Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
May 09, 2013
Let us contemplate the sun and its power to both give and destroy life! It is at the heart of the balancing act of our universe. One degree either way, closer to the earth or further away, could bring about a climate change that would usher in an ice age or destroying, burning heat, whichever the case might be. Yet, it sits there, rigid in its place, providing daily light for a new day with the promise of darkness at the end of it. As long as man has been on the face of this earth, the temperatures have remained within the realm of safety for his protection.
But, will this always be the case? Creation answers that question for us. God said, “Let there be light (Genesis 1:3)”; in the book of John, Jesus claims that He is that light. “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life (John 8:12).” He also said, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world (John 8:23).”
God went on, at creation, to say, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
Then 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. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19).
At that time there was no darkness; there was only the light of day. It must follow that the reflected light of the moon (the witness to the light) was as powerful in its perfection of creation as the light of the Sun (Jesus), in order to overcome the darkness. For there was no darkness in God’s creation, at which time a day began with the evening and concluded with the morning, a period we now know as the darkness of night. Sin lies between creation and the present time, when a day includes daytime and nighttime.
What greater message about the sun than that given by the psalmist of Israel, King David? The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat (Psalm 19:1-6).
Surely, the sun, in its great heat, can bring a judgment that burns with fire just as surely as it lights the world with the same torch of fire. In Psalm 89, God speaks of exalting the throne of David, which can only be tied to that of the bridegroom of Psalm 19, with David becoming the first-born of inheritance and the highest of the kings of the earth – on a throne that will endure forever. “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; it shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky (Psalm 89:35-37).”
And, who will this faithful witness be, if not the woman of Revelation 12, with the crown of 12 stars, the crown of both Israel and the apostolic church, having become one in God’s covenant with David? Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars (Revelation 12:1).
She can be none other than the bride of the church sharing in the throne of her beloved Bridegroom. Does she not witness into a world of darkness under the sun when the beast rises from out of the sea? We have already read in Psalm 19 that day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge, and there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. What does that tell us about the language of the secular mind, which has never observed the glory of God in the heavens?
Another sign of the red dragon, appears in heaven at the same time as the sign of the woman – the sign of the seven empires of man, which have reached their fullness in a One World Order of ten political divisions of this earth, over which the Antichrist will rule. This is a world of futility ruled by Satan, under the sun. But between him and heaven is the dividing point, which can only be Jesus, represented by the sun. And I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire (Revelation 10:1). He is spoken of by Malachi as being the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings for those who fear His name (see Malachi 4:2).
Perhaps, the greatest wisdom of Solomon came from his understanding of the difference between the world beneath the sun, one of futility in death under the worldly ruler-ship of Satan, and the heavens above the sun, ruled by God in the Spirit of life and amazing grace. In which world do we choose to function?
Is our human knowledge derived from the secularism only found beneath the sun, or do we have the understanding of God, which only His Word can give through the light of His Son from above? Surely, the brilliance of His coming to earth is seen in the reflected light of the gospels, left in the hands of His apostolic church, the witnesses to the truth of them – their true reflected light being clothed in the Sun and walking on the moon.
Fools of this world – there is no understanding or lasting knowledge except that which comes by the Spirit from above. Perhaps, too late to save his throne, Solomon finally came to understand that even his wisdom was nothing in the face of death. He came to understand in the Spirit, though he never knew Jesus, that, all along, the sun had been the dividing point between that which is lasting from above it and that which passes away, beneath it. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
He had a great piece of advice to the rest of us. A fool’s voice is known by many words; therefore, let your words be few (see Ecclesiastes 5:2-3). How we delight in our own intellectualism and our understanding on a worldly plain, compiling information gathered together completely under the sun. Yet, we forget that there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin (see Ecclesiastes 7:20). So, how good is the reasoning of such a man? A wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart at his left (Ecclesiastes 10:2). Is it not foolishness, which one speaks from the left, spoken in the language of liberalism?
In conclusion, Solomon spoke great wisdom when he said that the words of the wise are like goads, and the words of the scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd (Ecclesiastes 12:11). The sun, that Shepherd and the light, all come together as one at the dividing point of history, where time comes down to Jesus and then turns around to begin anew and go out from Him. He brought the kingdom to earth with Him, as He preached the gospel of good news, telling us that our captivity was over.
Do not look on the sun for its brilliance will blind you just as it blinded the Pharisee, Saul, before the Light confronted this most religious of religious men to turn him into the apostle, Paul, a man who henceforth witnessed to the gospel of truth, and never witnessed to religion, ever again.
“At midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me (Acts 26:13-18).’”
For Paul and for the future apostolic church, which will follow in his footsteps and those of the other apostles, the sun, in its brilliance, is the division between the dwellers beneath and those heaven-bound. Let us contemplate the sun and where we want to live out our lives, with respect to its life-giving power and the fire of its burning! Surely, we choose to rise above it to our heavenly destination rather than remain here beneath. Until our thinking is permeated by the divine Spirit of life from above, our own reasoning will render us little more than babblers, for all knowledge begins with the Word of God and ends with exactly that same Word.