darkness at all." The light which God is is the sun of God's spiritual solar system. "For the Lord God is a SUN and a shield" (Ps. 84:11). In the Old Testament as well as in the New, we find that light is given as a symbol or picture of God. Indeed, its very definite language says that light is God and God is light. The 27th Psalm begins with this word, "The Lord is my light." This phrase is found frequently in the Psalms, as for instance in Ps. 36:9, "For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light." Also Ps. 43:3, "O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles." Ps. 56:13, "For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not Thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?" Again in Ps. 89:15, "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance." There are sixteen other references in the Old Testament, besides these, which refer to light as emanating from God. These evidence the fact that in some intangible way the physical creature that is such a mystery to us is associated with the Person of God. We read in Dan. 2:22 that light dwells with God. That is to say, light is part of the very "being" of God. It is part of His own Person, makeup and nature. It is embodied in Him. Light has its origin in, and emanates and radiates from God. From the brightest star in the universe to the tail of the tiniest firefly - all light comes from God.

When God created, He began with light. Yes, when God said, "Let there be light," out of dark nothingness came billions of galaxies with billions upon billions of blazing stars. What is light? This question has been a puzzle for milleniums. People once thought light was something that traveled from a person's eyes to an object and then back again. If anything blocked the rays from the eyes, the object could not be seen. Since the 1600's, scientists have made many discoveries about light. They have learned that light is a form of ENERGY that can travel freely through space. The energy of light is called RADIANT ENERGY. There are many kinds of radiant energy, including infrared rays, radio waves, ultraviolet rays, and X rays. And yet, light is something more than just waves. As you know, certain kinds of light will pass through objects that would stop waves. We can see only a tiny part of the different kinds of radiant energy. This part is called VISIBLE LIGHT or simply LIGHT.

While we recognize light as a physical creature it nevertheless has what may be called a spiritual nature. One of the many marvelous phenomena of light is the fact that it can be passed through a physical substance as hard as rock with its speed unimpaired, and its nature unchanged. Even though it passes at many thousand times the speed of a bullet through a physical object, light leaves no hole to mark its passage, and the object through which it thus passed is undamaged! Glass, you know, is artificial rock.  The same elements that make stone are used by man in his manufacture of glass. Indeed, the glassware of the laboratory is generally called flint glass, and had the American Indians possessed this type of glass they would have chipped it into arrow heads and weapons superior to those of native flint. Man, by his art and device, takes the elements of stone and transforms them into an artificial sheet of rock which he calls glass. Light, flashing through space, passes unimpeded through this physical substance leaving no hole to mark its passage, being unimpaired in the process. When one physical substance can pass through another physical substance leaving both unimpaired and unchanged, it is certainly related to the spiritual!

"And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep ... and God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:2-3). Now what was that light which God spoke into the darkness in that long ago beginning? Was it the sun, or the moon or the stars, as some Bible teachers try to tell us? It couldn't have been, for the sun, moon and stars had not yet been made. They were not made until the fourth day. So this had to be some other light. Now if the Son was the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14), as He claimed to be, then He must have been connected with this first light somehow. And if He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, then it is clearly evident the He Himself was the light God brought forth at that time. Let us look at the last light, in the next to the last chapter of the Bible, "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" (Rev. 21:23). So in the end there is no need for the sun nor the moon, for the glory of God and the Lamb is the light. If HE is the light in the end, He must have also been the light in the beginning - for HE IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END!

