THE BIBLE IS A LAMP AND A LIGHT

THE BIBLE IS A LAMP AND A LIGHT “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalms 119:105)

By Boyce Mouton

The Hebrew word for “lamp” is “ner”. It occurs 48 times in the Bible and refers to an oil lamp such as the one in the tabernacle. As you recall, the seven branched lamp stand was made of pure gold and it was located in the Holy Place (Ex. 25:31-40). Those seven lamps were never to go out (Ex. 27:20-23). Since there were no windows in the Holy Place, these small flickering lights provided the only light there was. They were, of course, not very bright but were certainly better than nothing.

The Holy of Holies didn’t have windows either, but I believe it had a different source of light. I believe the Holy of Holies was filled with the light of God! On one day each year, the Day of Atonement, God promised to meet with the High Priest in the Holy of Holies. This was a cube shaped room behind a veil. It was 20 cubits wide, high, and deep. The ark of the covenant was in the this room and God promised to meet with the high priest between the two cherubim that were over the ark (Exodus 25:22). I believe the presence of God in that room was accompanied by a brilliant light. In fact, Paul told Timothy, that God dwells in “unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16). Two things protected the High Priest from this light and enabled him to approach God without dying.

• First “He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die.” (Lev. 16:13) I believe the smoke of that incense filtered out some of the light so that the priest didn’t die.
• Second , the High Priest also had a golden plate hanging down before his eyes to protect him. I believe this golden plate shielded his eyes from the light of God (Ex. 28:36-38).
• Note that when receiving an X-ray it is common to protect your body from deadly radiation with a lead shield. Gold, however, provides much better shield for it is 70% denser than lead. We do not use gold for this protection, however, for it is about 25,000 times more expensive than lead. Since God’s light is much more powerful than an X-ray, God instructed Moses to use gold: “Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: holy to the Lord. Fasten a blue cord to it to attach it to the turban; it is to be on the front of the turban. It will be on Aaron’s forehead, and he will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be. It will be on Aaron’s forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to the Lord.” (Ex. 28:36-38)
• As you know, God is light (1 John 1:5). When Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus it produced a light that was brighter than the noon day sun (Acts 26:13). This experience left Saul completely blind so that he had to be led by the hand into Damascus (Acts 9:8). The high priest, however was protected from the light of God by the smoke of the incense and the golden plate.
• Please remember that when the ark was transported it was covered with three different coverings: (1) A shielding curtain (2) Durable leather (3) A cloth of solid blue: “When the camp is to move, Aaron and his sons are to go in and take down the shielding curtain and cover the ark of the Testimony with it. Then they are to cover this with hides of sea cows, spread a cloth of solid blue over that and put the poles in place.” (Numbers 4:5- 6)
• Please remember that the ark was dangerous for God killed the men of Beth Shemesh for looking into it (1 Samuel 6:19).
• Please also remember that God killed Uzzah for daring to touch the ark (2 Samuel 6:6-7).
• Thank God, however, that today we can enter boldly into the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23)
• Remember! Even though the Word of God is also a light we do not need to be protected from this light for God specifically designed this light to give us guidance. Jesus said: “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It is when he walks at night that he stumbles, for he has no light.” (John 11:9-10)
• The Hebrew word translated as “light” is “owr”. It is found 122 times in the Bible. It is first used in Genesis 1:3 when God said “Let there be light.” It is also used in Genesis 1:5 when we are told: “God called the light ‘day.’” C. S. Lewis said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Saul of Tarsus was sent to the Gentiles “To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:18)
• Generally speaking there are 12 hours of daylight, and 12 hours of darkness. So God designed the Bible so that it could give us guidance 24 hours per day. There are some things in the Bible that are like a light that make things “plain as day.” There are other things in the Bible that are dark and are made clear by the “lamp” of God’s word. So the Word of God is both a “lamp” and a “light.”

THE LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD IS ETERNAL

The Word of God, as you know, is supernatural. Jesus said: “The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63) A spirit is eternal. A spirit does not wither, rust, or grow old. You cannot destroy a spirit no matter how hard you try.

Roger Bruner has written this about how the Word of God cannot be destroyed. “In AD 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to destroy Christians and their Bibles. The persecution that followed was brutal. Over a burned and extinguished Bible, Diocletian built a monument on which he wrote these triumphant words: “Extincto nomene Christianorum” (“The name Christian is extinguished”). Diocletian fashioned a medal with the engraving: ‘The Christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the gods restored.’ Diocletian’s boast was premature, to say the least. Twenty-five years later, Diocletian was dead, and the new Emperor, Constantine, dedicated himself to put the New Testament in all of the churches of his Empire. In fact, Constantine offered a sizable reward to anyone who would deliver a copy of the Scriptures to him. The next day, Constantine was offered fifty copies of

the word of God. He then commissioned fifty copies of the Bible to be prepared at government expense. Can you imagine Diocletian’s stunned countenance if he returned to the earth today to discover that more had been written about the Bible than about any other thousand volumes combined? The Bible has been translated into more languages than any other volume, and it has been sent into more regions of the earth than any other book. French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) declared in 1776: “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.” One hundred years later, Voltaire was dead, and his own house and press were being used to print and store Bibles by the Geneva Bible Society. In 1778, Voltaire bragged, “It took twelve men to start Christianity. One will destroy it.” He called Christ “the cursed wretch.” Geisler and Nix observe that “only fifty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and house to produce stacks of Bibles.” Moreover, approximately two hundred years after Voltaire’s prediction that the Bible would be eliminated from the earth, a first edition of Voltaire’s work sold in Paris for eleven cents. On that very same day, December 24, 1933, the British government purchased an ancient New Testament manuscript, Codex Sinaiticus, for the Czar of Russia for $500,000. This ancient manuscript, dating about AD 350, is still highly prized and is on display in The British Museum.”

