Luke 1:78

Luk_1:78

Through the tender mercy of our God

Christs advent

I.

A VERY AFFECTING VIEW OF THE STATE OF MANKIND BEFORE CHRIST CAME. Darkness and the shadow of death.

1. Ignorant of the moral character of God.

2. Ignorant of the purity of Gods law.

3. Ignorant as to the evil nature and dreadful consequences of sin.

4. Ignorant as to the true source of happiness.

5. Ignorant regarding the future state.

II. A VERY INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF THE SAVIOUR. The Dayspring.

1. The great source of light;

(1) Natural;

(2) intellectual;

(3) rational;

(4) spiritual.

2. The dayspring is gradual and progressive.

(1) Revelation has waked fuller and fuller throughout the ages.

(2) The increasing enlightenment of individuals.

3. The dayspring is certain and irresistible. The darkest moral clouds must eventually succumb to the bright beams shed by the Sun of Righteousness.

4. The day-spring is free, and common to all.

III. A VERY ENCOURAGING REPRESENTATION OF THE DESIGN OF CHRISTS MISSION.

1. TO give light. He has shown Himself

(1) in the dignity of His person;

(2) in the perfection of His atonement;

(3) in the fulness of His grace;

(4) in the willingness to save which He has manifested;

(5) in the discovery He has made of the means of cleansing from moral guilt.

2. To give peace.

(1) Peace with God;

(2)peace with our fellow-men;

(3) peace with ourselves.

Notice in conclusion:

1. The infinite condescension of Jehovah in inter posing on our behalf.

2. The Christians duty and privilege.

(1) His duty is to trust in the Lord in time of darkness.

(2) His privilege sometimes is to walk in the light of Gods countenance.

3. The miserable state of those who hear the good news, and yet hold aloof.

4. If the pleasures of religion be so great upon earth, what must be the enjoyment of believers in the upper world? (Dr. Scott.)

The tender mercy of our God

The original is, The mercy of the heart of our God. This seems to mean not only tenderness, but much more. The mercy of the heart of God is, of course, the mercy of His great tenderness, the mercy of His infinite gentleness and consideration; but other thoughts also come forth from the expression, like bees from a hive. It means the mercy of Gods very soul. The heart is the seat and centre of life, and mercy is to God as His own life. Mercy is of the Divine essence; there is no God apart from His heart, and mercy lies in the heart of God. Nor is this all; the mercy of Gods heart means His hearty mercy, His cordial delight in mercy. Remission of sins is a business into which the Lord throws His heart. He forgives with an intensity of will and readiness of soul. God made heaven and earth with His fingers, but He gave His Son with His heart in order that He might save sinners. The eternal God has thrown His whole soul into the business of redeeming men.

I. God shows His tender mercy in that HE DEIGNS TO VISIT US. He has not merely pitied us from a distance, and sent us relief by way of the ladder which Jacob saw, but He has Himself visited us.

1. Gods great visit to us is the incarnation of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2. The proclamation of the gospel in a nation, or to any individual, is a visit of Gods mercy.

3. He has visited some of us in a more remarkable manner still, for by the Holy Spirit He has entered into our hearts, and changed the current of our lives. He has turned our affections towards that which is right by enlightening our judgments. He has led us to the confession of sin, He has brought us to the acceptance of His mercy through the atoning blood; and so He has truly saved us.

II. God shows His tender mercy in that HE VISITS US AS THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH He does not come to us in Christ, or by His Spirit, as a tempest, as when He came from Paran, with ten thousand of His holy ones, in all the pomp of His fiery law; but He has visited us as smiling morn, which in gentle glory floods the world with joy. He has come, moreover, not as a blaze which will soon die down, but as a light which will last our day, yea, last for ever. After the long dark and cold night of our misery, the Lord cometh in the fittest and most effectual manner; neither as lightning, nor candle, nor flaming meteor, but as the sun which begins the day.

1. The visitation of the Lord to us is as the dayspring, because it suits our eye. Day, when it first breaks in the east, has not the blaze of burning noon about it; but peeps forth as a grey light, which gradually increases. So did Christ come; dimly, as it were, at first, at Bethlehem, but by and by He will appear in all the glory of the Father. So does the Spirit of God come to us in gradual progress. The revelation of God to each individual is made in form and manner tenderly agreeable to the condition and capacity of the favoured one. He shows us just so much of Himself as to delight us without utterly overwhelming us with the excess of brightness.

