I Am The Bright And Morning Star

This ‘I am’ statement from our Lord Jesus serves again as a clear testimony of both our Saviour’s divine nature and His human nature. In these final verses of our Bible the Lord Jesus announces His certain and imminent return to earth and we are given a closing glimpse of Christ’s glory. Our Saviour tells us, ‘I am the root and the offspring of David’, then He declares, ‘I am the bright and morning star’. Finally, we are told, ‘Surely I come quickly’. Christ is coming back and that right soon. Eagerly the church awaits His return and the dawn of a new day.

Root and branch

Our Lord Jesus may be said to be the root of David because He is David’s Lord and Head. In a temporal sense David had his being from the Lord Jesus who is Creator of all things. In a spiritual sense David, with all believers, has his eternal life in the new creation. Thus David may be said, really and truly, to spring from the Root who is Christ. Yet, too, in Christ’s human nature He was of the house and lineage of David in fulfilment of God’s covenant promise that the Messiah would spring from David’s seed. As God, Christ is the root of David; as man, He is the offspring of David.

The Day Spring from on high

Furthermore, Christ is ‘the bright and morning star’. He is the ‘sun of righteousness’ who has risen from the dead and rises daily in faithfulness and mercy to His people as their God-Man Mediator. The ‘bright and morning star’ is a beautiful picture of the Saviour and one that speaks forth Christ’s inherent glory as that Man in whom dwells ‘all the fulness of the Godhead bodily’. To teach us of Himself our eternal God condescends to liken Himself to the sun, a created body. Then to gladden our hearts and enhance the comparison He rises daily, shining brightly, with gracious mercies for His chosen, covenant people. 

Balaam’s Star

The picture of a star has long been used by God the Holy Spirit to foretell the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Balaam, that devious prophet-for-hire of old, desired to curse the Children of Israel but could not resist blessing the Lord’s own people, ‘the church in the wilderness’. Balaam confounded his paymasters, who sought to trouble Israel, with foresight of God’s coming presence amongst them and their deliverance by a glorious and victorious King. He declared in anticipation of Christ that a ‘Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel’.

With eager anticipation

Later, Paul tells the church of a ‘glory that excelleth’ and Peter speaks of ‘the glory that should follow’ and ‘the glory that shall be revealed’. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the fulness of that glory and, as certain as the rising of ‘the bright and morning star’, He is coming again to bestow glory upon His people. We shall walk in streets of gold by the light of His love in a land where there is no night, nor any need of a sun. We shall bask in the warmth of His embrace. We shall recline in the comfort of His presence. We shall sit on thrones in the shining city of His making when ‘the dayspring from on high hath visited us’ again.

Practical benefits

We have discovered from Christ’s other ‘I am’ sayings how our Saviour is always ready to bestow His church with useful and comforting views of Himself, drawn from the natural order. He does so that we might discover more of His grace and love towards us and that we might exalt and glorify His name now, on earth, as we shall do everlastingly in heaven. Christ is the brightness of His Father’s glory and those things that are most glorious and desirable, even in our fallen estimation, such as life and light, resurrection and truth, personal spiritual care and everlasting salvation are all claimed by our Saviour in these great ‘I ams’. 

Precious promises

Until He comes Christ’s church, the Lord’s people, have this promise: that the Lord whom we await shall visit us each day with faithful mercies necessary for our time. Morning by morning new provisions will be supplied. Christ shall rise in our hearts as the bright and morning star, the sun of righteousness, to lighten our way and direct our path. He shall nourish our souls with spiritual bread and rejoice our hearts with the spiritual fruit of the vine. He will be to us an open Door and lead us in the way we should go. He will cause us to trust in Him as the beginning and end of faith. He is our Saviour. Jesus Christ in whom we trust. The Great I Am. 

Amen.