THE RISING SUN – Charles Spurgeon
THE RISING SUN
“But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” — Malachi 4:2.
The Jews expected that the coming of the Messiah would exalt every member of the Israelite race. Their expectations were great, but they were also carnal and sensuous, as they looked for an earthly king who would make the despised nation victorious over all its enemies and enrich every descendant of Abraham. However, the Scriptures gave them no foundation for such universal expectations; quite the opposite, in fact. In the chapter before us, the Prophet explains that the coming of Christ would certainly be like the rising of the sun—full of glory and brightness. Yet, the results would not be the same for everyone.
To those who thought they were righteous and despised others, yet were wicked in their behavior, the rising of the sun would bring a burning, withering day. Read the first verse: “The day comes that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble.” These individuals would not be like flourishing plants full of sap in the tropical heat. Instead, they would be like stubble, dry and ready to catch fire. The sun’s intense heat would scorch the stubble, which had no life left in it. This was the consequence of Christ’s coming. The religion of the Jews at the time was dry and dead, like stubble.
The Pharisee thought he was righteous because he wore a broad phylactery and tithed insignificant herbs like anise and mint. The Sadducee, on the other hand, believed in his own wisdom, being a man of reason and common sense. Other sects of the time also found frivolous reasons to boast. The ministry of Christ dried them up, and they have ceased to be. Although we still use the terms Pharisee and Sadducee today, no one would wish to adopt either name!
The result of Christ’s coming, both by His Spirit and His personal advent, is often the same. Should the Spirit of God visit this Church with revival, it will not have the same effect on everyone. For some, the rising of the Sun will bring healing and blessing; for others, it will bring scorching and withering. Have you not noticed that the summer, which causes the wheat to ripen, also encourages the growth of noxious weeds? Tares, like the wheat, grow stronger in the sun. However, the ripeness of the weeds only hastens their destruction. Similarly, for the bad, the sun’s heat prepares them for utter consumption.
We may well pray for revival, but we must not assume that it will bring blessings to the mere formalist. For him, it may drive him further from the faith. The revival may disgust him, revealing that his religion was shallow all along. To him, the day of the Lord will “burn as an oven,” and his empty profession will be consumed like the stubble.
But the coming of the Messiah was to bring fullness of blessing to another group, and it is to them that we now turn. “But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise,” not with scorching, but with “healing in His wings.” “And you shall go forth”—not dried up, burned, or destroyed—but “you shall grow up as calves of the stall.” You shall obtain great blessings through the Presence of your Lord!
Two points will occupy our attention: first, the description of the people of God—“Unto you that fear My name.” And second, the blessing promised to them—the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings, and they shall go forth, growing up as calves of the stall.
I. True Saints Described
Let us look at this description, which can be divided into two parts. First, the abiding character of these people: they fear the name of the Lord. And second, their Providential character, which is not constant but occurs at times—they need healing, as the promise of the Sun of Righteousness would not be necessary if they were not sick.
Notice first their abiding character: they fear the name of the Lord. I am delighted to think that this promise is given to this particular character, as it applies even to beginners in grace. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is not the highest grace, nor the loftiest attainment of the spiritual nature. Blessed be the Lord that the promise is given to you, even if you are weak and feeble! You fear the Lord.
There are times when we question whether we know the rapture of love or whether we’ve had the assurance of faith. But even in those moments, we know we fear God. Jonah, while fleeing from God in a sinful state, still declared, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord.” This fear is an abiding trait of saints, even in their worst states. If they backslide, they still fear the name of the Lord. At times, this fear may be more slavish, coming from the spirit of bondage, but they still fear God.
Even when they lose the evidence of their sonship or cease to walk in the light, they do not treat God lightly. They could not sin against Him cheaply. There remains a sense of His greatness in their hearts. This fear generally manifests as a reverence for His Person. They acknowledge that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, that He is everywhere present, and that He observes the ways of men. Others may blaspheme, but they cannot. Others may sin carelessly, but for them, sin costs dearly. While others may feast without apprehension, they cannot, for they fear the Lord.
