"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years; And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:14-17) "Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, that brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name; by the greatness of His might, and for that He is strong in power, not one is lacking." (Isaiah 40:26) " Once have I sworn by your holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and His throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." (Psalm 89:35-37) "Thus says the Lord, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is His name; If those ordinances depart from before me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a nation before me forever." (Jeremiah 31:35-36) "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! who has set your glory upon the heavens." (Psalm 8:1) "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice cannot be heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them has He set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run his course. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." (Psalm 19:1-7) "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory." (Psalm 84:11) "Then spoke Jesus again unto them saying, I am the Light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12) "Awake, you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you." (Ephesians 5:14) "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings." (Malachi 4:2) "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6) "You are the light of the world. ... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14,16) "Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising." (Isaiah 60:1-3) "Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought the group into a high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." (Matthew 17:1-2) "Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto himself." (Philippians 3:20-21) "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matthew 13:13) "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel 12:3)
God's everlasting power and Divinity are seen in the things that He has made, (Romans 1:20,RV) and in nothing do they more plainly appear than in the heavenly bodies. They are where they can be seen by all, and they speak a language that all can understand.
No sound is heard from the sun, moon and stars; that is why they can speak to the understanding of all. If they used any of the languages of earth, only a portion of the people could comprehend their speech; but by their silent shining forth of the glory of God, their words have gone to the ends of the earth, so that "all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God;--for God's glory is His power, and His power is salvation." (Isaiah 52:10)
The sun, moon, and stars did not create themselves. They are not the originators of the light which they send forth. It is God's glory that they declare by simply letting it shine, as He has put it upon them. The light which they give to the earth is light direct from the presence of the Lord; it is indeed the light of His presence. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all;" (1 John 1:5) and Christ is the shining of His glory. (Hebrews 1:3) So Christ is the light of the world. (John 8:12) "[He is] the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world." (John 1:9)
We cannot have the fact too strongly impressed upon our minds that Christ is the light of the world, that is, He is all the light there is. The light that rejoices our eyes every day, is really the personal presence of Christ with us. If these scriptures were but real to us, what a difference it would make in our lives. We should know that we are constantly in the presence of the Lord.
As Christ is the light of the world, so are His true followers. "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14)
But it is only as His light is allowed to pass through us, that we are the light of the world. Christ shines upon us, and if we are sincere, that is, if there is nothing in us to obstruct the light, the light shines through us, and we share His glory. What a wonder, that Christ will let mortal men occupy the same relation to the world that He himself does!
The same light which God commanded to shine out of darkness, is the light which He shines into our hearts. (2 Corinthians 4:6) Do not forget that the light that shines upon us new every morning is to enable us to behold our God. Jesus said, "The glory which You gave me I have given them; that they maybe one, even as we are one. I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent me, and have loved them as You have loved me." (John 17:22-23)
The glory of God, which Christ has given us, marks us as sons of God, even as He is. We are joint-heirs with Christ, and the Father loves us even as He loves Him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2)
The glory is not now recognized in us as the glory of God, even as it was not in Christ, except on the mount of transfiguration; but when He comes, the glory of His grace, with which He has filled us, will shine forth, so that our bodies will shine like His glorious body. But His body shines above the brightness of the sun. And the glory in which the saints will at last appear, is but the glory which now is given to them in the form of grace and truth.
So the lesson that we are to learn is that the power that is revealed in the whole heavens, is the power that is given now, to enable us to live to the glory of God.--Present Truth, October 27, 1898.