Now let us consider some significant statements that Jesus made about Himself. He said, "I am the light of the world (Greek: kosmos); he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (Jn. 8:12). If we limit the world, or the kosmos, to mankind, then we will fail to see the glorious place the Son has in God's great plan. The whole kosmos we are told was in darkness, the heavens as well as the earth, and the first and greatest need was light, and God brought that light into the dark universe, AND THAT LIGHT WAS HIS SON. Jesus also declared, "I am come a light into the kosmos, that whosoever believeth on Me should not walk in darkness" (Jn. 12:46). So what He said was, I am the light that came into the kosmos, to bring light into the darkened creation. He, indeed, was the light; but there was something greater far in Him coming into the darkened universe than to be just a light. There was an infinitely higher purpose than that! John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, gives additional revelation on this great truth, when he speaks of the Word being with the Father in the beginning, and how all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Then he goes on to make this significant statement, "In Him was life, and THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN" (Jn. 1:4). From this verse we see that LIGHT and LIFE are essentially the same thing. "The life was the light." So when He came a light into the kosmos, He was also the life that came into the creation, to give life unto all creatures. John goes on to say, "That was THE TRUE LIGHT, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (Jn. 1:9). All other lights are artificial, imitation. Only the Son was the TRUE LIGHT, and He came a light into the kosmos, not to be just a light to sinful men, but to be a light to the darkened universe, the heavens as well as the earth, the spiritual as well as the physical dimensions. When John made these enlightening statements he spoke of the time of the beginning of the creation, when the Word was with God bringing forth the creation, and not the time of His birth in Bethlehem. In that dim and distant beginning He was the light, and He has been the light ever since, and will be in the ages to come. The Bible tells us of a glorious day where there is no need of the sun nor the moon to give light. "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" (Rev. 21:23). "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light" (Isa. 60:19). Christ was the true light in the beginning when the divine fiat was proclaimed: "Let there be light!" But when God subjected the earth to this period we call time, it began with the creation of the sun and the moon. And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years" (Gen. 1:14). These were "lights" indeed, but they were not THE TRUE LIGHT, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world!

The glorious Son of God is the One in whom the unapproachable and utterly incomprehensible glory of God is made manifest. As we only know the sun by the light that shines from it, so is Christ THE OUTSHINING, the revelation of God's glory. As the light that shines from the sun is of one nature with it, so the Son is of one nature with the Father and is Himself called "the everlasting Father." As the light that shines from the sun is one substance with it, so the Son is THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS SUBSTANCE (Heb. 1:3) and is Himself called "the Mighty God." It is all important that we know the glory of Jesus. The more the soul is filled with that glory, and worships Him in it, the more it will see with what confidence it can count upon Him to do a divine and supernatural work within us, and lead us to an actual living out of the glory of the Son in our lives. Let us turn away from earth, that in the knowing of Him our own lives may be transformed, until He, who is the outshining of the divine glory, SHINES INTO OUR VERY HEART, and He, to whom the Father has given such a place as Creator and Upholder and Heir of all, takes that place within us too, and be to us the beginning and the center and the end of all; until He who IS THE IMAGE OF GOD so possesses our beings that WE BECOME THE OUTSHINING OF GOD'S GLORY and THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS PERSON.

"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (Jn. 1:4). Now we are confronted with something else - two of the simplest things in the world: light and life. ZOE and PHOS are the two words in the original language. From ZOE we get zoology, the study of life; and from PHOS we get photo or anything that is built on it, such as photograph - it is light. These two things are so common, we take them for granted. Life - we see it everywhere. There may be a great deal of life right where you are at this moment. You go out in the woods and you see the same thing - life. It greets you on every hand; but can you explain it? You see in the Tabloids headlines from time to time announcing that men have now discovered the source of life. But if you read them, you find that they have not found the source at all, though they think they are close to it. They put the microscope down on a green leaf. One moment that little cell is arranged one way and is dead as a doornail. The next moment the thing is rearranged in another way and it is alive. And then the thing starts growing and doubling, dividing and multiplying itself. Why does it do that? Life!

I often wondered how it could be that God was omnipresent; that He could be everywhere at once, as the Psalmist said, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 139:7-10). God can be everywhere, and fill the universe with Himself because the glory of God is the RADIATION of His Light-being into the whole kosmos. God is likened to a SUN, so that bright orb that shines out there in space is a type of God. Let us consider this for a moment.

It is interesting to note that God did not do away with the darkness altogether, rather He separated the light from the darkness, calling the light "day" and the darkness "night" (Gen. 1:4-5). Darkness, in a measure remained, and still does. Isaiah tells us that in the end days darkness shall cover the earth, and great darkness the people. He is speaking here of spiritual darkness, of those people and realms that have not been exposed to the TRUE LIGHT. Though this condition has existed since the beginning, thank God! it shall not continue forever, for He who is the true light shall chase away altogether the darkness, and nothing but the true light will fill God's vast universe. In I Jn. 2:8 we read this assuring statement, "Yet I am writing you a new commandment, which is true in Him and in you, because THE DARKNESS IS PASSING AWAY and the true light is now shining" (R.S.V.). Thank God, the darkness is passing away like the night before the penetrating rays of the dawn. He who separated the light from the darkness in that beginning, because the darkness comprehended not the light, shall obliterate completely the darkness from the new creation. "Behold, I make all things new." There will be no darkness in it at all, for God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. And when the final chapter is written, when the curtain comes down on the closing act of the grand drama of creation and redemption, God will be ALL IN ALL.