Now, soul, do you tremble before God? That trembling is a significant sign. I do not ask whether you tremble at the thought of Hell, as that would be no sign of grace. What thief would not tremble at the gallows? Nor do I ask if you fear death—what mortal man does not, unless he has a good hope through Divine grace? But do you tremble in the Presence of God because you have offended Him? Do you fear sin because it could offend Him? Does it ever cross your mind, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Just as some men are deterred from crime by the fear of the law, do you stay away from folly because you fear God? Just as some are driven to energy by the fear of poverty, do you feel impelled to serve God, knowing that not to do so is to remain under His wrath?
This may be a lower form of grace compared to higher spiritual states, but it is still precious. I am glad to see many of you beginning to fear God. I bless His name that you no longer live as you once did. Though your fear may still be slavish, I hope it will ripen into a genuine reverence for God.
I have said that the description of the people of God denotes not only their abiding character but also their occasional character. Sometimes, they fall into conditions that they deplore, and the text hints at this. First, the Sun of Righteousness is to arise upon them, which suggests that they were in the dark before. No matter what other light may be present, we all know that without the sun, we remain in comparative darkness.
There are times when children of God walk in darkness. Indeed, it seems that every child of God experiences some period of darkness. Some may begin their journey with bright light, only to face a cloudy period later, while others may experience their darkest days near the end of their lives. As Knox and Luther experienced their sharpest temptations as they neared death, it is often said that God sometimes puts His children to bed in the dark. But they always wake up to eternal light!
If you are in darkness now, dear brother, and wonder why everyone else seems so lively in their faith, do not despair. The Sun will rise upon you soon! The text also implies that God’s children may sometimes experience ill health, as the Sun of Righteousness is to arise with healing in His wings. A Christian may be weighed down with severe spiritual maladies. He may feel lethargic, trembling with unbelief, and unable to see clearly or hear God’s promises. Yet, his soul sickness is not unto death. He will recover, singing praises to the Lord who heals him.
Lastly, the children of God may be in a state of bondage, for the promise of freedom is given to those who are bound. The calf in the stall is tied up at night, but when the sun rises, it is set free. The child of God may be in bondage, constrained by memories of past sins or present unbelief. Yet when the Lord reveals Himself, freedom comes!
The child of God may also feel that he is not growing, but when the Sun of Righteousness shines, growth will come. Like trees in winter, which appear dead, they will sprout when the spring sun warms them. You may have stopped growing for a while, but you will grow again!
Finally, the child of God may lose his joy. The promise speaks of going forth and leaping like calves of the stall. When the sun brings spring, the calves rejoice in their freedom. So too, when the Lord appears to His people, they will leap for joy!
Thus, I have described the people to whom the promise comes. Now, let us open up the promise itself: “The Sun of Righteousness shall arise.”
Child of God, in the dark, in prison, ungrowing and unhappy, what a promise is here for you!
“The Sun of Righteousness shall arise.” His rising is to do it all! There is nothing for you to do—no works for you to perform in order to get the needed blessing. The Sun of Righteousness shall arise!
Now, the rising of the sun is one of the most wonderful things in nature, not merely for its grandeur and beauty, but for its sublime display of strength. Who could hold back the horses of the sun? What hand could block the golden wheel of his chariot, or bid him stay his course? The time has come for him to rise, and lo, he delights the world with dawn!
Holy Spirit, such is Your power! When it is Your time to work, who can stand against You? As the sun floods the whole earth with his splendor and no power can hinder his movements, so will the Holy Spirit work, and none can stop Him. Plead then this promise tonight and cry—“O Sun of Righteousness, arise upon those that fear You! Come in all Your majesty and wealth of grace! Pour upon us Your light, heat, and life, and fill this place with Your glory!”
Now, mark what will be the result of His rising. As soon as ever this Sun is up and Christ begins to shine upon His people, they enjoy a clear light! They were in the dark before, but now they are in the light!
