what is the light of God
Physical or spiritual
Can you define light?
Can you define what light is in your own words? You may know about the electromagnetic radiation of the sun, but beyond that, most of us would start to stumble around, the deeper science has delved into the nature of light, the more complex it has been discovered to be. There is much more to light than meets the eye and here I will try to let the Bible show us the answer.
The things we see on earth are physical things that decay and pass away, but reflect the heavenly things that are eternal. As Paul says: for we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are unseen are eternal.
In our world we understand the physical things and in order for us to understand spiritual things, God uses the physical things to explain the spiritual realities to us.
We see in this world how light is a necessity for things to grow and what light does to our being.
Our bodies absorb vital nutrients from sunlight, plants eat light, etc.
David so beautifully says: For with you is the source of life, in your light we shall see light. Psalm 36:9
David paired life and light together here. For spiritual light and life are, like natural light and life, inextricably woven together.
Divine light literally gives us spiritual life.
Plants are physically attracted to light, in the same way spiritual light is necessary for spiritual life = the believer will be attracted to spiritual things, God’s word, prayer, etc. The unbeliever is just the opposite, the light reveals his evil and he hates the light.
If you think in metaphysical descriptions, the world looks a little different. Darkness is, for example, ignorance of spiritual things, therefore a person can also have darkness inside and vice versa; She shone like the light, or there was light above the word when she spoke, so a person is filled with the spirit.
Metaphysical is a reality beyond what we can see with our senses, because how can you eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood? It’s a bit vampire-like to think about, or how can Jesus give us a source of water within us, so that we never need water from a physical well again, it’s because these are spiritual truths we need to understand.
Therefore, it can also be a bit strange to think of light as a Person.
But let’s look at what God wants to say through the word, the Creator of light, knows what light is 🙂
So please put on a pair of metaphysical glasses or better yet, see it with spiritual eyes.
Ready let’s go!
The Light is a Person
The light lives in a house!
We are God’s tabernacle / temple, the house where God lives.
If you turned off the lights in the tabernacle, it indicated that Yahweh was not in the sanctuary, by turning off the light the priests walked around in darkness.
Jesus’ presence is represented by the light, therefore the light should always shine in the tabernacle / temple.
So the image of being a house and having light in it, beautifully describes having invited Jesus into your house / life, to remove the darkness.
Jesus’ light is taken into a house that has the darkness of sin, he illuminates it and the darkness cannot overcome it, so when someone looks at the windows of the house = eyes, they see a house that has light in it.
Matt. 5:14 and John 1:5
The eye is the light of the body. Matt. 6:22
When both Ezekiel and John see Jesus, there is fire in his eyes. It shows us what is in his being. His temple, in his house.
We are called to be light in this world, we literally carry the light in us and the only way that light is seen is through God’s houses / windows, until heaven and earth are united again and everything is illuminated with the glory of the Lord. There we live in God’s own house!
From the beginning of the Bible to the end we see a difference between sin and purity, darkness and light, good and evil, there is always a plus and minus.
Here on earth, we are actually described as darkness without Jesus, we are sinful and without light, we need his purity and light in our lives.
It is only because of Jesus’ light on and in us that we can shine light in this world, in ourselves we cannot.
Psalm 18:28 For you light my lamp; the Lord my God illuminates my darkness.
Jesus is the light of the world
Without him, everything on earth is darkness!
Jesus, he was there at the beginning of creation, because the world must have light in order to exist, beautiful that the first thing God speaks out is the word / light in the world we know.
Without Jesus, this world is dark! Try to think a little more clearly about that and also see it in the light of the first chapter of the Bible, where everything comes into being, where God puts everything in order and new life is created.
Jesus is the word
Jesus is the light
Jesus is the life
Jesus is our food, the bread of life
Jesus is living water
We only live because of Jesus, without him we are spiritually dead, imagine if we did not eat his spiritual food, what would we be like?
There are different words for light in Hebrew, but for God in Genesis 1 it is, the Hebrew word: or, its root word is also used as fire, where it is connected with the light from the pillar of fire that is above the tabernacle and as glory, to light, to illuminate, to shine, to give, to have shine (the face) to be illuminated, or illuminated, day, morning.
Strongs: H215 and H216
The word light / or is used in the Bible as:
Light of day
Light of the lamp
Light of life
Yahweh and the Light of Israel
Light of countenance
Light of progress
Light of guidance
Light of tomorrow
Daylight
The light that illuminates other light elements, such as the Sun, the moon and the stars.
Darkness = non-existence, chaos, disorder, evening, something hidden, being black
Whereas
Light = Existence, order, wisdom, day, joy, one who sees.
Light is different from darkness and there are probably many more expressions we can find about darkness and light.
Paul is good at describing things with darkness and light, both being children of darkness or children of light or walking in the light or being attracted to darkness, the authors of the Bible use an incredible number of descriptions with darkness and light.
You are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night nor to darkness. 1 Thess 5:5
I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12
Jesus is the source of light.
God's glory and splendor
The lights created on day 4 as sun, moon and stars are for example another Hebrew word, where or/Light is not used, but instead the Hebrew word: Maor/light, which is a luminous body, or light source. H3974
For example, the sun, moon and stars do not have their own light, but they reflect the light that shines on them, the light of God.
But the Maor lights (sun, moons stars) emit God’s or/light to us on earth, because they reflect God’s Or/light.
We also reflect God’s light, we are to be light in this world and we can only do that by carrying His light.
God is (or/light) It is God’s own being. Or/light is a description of a person.
Jesus is the or/light that enlightens every person.
Jesus is the personified incarnate radiance of God’s glory Heb 1:3 and Rev. 21:23
Spiritual light is of God’s glory, radiance of God’s beauty, greatness of God’s manifold perfections and much more.
In the new heaven and earth there is only God’s or/light and there is no sun, moon or stars, no darkness, everyone lives in God’s or/ light, everything is illuminated in his glory, wow, can you imagine a day when there is no longer a sun and moon. There is never night, no darkness, funny that we also sleep at night, because there are lots of pictures of being spiritually awake as opposed to being someone who sleeps.
It is also really thought-provoking to look at what is happening with the sun and moon in the last times and what darkness it will be here on earth, you can really see what is happening in a world without God, when his light, presence is not present.
During the 10 plagues when the Egyptians experienced darkness in their side of the land, the Israelites had ( or / light ) in their homes, it was not a physical light, they had God’s or / light in their homes.
Isaiah 60:19-20 says that; The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor will the moon shine for you by night, but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and God will be your glory.
Isaiah 60:1-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Do you have God’s light in your home?
Is He a lamp to your feet?
If you have a Bible, please read:
2 Cor 4:2-6
And let God illuminate it for you, He loves you and wants to illuminate everything in you and around you!
God’s peace!