Light is life, darkness is death. Whenever we read of light it always speaks to us of life; when we read of darkness it bespeaks of death. Light is that which dispels the darkness. When one brings a light into a dark place the darkness flees, because, you see, darkness is a negative thing, it is really nonexistent; it is just the absence of light. Provide the light and the darkness is gone. I have often wondered why the light in the beginning didn't do away with the darkness; the darkness remained. Why didn't the darkness disappear, when the light came on the scene. If you turn on a light in a dark room the darkness is gone. Where did it go? It didn't go out the door nor through the window. It didn't go anywhere because it is a negative, a no-thing. So why didn't the Light in the beginning dispel the darkness? The answer, of course, lies in the counsels of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. God in His infinite wisdom planned to separate the light from the darkness, causing light and darkness, day and night to co-exist side by side, that through the progression of the ages He might reveal to the entire creation the awesome ability of the light to conquer the darkness. This is a great lesson, and once every being in all realms has learned it well, none will ever seek the darkness again.

This is a great mystery, but the present creation was created on a level of death, and death was from the very beginning, and still is, the state of being of the physical world. As long as darkness exists death will hold its power. Even before man graced this blue-green orb, death was in the universe; and this is why we see darkness as the first condition of creation in Gen. 1:2. And God didn't do away with all the darkness, He ordained the night to remain. This meant that death remained in the creation. So everything of this gross material realm, when it was brought-forth from the hands of the Creator, had the potential of death in it. Death was a built in factor in all things. But included in God's great and eternal purpose is the abolition of darkness and death; and the Almighty, in working out His plan, is doing just that. When He has finished His marvelous purpose there will be no darkness nor death anywhere in the unbounded heavens. "The last enemy that shall be DESTROYED is death" (I Cor. 15:26). But destroyed it will be; and the Son, who is the Light and the Life, is the One ordained to perform this great task.

When God separated the light from the darkness in the beginning, He called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. We are also told that He made two great lights, one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. Man with his limited carnal understanding has restricted this to our solar day and lunar night, and to the sun and the moon. But our almighty Father had something infinitely higher in mind than this! These are mere types and shadows of reality. There is a greater spiritual meaning to all this. There is a REALM OF LIGHT and a REALM OF DARKNESS in creation which has nothing to do with our solar day and lunar night. They are realms in the spirit, and we can be inhabitants of either. The realm of light is ruled over by the Son of God, the Sun of Righteousness, who is THE LIGHT; and the realm of darkness is ruled over by Satan, the Prince of darkness. Paul, in writing to the saints at Thessalonica, stated, "Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (I Thes. 5:5). There are many other passages where we read of the children of light, the children of the day; and the children of the night or of darkness. So we can be either children of the Day, or children of the Night. We can either walk in light, or walk in darkness; it all depends on who we are following. Jesus spoke this beautiful truth: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have THE LIGHT OF LIFE" (Jn. 8:12). As we follow the Lord we will have the Light of Life, for He is the LIGHT and the LIFE.

As we consider this world in which we live, we see that all of the physical light we have here springs from the sun in our sky. Take away that orb and darkness would soon cover the earth. All vegetation would droop and die as it turned yellow, then brown and black and crumbled into the earth. Soon after that all animal and human life would have the same fate. The verdant creatures which grace the surface of the earth have been created to live in light. No one who has ever seen the sickly color of some plant that has struggled for life in semi-darkness can fail to miss the contrast between the green thing which grew in the sunshine, and the pale travesty which grew in the shade. In total darkness every man would become blind within three days, and death would follow shortly after.

The life that we know comes from the sun. In the same way, Jesus Christ is the Sun of Righteousness. The reason for the decay and death that we have all around us is due to a lack of righteousness. Sin! Sin is the lack of rightness, or righteousness. When man sinned, death entered his world. It is what the apostle Paul referred to as "the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). Because of this inexorable law of sin and death mankind, upon Adam's disobedience, fell into the corruption of the world around them. The scientific term for that is ENTROPY. It is known as the second law of thermodynamics, and it states very simply that all things in the universe are moving toward greater randomness, toward decay and dissolution. Thus, according to the scripture, the entire "creation was made subject to vanity - frailty and futility" (Rom. 8:20). The earth itself began to "wax old, as doth a garment" and ultimately "shall perish" (Heb. 1:10-12). Since all flesh is made of the earth's physical elements, it also is subject to the law of decay and death and as "grass, withereth ... and falleth away" (I Pet. 1:24). It is universal experience that ALL THINGS, living or nonliving, eventually wear out, run down, grow old, disintegrate, and pass into the dust.

