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Eduardo Elizondo—December 2, 2023
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This is based on the first few words of Psalm 27, where David wrote these things about God Himself.
Psalm 27:1: "The LORD is my Light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
David knew Who God was, and he knew the Lord was his Light to guide him. There's something very important. There is something very important that we have to keep in mind:
The Word of God is the Truth, and whatever God has said and has written in His Word is the absolute Truth.
Today we're going to study a little bit about light and the characteristics of light. That is going to tell us more about the God Whom we serve. We 're going to see something that is very important about God, and our relationship with God.
The more we know Him, the more that we can understand Him, love Him and serve Him better. The Apostle John wrote something that is very, very important concerning light. David knew this, and he wrote this in the Psalms (Psa. 27:1).
1-John 1:5: "And this is the message that we have heard from Him…"
Talking about Jesus Christ, because in the very first part of this Epistle it is talking about what they witnessed from Jesus Christ when they were walking with Him and being taught by Him. Then John gets to the point:
"…and are declaring to you: that God is Light, and there is no darkness at all in Him" (v 5).
That's exactly what God is! God is Light and there is no darkness in Him. God the Father is Light and Jesus Christ Himself is Light! We're going to see that today, and go over the Scriptures that talk about this. But before we go there, I would like to start by reading the definition of light according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
We know that this is not where we draw the Truth from, but it does help for us to understand the concept, because even Paul says that, 'even from the things that are made we understand about God and understand about His majesty and power!'
Encyclopedia Britannica
{https://www.britannica.com/science/light}
Light, electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation occurs over an extremely wide range of wavelengths, from gamma rays with wavelengths less than about 1 × 10−11 meter to radio waves measured in meters.
Within that broad spectrum the wavelengths visible to humans occupy a very narrow band, from about 700 nanometers (nm; billionths of a meter) for red light down to about 400 nm for violet light. The spectral regions adjacent to the visible band are often referred to as light also, infrared at the one end and ultraviolet at the other….
These are the two ends adjacent to the visible band, but the wavelength of light is so broad. And it's amazing that you have these things—infrared and ultraviolet. Infrared light you can see at night, right, and ultraviolet on the other. And we're going to see what that's used for.
The speed of light in a vacuum is a fundamental physical constant, the currently accepted value of which is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second, or about 186,282 miles per second.
Super fast!
And we know that through these things we can see some characteristics that what we can see with the human eye is very small, is very limited in comparison to the whole spectrum of light. And there's different types of light in that spectrum. At least that's defined by the scientists, like what we talked about, infrared, ultraviolet.
We're going to talk about characteristics of light to learn more about God and about our relationship with God, because God is Light.
- Light is Purity
The pure light and the strong light is pure, because we know that light has been used and can be used and is used sometimes to purify air and to purify water. For example, there are filters to purify air, because when there's air and it's used, ultraviolet light, on air.
It can kill mold, bacteria and contaminants, and they can be either killed or rendered harmless. Also, the purification of water through using ultraviolet light, UV light, that also exists. There's devices that have these chambers when you put water, and then you treat it with ultraviolet light. And that light, after the water flows through that, the same thing, it targets microorganisms that are present, like bacteria and viruses, protozoa, etc. They can be killed or rendered harmless.
So, the water can be purified by the light. Light can purify air and water, some of the hardest things to do.
There are some things that the Bible tells us about the purity of God, because God is Light, and God is pure!
1-John 1:5: "…there is no darkness at all in Him." He is Light. He's absolute purity of light.
Psa. 5 says something that is very, very important for us to keep in mind when we think about God and when we think about our relationship with God. This was also another Psalm of David:
Psalm 5:4—he declares to God: "For You are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness; nor shall evil dwell with You."
God is purity! No evil shall dwell with God, because God is purity! God is Light, and God is Purity. As we saw, that Light can purify even water and air. But that is in the physical sense!
In the spiritual sense, God is the ultimate purity of everything! He's a marvelous Light.
