For I
will comfort them, turning their mourning into gladness, and their sorrow into
joy. And to those who mourn in Zion I will give beauty for ashes, and a garment
of praise for their spirit of heaviness. (Jeremiah 31:13; Isaiah 61:3) In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there
was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light
from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Gen
1:1-5)
There is a novelty in things that are new. From the days of our first
remembrance, something that was ‘brand new’ was also special. As a matter of
fact, the word ‘novelty’ comes from the Latin ‘NOVUS’ meaning new. New is not
always better and, when it comes to truth and faith, it is something altogether
undesirable. Why is this? It is because Truth is immutable. It has not changed
one iota since the Creation of the World. The same Lord Jesus Christ that
offers salvation to the elect of God is the same as that promised Savior told
to Abraham and in whom Abraham placed his faith and trust. We are not living in
some dispensational period in which God has changed His mind about His dealings
with man. The Grace and Salvation of God, like the beauty of the unfolding of a
rosebud, has been a gradual but steady revelation of Jesus Christ. Nothing has
changed in our day. Abraham, being a Christian himself, looked forward to the
promise of Christ; while we today look back to the accomplished fact. But in
all time, it was forever the same Savior. “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel
which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the
lively oracles to give unto us” (Acts
7:38) There was no dispensation of
law in which men could be saved by good works – it has forever been by the
Grace of God through faith in His beloved Son, Jesus.
What we have learned from Holy Scripture is like unto the Ancient Lamp Light of
God. He has given us His unchanging, immutable Word from ancient times and the
Light can never be extinguished; but it CAN be hidden or distorted in the minds
of men by evil men of our day. The false light given off in the peat bogs and
swamps of the world, called will-o'-the-wisps or jack-o'-lanterns, are superficial lights of
deception and danger. To follow those lights into the infested swamps where the
alligator and panther reside is pretty nearly suicide. In the spiritual sense,
it is precisely that. Those imitation lights of unsteady place and dim
appearance will draw you into danger – not away from it. They are manufactured
by the airs and gases of the rotting tissue of the swamp, which tissue you will
become if you are attracted to those lights. Unfortunately, it is the
adventurous youth, at the peak of their enthusiasm and at the perigee of
wisdom.
A story from One Thousand and One Nights, Aladdin’s Lamp, is of a young
man who discovers a lamp containing a Genie. The Genie provides every need for
Aladdin at his stated wish. A wicked sorcerer is after the lamp and will resort
to anything to get his hands on it. Leaving the lamp in the safe-keeping of his
wife (who does not know its worth) Aladdin is away when the sorcerer comes
hawking “New Lamps for Old – New Lamps for Old.” Aladdin’s wife, thinking that
a new lamp will always be more worth than an old one, exchanges the magical
lamp for a new, and nearly worthless, one. This is precisely what America has
done today. We have traded the Ancie3nt Lamp of the Gospel for new and
worthless philosophies and fables that cannot benefit but, rather, lead to ruin
in the swamp of sin.
The Light of Man is his indestructible spirit which
points to his Maker. In reference to the “Virtuous Woman” Solomon says: “her candle goeth not out by night.” (Prov 31:18) The Bible uses ‘candle,’ ‘light,’ and ‘lamp’
interchangeably. The prophet Samuel says: “thou quench not the light of
Israel.” (2 Sam 21:17)
Of course, the CANDLE of the virtuous woman and the LIGHT of Israel is the
Lord.
God’s Word itself is a great Light that is described as a lamp: “Thy word
is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalms
119:105) What does this lamp-light of
God’s Word do for us? Like every true light, it scatters the darkness, it
reveals dangers in the way, it points out the path of safety which we should
trod, and it reveals the lovely lights of God’s Creation to our eyes. It
distinguishes the wrong way from the right way.
God’s Commandment is a Lamp and a Light to us: “For the commandment is a
lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”
(Prov 6:23) Even a tiny
light will scatter a room full of darkness because darkness is only the absence
of light. There is a darkness that pervades the landscape of America because
the Light of God has been strangled and extinguished by our courts and
lawmakers – but only temporarily because the darkness of man can never
completely hide the Light of God. When the law of man becomes darkness, it is
in opposition to that beautiful Light of Christ.
Salvation, too, is a Light from God. It does not emanate from our own hearts,
but from the heart of God. God is the source of salvation through His mercy and
grace. The soul that belongs to God has the ‘reflected light’ of the
world as a testimony to all around. “For Zion's sake will I not hold my
peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth.” (Isaiah 62:1)
A lamp (knowledge) is of no value without the oil of the Holy Ghost to fuel it.
This was illustrated in the Parable of the Ten Virgins by Jesus: “But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”
(Matt 25:4) All of the
knowledge in the world will benefit nothing without the Holy Ghost to give it
light and meaning.
God will use His Light to search out sinful hearts. Nothing is hidden from the
eyes of the Lord: “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will
search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their
lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do
evil.” (Zeph 1:12)
There are flickering lights of the sky, and of the earth. There are lights
whose nature is darkness. But there is one True Light that lights the hearts of
men – Jesus Christ. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world.” (John 1:9) Every man that cometh into the world applies to
all – even those who CALL themselves atheists. But they suffocate the light and
cover it with darkness. Every whisper of God is hated by those who wish to
follow their own feeble lights. But the True Light is Constant, it is Absolute
(even according to Mr. Einstein’s Special Theory), and it ALWAYS travels in a
straight line. This reflects the Mind of God. Light cannot be seen by man, only
the objects that it illuminates; and neither can God be seen by man – only in
the hearts that His Love and Light illuminates.
Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world, and so we are if our hearts
and countenances are bathed in the self-generating Light of the Sun of
Righteousness. (Matthew 5:14)
We reflect the Light of Christ (which is truly the Light of the World) if we
have Him in our hearts to shine forth in deeds of love and righteousness. He is
the great Light Source I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. (John
8:12) It was this same Light to which
Abraham looked in his generations, and all of the saved of Israel believed in
faith; and all the saved of Israel believe today. We are moons, though
apart from the world, reflect His Light upon it. Just as in the days of
Abraham, many did not look to that Light. But the day would come when the Light
would grow too resplendent and brilliant to ignore: “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) The Light came to all the world –
Jew, Gentile, Male & Female, Bond and free) alike. Have you seen that
Light, friend, or have you chosen to close your eyes?