This condition is so universal that it was formalized about a hundred years ago into a fundamental scientific law, now called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law states that all systems, if left to themselves, tend to become degraded or disordered. Physical systems, whether watches or suns, eventually wear out. Organisms grow old and die. Hereditary changes in species are caused by gene mutations which in many cases have resulted in deterioration or extinction of the species itself. The astounding fact is that there is no reason known to science why things should grow old other than the second law of thermodynamics which simply describes a universal fact that takes place everywhere, from the smallest atom to the greatest sun. Entropy controls all things, and entropy is nothing other than THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH which bespeaks a lack of righteousness which is God's way of saying that in a universe made by God, the all-holy One, unrighteousness cannot be allowed to have permanent existence. Thank God! there is a counterlaw, a transcendental law, THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS. Christ Jesus, the Righteous One, came into this world and was declared to be the Son of God according to THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS" (Rom. 1:4) and was raised from the dead BY THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS. Can we not see by this how HOLINESS is linked to LIFE and UNRIGHTEOUSNESS is connected to DEATH? The law of entropy CAN be broken! The second law of thermodynamics CAN be transcended! The law of sin and death CAN be superseded! "How?" you ask. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, YE SHALL LIVE. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:13,2). Therefore, it is the Christ who rises, the Sun of Righteousness. He brings light and, with light and illumination, He brings life; the spirits that were drooping and lives that were dying and bodies that were corrupting because of unrighteousness and sin begin to lift up and revive and LIVE AGAIN.

Though the sun is over ninety-three million miles out there in space, it radiates light, heat, energy and life to everything on the earth. The nature of the sun is that of light, heat and energy, and it radiates itself into all our solar system. Even though it is so distant from us, if it weren't for our atmosphere, the light and heat would burn everything to a crisp in a matter of minutes. How much farther its radiation would go, I have no idea, but it could travel an inestimable distance into space. The sun supplies us with light, heat, energy and life that is needed to support life on this planet. Without it no life could exist on this earth. The sun is the source of all this. God is a SUN, and what the sun is to the earth, God is to the creation. He is the life, the light, the energy that pervades and radiates through the universe, on all levels and in every realm, supporting and sustaining all things. Just as our sun radiates itself into our solar system, and supports and sustains natural life on this planet; so God radiates Himself into the entire universe to support and uphold and give life to everything He has created.

In that age of antiquity when the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, the time came for our heavenly Father to bring forth His image in creation. "Let there be light," was the Word of the Lord, and there WAS LIGHT - not the light of the sun, for the sun was not given His command until the fourth day, but the light that shone was that TRUE LIGHT, even the light of God's Christ (Gen. 1:4). If I may add this thought, we must conclude that ALL LIGHT is God's light, even the light that shines from the sun, the moon or the stars. We call it natural light, but can we be wrong in concluding that even natural things are also from the hand of God - spirit lowered in vibration to the material plane?

