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The Torch of Salvation
(Is62:1-3; Lk8:16-17)

God is the everlasting light (Is60:19).
He lives in unapproachable light (1Ti6:16) and
He saves by light, a blazing torch (Is62:1).
 
Faith is receiving the light of God (He10:32) and
The life of this faith is lighting the world with the torch of salvation for
A torch illuminates in darkness and serves to guide, search, signal, and burn (Zec12:6).
 
During the creation God created the light first for
Darkness was over the surface of the deep (Ge1:2-3).
The universe is the depths of the pit that
Contains Lucifer who sinned in the spiritual heaven (Is14:12-15), that is,
Hades that will become hell.
Because of Adam who was deceived by the devil and sinned (Ge3:4-6)
No man could escape it (Mt25:41).
 
However, the revelation of the torch of salvation for mankind began:
A smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces of
The sacrifice that Abraham gave to God (Ge15:8-18);
According to His covenant when Israel left their slavery of 430 years in Egypt (Ex12:41)
A pillar of fire, that is, the angel of the LORD, went ahead of them
To guide them on their way (Ex13:21, 14:19).
 
While the light of the lamp stand in front of the veil inside the sanctuary was
To be kept burning from evening to morning by the priests (Ex27:20-21),
Inside the Most Holy Place there was no need for lamp for
Jehovah who is enthroned between the cherubim shone forth (Ps80:1).
By keeping the commandments and the law,
They remembered that, “Jehovah = the torch of Israel” (Pr6:23).
 
For their sin of letting the lamp go out at night
The Dark Age of Israel came (Ps31:18; Is13:10).
But the prophet spoke of the salvation of Jerusalem coming like a blazing torch (Is62:1), and
By the light of His face He would save (Ps44:3, 80:3).
 
Yeshua said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19-21),
Not in the name of Jehovah, the torch of Israel,
But in the Father’s name of Yeshua, the torch for all nations (Ac26:23),
Not by the light shone by angel,
But by the light of the Son, the incarnate Word (Jn1:1-4),
He would save eternally from not the Dark Age but Hades.
As such, on the mount of transfiguration, He showed His face shining like the sun (Mt17:2) and
Opened the eyes of the blinds (Jn9:1-7),
Revealing that He is the light who came to the world (Jn8:12, 12:35).
 
It was about noon when Yeshua was hung on the cross and
The darkness came over the whole land (Lk23:44-45), and
As He died, He said, “It is finished” (Jn19:30), declaring that He:
1)     Trusted the Father the source of light to save Him (Ps80:3; He5:7);
2)     Judged the devil, an angel of light (Is14:12-15; 2Co11:14); and
3)     The blood He shed through His broken flesh became the torch of salvation, for He set the iniquities of mankind in the light of His countenance (Ps90:8).
 
He resurrected and ascended to heaven, and He is the Lamb who sits on the throne.
His eyes are like blazing fire and His feet are like burnish bronze (Rev2:18).
The Holy Spirit whom He sent enters inside the souls cleansed by His blood and
Shines the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ (2Co4:6).
 
The Christian is he who was once darkness but now is light in the Lord (Eph5:8; Rm2:19).
In worship on the Lord’s Day, his soul is filled with
The light displayed in the face of Christ (Ps67:1, 80:3) and
He goes out to the world and for six days shines the torch of salvation.
Like Gideon who held a trumpet in one hand and a torch in the other (Jdg7:16-22),
He clearly declares his identity and preaches the gospel (Lk8:16-17) and
Lets the world see his good deeds (Mt5:14-15).
This is so that after he dies his soul enters the New Jerusalem where
God and the Lamb are its lamp (Rev20:5, 21:22-27).
 
O Lord,
Let none of us be like the foolish virgins who put out their lamps.
Instead, let us grow this light we received by Your blood and keep burning it brightly.
Church of Jesus!  Let us become a torch of salvation that
Illuminates the dark world and the confused religious world!  Amen.