The Rising of the Sun of Righteousness
Malachi 4:2 (NLT) “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.
The “Sun of righteousness” clearly refers to the coming Christ, for He will come “with healing in His wings.”
Jeremiah 23:6 (ESV) “In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”
Revelation 22:16 (NLT) “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.”
The coming of the Christ is pictured as a sunrise in several passages.
Isaiah 60:1-3 (AMPC) “Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!? 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you.3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
2 Samuel 23:4 (ESV) “he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.”
Habakkuk 3:4 (ESV) “His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power.”
Luke 1:78–79 (ESV) “because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
The darker the night becomes the brighter the light.
2 Peter 1:19 (NASB95) 19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
When the night is darkest, dawn is nearest. The Sun which will arise. It is the Sun—the Sun of Righteousness.
“The sun in the sky is only a shadow of the Sun of Righteousness and of His glory.” Ralph Erskine
“Believer, in the midst of plenty there is a famine if your Lord is absent. The sun may shine, but if Christ is hidden all your world is dark and it is night. Is the Bright and Morning Star gone and there is no other star to yield a ray of light in its place? What a howling wilderness this world is without our Lord! If we do not see Him our flowers wither, our enjoyable fruits decay, the birds stop singing, and storms overturn our hopes. All the lights of earth cannot produce daylight if the Sun of Righteousness is eclipsed. He is the Soul of our soul, the Light of our light, the Life of our life.” – Charles Spurgeon