2. The visits of God are like the dayspring, because they end our darkness. Our night is ended once for all when we behold God visiting us in Christ Jesus. Our day may cloud over, but night will not return.

3. Christs coming into the world is as the morning light, because He comes with such a largeness of present blessing. He is the Light which lighteneth every man. There is other light.

4. Christs coming is as the dayspring, because He brings us hope of greater glory yet to come. The dayspring is not the noon, but it is the sure guarantee of it; and so the First Advent is the pledge of the glory to be revealed.

III. There is another instance of great tenderness in this, that THE LORD VISITS US IN OUR WRY LOWEST ESTATE. God comes to us as the morning, which does not wait for man, nor tarry for the sons of men. He gives with gladness to those who have no deservings of any kind (Rom_5:6; Rom_5:8). He comes to us when we are--

1. In our sins.

2. In darkness.

3. In ruin.

IV. Our God shows His tender mercy, in that HE VISITS US WITH SUCH WONDERFUL AND JOYFUL RESULTS. Imagine a caravan in the desert, which has long lost its way, and is famishing. The sun has long gone down, and the darkness has caused every ones heart to droop. All around them is a waste of sand, and an Egyptian darkness. There they must remain and die unless they can find the track. They feel themselves to be in a fearful case, for hungry and thirsty, their soul fainteth in them. They cannot even sleep for fear. Heavier and heavier the night comes down, and the damps are on the tents, chilling the souls of the travellers. What is to be done? How they watch! Alas, no star comforts them! At last the watchmen cry, The morning cometh! It breaks over the sea of sand, and, what is better, it reveals a heap which had been set up as a waymark, and the travellers have found the track. The dayspring has saved them from swift destruction by discovering the way of peace. Conclusion: If the tender mercy of God has visited us; let us exhibit tender mercy in our dealings with our fellow-men. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

The gradual development of redemption

Our subject matter is the gradual development of redemption, like the sun, shining more and more unto perfect day.

I. THERE IS A GRADUALNESS IN ALL THE WORKS OF GOD. In the physical sphere, gradual development is a universal law. At first, all was a chaos of lifeless matter, then vegetable life appeared, then low forms of brute life, then the mammal, and then the man. The world did not reach its present state in a few seconds--the chaos did not become a cosmos in an hour. In the first days work we only see power; but in the second days work we see wisdom; and in the third days work we see goodness; and thus from step to step we advance, until the sixth day brings forth the crowning glory, man, the lord of creation, filled with the harmonies of the skies. Creation is not a fungus-growth, but a gradual oak-growth In the intellectual and moral spheres there is gradualness. Even our consciousness develops. Natural consciousness develops gradually, and the reflective consciousness of the profound thinker is only a further development of the natural. We grow step by step. Our education proceeds gradually. The prince and the pauper must begin with the alphabet and the multiplication table, and then onward, line upon line, and precept upon precept. Our great discoveries have been gradual. How slowly did the astrology of the ancients develop into our nineteenth-century astronomy! How gradually did the alchemy of the fathers grow into the modern chemistry of a Faraday! And, again, in the moral sphere there is gradual development. The new man in Christ Jesus is not made of full stature all at once. For a time, he is a little one in Christ, then he grows in grace, and, finally, he reaches unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

II. WE REASON FROM ANALOGY THAT THE GRADUALNESS WE FIND IN NATURE AND MAN MAY ALSO BE EXPECTED IN THE PROGRESS OF REDEMPTION, FOR GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF BOTH. The God of the rock and star is also the Cod of the Bible, and we are not surprised to find this gradual development in Revelation four thousand years intervening between the fall of the first Adam and the advent of the second Adam. Redemption grew as the world grew--it grew as the human grace grew--slowly. As far as we know, God was powerful enough to bring aboutredemption sooner; but for some wise purpose, He left the world in the dim starlight for forty centuries. Why this slowness? He is never in a hurry, for He seeth the end from the beginning. The march of the Hebrews from Egypt to Canaan, if they had taken a direct route, would have only occupied them a few months; but the Lord kept them in the lone desert for forty years. The Divine is never in a hurry. Jesus Christ spent thirty years on earth before He performed one miracle--no hurry! And, indeed, we rejoice in this gradualness. We cordially thank God for it. And why? Simply because a full-orbed revelation all at once would overwhelm us. If the natural sun were to reach its meridian at once, the tender green of earth would be reduced to ashes. O God, how gracious Thou art to reveal Thyself gradually unto us in a manner adapted to our weak capacities. It is no punishment to withhold these mighty mysteries from us, but a mercy. And, besides, friends, we would not be satisfied with a little Christ, that could be fully and completely revealed in a century or two. We are great sinners, and we need a great Christ to save us--a Christ that demands, not six thousand years, but all the countless years of eternity to reveal Him to the full. And, blessed be God, that Christ is to be found in our glorious gospel. And let us not think that the development of relation is yet at an end. No, far from it.