Rev. 21 talks about the new heavens and the new earth. And then it talks about the Holy City, the new Jerusalem. And in this chapter, it describes a lot of the characteristics of the New Jerusalem. It's something beautiful, something amazing, when it talks about the gates and the foundations, all of these things.
Verse 22 tells us something very important about the illumination of the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21:22: "And I saw no temple in it; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city has no need of the sun, or of the moon, that they should shine in it; because the glory of God enlightens it, and the Light of it is the Lamb" (vs 22-23).
That doesn't mean that the sun and the moon won't be there. It doesn't say that categorically. It says that it has no need of the sun or the moon, that they should shine in it. But this also tells us about the brightness of God, of God the Father and the Lamb Jesus Christ.
They "…are the temple of it" and the Light.
Verse 23: "…because the glory of God enlightens it… [It's the glory of God that shines through] …and the Light of it is the Lamb." It's something beautiful!
Verse 24: "And the nations that are saved shall walk in its Light… [in the Light of God the Father and the Light of the Lamb] …and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it. And its gates shall never be shut by day; for there shall be no night there" (vs 24-25)—because God's glory will always be shining there, in the Light of the Lamb!
Verse 26: "And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. And nothing that defiles shall ever enter into it, nor shall anyone who practices an abomination or devises a lie; but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (vs 26-27).
And this testifies to the power of His brightness, of His glory, of that Light, and also to the purity of it, to the power of it. It's something amazing to think about that New Jerusalem, and to think about that purity that is that Light.
Psa. 89—to see something else about the purity of light, because all of these things are for us:
- to comprehend in more depth the God that we serve
- to know Him better
- to comprehend the relationship that we have:
- Who He is
- Who They are: God the Father and Jesus Christ
because They're both Light!That glory we just saw, that's the glory that enlightens New Jerusalem and the Light of the Lamb.
Psalm 89:14: "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your Throne… [speaking of God] …mercy and truth shall go before Your face. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance" (vs 14-15). That means in the light of His face!
We know that God's face shines as the sun. We know that! We're going to read a couple of Scriptures about that. But the second aspect of light that I would like for us to meditate on is that light is not only purity as we saw, but:
- Light is Power
Right now, also, again, through science, we can see this. We can see the power that light has. For example, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has declared that
Science & Tech Spotlight: Directed Energy Weapons—May 25, 2023
{https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106717Directed energy weapons}
(DEW) use concentrated electromagnetic energy to combat enemy forces and assets. These weapons include high energy lasers and other high power electromagnetics—such as millimeter wave and high power microwave weapons.
Because light is power, and they have figured out how to use these lasers. They actually deploy them through satellites. They can direct it to different places and cause great damage and be very strategic with high levels of precision. These are very powerful weapons, the directed energy weapons!
We know that God is Light and God is all powerful because He is Light. This is just part of it, how humans have been able to find the power and use it for their own purposes.
But we know that God is power. In Exo. 33 is the account where Moses asked God if he could see His glory. This is where Moses is talking with God, and he says:
Exodus 33:13: "Now, therefore, I pray You, if I have found grace in Your sight, make me see now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.' And He said, 'My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest'" (vs 13-14).
So, Moses found grace in the eyes of God! And then later in:
Verse 18—Moses tells God: "…'I beseech You, show me Your glory'"—because he had found grace in His sight!
Verse 19—God responded to Moses: "And He said, 'I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will have mercy on whom I will have mercy'" (vs 19-20).
He was basically declaring God the Father also because he said, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.
Verse 20: "And He said, 'You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live.'"
That's how powerful God is. And as we read in that Psalm , that we are to walk in the Light of His countenance. That's how powerful God is. No man can see God's face in all His glory and live! Then what God tells Moses is amazing:
Verse 21: "And the LORD said, 'Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock'"—which is interesting because that's what he tells us to build our house upon the rock!
"'…you shall stand upon a rock. And it will be, while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. And I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back parts. But My face shall not be seen'" (vs 21-23). That Light is:
- too glorious
- too shiny
- too powerful
Moses would have died right then and there!
Let's go to Matt. 17 because this is the account of the Transfiguration. I know we're all familiar with it, but it's so amazing to read it again and see what happened, because this reflects the power of God, and Jesus did it. We're going to reflect in the parallels of what happened in the account with Moses that we just read and what happens here.
