“But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.”
Malachi 4:2
Here is the final comfort for all who love Jesus. It is the unending promise made to all who fear the Lord and have pursued wisdoms ways, right to the very end of their lives. To pursue God is to love Him entirely and rest completely on His power to sustain us and keep us in the right and out of the wrong. It is a power that never sleeps and will never leave off it’s purifying effects on the human soul. The fear of God makes us clean, for we would not dare to enter His presence in our filthy clothes. The heavy curtain of separation has gone and we are free to enter in, ripped apart by the death of our Saviour on the cross. Everyone has free assess and the way to God could not be more plain.
However, nowhere does God leave aside His purity, glory or holiness. We approach Him and the Father of all living, and the one who holds our lives in His hands, with humility and love. We cannot skip in foolishly, or enter the mercy seat, with filthy sins around our feet. We enter as forgiven children, who love their Father and await His commendation and blessing.
The sun of righteousness, in this verse, refers to the authority and purity of Jesus Christ. In Him are all the treasures of wisdom and power, and He will keep His own people and will forever rise on their perpetual day, as the constant sun-rise and sun-set. The glory of the skies is His and by imitation it belongs to His people also. Jesus rises as the last great and noble bird, spreading His wings as protection against the heat and storms of the day. His majesty has no comparison, and His being is radiant with the glory that belongs to Him.
These wings bring healing from the scorching of the day and the many hurts that infest the night. He will not allow His treasured possessions to be in pain or doubt, that is outside His sovereign will. This is peace. This is the rest from torment. The body and soul can lie down together so that the angel wings of the mercy seat touch in agreeable joy. They mend souls who rest in its hiding place, away for the gloom and negative effects of life in a world not yet ransomed.
The conscience rests in peace, because the price of its sin is paid, and the holiness that God requires is lived each day in the presence of the triune God. No one is ever alone. No one is passed over and left to work it out for themselves. The longer we tread the pathway, the wiser we become and the work of God is more obvious in our lives. There are those who must be wiser than serpents, who walk a tiresome road with Christ only, as their companion.
But they will skip like new- born calves, who have left the shelter of the mother’s womb and launched themselves out into the ever greater unknown, to live for God and enjoy His presence and power every day. The picture is not just for the day, but for the night also. There are bands of believers who will stop at nothing to reach the needy out there, and bring dignity and power to them who have temporarily lost their way. It doesn’t take much. A cup of coffee; a warm blanket, of a small book of love and faith and help.
Why would we not have courage to strike out, to give it all, as we are asked to do?
There is no loss in this service, no pain in the giving and no sickness that can ever overcome. The old live on and pass the skills down to others. Do not despise our calling, as the world might, but we show Christ in proportion to our love for Him. Love burns. It burns day and night and will never fail.
“The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, didn’t depart from before the people.”
Exodus 13: 20-21
What a picture for the people of God and the reality of the felt, seen and known presence of God.! He is the fire within, the burning in the lives of people touched by that fire. Those who are the over-comers, and who will reign in that City of Gold. No one will touch them, offend them or a word of blame be raised to trouble their stillness.
They will serve many and bring many to righteousness. Do not offend them, the people of God, for they are peerless and harbingers of grace above all others. Different generations have called them different names. The “recluses” for the sake of Jesus Christ; the “anchorites” who give their whole selves in holy sacrifice; those who live with passion, who are misunderstood, and suffer so much loss. Those who hold no earthly thing so dear and gladly give all away.
These are the people of Christ. All who love them, are loved, and all who hate them are cast out.
“Daniel, a hand touched me, which set me on my knees and on the palms of my hands. He said to me, Daniel, you man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright; for am I now sent to you. When he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling. Then he said to me, Don’t be afraid, Daniel; for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard: and I have come for your words’ sake.”
Daniel 10: 10-12
So is the response to the prayers of the Seer. We will see God’s purposes and will rejoice to watch the outworking of His holy will. All are safe. Not one of His people will be lost. Do not be discouraged when it seems that people do not understand. This is the plan already. Watch and see the salvation of the Lord. It will come quickly, and no force will stop it.
Daughters of the Kingdom 