“My name, The Sun of Righteousness, shall arise with healing in His wings.” One could easily skim over this verse from Malachi and read Son, instead of Sun. But the Hebrew word shemesh means Sun.
The Sun of Righteousness:
For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the LORD of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” Says the LORD of hosts. Mal 4:1-3
In his book Delighting in the Trinity Michael Reeves notes Jonathan Edwards’ (Sermons and Discourses) observation that “the same spiritual Sun, whose beams are most comfortable and beneficial to believers, will burn and destroy unbelievers.”
Dr. Reeves goes on to write:
[The Sun]…is the same light, the same glory. But the very glory that is the fragrance of life to some is the smell of death to others. God’s purpose is unfathomably kind: he will at the last so spread his life, being and goodness that he will be all in all; he will at the last fill the universe with the light of his wonderful glory. He is all light – but that is terrible for those who love the darkness. (Emphasis mine)
C. S. Lewis well understood the dichotomy noted by Michael Reeves. He captured this truth in themes found in his Narnia Chronicles books. One example is when the Great Lion Aslan is singing Narnia into being in the book The Magician’s Nephew. The two children Digory and Polly, and the Cabbie and his horse loved the singing. Yet Digory’s Uncle Andrew and the Giantess Witch both hated and feared it…
“This is a terrible world,” said the Witch. “We must fly at once. Prepare the Magic.”
I love Dr. Reeves’ use of the phrase “all in all”. It is appropriate. We are promised an intimate relationship with The Sun of Righteousness and, in fact, the Trinity:
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father and you in Me, and I in you. John 14:16-20
What an awesome, glorious truth to mediate on! Do you love the Lord?
Maranatha!
Further reading:
Tim Challies’ review of Delighting in the Trinity
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