A friend recently gave me a stained-glass refrigerator magnet that declares Psalm 30:5. Expanding that verse to include verse 4, in the New Living Translation it reads:
“Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
What the believing Christian discovers in “dawn-chasing” is that it is both waiting for the joy of the Lord when we’re finally through the night of the soul, but also receiving the Lord in the middle of the night because He IS Joy.
Jesus Christ IS our Dawn — our Joy!
When Zechariah prophesied over his son, John (known as The Baptizer), he said this: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.” [1]
Later, in the story of Christ’s birth, Simeon, holding the baby Jesus in his arms, prophecies: “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a Light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”[2]
Jesus Christ IS our Dawn — our Joy!!
The impact of this truth “dawning” on my soul is hard to explain. It means that no matter what kind of nighttime it is, I have only to turn to Him in prayer and memorized scriptures to find my soul is still anchored to hope, and joy, and peace.[3]
In John 10, I believe Jesus is referring to the evil powers of sin and darkness when he speaks of the “thief.” Jesus says the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.[4] The darkness coming against our minds and hearts is often ramping up in the trials of life and sleeplessness to steal away our faith, kill off our hope in God, and destroy our love for God and others.
Our only hope in that battle is to look to Jesus, the Sunrise-from-on-High. It is He who shines upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. No one else can do that because no one is who HE is.
Who is Jesus, the “Dawn”?
In 2 Samuel 23:1-5, King David shares the word the Holy Spirit gave him for serving as king over Israel: “When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he [God] dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.” [5]
What can be true of any godly ruler, is certainly and infinitely true in the Son of God who now reigns in resurrected glory over everything. [6]It is Jesus who rules justly over all mankind and dawns on us as the morning light — “like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning.”
This is because Jesus is God, and it is God who is declared by the Scriptures to be Light.
“Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.” Psalm 112:4 ESV
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:5-7 ESV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5 ESV
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?” Job 38:12-13 ESV
“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.” Psalm 65:5-8 ESV
I’ve entitled this post, “Dawn-Chasing Manifesto.”
The reason for this written declaration of where you and I stand as followers of Christ is because it needs to be more than just thought about (that God is light, and Jesus Christ is the manifest radiance of that light to us His children).
This fundamental truth needs to be proclaimed — that is, SHOUTED from the roof-tops.[7]
That Jesus is our Light and Joy must be sung with all our strength against the darkness of these days. Jesus is our Light and Joy!!
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