Matthew 17:1: ""And after six days, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and his brother John, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shined as the sun, and His garments became white as the Light" (vs 1-2).
Just think about that, brethren. Just think about how His face shined as the sun, and His garments became white as the light.
Verse 3: "Then behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You desire, let us make three tabernacles here: one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' While he was speaking, a bright cloud suddenly overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, 'This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I delight. Listen to Him!' And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces in extreme terror. But Jesus came and touched them, and said, 'Arise, and do not be terrified'" (vs 3-7).
That's the God we serve, a God Who loves us, Who wants us to be with Him, to have a relationship with him. And just as He did with Moses, He said,
I'm going to put you in the rock, I'm going to put you in this place, I'm going to cover you with My hand, I'm going to protect you from dying because I'm just too powerful for you to see My face. But when I pass, you can see My back parts. Because if you're asking this, you want to see that that's fine. You have found grace before My eyes.
Here the same thing happens when Jesus goes and, you know, and they touch them. He says, Arise, do not be terrified,' because they thought that they were going to die or something with this brightness and this voice like the power of God. The Light is power.
It is amazing; you can read in Exo. 19 & 20 also, but in Exo. 19, it talks about the same things. It talks about when they were preparing for God to come to the mountain and He comes down to the mountain, but He says, don't let the people go up, don't let the people come and see, because if they come and they see, they're going to die! They're going to die. That's what that's what God told him.
It was the glory of God and the thunder and the power of that and the lightning. That is light, and light is power! That's what happened.
But for us to understand that that this God that is so powerful that if you even look in his face, we would die from that radiance, from that power that emanates from both of Them. But He loves us and He has compassion upon us, He wants for us to be Their children born into Their Family. That is amazing!
- Light is Beauty
It's not only purity and it's not only power, but it's also beauty! For example, a rainbow, a sunset, a pulse of heat lightning in the dark sky. Nobody, no artist can ever paint a sunset like God paints them. Nobody can paint a storm or lightning. Nobody can do those things. Sometimes you can see the most beautiful sunset and you take a picture and doesn't do it justice. It really doesn't! It doesn't capture what your eyes can capture of the beauty of what God made, because Light is beauty and God is beauty! He is full of glory!
Exo. 24 is when they're ratifying the Covenant after the Ten Commandments were given. Then the people of Israel agreed to enter into Covenant with God based upon these laws of Ten Commandments and all the statutes.
Exodus 24:7: "And he took the Book of the Covenant, and read in the ears of the people. And they said, 'All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.' And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words.' And Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the heavens in clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay his hands. Also they saw God, and ate and drank" (vs 7-11).
I just want to point out the beauty under His feet, a paved work of sapphire stone and the heavens in clearness is something beautiful what God does and what God is because He is Light!
Again, this is such a vast subject about Light, but just to study a couple of characteristics about light, to remember, to know, and to remember the God that we serve, that He is power, that He is purity, that He is beauty, that there's no one like Him!
Ezekiel 1:4: "And I looked, and behold, a windstorm came out of the north, a great cloud, with fire flashing forth continually—and a brightness all around, coming out of its midst, like the color of sparkling amber out of the midst of the fire."
Verse 22 is talking about what was above those living creatures that were coming down: "And there was a likeness over the heads of the living creatures—an expanse, like the color of awesome crystal stretched out over their heads from above."
Verse 26: "And from above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like sapphire stone. And on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw Him appearing as the color of polished bronze, looking like fire within it all around. From the likeness of His loins even upward, and from the likeness of His loins even downward, I saw Him, looking like fire, and there was brightness all around Him" (vs 26-27).
That's the God that we serve. He is Light! He is splendid with majesty, with light, with beauty!
Rev. 4—John talks about the Throne of God. It's something amazing, something beautiful when we meditate on the fact that God is Light and we can see what Light is and what Light does:
- it purifies
- it cleanses
- it shines the way
- it shows us
- it illuminates everything.
It's amazing when we think of all of these things together!
