The Light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun
Faith’s astronomy
It is worthy of closest observation that the Bible standpoint is as distinct from the astrologer’s position as it is from that of the modern observer.
It differs equally from each in this respect, that God’s believing children are ever taught to regard these mightiest natural powers as our servants, and not as our sovereigns. Instead of their regulating our destiny, it is our destiny which regulates their continuance and perpetuity. So in this passage we have an example of faith’s astronomy.
I. We have here A VISION OF INTENSE GLORY. We are told that even now the moonlight in the lands with which Isaiah was familiar is far more brilliant than that with which we are favoured. It is the strength of those moonbeams that gives significance to the promise, “The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night.” And yet the prophet, with all his acquaintance with brighter heavens than ours, ventures upon the conception of still further splendour both by night and by day. It is evident that he is not looking at these things from a bare mundane standpoint. But he is in an ecstasy over the blessed intents of love which God has or His people, and he finds all the ordinary accounts of well-being too scant and meagre to portray the good which is in store; and so, in a bold flight of descriptive eloquence, he tells of sevenfold suns and of sun-like moons diffusing through renovated skies all the myriad benefits of their beams with unfailing profusion. We observe that this forecast of increased glory is the reverse of that which natural calculation would give. The natural theory that finds favour is that the sun once shone more potently than now he does, and that in the future his ray will become still feebler, until night and death settle down upon the entire solar system. While science, then, tells us of exhausting power and expiring energy, it is the province of revelation and of faith which accepts it to speak of superior founts of being, those original sources from which the sun itself and all on which it shines first derived their existence. We observe, again, that human calculation, if it did foresee such an augmentation of sunlight, would be ready to account it disastrous rather than welcome. A seven-fold sun would only emit one flash, and anon this globe would be drawn into its flaming vortex, and the brightness would be but that of conflagration and ruin. Again, then, we have to hall another wisdom besides that of men, which contemplates exaltation where sense only detects degradation, and which effects felicity where carnal reason would only anticipate evil. For “the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.” There was as much disposition in Isaiah’s day as there is in ours to think that the world and the sun are wearing out and growing old, and also to think that an intense blaze would be obnoxious rather than welcome. But Isaiah was moved by the Holy Ghost to tell us of a light that should be at once of surpassing effulgence, and yet of sweet and benign influence; a light that should shine, not upon a trembling and alarmed race, but upon those whose breach had been bound up and whose wound had been healed. A vision this, then, of fuller light, of fairer sight, and of people with capacities of beholding and revelling in these sun-like moons and seven-fold suns. Intellectually this promise is accomplished in our days by our discoveries in the structure of the heavens. The moon is for us a grander object than the sun was to the beholders of ancient days, and the sun now strikes our minds as sevenfold, yea, as we speak now, a thousand fold, more magnificent than they thought him then. But the benefit of these discoveries to our spirits was all vouchsafed to Isaiah when the Holy Ghost moved him to contemplate in believing rapture the great resources of God and the beneficence with which He would unlock those resources for the enrichment of men upon whom He would shine with other light than that of suns and moons in the day when the Lord shall bind up the breach of His people. The seven-fold sun is the visage of God Himself; the moon equalling the sun is the glory of the Lamb illuminating the Holy City.
II. This glory is set forth as TARRYING FOR A CERTAIN DAY. Our temptation is to think that our circumstances make our characters. But there is more of truth in the contrary thought, that our characters make our circumstances. The land of Palestine has become barren, but this did not produce the degeneracy of her people, but the people degenerated first and the land subsequently. God “turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” So material things may lend their aid to spiritual results, but really it is the spiritual that regulates the material. The first great change must happen in us, then we shall be qualified to behold and to enjoy the splendour that God will disclose without us. “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun” on a certain day at a date which is determined, not by the chronology of suns and moons, but by that of quickened spirits and broken hearts in the day that the Lord shall bind up the breach of His people.
