Glorious Sunlight!

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84: 11)

There are many symbolic representations of Lord God given to us in both nature and in the bible. The sun is probably the best of them all. It is no wonder, therefore, that many ancient peoples worshipped the sun as a deity itself. Sun worship has an ancient tradition. Even Job (the oldest book in the bible) alluded to it in these words.

"If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." (Job 31: 26-28)

Sun worship is here condemned and Job has searched his own heart about whether he has at all been guilty of it, and thus been an idolator. Though sun worship be a great sin, yet to view the sun as an emblem of God, is not sin. Our God is "a sun and shield." Lord God is to us and to our world what the sun is to us and to our world. There is only ONE sun in our solar system and so there is only ONE God in the universe, and life and salvation are to be had by means of him "shining" on a person's heart and mind. Man needs the sun, but the sun does not need man. The "glory" of the "sun" outshines the "glory" of the "moon" and all lessor "heavenly bodies."

"The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee." (Numbers 6: 25)

"Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." (Psalm 80: 19)

Every saved person has had Lord God to shine upon his heart and soul. Those who are not saved have not had the light of God to shine upon them. They are yet in sin's darkness.

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (II Corinthians 4: 6)

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (II Corinthians 4: 4)

This "heavenly sunlight" that imparts life to dead sinners comes from Lord God himself through the channel of the gospel. Lord God is radiating himself in the preaching of the "glorious gospel of Christ." This heavenly sunlight has the power to raise the spiritually dead, to enlighten men to a true knowledge of God and salvation.

"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings..." (Malachi 4: 2)

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." (II Peter 1: 19)

These verses again connect the concept of light shining upon or within a person with coming to know God intimately, in a spiritual birth experience. A Christian is one who has had the "sun" (Lord God and his gospel concerning his Son Jesus Christ) to shine upon his heart, mind, and soul and has thus been transformed by that light. The great apostle Paul was saved by not only having that light shine into his soul, but also in a literal way, when he was physically struck to the ground by a "light greater than the noon-day sun." The Lord Jesus Christ has risen, like our sun in the morning, in the heart of that person who has believed in Jesus and his glorious gospel.

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." (Isaiah 9: 2)

This prophecy was literally fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ walked here in the flesh and people beheld him who is called the "Light of the world" (John 9: 5). But, it is also fulfilled every time a sinner embraces the gospel of Jesus Christ and turns to him in faith and away from sin. He sees the light and begins to walk in it, walking in sunlight.

"But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." (Proverbs 4: 18)

The path the Christian is on is one that gets more illuminated as he nears the journey's end. He does not walk this path in darkness. The light of Lord God continues to shine in his heart and soul.

"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." (Revelation 21: 23)

In the ages to come, Christians will bask in the light of Christ superlatively. Wonderful day! The "perfect day"!

Friend, are you walking in darkness, stumbling all through life? Do you find yourself all confused about the why of your existence and the purpose of Lord God in this world? Then, come to the light! Beg Lord God to shine upon your heart. Ask him to deliver you from blindness and to keep the "god of this world" from keeping you from the light.