If you haven’t read the previous article in this light series, I would encourage you to do so before continuing. The previous article titled God – The risen Sun looked at Christ rising as the light of the world and how his light brought life and death into the world. Life to the spirit and death to the flesh of all who trust in him. Now, let’s examine how the devil is presented as a sun/light in scripture and what this means for mankind.
In the previous article, we saw that scripture presents the sun in the following ways:
- A husband and father (Gen 37:9-10)
- A ruler and light (Gen 1:16)
Each of the foregoing titles also applies to the devil. He is a husband:
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Revelation 17:5 KJV
He is a father:
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 8:44 KJV
He is a ruler:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12 KJV
He is called light:
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:14 KJV
Now an angel is a messenger, and for the devil to present himself as a messenger of light, means that he’s presenting himself as something he’s not. He is death masquerading as life, evil as good, darkness as light etc. He presents himself as a sun and would have us believe that we are walking (living) in the day (Light of truth), when in reality we’re walking in the night (lies, death):
Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:5 KJV
The Pharisees and Sadducees are a good example of this. They felt like they were walking in the Light, walking in the Day and therefore children of God. But Jesus said they were children of the devil. They were therefore walking in darkness:
Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. [42] Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. [43] Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. [44] Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 8:41-44 KJV
Though they were walking in the night, they believed that the sun was out and they had light. They didn’t realize that what they saw as light was really darkness. This is what Jesus was pointing us to when he said:
Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
Luke 11:35 KJV
Jesus’s warning, echos the words of Isaiah:
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20 KJV
Those who walk under the Light of Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, are walking in the True Light. Those who are taking darkness for light, night for day, are walking under the light of the fake sun i.e. the masquerading devil.
The world abided under this fake light, the light of darkness, until Christ the true Light came:
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
John 1:9 KJV
Christ came as the Light of Life, which ends the reign of death i.e. ends the reign of the devil who held that power.
John 8:12 KJV Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Hebrews 2:14 KJV Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
The fake sun shined his light of death upon the world, and the coming of Christ was the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring this to an end by protecting all who trust in him from that sun:
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
Isaiah 49:10 KJV
That promise to protect us from that fake light/sun and the death he brings is again echoed here:
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Psalm 91:6 KJV
Recommended read: Death at noonday
And once more, we see the fulfillment in Christ:
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
Revelation 7:16 KJV
We saw in the God – The Risen Sun article that the light and heat of Christ brings death and life. Same is true of the light and heat of the devil.
Recommended reading: Heat of the suns
The light and heat of Christ kills the flesh whilst giving life to the spirit (reconnects us with God). The light and heat of the devil kills the spirit whilst giving life to the flesh (separates us from God).
But doesn’t scripture say nothing can separate us from the love of God? It does:
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 KJV
The devil cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But, if the word (Christ) is not rooted in the soil of our hearts, as a sun, the devil can and will scorch us:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: [6] And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
Matthew 13:5-6 KJV
But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; [21] Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Matthew 13:20-21 KJV
The plants scorched by the sun, is where the devil halts the growth of the God’s Kingdom in our hearts/minds. He didn’t separate such a person from the love of Christ, but through offense, borne out of persecution, he causes the person to abandon the walk. The only reason such a person could be scorched is cause the word was not rooted in them.
Once we have seen what/who the true light is, we cannot unsee him. And when we walk under his light of life, we are untouchable to the devil’s light of death:
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
1 John 5:18 KJV
There is more to explore in regard to the devil as a sun and in part 2 we will examine when scripture speaks of the sun being darkened, how this relates to the devil.
