THE MORNING STAR

It has been a long night, this night of man’s open defiance against God. For two millennia believers have scanned the inky blackness, looking for the herald of the dawn. For some, speculating has replaced ‘the patient waiting for Christ’, 2 Thess. 3. 5, and such ‘hope deferred maketh the heart sick’, Prov. 13.12. The Christian should not look down here for any ray of hope. Peter knew where to find the antidote to despair: ‘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’, 2 Peter 1.19.

More sure than what? Peter is comparing this night scene with another, when he and Zebedee’s sons saw the Lord transfigured. He is saying that the light of the prophetic word is more sure than actually seeing the Lord in His kingdom glory! After all, if you had climbed the mount the morning after, there would have been no afterglow, no echo of the voice from heaven. But anytime you want to look in the Book, the light will cheer your heart and lift your eyes to that Man whose testimony ‘is the spirit of prophecy’, Rev. 19.10.

In our key verse we read, ‘I will give him the morning star’. In what sense is the overcomer of the Church age given this star? The morning star is the portent that daybreak is coming. After the rapture of the Church out of this dark world, the hope of Israel’s remnant will be to see ‘the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings’, Mal. 4. 2. So the gift of the morning star is two bright hopes in one. We long to be away to the land of fadeless day. But do we not also hope for the Lord’s return to this planet, to beam His healing rays upon an earth so sorely in need of such healing?

‘Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense’, S. of S. 4. 6. Our little hill of incense will never measure up to His mountain of myrrh, but, standing there, we watch. Though it is dark, and getting darker, we shall not miss His coming. The Lord Himself adds the modifier: ‘I am ... the bright and morning star’, Rev. 22.16.