Whenever the sun is used in scripture and pronouns are applied, it’s always referred to in masculine terms or connected to a male character:
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
Revelation 1:16 KJV
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
Ecclesiastes 1:5 KJV
The sun is also called ‘a ruler’ and ‘light’:
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.
Genesis 1:16 KJV
We are given more details about the sun in one of Joseph’s dream:
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Genesis 37:9-10 KJV
And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Notice that the interpretation of Joseph dream, list Jacob (later known as Israel) as the sun, his wife as the moon and his children as the stars. Here, we can see that sun, moon and stars, which are also called “the host of heaven”, were applied to a family, with the sun being the head of that family as both a husband and father.
From the above we have seen the sun spoken of in the following ways:
- A husband
- A father
- A ruler
- Also called light
Further examination of scripture will show these four designations are applicable and applied to:
- God – The Risen Sun
- Satan – The light of darkness
- Man – The light of our parent
God – The Risen Sun
All the descriptions of the sun mentioned above, are applicable to God. He is a husband:
For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
Isaiah 54:5 KJV
He is the Father:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 KJV
He is Ruler:
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
Luke 10:21 KJV
He is Light;
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5 KJV
The LORD is a sun:
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
And as a sun, he promised to one day rise:
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
Malachi 4:2 KJV
Prior to this, the world was in darkness:
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
Matthew 4:16 KJV
When the natural sun rises, it doesn’t discriminate, it rises for creatures who love/function in darkness (bats, owls, etc) as well as for those who love/function in light (sheep). So to, when the ‘sun of righteousness’ rose in Christ, and he died on the cross, this was the light of God’s love i.e. his sun rising on behalf of ALL mankind:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; [45] That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:44-45 KJV
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
John 1:9 KJV
But in the natural, men can choose to hide from the light of the sun, as some owls and bats do. This is no less true in the spirit.
It’s only those who trust/love the LORD God, will turn to face his light, while everyone else retreats, turns away, seeks shelter, from the light of the sun:
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. [21] But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
John 3:20-21 KJV
The sun of righteousness rising, that is, Jesus coming, is described in this way:
I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
John 12:46 KJV
So Jesus coming into the world is the light of God’s sun rising upon a dark world, same is true when his light enters our world and lightens our darkened understanding:
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Ephesians 4:18 KJV
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 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 KJV
When he rises in our life we are no longer alienated from God, for the light of God that he brings, is the knowledge of who God is and to know God is eternal life:
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John 17:3 KJV
To know God is to see him:
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
John 14:7 KJV
Notice he said to the disciples that from henceforth they know and have seen God. For you and I ‘henceforth’ only applies after the sun of righteousness has risen in our world.
So we have seen that the rising of the Sun of Righteousness brings light, which allows us to see God and to see him is to know and to know him is to have eternal life. Now let’s examine how the risen sun also brings death:
Recommended reading: Heat of the suns
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
James 1:11 KJV
Note that the risen sun caused the grass and the flower of the field to perish. Both are scripturally types used in reference to carnal or fleshly man:
The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: [7] The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
Isaiah 40:6-7 KJV
The light of God’s word, the sun of righteousness, will bring death to ‘all the goodliness of the flesh’
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled [22] In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Colossians 1:21-22 KJV
What is the goodliness of the flesh?
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these ; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Galatians 5:19-21 KJV
[20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, [21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The sun of righteousness (Jesus), rising in our lives will put the works of the flesh to death as we pick up our cross daily and follow him.
There is much more than can be said of the risen sun, but it suffices to say that when he rises in our lives, our spirits are quickened or raised to life, but the flesh is mortified or put to death.
In the next article of the Light Series, we will examine Satan – The light of darkness.
