Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

 

Ever since I was a little child I have been curious about that Sunday School song, “This little light of mine, I ‘m gonna let it shine, shine shine. Hide it under a bushel – no! I’m gonna let it shine.” Of course as little children we also had to use body language so we held up our index finger to signify the light, like Spielberg’s ET.  I often wonder if that is where he got the idea of giving his little alien fellow a light at the tip of his index finger.

 

Anyway, like so many people I have often wondered just what light is. Even today I am fascinated by light.  I have a little Crookes radiometer sitting by my lamp.  A radiometer is shaped like a light bulb only inside it has a little weather vane where its panels are black on one side and white on the other.  As light hits it, that little weather vane begins to spin.  My grammar science teacher said it was the particles from the light hitting the white panel and causing it to spin.  Bless his heart, he was wrong.  The manual that came with my radiometer said that it is really heat energy that caused the vanes to spin.

 

Therein lays the source of my little study today.  Light is really electromagnetic energy.  Light is energy, something Einstein was fascinated with. Einstein who was Jewish admitted his fascination with light came from the teachings of his Jewish rabbis.

 

We look at this word light in Matthew 5:16 and view it as a metaphor or more accurately as a metonymy.  A metonymy is substituting an attribute for the thing meant.  For instance I was watching one of those many cop shows and they always refer to the FBI as suits and patrolmen as uniforms. Suits and uniforms are metonyms.   Jesus said in John 1:4: “ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”  Now just how cool is that?  Us Sci-Fi, Star Trek, Star Gate fans can have a real field day with that.  But let’s just stay within scientific fact.  Light is energy.  When we say Light it is a metonym for Jesus.

 

Ok, I know we Christians hate to use the word energy, it is just so New Ageish.  Alright, I agree there is a New Age out there that is controlled by the enemy himself, but why should he have all the nifty ideas.  Come on, light is energy, every high school physic student knows that, it is even taught in Christian High schools.  Is there any reason we cannot say, “Let your energy so shine before men?”  I mean I just got done saying that Jesus is the light so this energy that we are going to let shine before men is the energy of Jesus Christ who is the life and His life is that light energy which brings life to men.

 

Oh, yes, I know what you are thinking.  “Our energy?  But who am I, I am butt dust. I must stand aside it is all Jesus.”  If God had meant for his loving, life giving light or energy to come only from Him the He really does not need us.”  The enemy lost his position as the Light Bearer and it was passed on to us, why do you think he hates us so much.  We inherited what he once had but lost when he rebelled.  So now God has passed that honor on to us. In fact Jesus died on a cross and rose again so that we can be suitable instruments to bear His Light Bearer, bearing His Light or life giving energy.

 

Let’s take a closer look at some of these words. For instance, the word light in Greek as used here is phos where we get our English word photo, or photon. Any good Trekkie will tell you that a photon torpedo is really a blast of light energy that will destroy a star ship. Light energy can be very powerful as our modern lasers are beginning to prove.  In II Kings 6:18 we have the story of God sending out a powerful burst of this energy to blind an entire army.  The Apostle Paul was struck down by a powerful burst of this energy.  Einstein proved in his theory of relativity that time slows as you approach the speed of light. God created time, and light affects time.  Could it be that light is the gateway to the supernatural world?  Light is the one thing the natural world and supernatural world have in common.  That gateway, that bridge to the supernatural world is found in John 1:4, it is Jesus Christ Himself.

 

The Aramaic word that is used is norha, which basically means that which shines or illuminates. It’s ancient definition carries a sense of force or power.  I think a modern word for that is energy. Note, we are to let it shine. The word in Greek is lampsato.  Ever wonder where the English word lamp came from?  A lamp is a light giver and that is what that word in the Greek means, a light giver. The word for shine in Aramaic is nehar which means the very same thing as the Greek, a light giver.  Letting our light shine is not standing around with a big smile on our face glowing like a glow worm. We are actively involved in giving and sharing the light of God with others.  This is not some esoteric or subjective thing.  We are actually sharing the very energy, life giving force of Jesus Christ with others.  God has chosen us as His light bearers and He uses us to bring this life giving force to others.

 

The problem is our will.  We think we are unworthy to share that light, that is why the enemy wants us to sin, because once we beginning to think that it automatically starts to hide that light under a bushel as the old song goes. God expects us to actively be involved in sharing His energy or light.

 

I can best explain it through the Hebrew word yiredu.  I asked my study partner to post to a link she found on You Tube to show yiredu.  You see yiredu is rendered in our Christian Bible’s as dominion. But the Jewish sages, because of a little twist in the vowel pointings, render it as coming down to the level of animals.  You see animals do not understand our language, they can only interpret what they feel, the (here it comes) energy that we give off.  If it is negative, they will react accordingly, if it is positive, they will respond. If it is the light or energy of Jesus Christ, they will teach us something about our relationship with God.  I have shared my experience in communicating with God’s creation in many of my books. I don’t speak to them with words, I speak with my heart, my imagination. I form pictures in my imagination and through the energy I give off I pass those pictures and feelings of my heart to them and they respond in kind. Sounds crazy, no?  Before the end of the summer I will be posting a podcast on my study of yiredu on our website.  My point for now is that animals know if you respect them or not. They  know if you feel superior to them. We humans believe we are above the animal kingdom, but we are animals ourselves, just given a special assignment and relationship with God.  But if we can communicate with animals with our hearts, where they can feel our respect for them, then how about with that animal  we call humans?  We can say many fancy words, but people really pick up on what is really in our hearts. They will be fooled only if they want to be fooled.  Sometimes we do not need to say a word when we let that light or energy of Jesus Christ shine or nehar is shared.  People will feel it experience it and we need not say a word. But if there is uncleanness in us, even the slightest it is like dust covering a light bulb and before long enough dust will build that it will shut off that light.  If we want our light, the light and life giving energy of Jesus to be shared so others will feel and experience the love of God, so that we can even communicate with God’s creation, we must  continually be claiming the blood of Jesus Christ to cleans us from all sins.

p.s. Beginning in Aug. we will be offering “More with Chaim”  which is a monthly subscription that will include things such as monthly podcasts and  live Webinar’s that will cover various topics regarding Biblical Hebrew and how to dig deeper into scripture using Chaim’s Hebrew Word Study Manual. The language God chose to reveal Himself through is an amazing and beautiful language full of treasures ready to be explored! Stay tuned :)

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