I have been living for a while in a country where the sun is everything. The temperature and atmosphere are made salubrious and delicious, I had almost said celestial, by its presence. When the sun shines not, the sick pine, and the healthy are gloomy! But when clouds no longer veil its face, we are as in the garden of the Lord! Everything depends upon the sun! Step down into a valley where it has not shone, and you will find frost—cross the street into the shade, and you will shiver in the cold.
So clear does the atmosphere become through the removal of all fogs and mists that sometimes we have seen a hundred miles across the sea, rising up like a fair vision, the distant mountains of Corsica! I cannot help using this illustration because it is so distinctly before me! When the Sun of Righteousness arises upon a Christian and shines fully upon him, he does not see islands a hundred miles away, but he sees the golden gates of the Celestial City, the King in His beauty, and the land that is very far off—for the Presence of Christ endears the atmosphere and enables us to see the invisible!
Unto you that fear His name, may the Sun of Righteousness arise and give you just such clearness and light!
But according to the text, the Sun of Righteousness, when He rises on those that fear the Lord, gives them healing. There is healing in His wings. By the wings of the sun, we mean the beams that shoot up from it into the air, or seem to slant down from it when it is aloft in the sky. There is real healing for men’s bodies in the sun. Have we not seen individuals come to the sunny land, consumptive and weakened, and as they sat in the sun and warmed themselves for a few weeks, the wounds in their lungs began to heal? The consumptive man breathed again, and we saw that he would live! Some have gone there, scarcely able to speak, but beneath the sun, they began to speak again, like men whose youth had been renewed!
The sun is the great physician. Where it does not enter, a physician is needed, but where it shines, men speedily revive. As for the Sun of Righteousness, oh, how He heals the sick! I would like you sick Christians to sit in His sunlight for an entire year, if you did nothing else but bask there, as animals delight to bask in the sun. The flowers know the sun; they turn their cups to it and drink in the health He gives from His golden store.
Oh, that we had as much sense to know the Sun of Righteousness! That we might, through prayer, meditation, and holy living, bask and sun ourselves in His delicious beams! We shall be strong indeed if He rises upon us with healing in His wings. He has risen, but we wander into the shade! He has risen, but we get into the ice wells of worldliness and sin—and shut out His warmth—and then we wonder why we are sick. But sick we always shall be until we come out into the Light again, and Jesus shines on us from morning till evening!
I must not enlarge upon any one point, for my time is limited, but I would have you notice how the text says that when the Sun of Righteousness shines, the Christian gets his liberty. “You shall go forth.” I have been staying where the invalid does not venture out if the wind blows, and if there is a little chill, and the sun is not bright, he must stay indoors or lose the benefit he has received. But when the sun is out, and the air is calm, then he goes forth, leaves his bedroom, and is all alive once more.
There are Christians who have been kept indoors a long time. They have not walked the length of the promise, nor spied out the breadth of the covenant, nor climbed to the top of Pisgah to gaze upon the landscape! O Beloved, if the Sun of Righteousness, even the Lord Jesus, shall shine upon you, you will go forth not only to enjoy Christian life but to enter into Christian service—and you will go further afield to bring others to Christ!
Then you will begin to grow! That is another effect of the sun, and how wonderfully the sunlight makes things grow. Here, we have in our hot-houses little plants that we think so wonderful that we show them to our friends and put them on our tables as rarities. But I have seen them in the sunny south, ten times as large, growing in the open fields because the sun has looked upon them! The rarities of our country are the commonplaces of the land of the sun!
I have known Christians who have received a little faith and been perfectly astonished at it—and God has blessed them with a little love to Jesus—and they have felt as though they were splendid saints! But if they lived in the sunlight, they might move mountains by their faith, and their love would lead them to devote their whole life to Jesus—and yet, they would not be astonished. The Sun of Righteousness can produce fruits rich and rare.
Our cold, sunless land, beneath its cloud and fog—what can it yield in the winter? In more favored parts of the earth, even in our winter, the trees are golden with fruits. So it is with the soul. What can it grow if it lives in worldliness? What can it produce if it lives to itself? But when it knows the love of Jesus and the power of His grace, even in its worst estate, it brings forth the richest and rarest fruit to the glory of His grace!
