Micah 7:1 What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. 2 The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net. 3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire– they all conspire together. 4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion. 5 Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. 6 For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man’s enemies are the members of his own household. 7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. 8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. 9 Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD’s wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness. 10 Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame.

We’re living in troubled times.  Not just in the United States.  It’s all over the world.  Glossing over it is to live in denial.  Putting a pretty and diverse frame around it fails to resolve the problem.  The problem is sin.

Lent is traditionally a season during which we contemplate the reasons why Jesus had to die.  Reasons which are simultaneously legion and can be boiled down to one: sin.

Plenty of pastors and preachers, certainly the lion’s share of politicians don’t want to talk much about sin.  This is the legacy of troubled times brought about by sin’s hold on the human race, a godless moral relativism, and a pathetic paucity of genuine Bible teaching, its truth being cast as just one of many ideas in a world of diversity.

Are you sitting in darkness, embracing some kind of sin?  The LORD will be your light.  The Savior will be your righteousness if you are willing to come out of the darkness and shame.  Jesus came to bear your shame and experience God’s wrath so you wouldn’t have to. 

Are you in need of the comforting light of the Savior?  He loves you.  Come into His light.

Fun Fact of Light:  Okay, today’s isn’t really fun at all.  It’s about Memorial Candles.  They’re used in many religious traditions and we often see them lit as part of memorials post-tragedy.  Among the many reasons in Jewish tradition, Chabad explains beginning with this one, 

“We Jews light a whole lot of candles for the dead. I have seen candles lit at a shivah house of mourning, on the yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing), and even for the entire first year of mourning. What is the reason behind the candle, and when did the custom begin? … The verse states, “The soul of man is the lamp of G‑d.” As such, the candle serves as a remembrance of the departed soul.” 

For Further Thought:

Why would a memorial candle bring comfort from a Christian point of view?  How does today’s Scripture passage shed light on this practice?

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for experiencing all the shame and all the wrath so we do not have to.  Thank You, that this life is not all there is for those who believe in You.  We pray for those who have died in attacks this past week, in persecution, in desperate and troubled times.  We pray for those needing Your comfort and the light of joy in You as they face life in a deeply troubled world.  Amen.

Have you ever been at a loss for words?  Perhaps it was something you saw left you speechless because it was indescribable? 

Maybe it was an event or seeing a place so beautiful that mere words simply couldn’t do it justice.  It takes your breath away.

Maybe it was something so very painful or terrifying that putting words to it would give it a permanence when you’d rather forget. 

Or maybe it was both…something so powerful that no matter how many descriptors you used, it still couldn’t convey what it is you were witnessing. 

* * *

That’s what happened to Ezekiel.  He was minding his own business, and then…

Ezekiel 1:1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God….4 I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north– an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings.

Bizarre. So he continues to try to wrap his mind and his language around what he sees.  Light, Fire, Radiance.  Indescribable beauty, so powerful and awesome, he falls facedown.

Ezekiel 1:25 Then there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. 26 Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

The prophets often searched for words and tried to put language of light around the indescribable they knew only by sight.

Fun Fact of Light:  Dimmers.  Sometimes the light can be too intense so people will want to install dimmer switches which worked fine with old incandescent bulbs, but with new CFL and LEDs, nope.  According to Popular Mechanics  

“The complex circuitry in these new bulbs makes them difficult to dim. In many cases, a typical dimmer switch (now called a legacy dimmer in the electrical industry) won’t work properly, if at all, with CFL or LED bulbs.

Legacy dimmers were designed to work with incandescents, and CFL and LED bulbs bear no electrical resemblance to these types of bulbs. Comparing them is like equating an electric heating element and a television set. Both use electricity and both give off light, but that’s where the similarity ends.”

But according to LEDLights,

“However, one common question is “Do LED lights work with dimmers?” Unfortunately, the answer is yes and no, and the explanation for this is a bit complicated… By reducing voltage to an incandescent bulb, it automatically dims, but LEDs on the other hand, already convert high voltage to low voltage, so reducing the input would have no effect on the light whatsoever. If less power was made available, the lights would simply go out.  So then, do LED lights work with a dimmer? Here’s another complicated answer! Some will, and some won’t!”

Kind of indescribable, I guess! 

For Further Thought:

• How do you deal with things you can’t put words around?
• What do you think of visions from Ezekiel, Daniel, or from Revelation?  What is your reaction to them?
• Do you think God dimmed the glorious reality so that the prophets would be able to search for words?