The pen of a ready writer has written these words of wisdom and understanding: "Our little minds can but dimly grasp the wonderful transformation that took place when the Spirit of God began to move on the face of the deep. The water, of course, was ice because there was neither light nor heat. That was the true ice age, of which men of science often speak. But now the Spirit of God was moving upon the deep, dividing darkness from light, dispelling the bitter cold, melting the endless snows and the timeless ice, to make the dry land appear that both vegetable and animal life could spring forth at God's command to live and thrive. Thus it is written, 'Thou sendeth forth THY SPIRIT; THEY ARE CREATED: and Thou RENEWEST the face of the earth' (Ps. 104:30). What a marvelous transformation was taking place in that natural creation as OLD THINGS began to pass away and all things became new'! Gone was the darkness, the death, the snow, the ice, and the dreadful cold, and in its stead bustling life and bubbling song filled the whole earth. The earth, that was without form and void, and the gross and terrible darkness that covered it like a shroud is the Lord's symbolic picture of the condition of unregenerate man. The description given in Gen. 1:2 - the earth was WITHOUT FORM and VOID and darkness was upon the face of the deep - is an apt and accurate description of the spiritual condition of a man outside of Christ, unconverted, unregenerate, and not born again. The word VOID conveys the meaning of emptiness, destitution, unoccupied, of no effect. What more accurate picture could be given of an unregenerate man as he lives without God or hope in the world? The earth was "without form" before the Spirit of God moved upon it, and darkness - gross, outer darkness - was upon the face of the deep. O man of the world, is not this a picture of your life without God? What form or shape can be given to such an emptiness as a life lived without the Lord? Darkness hangs like a pall over the soul that is dead in trespasses and sins, and, should one gain the whole world and lose his soul, it would profit him nothing at all. Moffatt in his translation of Prov. 4:18-19 has so significantly stated, 'The course of bad men lies through darkness dim. They cannot see what makes them stumble; the course of good men, like a ray of dawn, shines on and on to the full light of day"' -The Page.

We are told that when a man gets away from this earth a short distance, he is in total, absolute darkness, and it is frightening to be out where there is nothing from which the sun can be reflected. Our little globe is out in a dark universe, yet that is nothing compared to the spiritual darkness that envelopes it. When the sun disappears, there is physical darkness over the land; but twenty-four hours a day there is spiritual darkness here, awful spiritual darkness. Man does not know God; man is in rebellion against God; man is in sin that blinds him to God. In the Lord Jesus Christ there is life, and the life that He gives is the LIGHT of men. In fact, His life is the only thing that can kindle light in the heart of an individual. An unregenerate man has no spiritual life within him. This is the reason that when you present to him Jesus Christ, he says, "I don't get it. I don't understand that at all."

The light shines in the darkness of this world at this moment. I have a notion that somebody reading these pages is saying, "Why is that preacher talking about being in Spiritual darkness? I understand everything." No, unless you know Jesus Christ as your life and light, you do not understand, and even then you understand only in that measure and to the degree that you truly KNOW HIM. The Spirit of God has to open your heart and mind and enlighten you before you can ever see Him as the light of life. May I say to you, friend, this world is in spiritual darkness. John stated it this way. "The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" (Jn. 1:5). Understand this, O man, and you will know a great mystery. The word "comprehend" is an unfortunate translation. And a wiseacre did not help it by rendering it, "and the darkness was not able to put it out." That is no translation at all. The word in the Greek is KATELABEN, meaning actually "to take down." It is the picture of a secretary to whom the boss is giving dictation, and she stops and says, "I can't take that down, I am not able to take it down." The light shines in darkness and the darkness is not able to take it in. Barriers have been erected. That is it exactly. Someone said to me, "Boy, was I in darkness before I received Christ! And I don't know why I didn't see." well, that is it - you were in darkness and you did not see. Barriers of sin, ignorance, and unbelief were set up; the darkness just could not take it in.

Nor, may I add, can the religious darkness of carnal-minded Christians "take down" the glorious light of revelation truth that shines so brilliantly into the minds and hearts of those who follow on to KNOW the Lord. The natural man CANNOT understand the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are SPIRITUALLY discerned. In all matters of revelation and spiritual understanding it is impossible to overestimate the absolute necessity of the sovereign and omnipotent moving of the Holy Spirit upon the darkness of our deep, who comes to take the things of God and show them unto us. Two worlds exist all about us - the natural world and the spiritual world. The natural realm is the realm of man, but the spiritual realm is the realm of God. When God's appointed hour comes for a man to be quickened, illumined and given understanding, He sends the Holy Spirit to dispel the darkness of the natural mind that ever hangs as a cloud about us that He may reveal to our wondering eyes the things that are real and true and eternal. It is "when He the Spirit of truth has come" that men are guided into all truth.

Again I share from the words of another, "It is He, the Holy Spirit, who, after revealing TRUTH to our darkened hearts, miraculously transforms the believer into the very truth he sees. The Spirit of God reveals to the believer's heart what the truth of God is and what the mind and will of God is and having done so, He makes him PARTAKER of the truth so that he, by beholding the truth, actually BECOMES the truth he beheld. He reveals salvation to us and we become THE SAVED. He reveals His plan of redemption and we become THE REDEEMED. He reveals His eternal purpose of sonship and we become the SONS OF GOD. These things concern His heavenly calling. As a flower opens to the light of the sun, so eternal purposes unfold in the light of the Holy Spirit and we, seeing and believing them, embrace them and become partakers of them" -end quote.

