The Light of Messiah

God said let there be light and the light was good.

Years ago I home-schooled my six children. We were coming to a place in science where they would be learning about the speed of light.  As I was preparing for the lesson, I anxiously asked the Lord how I would explain this based on the six days of creation.

Never had I doubted the Word of God, but here I was confronted with scientific fact that seemed to contradict the story of creation.  I fretted over this because I didn’t want to teach my kids something that would lead them away from faith in God and the dependability of His Word.

I could almost see the pitying look on my Father’s face.  You know, the kind of look a dad has when his little child is worrying and fretting over the silliest little thing?  That’s what I sensed coming from my Dad as He nudged me to read the story of creation.

And of course, there it was plain as day (pun intended).  

On the first day, God created the light.  It wasn’t until the fourth day that He created the physical source of the light.  So it all made perfect sense and in no way contradicted what I would be teaching the kids about the speed of light.  In fact, it strengthened my ability to teach them that faith in God is a sure thing.

But wait, there’s more!  Here I am some 20 years later still discovering wonders in this light of creation.

Thanks to First Fruits of Zion’s Torah Club, I have access to some of the teachings and understanding of the sages and rabbis.  According to Rabbi Eleazer, the light God created was a “miraculous, wondrous light, independent of a luminary.”  

Now this was the very thing God showed me.  But as I read it this week, it got me to thinking about John’s Revelation where he tells us that there is no need for the sun and moon because Messiah is the source of the light – the miraculous light.  So the light that began in creation will once more shine brightly in the kingdom of Messiah on earth.  (And as FFOZ’sTorah Club 2 points out, “‘Light’ is one of the names of Messiah.”)

All this culminated this morning as I pulled out one of my old bibles – mainly because it has large print and my eyes were acting their age.  There, in my old tattered ‘suitcase’, as if to confirm all that the Lord has been teaching me, was a bookmark at John 8 with verse 12 underlined. It is there that Jesus Himself boldly announces, “I am the light of the world.”  

It just doesn’t get any clearer than that.