Bright Morning Star

 Day 11: Bright Morning Star

Revelation 22:16 

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. 

There is so much good here!! Let’s start here because it’s advent:

Matthew 2:1-2

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

It is very important that Jesus came from the line of David; Old Testament prophecy talked about the throne of David living forever. It is interesting that the wise men saw the star and spoke of Jesus being a king and Jesus said it of himself too! These wise men that came from the east were men who studied the stars, the stars that God says he placed in the sky and called them by name. They were placed by the God who says in Eccelesties that all creation is pointing to His glory. How did these wise men know about these things? Actually Daniel, when he was in captivity, had the opportunity to tell people from this land and it was passed down because they sensed its importance. 

So we have the wise men seeing the star pointing to Jesus, Jesus calling himself the bright morning star and one more instance in scripture in between. 

2 Peter 1:16-20

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 

I love this: Peter is saying- hey listen to us, we actually saw this happen. We are not following a fairy tale but the words of scripture are true. This is a great scripture to turn into prayer: O Lord, please let the day dawn and the morning star, Jesus himself, rise in our hearts. 

I think its also interesting to see the words majestic and majesty pointing to the royalty of Christ. All 3 scriptures we looked at so far have a star and are pointing to royalty!

Lets also look at the word morning: Jesus is the morning star. 

Lamentations is a book of grieving. But look at these verses giving us hope:

Lamentations 3:21-25

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; 

His mercies never come to an end;

They are new every morning; 

Great is your faithfulness. 

The Lord is my portion, says my soul,

Therefore I will hope in him.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, 

To the soul who seeks him. 

When we wake in the morning and the sky is still dark, the morning star is the light that gives us hope that all is not dark. The morning star can give enough light to help us navigate the dark morning as we look to the sunrise. 

Romans 6:3-4

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 

Jesus is the light in our life that breaks through the darkness, the life that breaks through death. Let his light point you to the hope we have, based on a real life, a real perfect life that has given us new life.