Thank You, Father, that You are indescribable…that as much as we have the beauty of language and the gift of sight made possible by Your grace…we cannot contain You with mere language.  Thank You for Your Word which reveals glimpses of who You are…in amounts our spiritual sight can discern of Your indescribable nature.  We praise You that You are God, powerful and far beyond our comprehension and yet, You are as approachable as a loving Father and Your Son Jesus who calls us friends. Amen.

Isaiah 55:9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”

Isaiah 60:19 The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. 20 Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. 21 Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.

Among the prophecies of the Old Testament and the Scriptures yet to be fulfilled in the New Testament, there is the beautiful idea that someday we will not need a sun or a moon to be our light.  God Himself will … not just provide … but actually be our light. 

It is really a foreign concept given how we are so used to the regularity of sunrises and sunsets, moonrises and moonsets.  So accustomed are we, that oftentimes, we just can’t imagine it.

If we stop to think about it, though, there are plenty of ways we have light without an obvious sun in the sky and at times of the new moon when the moon is not visible.  We can have light at the predawn and post-sunset hours, a time period known as twilight.  So we should not be surprised that in everlasting light, the sun will never set, the moon will never wane, but rather we’ll have the everlasting light of God as He lights our way Himself!

Fun Fact of Light:  Twilight.  The US Navy has precise definitions of twilight and even separates it into 3 categories or “intervals” of time: Civil Twilight, Nautical Twilight, and Astronomical Twilight.

“Twilight: Before sunrise and again after sunset there are intervals of time, twilight, during which there is natural light provided by the upper atmosphere, which does receive direct sunlight and reflects part of it toward the Earth’s surface.”

For Further Thought: 

• What differences will be detectable when the everlasting light of God is full-on, never setting? 
• What does light have to do with glory and splendor?
• What happens to sorrow in everlasting light?  How might bringing our sorrows to the LORD today help us with the ones we have right now?

Father God, we praise You for the everlasting light of the New Jerusalem provided by You as a display of Your splendor.  We thank You for Your promise of restoration, redemption, and righteousness.  Keep our focus looking ahead to that day of everlasting light.  Amen.

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you.

Sunrise is a beautiful time of day.  One of the joys of the changing seasons and the practice of changing our clocks with daylight savings time is that a sunrise can remain a regular part of my morning ritual.   Even in the dog days of summer when the sun rises super early, I’m always up for it.  What about you?  Not everyone is a “morning person” but we can all arise and shine!

Fun Fact of Light:  Sunlight and you!  While we’re living in an age of sunscreens, skin cancer, and dermatologists warning about the negative effects of the sun, there are benefits too.  Aside from our bodies naturally producing Vitamin D in response to sunlight, a moderate exposure to the sun in the early hours of the day when the UV rays are mitigated by the angle of the sun (i.e. the greater amount of atmosphere the rays must pass through)–this can actually help with your mood if you suffer from a condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).  According to WebMD,  “Experts aren’t sure what causes SAD. But they think it may be caused by a lack of sunlight. Lack of light may:

·       Upset your “biological clock,” which controls your sleep-wake pattern and other circadian rhythms.

·       Cause problems with serotonin, a brain chemical that affects mood.”

Why is it good to arise and shine in a physical sense?  Health and safety!  Just like in the spiritual sense!   It’s true that you can get a sunburn at any time of sun exposure, but according to the EPA, “Nearly half of UV radiation is received between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the sun’s rays are the strongest” … so sunrise exposure is preferable because “The atmosphere has a very strong effect on UVB rays – where there is less ozone, more UVB radiation can reach Earth’s surface. UVB rays cause sunburns, skin cancer, skin aging, snow blindness and can lower your body’s ability to fight illness.”

For further thought:

Do you arise and shine?  Even if you’re a late sleeper, do you start your day with the Word of God and/or in prayer?  There’s no better way to have the glory of the LORD rise upon you and be a bright light for those you know.  There’s no greater protection for your soul and no better aid for your spirit than to arise and shine.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your Light which shines on us and illuminates our hearts.  Thank You for the light of knowledge, light of hope, and light of salvation we find in You.  Your love is perfect.  Your light is glorious!  We thank You for Your goodness and mercy! Amen.

If there’s a passage of Scripture that points like a laser to the Messiah, it’s this one:

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. 11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

There is a laser-like precision to this prophecy.  It’s easy on this side of the Cross to know that Jesus fulfills it perfectly.  When you point people to this Messianic Laser Light, the truth of the Gospel will be unmistakable.  Shine your light on the Savior and His work on the Cross.