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also" (Gen. 1:14,16).

I would draw your reverent attention to the words here used for light. The Hebrew text of Gen. 1:3 says, "Ye hi or: wa ye hi or." The nearest to a literal translation our language will permit is to say, "Light be, and light was;" or even better, "Exist light, then exists light." Our English word, light, appears again in the English translation of the Bible in the plural form in the fourteenth verse, God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night." There is, however, a vast difference between the word for light, the substance, in verse three, and the one translated lights in verse fourteen. In verse three the Hebrew word is OR, while in verse fourteen the word is MA-OR. This latter word is best translated as luminary; light container; or light holder; and these light holders are placed about throughout His universe like street lights in a big city. We have the same distinction in the Greek where PHOS appears as light, the essence, and PHOSTER as the word for a light container. The MA-OR, then, are the great luminaries such as the flaming suns, and even their reflecting satellites called moons, the meteors, and the nebulae; but OR itself is the very substance and being of light.

In the Old Testament symbology the Hebrew word used for light, as standing for the Person of Christ our Lord, is OR, and in the New Testament the Greek word for light, as applied to the Person of Christ, is PHOS. The significance of this is noted when we see that the characteristic word for the body of Christ in the New Testament is PHOSTER, or light holder. Jesus Christ then is the Light and we are the luminaries which contain or shine forth the Light. The most significant appearance of this word in connection with the children of God is Phil. 2:15, "That ye may be blameless and harmless, THE SONS OF GOD, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, AMONG WHOM YE SHINE AS LIGHTS (phoster: light holders; luminaries) IN THE WORLD." This word is comparable to the luminaries of the Old Testament, the MA-OR or the light containers. In Rev. 21:10-11 we find, "And he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, having the glory of God: and her light (phoster) was ... clear as crystal."

As we consider this truth we should especially notice in reference to men, that II Sam. 23:3-4 reads, "He that ruleth over men... shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun ariseth." And in II Sam. 21:17 we find David the king called, "the light of Israel." This same meaning is found in II Kings 8:19, "Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David His servant's sake, as He promised him to give him always a light, and to his children." In Mat. 13:43 we find concerning saints who are to be kings and priests and rule with Christ, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

LIGHT-BEARERS! Friends, Christ is the light, the light is within, it must break through, it must ARISE, it must have pre-eminence in our hearts. The glory of God is the emanation or radiation of His nature, and this glory surrounds Him. As we become partakers of the divine nature, we will also radiate the glory of His nature. This is the real purpose of our calling. The Christ within, not another man's revelation, nor another man's faith, but your own INDWELLING LIGHT enables you to manifest as one of God's lightbearers. Other people can follow the wandering stars and the falling stars, vainly chasing after the illusive light within them, but, praise God, there is a people in whom the God of light is being birthed and formed, partakers of His divine nature, conformed to His image, a new life found within - a new star in God's spiritual universe BECOMING. Each and every son of God must ultimately come to that place where all his need is fully met by the INNER SUFFICIENCY of the indwelling spirit of life, not from that which stands without.

We cannot deny, while for the child of God the light is growing brighter and brighter day by day, yet for the world in general it is becoming darker with every passing hour. But God is not going to leave the world swallowed in darkness, He is preparing HIS MESSENGERS OF LIGHT, HIS CELESTIAL LUMINARIES will be established in His heaven, and they announce by their shining a new age to come, when light shall be upon every man. The SIGN COMPANY (Gen. 1:14) which heralds the new creation of God shall be made manifest. Yet what an humbling, purging, purifying process must be accomplished in this company ere God will exalt them in "due" time! Ah, He must thoroughly teach us complete submission to HIS WILL so that we know it is by DIVINE GRACE ALONE, and never anything in ourselves that will give us this position. If you try to shine in God's heaven without first having been filled with Him who IS THE LIGHT OF LIFE, you will fail. Those religious ones, those great ones, those "big names" who streak across the sky in a vain effort to arouse the attention of the world, end in darkness and defeat. They are but meteorites, burning out as they fall through the atmosphere of earth. But in His time GOD PLACES in proper position HIS LUMINARIES that shall shine with the glory of God for the ages.

