CELEBRATING THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

But to you who fear My name The SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS shall arise with healing in His wings; And you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves – Malachi 4: 1

The Son of God is the Sun of Righteousness! The last prophet of the Old Testament wrote 450 years before Jesus, but full of expectation that the Messiah was coming: “The Lord who you seek will suddenly come to His temple; the Messenger of the covenant on whom you delight; behold He is coming…” (Mal.3:1). This same expectation is described in Malachi 4:2. He warned that those who proudly resist God will be consumed with fire on the Day of Judgment; but had a different and wonderful word for those who fear the Lord: “…the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall” (Mal.4:1). The Sun of Righteousness came first after four centuries of spiritual darkness with no word from God. He will come a second time when the world is mired in the deepest spiritual darkness.

So, the Old Testament closed with the prophecy of the terrible Day of the Lord and the coming of the Sun of Righteousness. When John the Baptist's father prophesied in Luke 1:78-79, he alluded to Malachi’s prophecy and said that with the coming of Jesus the day was dawning from on high: “Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” The sun of righteousness was rising. And He has been rising all over this world ever since. Soon and very soon His rise will reach its noonday brightness and He will appear in glory, to define the final division between the believing and unbelieving!  

The New Testament ends with the testimony of “the Bright Morning Star” (Rev.22:16). The Morning Star heralds the Rising Sun! The sun in the sky is but a shadow of the Sun of Righteousness, whose glory I celebrate today. My Rising Sun sets things right where they were wrong, and makes all things right in His time. He makes me right with God, with others, and with myself. He gives light to dispel clouds of darkness, vision to clear all confusion, and brings sense and meaning out of all absurdity (Isa.60:1). He provides security where there was danger, guidance against destruction, and light to dismiss the darkness of confusion and ignorance. He gives me warmth in the world’s cold, harsh winters; and growth and regeneration to reverse atrophy and degeneration.

The Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in His wings. His coming is like the beauty of the sunrise over the ocean’s rim: it intensifies, brighter and brighter, until the flaming ball surges up out of the water, and rises up as though the sun had wings. The effect of His exhilarating beauty will be healing:  sickness, pain, and sorrow are swallowed. Above all, the Sun of Righteousness is like the breaking out of a stall and leaping like calves. His coming signifies freedom from bondage. As I break through the bound of the stall, I will not merely walk, or run; I will leap like calves. “…Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven” (Lk.6:23). There is a calf in me waiting to leap with joy. As I celebrate the Sun of Righteousness, I will “go forth, and grow up” – I will go forward and upward (Mal.4:2, KJV).