Fun Fact of Light:  Lasers.  The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility & Photon Science page offers this helpful analysis about lasers:

 “Laser” is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. A laser is created when the electrons in atoms in special glasses, crystals, or gases absorb energy from an electrical current or another laser and become “excited.” The excited electrons move from a lower-energy orbit to a higher-energy orbit around the atom’s nucleus. When they return to their normal or “ground” state, the electrons emit photons (particles of light).

These photons are all at the same wavelength and are “coherent,” meaning the crests and troughs of the light waves are all in lockstep. In contrast, ordinary visible light comprises multiple wavelengths and is not coherent.

Laser light is different from normal light in other ways as well. First, its light contains only one wavelength (one specific color). The particular wavelength of light is determined by the amount of energy released when the excited electron drops to a lower orbit. Second, laser light is directional. Whereas a laser generates a very tight beam, a flashlight produces light that is diffuse. Because laser light is coherent, it stays focused for vast distances, even to the moon and back.”

For Further Thought:

How ought the light of life, the fact of the resurrection of Christ, focus all of Christianity on the same wavelength?  Does it always?  Why or why not?

Father God, we thank You for the powerful Light of Jesus Christ who is the Name above all Names, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  We praise You for His perfect sacrifice, forever setting a focus upon the sinful nature of man and the beautiful, merciful love of God.  Thank You for sending Jesus to die for our sins and for the prophecies in Scripture that were fulfilled in His first advent.  Grant us humble hearts and watchful eyes as we wait for His return we’ve been assured will happen in the same way as He ascended to heaven.  Until that day, may we always be about Your work, putting aside our Christian differences on things which are superficial and focusing instead on first things.  Amen.

God doesn’t do Plan B.  God has never developed a Plan B in case His original plan didn’t work out.  Jesus isn’t a measure-twice-cut-once kind of guy.  God’s ways are perfectly conceived, perfectly executed, and achieve exactly what God wants … even with the Jews first and then Gentiles.  

So why didn’t God just go straight to the Gentiles instead of fiddling on the roof with the Jews as chosen people?

God gives His own answer for what the Suffering Servant (Jesus) would do when in Isaiah 49:6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Indeed, when Jesus came and opened the scroll at the beginning of His ministry, He opened to a passage in Isaiah 61 describing the Year of the Lord’s Favor, and perfectly reflects Isaiah 42:6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” 

The Light of the World, Jesus Christ, was sent as a covenant—proved faithful and true—for the Jews and as God’s perfect, faithful, and true Light for the Gentiles.

Fun Fact of Light:  Reflection and Refraction.  According to Jim Lucas, contributor at Live Science, “When people look into a mirror, they see an image of themselves behind the glass. That image results from light rays encountering the shiny surface and bouncing back, or reflecting, providing a “mirror image.” People commonly think of the reflection as being reversed left to right; however, this is a misconception. If you face north and look straight into a mirror, the east side of your face is still on the east side of the image, and the same is true for the west side. The mirror does not reverse the image left to right; it reverses it front to back. For example, if you are facing north, your reflection is facing south.” 

Reflection and refraction—two types of geometric optics—are useful in creating telescopes.  George Mason University’s Physics Department, in a great power point pdf explains,  “The fundamental purpose of any telescope is to gather more light than the unaided eye can.  In many cases telescopes are used to produce images far brighter and sharper than the eye alone could ever record.  A refracting telescope uses a lens to concentrate incoming light at a focus. Lenses bend different colors of light through different angles, just as a prism does … If the telescope designer carefully chooses two different kinds of glass for two lenses that make up the one, different colors of light can be brought to a focus at the same point.”  Modern technology of special optical mirrors are used in, for example, the Hubble Space Telescope using the same concepts of geometric optics.

For Further Thought:  Read Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

How does this fulfill the covenant God made to Abraham in Genesis 17:4-5?

Thank You, Father, for Your perfect plan of salvation to include people from many nations, tribes, and tongues.  For all the beautiful diversity in humanity, we thank You Father.  Thank You that Jesus alone is the focus of our salvation.  In Him alone, do we have hope, both Jews and Gentiles..  In Christ alone, we see Your Light in its clearest, brightest, most perfect Image, Jesus, who reflects Your goodness, love, and glory.  Amen.

Depending on who you talk to and their love or hatred of God, the actions of God get filtered by our faith.  Some people blame God for everything bad and don’t give Him credit for anything good.  Then there are others who give God credit for everything good, but for some reason don’t want to give God credit for the bad stuff too. 

Why is that?

Scripture says God does both. 

(Aaaaiieeee!  And all the good little Christians throw up their hands and get confused.)  Hold your fire.  There’s an answer. 