LIGHT-BEARERS! These are known collectively as ZION, for "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined" (Ps. 50:2). God hath shined - literally, caused to shine. It means much more than just the fact that out of Zion GOD IS SHINING. He is Light, He is always shining. But more specifically, He will cause the light to shine out through His Zion company. Divine radiance will find its expression through this people. Those who shall stand with the Lamb on the mount of Light (Rev. 14:1) shall be vessels, light-holders, luminaries, light-bearers, through whom God shines.

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee" (Isa. 60:1-2). There is a people UPON WHOM OUR GOD IS ARISING. He isn't going to arise in the skies of the physical heavens, as the church-world ignorantly expects, but UPON HIS PEOPLE. "For the Lord shall arise upon THEE, and His glory shall be seen upon THEE." His glory will not be seen streaking across the physical heavens, BUT UPON HIS PEOPLE. Darkness does cover the earth and great darkness the people, but in spite of the abounding desolations, we live in the most glorious hour of all time for the people of God; for we have been selected by God to be priests with Christ in the grand task of bringing reconciliation, restitution, and restoration to the whole fallen world order. Nothing that man has done has so desolated the world that it is beyond hope. On the contrary, when we see sin and darkness all about us, let us be encouraged by the divine principle, "But where sin abounded, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND" (Rom. 5:20).

In the very midst of all this darkness upon the land and gross darkness upon the people, God is arising upon His chosen ones. How joyful we are that God, who is the Light, gets right down where the darkness is. He does not come from afar to dispel the night, but "God ... commanded the light to shine OUT OF DARKNESS" (II Cor. 4:6). First, God has met us right where we are, the dawning of God's day has blazened our sky and made us a body of light to usher in a new day for all creation. The brightness of our rising brings the dawning of the new day. As we shed His glory abroad, we are lights in humanity's sky - so let no shadow of self keep your light from shining, but be one of God's scintillating stars.

I cannot do better than quote the true and eloquent words of Ray Prinzing: "In James 1: 17 we read of 'The Father of LIGHTS.' As to His Fatherhood, Light can only beget light. And since HE IS The Light, then He begets lights. Wuest's Expanded Translation brings out that He is the Father of 'heavenly luminaries.' And it is of 'His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures' (James 1:18). The firstfruits of His creatures are AS HE IS, namely, they are to be LIGHTS.

"In giving further description to our 'Father of lights,' the Amplified records, in verse seventeen, 'in Whom there can be no variation (rising or setting) or shadow cast by His turning (as in an eclipse).' It seems that far too much of our past experience portrayed us as just being little 'moons,' only reflecting some of His light to earth, to men. And there have been so very many eclipses! There are two important kind of eclipses with which we are familiar. There is the SOLAR eclipse, when the moon comes between the sun and the earth, then the only light is that which shines out around, and in spite of the moon. Any time a ministry, or vessel so being used, comes between THE SON and the earth, then we surely have an eclipse, and the only light mankind receives at such a time is that which shines out around that ministry or vessel, literally in spite of that one. Oh, may God help us not to become guilty of eclipsing the light which needs to be shining upon men today. When our ministry, our doctrine, our traditions, which we think are reflecting the light of God to men, come in the way, and stand between God and man, then the true light is eclipsed.

"The other most familiar kind of eclipse is referred to as a LUNAR eclipse, when we have a situation wherein the earth comes between the moon and the sun. When our own earth (flesh) get in the way, then HIS OUTSHINING again is eclipsed, and the light is veiled from view. We have received a blessing from the Lord, and we would pass it along to others, but when our flesh gets in the way, the real light of the blessing does not reach those with whom we would share. But we are not interested in just being 'moons' to serve as some kind of 'reflector' of our Lord. This makes a good illustration for the point of eclipses, but we truly desire to BECOME ONE IN THE SUN, to possess His nature of light, and to have that inherent quality of light within. Praise His name, He shall bring a people into that state of being where there is FULL LIGHT. A very important part of the process is to bring us into ONENESS until we no more walk in duality, partaking of both good and evil, for 'when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light' (Lk. 11:34)." -end quote.