Yes! The Word of God is eternal! Jesus said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matt. 24:35). When you fill your life with the Word of God you will not walk in darkness!

THE WORD OF GOD IS ALSO A LIVING SPIRITUAL SEED

A pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus by night because he knew that God was with him. (see John 3:1-21) When Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be “born again” Nicodemus was confused and asked: “How can a man be born when he is old? . . . Surely he cannot enter into his mother’s womb a second time to be born!”

“You are Israel’s teacher, said Jesus, and you do not understand these things”? Even little children know that life comes from seeds and that every seed reproduces after its own kind (Gen. 1:11-12). Nicodemus should have known this. If you want spiritual life you must plant a spiritual seed! So Jesus reminded Nicodemus: “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Peter emphasized this same truth and said: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.” (1 Pet. 1:23-25) As you know, a living seed can force its way through concrete and twist around large objects in search of sun light.

Consequently, there are two races of people on the earth. First is the physical race that came from Adam. Second is the spiritual race that came from Jesus. The “first Adam” gave us physical life

through a physical seed. Thus your physical body contains the physical “image” or “DNA” of the first Adam. As we have said, the first Adam is the progenitor, or father, of a physical race. When you are “born again,” however, you receive spiritual life from a spiritual seed. So Jesus is called the “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45-49). Consequently, Jesus is the progenitor, or Father, of a spiritual race. When you are “born again” you become a “new creation”. “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). As a child of God, born from a spiritual seed, you now have a spiritual behavior: “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” (1 John 3:9-10)

Since the Word of God is alive and active, it can also “spread rapidly”. Paul knew this and asked the Thessalonians “pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it is with you.” (2 Thess. 3:1)

The Word of God did spread rapidly from the Thessalonian believers. Paul wrote: “You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” (1 Thess. 1:6-10)

When Paul preached in Ephesus in only two years everyone in Asia heard the Word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks (Acts 19:10).

Because the Word of God is alive and active it is also like a sword that penetrates inside of you and judges the thoughts and attitudes of your heart. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Heb. 4:12-13)

God said through Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:8-11)

When we plant enough seed, some of it will fall on good ground and some can even produce a hundred times more than what is sown (Matthew 13:16-23).

THE WORD OF GOD IS ALSO A WEAPON WITH WHICH WE CAN DEFEAT THE DEVIL

When Jesus was tempted by the devil He overcame those temptations by quoting the Word of God (Matt. 4:1-11). If you do not know how to quote the Word of God you are a great disadvantage when dealing with the devil.

The Christian armor is described in Ephesians 6:10-20, but the only offensive weapon we have is the Word of God. Since we are in a spiritual battle, we need a spiritual weapon. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine powers to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). So Paul told the Ephesians: “take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.” The Greek word for “sword” is “machaira” and the Latin word for the same word is “gladius.” The gladius was a short sword with a thin blade and Roman soldiers used to conquer the world. It was cheaper and more effective that a long heavy broad sword. It allowed for a faster and more efficient attack and was the weapon of choice in the Roman army for 400 years. Combatants who fought with swords, as you know, were known as gladiators.

Gladiators began their training with a wooden sword called a “rudus”. Their training began at dawn as they prepared to live or die in the arena. They ate three nutritious meals each day that were designed to provide them with stamina and strength. They trained all day long for months and honed their abilities with hard work and discipline. If they didn’t handle their sword correctly, they died. Paul told Timothy: “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer.” (2 Tim. 2:3-4) We too need to endure hardship, training, and discipline to be a “good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

Light is essential to many activities. No one wants to have a sword fight in the dark. No surgeon wants to operate in the dark. No pilot can safely operate an airplane in the dark as he must have enough light to see his instruments. Without light many tools are useless and even pieces of furniture become something to stumble over rather than use and enjoy. When you turn on the light, however, darkness retreats and things are different! It is much easier to fix a meal, repair an item that is broken, or read an instruction book when you have light. In this regard the Scriptures declare: “You are all sons of the light and sons of the day.” (1 Thess. 5:5) Benefiting from the light of the Scriptures, many things around us become useful which were previously useless. Even Jesus was a stumbling block to the Jews until the lamp and light of Scriptures turned their darkness into light (1 Cor. 1:23).

LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN THE BIBLE

• “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 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, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5- 7)
• Jesus said: “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)
• “But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness.” (1 Thess. 5:4-5)
• “Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light”. (John 12:36)
• “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:
• “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:8-14)
• “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:4-5)
• “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:17-18)
• “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” (Phil. 2:14-15)
• Etc.

YOU HAVE A CHOICE

You have a choice to choose light, or to choose darkness. Everyone of you has access to the Word of God. The apostle John, by inspiration, records these words to Nicodemus in the conclusion of his famous interview with Jesus:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:16-21)

PLEASE CHOOSE LIGHT!

IF YOU LOVE LIGHT YOU WILL STUDY THE BIBLE,

FOR THE WORD OF GOD IS A LAMP FOR YOUR FEET AND A LIGHT FOR YOUR PATH!