the Light

Look what I found: a parallel. In my daily devotions (Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament), Nancy Guthrie pointed out Isaiah 60:19 to me: "The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory." Doesn't that sound familiar? Where have we heard that before?

That's right. Revelation 21:23 uses almost identical language to describe the end of this world as we know it, and the beginning of the next: "And the city [The New Jerusalem] has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb."

So when God said, "Let there be light" in the very beginning, it was always meant to be temporary, looking forward to the day when His glory would be all we would need, and His Son would be our lamp. "Your word is a lamp to my feet." (Psalm 119:105) Indeed. Jesus is the Word (John 1:1), and He is our lamp for all eternity.

Thanks to Tim Opelt for the glorious sunlight picture, which for some reason was stored on my computer. I hope it's not copyrighted.