We are appointed to shine as the sun. We have now come to mount Zion, to the city of the living God as a shining scene of great splendor and brightness and dazzling beauty. It is not our desire to merely see the light, or tell of it, or paint it, or live in it as fine as all that is. We must BECOME THE LIGHT. "YE ARE the light of the world." "YE ARE light in the Lord." How unworthy and unprepared for such a calling we feel betimes! But, precious friend of mine, you may be poor, despised, unlettered; but if, through grace, there is a link connecting you to the Sun of Righteousness, "the light of the world," then you are, in very deed, a son of the day, and destined, ere long, to shine in that celestial sphere, that region of glory, of which "the Lamb" will be the central sun forevermore. This is not your own doing. It is the result of the counsel and operation of God Himself, who has given you the light of life, joy and peace, triumph and glory, in Jesus Christ. But if you are a total stranger to the hallowed action and influence of divine light, if your eyes have not been opened to behold any beauty in the Son of God, and no attraction to that place by His side, then, though you had all the learning of an Einstein, though you were enriched with all the treasures of human philosophy, though you had drunk in with avidity all the streams of human science, though your name were adorned with all the learned titles which the schools and universities of this world could bestow, though you were piously devoted to the grandest creeds, traditions, rituals, ceremonies and service of the revered religious systems of earth, yet you are A SON OF THE NIGHT, A SON OF DARKNESS; and are just as dark, just as void, just as formless and empty, just as dead as was the desolate earth, from which you came, before that memorable day in which God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

This study would not be complete without suggesting that there is another word for light in the Greek text of the New Testament which appears in text only twice. This word is PHOTISMOS, and we read it in II Cor. 4:4-6, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the LIGHT (photismos) of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the LIGHT (photismos) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This word is the basis of our modern term PHOTOGRAPH, and this is the literal implication of the text.

Photography is a way of recording a scene by the creation of an image by light. Light travels in a straight line at the speed of 186,000 miles a second. When light hits something it bounces back - or is absorbed. If it bounces back to your eye, the object looks bright. If it is absorbed, the object looks dark. When you snap the shutter of your camera, this permits the light that bounces back from a scene to pass through the lens of the camera to the film at the back of the camera. The film at the back of your camera is a sensitive silver screen. Units of light strike it and leave an invisible record, a "latent image." Each unit, sent to its proper spot by the lens, adds a little to the pattern of light - thus reproducing the scene the lens sees, impressing the picture image on the film. Light has literally taken the image of the thing being photographed and transferred that light-image onto the film. Later on, chemical development makes the "latent image" visible. According to II Cor. 4:6 the face of Jesus Christ is literally PHOTOGRAPHED UPON OUR COUNTENANCE to become our light and glory, and the face we show to the world should be the ILLUMINED COUNTENANCE made so by the light of God impressing the image of Jesus Christ upon us!

The light that creates this image upon us is THE LIGHT OF LIFE, that same incorruptible LIFE which erupted as LIGHT before the astonished eyes of those chosen disciples who climbed with Christ to the invigorating heights of the mount of Transfiguration. We are told in Mat. 17:2 that "He was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as light." In the ninth chapter of Mark, we are told that "His garments became glistering," which, in the Greek means "to lighten forth, flash forth like lightning." Within that form that was marred more than the sons of men, dwelt glory ineffable. As He prayed upon the mount of Transfiguration, He opened a little way the robe of humanity with which He had covered Himself when He came down to earth, and His majesty and glory burst forth!

The glory of the transfiguration was the momentary unveiling of the glorious heavenly light that is brighter than ten thousand suns. It was in truth the manifestation of the light of life promised by our Lord to those who follow Him (Jn. 8:12). It shone from His face. It glistered from His garments. It surrounded Him like a halo. It radiated out from Him with blazing brilliance brighter than any noonday - the light that swallows up all darkness and death of the carnal realm. This was resurrection life, kingdom life, incorruptible life. And, beloved, this beautiful picture tells us what OUR INCORRUPTIBLE BODIES WILL BE, the radiant light of life that Christ Himself actually is. When Jesus burst out of the tomb in resurrection He came forth in the full brilliance of divine light of life. In this glory Paul saw Him in his Damascus vision, a light brighter than the noonday sun (Acts 26:13-14), and in this way John beheld Him in the wonder of the Patmos vision (Rev. 1:16). And this, beloved, is the glory the saints will possess when the fullness of His light of life has been experienced in spirit, soul and body. And in those blessed SONS OF LIGHT will be fulfilled this marvelous promise, "Then shall the righteous SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the Kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Mat. 13:43). Amen!

Next to Part 19

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