III. Notice, ON WHAT IT IS THIS VISION OF GLORY IS THUS SUSPENDED. There is “joy amongst the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,” and it is no exaggeration to say that the events that transpire within human hearts are of more account in God’s eyes than the vastest convulsions of nature. And the wonder is that sin has not altered that. The story of Joshua’s command over the heavenly orbs is not too severe a demand upon my faith when once I have a firm grasp of the truth that the sun has a personal Maker and Maser. But that when we have erred and offended, when the constancy and regularity which the heavenly masses show is found wanting in us, and we become like shooting stars, wandering on a devious way without settled orbit or consistency of course, that God should still track us with His pity, that He should still reserve Lines of gracious attraction for us, and that even for such offenders as we He should submit an entire universe to reconstruction--is not this the most incredible thing of all? Two practical interpretations may be assigned to this imagery.
(1) The joy of the new convert may be depicted thus. The exultation of the delivered one often causes all outward sights to appear brighter because of the soul’s quickened enjoyment.
(2) Or, again, the prosperity that attends upon Christian union and concord may be delineated by this imagery. (J. M. Stephens, B. A.)
The seven-fold light of the sun
There is a glory above the brightness, of the midday sun; it is the more excellent glory of the “Sun of Righteousness.” There is a beauty softer and more tender than the pale splendour of the queen of night; it is that of the Church, walking in the beauty and light of her Lord. Taking it all in all, the Church, even now, is the glory of humanity, and the light of the world. And better days are in store for her, when the clouds and shadows shall flee away, and a more glorious illumination shall break forth upon her and from her. This promise, in common with many other texts of Isaiah, shines out like a sun from an angry and troubled sky. But the gathering clouds only add to the intensity of the splendour. God’s richest love ever shines on the blackest clouds of sorrow and sin. We have here--
I. THE CHURCH’S UNHAPPY CONDITION. “The breach of His people, and the stroke of their wound,” may represent more than internal division or disunion; but it may well stand for that, as being among the most grievous of the Church’s wounds, and the invariable outcome and index of other maladies.
1. As a cause of pain. All the Christians of most Christlike spirit have mourned over these divisions, and have had great searchings of heart because of them.
2. There is also the disfigurement of a wound, in the marring of a most perfect and glorious creation by these internal divisions.
3. There is also fatal weakness for work and service from these wounds.
II. GOD’S GRACIOUS VISITATION OF HIS CHURCH. “The Lord shall bind up the breach of His people, and heal the stroke of their wound.” We know that the wounds of the body are healed, not by external applications, but by the vigour of the vital forces within itself pouring out their overflowing life, bringing the parts together, and making them whole; and the Church’s wounds are to be healed by the Lord’s infusion of a larger measure of spiritual and Divine life; of more piety, more power, more zeal, more affection.
III. THE BLESSED CONSEQUENCES OF THE HEALING OF THESE WOUNDS. “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun seven fold, as the light of seven days.”
1. These images denote an immense increase of the Church’s light, or future glory, as the consequence of the healing of the Church’s wounds. Where there is more love there will be more light.
2. The healing of the breach would bring an immense increase of light to the Church within her actual boundaries. This light of the various portions of the Church when brought together, will be more intense--will shine with a mightier fulness, than when separated.
3. The healing of the Church’s wounds would bring increase of light beyond the boundaries of the Church. The Church is destined to be the light of the world. “Seven fold!” There are days that have a seven-fold fulness of light in comparison of other days, when the summer sunshine has a splendour, and a glory, and a fulness, that are equal to the light of many cloudy and dark days. And what is it that makes the difference? It is the intervening atmosphere that is different; it is the thick and murky air that intercepts and weakens his light. Only let the Church be in a right condition, and the revealed Christ will shine forth in gladness, and the revelation will discover itself in all its fulness. There is no glory of the Church that is not made up of individual excellence, and the only way to promote its splendour and glory is to elevate individually the Christian spirit. (J. Riddell.)
The transfiguring power of righteousness
As men grow in godliness and righteousness so will the glory of all things be revealed and heightened. Just as men realise the grace of God will human nature itself be uplifted and all things be transfigured with it.