Revelation 4:1: "After these things I looked, and behold, a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard was as if a trumpet were speaking with me, saying, 'Come up here, and I will show you the things that must take place after these things.' And immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One was sitting on the throne. And He Who was sitting was in appearance like a jasper stone and a sardius stone; and a rainbow was around the throne, like an emerald in its appearance" (vs 1-3). That's how beautiful it was!
Verse 4: "And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments; and they had on their heads golden crowns. And proceeding from the Thronewere lightnings and thunders and voices; and seven lamps of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning before the Throne. And before the throne was a Sea of Glass, like crystal. And around the Throne and over the Throne were four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind" (vs 4-6).
The reason that there's a rainbow is because there's this crystal—the Sea of Glass—that reflects and magnifies the Light of God. The pure Light, the complete Light that God is, and His glory and radiance; it shines through that Sea of Glass and it's all these colors! It's the most beautiful thing! That's why diamonds are so precious to people. Diamonds reflect the Light in all these beautiful colors.
God Himself is Light, and we are to follow the Light!
John 8:12: "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me shall never walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life.'"
He shows us where we are to go! What we are to do! He does this in a wonderful way! He enlightens the eyes of our mind so that we may see the Truth! So that we can walk in the ways of God.
David understood this, and talking about God, he said:
Psalm 36:9: "For with You is the fountain of life; in Your Light we shall see light"—because God is Light!
- we are to follow the Light
- we are to follow God wherever He tells us to go
That's what it says about the 144,000 (Rev. 14). They follow the Lamb wherever He goes!
Psalm 104:1: "Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with honor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a garment, and stretching out the heavens like a curtain" (vs 1-2).
We are to follow the Light! There are so many Scriptures, there's not enough time to talk about all the Scriptures that talk about the Light. Then there's a whole spiritual meaning about all these things. But I just want us to meditate even in the aspects that we can learn from what we see what Light is and that purity, glory, beauty and power!
So that we are conscious of the God we serve, and we have more of that fear of God. We became in awe of Who He is and serve Him with a pure heart! Ask Him to purify us with His Light!
John 1:4: "In Him… [the Word of God] …was life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it" (vs 4-5).
Still scientists are not able to comprehend the light, and still debate as to what it is. They see the wavelength, see the element and particle. What is light? Even in the physical sense we do not comprehend it, much less in the spiritual sense!
But we've been called out of darkness into His marvelous Light! We have been called to this wonderful way of life by a God Who loves us. He loves us so much that in all His glory and power and beauty He wants us to be part of His Kingdom!
He has called us and shines His light! He wants for us to understand that. These are the things that David saw. The Apostle John understood it. David understood. There's so much more to talk about Light; this is just the very, very beginning; a very basic foundational physical manifestation of what God has done and how He shows us a little bit of Who He is.
Psalm 27:1: "The LORD is my Light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
If that's the God Whom we serve, full of majesty, glory, power and honor "…whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life…"
Verse 4: "One thing I have desired from the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His Temple."
He knew that there is nothing like being in the presence of God all the time! There is nothing like that! He knows about God's power and glory and desires that. We should also desire the same thing! We should also desire God dwelling in us, and us loving Him back with all our heart, soul, mind, being and strength! Walking in the Light of His countenance, because the Lord is our Light!
Scriptural References:
- Psalm 27:1
- 1 John 1:5
- Psalm 5:4
- Revelation 21:22-27
- Psalm 89:14-15
- Exodus 33:13-14, 18-23
- Matthew 19:1-7
- Exodus 24:7-11
- Ezekiel 1:4, 22, 26-27
- Revelation 4:1-6
- John 8:12
- Psalm 36:9
- Psalm 104:1-2
- John 1:4-5
- Psalm 27:1, 4
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Exodus 19; 20
- Revelation 14
Also referenced:
- Encyclopedia Britannica
{https://www.britannica.com/science/light}
- Science & Tech Spotlight: Directed Energy Weapons—May 25, 2023
{https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106717Directed energy weapons}
EE:bo/po
Transcribed: 12/7/23
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