But first we must acknowledge this truth:

I form the light and create darkness,  I bring prosperity and create disaster;    I, the LORD, do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)

All the way back at Creation, God created Light.  There’s Nothing Like It!  But when He created light, He also separated it out from what was “not light” and that was darkness (what God eventually called ”night”).

Genesis 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he 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.

When God creates (or brings) something defined as prosperity, whatever is “not prosperity” can be separated out and defined as disaster.  In some respects, it’s like an empty category that—on this side of the fall of man—gets filled automatically with what comes naturally to a sinful world.  It probably isn’t called default for nothing <cue vaudeville rimshot>.

But even that doesn’t let God off the hook.  People don’t want to see God as anything besides a God of love.  But He’s also a God of justice and a just God can’t love people and allow to go unpunished all that bad stuff that happens to his beloved ones.  The Christian sees God through these two simultaneous lenses, like polarizing filters, and the image we’re left with is the Cross.  It is there that God showed His love and His wrath simultaneously.  God revealed Himself in 3-D.

Fun fact of light:  3-D films. According to the Physics Classroom, “Polarization is also used in the entertainment industry to produce and show 3-D movies. Three-dimensional movies are actually two movies being shown at the same time through two projectors …The movies are projected through a polarizing filter.”

For further thought:  The BBC has a great video explaining 3-D films.  It’s a fantastic analogy for stereoscopic vision which helps us to visualize how God can show love and wrath at the same time.  How He can bring light and darkness, prosperity and disaster into real life on this side of the Cross.  Yet, to the Christian’s mind, the images just get processed together as God’s redemptive nature.

• How does God make even the bad stuff redemptive? 
• For insight, read Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 

Thank You, Jesus, for displaying the Image of God perfectly on the Cross!  Fully God.  Fully Man. Fully Love.  Full wrath against sin.  Complete humanity.  Complete sacrifice.  Complete justice.  We could not see the light before Your resurrection, but now, LORD, grant that we would never minimize our sin, we would never diminish Your gift of love and mercy, and that we would never try to make You a god of our own designing.  Help us to submit under Your mighty hand and to repent of our sin which grieves You.  May we walk in righteousness for Your Name’s sake and for Your glory.  You alone are God.  Amen.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)

Throughout this devotional series, we’ve been looking at Light: There’s Nothing Like It.  It’s more than an amazing creation.  It’s a great metaphor for so many aspects of the Christian faith.  Perhaps none so profound as this prophecy from Isaiah 9, foretelling the birth of the Messiah and the role He would have. 

Jesus, the Light of the World, brings salvation to a people who have been living in darkness. 

Indeed, a light has dawned.

Think about how many ways we use phrases, clichés, and idioms in the English language to convey a time of ignorance turning into a time of knowledge.  We might say that someone sees the light.  An idea has dawned on them.  A light bulb went on.  The secret needs some sunshine, or an expert to shed light on a situation.  A light at the end of a tunnel.  Or to bring something to light. 

A light dawned upon the Messianic expectations in the birth, life, and death of Jesus—human expectations of who He was and what He would do.  Those expectations unmet led a cheering crowd from Palm Sunday to call for His crucifixion on Good Friday.  It was only after His resurrection that the light truly dawned on His disciples and they began to understand God’s desire that all mankind would be saved, not just the chosen few.

Fun Fact of Light:  Because light has direction as waves, it can also be filtered kind of like beams of sunlight streaming through blinds or a picket fence.  Polarized sunglasses operate on the same principle, blocking some rays but allowing some to pass through: “Light waves from the sun, or even from an artificial light source such as a light bulb, vibrate and radiate outward in all directions. Whether the light is transmitted, reflected, scattered or refracted, when its vibrations are aligned into one or more planes of direction, the light is said to be polarized.”

The fun videos in the prior link and another group here demonstrate the impact of polarization upon light and even colors of light:   http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/light/Lesson-1/Polarization  .

For further thought:  A concept called Universalism states that all people will be saved, but that’s not what the Bible teaches.  Just as a light source reaches out in all directions, not all waves will pass through a polarized filter.  The Bible says that some refuse to see the light and sadly, rebel to the very end.  Only those who confess Christ are saved.  How does faith in Jesus act as a polarizing filter?

For insight, read Matthew 10:22 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Thank You, Father, for Your plan of salvation as for the Jews, but a light to the Gentiles, too.  We praise You for Your perfect plan.  We praise You for this mystery which unfolded at the birth, life, and death of Your Son Jesus and for the way You will bring the dawn of a new day when He returns and we understand fully.  We ask that You would use us to bring the light of the Gospel to a world in darkness so that among those who do not presently believe, a light will dawn and they will see Your goodness and mercy.  Amen.

Nehemiah 9:6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.