I shall close by exhorting my fellow Church members to live in the sunlight. Get out of the shadows! There are dreary glens in this world where the sun never shines—they are called glens of pleasure, and sometimes the pale moon looks down on them with sickly rays. But the saint knows the difference between the light of the sun and the light of the world’s moon. Get away from those chill places into the clear light.
“But,” says one, “I did not know there were joys in religion.” My dear friend, do you know true religion, then? For it is “a thing of beauty and a joy forever.” He who knows not Christ has seen the sun, but until he has known Him, he has seen but the glow-worm’s glitter! Peace, deep peace, he never knew who never knew the power of the blood! And joy, real joy, such as angels call joy, he never knew who never trusted in the Savior’s atoning sacrifice!
Oh, come you depressed, distressed, and despondent ones, whose religion has been slavery, and whose profession has been bondage—get a true baptism into Christ by faith in Him. When you have been plunged into the Godhead’s deepest sea, then you shall know a joy and peace which pass all understanding! The world gives them not—it cannot take them away.
“Unto you that fear the Lord, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” I want to encourage those who fear the Lord a little—I mean the seekers. Come into the Light! Come and welcome! None will question your right! I never heard of anybody, yet, who said, “I must not sit in the sun. The sun is not mine.”
The lords of this world have hedged in every acre, and there is scarcely a sterile mountainside that is not guarded with “trespassers beware.” But they cannot hedge in the blessed sunlight! No, not even for an hour. Through the poor man’s window, though the glass is broken and stuffed up with rags, a beam of sunlight will pierce its way as gladly as into the halls of monarchs! It shines on the beggar’s rags as well as on the prince’s scarlet, and it is free!
When Diogenes bade Alexander get out of his sunlight, he had a right to do so, for the sunlight belonged as much to Diogenes in his tub as to Alexander, who had conquered the world!
O meanest of the mean in your own judgment, lowest of the low in your own esteem, guiltiest of the guilty as your conscience calls you before God—know that the Sun of Righteousness has risen, and His light is free! Come into the sunlight! Come into the sunlight!
“Oh, but I shall get better soon. I am sick, but I shall get better soon.” Come into the sunlight, man, for there is healing beneath the wings of the Sun of Righteousness, but nowhere else. “I am kindling a fire. I am hoping that I may get warm by the sparks of my own kindling.” Come into the sunlight, man! What are all your fires? Though you should set Lebanon on a blaze and take all the timber that ever grew on Sirion to make a pile, what would it compare with yonder mighty furnace of the sun, which has burned for ages and will burn on till the last eye of mortal man shall have looked upon it?
O soul, go not about with your whims and fancies to save yourself! Come into the sunlight! Come into the sunlight, man!
“But perhaps I may not.” Who is the poorer if the sunlight shines on you? There is enough for others even though it pours its floods on you. The sun is no brighter if you have not his beams! He will be no duller though you and a thousand like you should lie by the century together basking in his light. So with Jesus!
“In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” If you take all the mercy that can be needed to lift you up from the gates of Hell to Heaven itself, He will have as much mercy left! If all the merit you can need to save your condemned spirit and make you into a child of God should be yours, as I pray it may, there will be as much merit left in Christ as ever!
Why keep back? Why keep back?
“But I am so base.” Does not the sun shine on dunghills? May not the mercy of God shine on you, you dunghill sinner? You cannot be too low! You cannot be too vile! The infinite mercy of God, like the infinite light of the sun, can reach you.
“Alas, I am dark.” And what night was too dark for the sun to turn it into day? “Alas, I am cold.” But what iceberg was too cold for the sun to thaw? What winter was too severe for the sun to turn it into summer?
Yield yourself up, you icicle! Yield to the sun, and it will melt you. Yield yourself up, you dead and shriveled twig, to that dear sunbeam which waits to kiss you, and it will awaken life within you, warming you until you shall be loaded with rich fruit, to the praise and glory of the Sun of Righteousness, which has risen upon you!
The Lord grant it may be so with us all, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.