I. The text finds an illustration in the direction of NATURE. How wonderfully science has enlarged our conception of the magnitude of the universe; it is always pushing back the sky. How wonderfully, too, has science raised our conception of the orbs which fill the infinite abyss! To us also the sea has become mysterious and magnificent as an inverted sky. And the earth itself has become a veritable wonderland. The microscope, the spectroscope, the telescope, have discovered unexpected treasures. But someone asks, What have godliness and righteousness to do with that science which is ever more fully interpreting the world? I reply, Godliness and righteousness make science possible. Godliness creates that infinite curiosity of soul which is the life of science, and righteousness secures that condition of things which makes the prosecution of science possible. Galileo was a Christian, and it was whilst he was worshipping in the Cathedral of Pisa that the swinging of the lamp set him thinking aright about the sublime forces and laws of the universe. Which historical fact is a parable, for again and again has science lit her torch at the lamp of the temple. Faith and righteousness make science possible. And the more pure in heart men become the more vividly do they see and appreciate the beauty and grandeur of the world.
II. The text will be illustrated in THE PERFECTING OF HUMANITY. As the Spirit of God frees us from unbelief, fear, passion, and puts us into fellowship with our Heavenly Father, so does our nature unfold all its wonderful faculties. Just as men become spiritual and righteous so do they gloriously realise themselves.
1. The fact is that our bodily organs are growing, they are ever becoming enlarged in range and heightened in ability. Our senses are becoming sevenfold. What a wonderful ear the telephone has given us! What a penetrating quality the telegraph has imparted to our voice! What a splendid eye the telescope, the microscope, and camera have given us! What marvellously manifold and facile hands we have acquired in the scientific and mechanical apparatus of our times. All this is equivalent to the enlargement of the bodily organs themselves.
2. A higher moral and spiritual life will realise most gloriously our intellectual faculties. Ruskin assures us that none of the great masters had faults of character but those faults told in their work, mysteriously staining and darkening the prismatic splendours of their masterpieces.
3. Man’s highest moral possibilities are being attained in Jesus Christ.
III. The text finds fulfilment in THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIETY. By the action of the Spirit of God society is being purified and uplifted; instead of being a mere convention for selfish ends it is becoming a brotherhood, its spirit the spirit of kindness, its law the law of love. And how wonderfully will this change, silently, deeply working, ennoble and glorify everything. Nothing glorifies like unselfishness. How a noble, unselfish spirit will exalt government! And ennoble commerce! And all industrialism! And so everything else will be uplifted and beautified as you get more of the spirit of love into it. All culture, all pleasure, all domesticity, all friendship. I heard a brother say in a love feast that when he walked home after his conversion he thought that all the sign boards in the street had been freshly painted. Yes, indeed, love will paint everything fleshly, both the commonplace and grand; paint them with the hues of heaven, gild them with untarnished gold. Today we have to apologise for government whenever we mention it; we have to confess the vulgarity of trade and industrialism; we have sorrowfully to acknowledge how much there is in social life that justifies cynicism and satire; we have to blush for pleasure; there is little poetry and greatness in these things, but it shall not be always so. Poor sentiments are yielding; nobler thoughts are prevailing; and the prophecy in our text is being fulfilled every day. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Christian should cherish large expectations concerning the Church and the race
God has done wonderful things, but He will do greater yet. A brother in York told me that one day he noticed an American eagerly scanning one of their ancient buildings. Said the visitor: “I am looking at your grand cathedral.” “Our cathedral,” said the citizen; “Stranger, come with me,” and taking the pilgrim a little distance, he pointed him to the magnificent pile, and said, “That is our cathedral, sir.” We are always being tempted to pause at some miserable shanty or other as if it were the final shrine of God. We look at our nation as if it were about the embodiment of ultimate civilisation. We look at our Church as if it were the perfected Church of God. But the Spirit is ever showing us beyond all the poor present an idea home, Church, nation, an ideal full of righteousness. (W. L. Watkinson.)