III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF REDEMPTION FROM STAGE TO STAGE. (J. O.Davies.)

Waiting for the dayspring

Many a hoary seer longed for the dayspring, but saw it not. A sweet Welsh evangelist has a very striking illustration on this point. About Christmas time, John the elder brother is expected home from London by the midnight train. All the younger children are in ecstasy, and they all wish to stay up until his arrival. Pray, father, let us stay up to wait John home, is the universal petition. But the reply is, No, my dear ones, it will be too long for you to wait; you must go to rest; you shall see John in the morning--not sooner. Friends, the ancient prophets expected a Saviour--their Elder Brother Jesus. How delighted they would be to see Him in the flesh; but they were compelled to enter the cold bed of the grave before His arrival. David cried, Father, let me see the Horn of Salvation of which I sang so well. No, My child, you must retire. Job implored, Father, let me see my living Redeemer. No, My child, you must retire; but you shall see him after you awake on the resurrection morning. Malachi cried, Father, I am about the last of them all; do let me see the Sun of Righteousness of which I sang so sweetly. No, My child, you must retire to rest; it will be too long for you to wait. And they silently retired into their cold graves to rest. But at last, hoary-headed Simeon advanced, and earnestly implored, Oh! my Father, the train is nearly in, according to my brother Daniels table; do let me stay up to see the Consolation of Israel. Yes, My child, thy request is granted, said the Father, and the old saint was allowed to see the daybreak, and so delighted was he with its splendour that he prayed for death--(what a strong saint!)--Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people--a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel! Thank heaven, the Sun has risen, and the world is now enveloped in a glorious day! (J. O. Davies.)

The mercy of God

A living sense of the tender mercy of God should actuate us in the path of duty, and on the way to heaven. In what respects the tender mercy of God is displayed towards His creatures.

I. IN THE CHARACTER WHICH GOD HAS THOUGHT FIT TO ASSUME TOWARDS HIS DEPENDENT CREATURES. He feels towards us as a parent for His offspring Who but a father would have devised such a scheme of redemption?

II. IN THE TEMPORAL GOOD HIS TENDER MERCY IS MANIFEST. The merciful arrangement which marks the course of human life. For instance, an infant is more dependent upon the aid of others than any other creature; to meet this necessity, God has graciously made the strongest of all human instincts that of a mothers affection for her child. Here His tender mercy is abundantly shown. Again, as we advance in life, Gods mercy is no less exhibited. It was necessary for Him to mark His disapprobation of sin by what is called a curse. Instead of bodily deformity and constant pain, the curse was that we should labour, which is at once a great source of health and happiness. Even death is so introduced to us that he ceases in his approach to wear the aspect of the king of terrors, and is regarded as a kind friend come to relieve us of weariness and pain. The mercy of God is evident in the affections incident to life; saints, apostles, and martyrs have experienced the blessedness of suffering. Then think of the positive blessings with which God has, in His mercy, chosen to sweeten the cup of mortal existence. We are born in a Christian land; health, &c. How improving to our souls must be a right consideration of the Divine mercies. (A. Garry, M. A.)

Gods mercy towards a dark world

I. THE CONDITION OF THE WORLD PREVIOUSLY TO THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.

1. A state of ignorance.

2. A state of danger.

II. THE MERCY OF GOD TOWARD THE WORLD IN THAT CONDITION.

1. Undeserved.

2. Unsolicited.

3. Seasonable.

III. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE MERCY OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED.

1. He sent His son to enlighten it in its ignorance.

2. He sent His son to guide it in its danger. (G. Brooks.)

Darkness and danger

There are beneath the suburbs of the ancient city of Rome many dark and narrow passages, excavated in the soft stone. These are called the catacombs, and were used as burial places by the early Christians. These passages are very many, crossing and re-crossing each other, and stretching for an immense distance underground in a most bewildering manner. So complicated and puzzling is this labyrinth of subterranean galleries that it is most dangerous to explore them without a guide. A young artist once ventured to visit them alone, taking with him a few candles, and ensuring his safe return by a ball of twine, one end of which he fastened securely outside. After a time, he sat down to sketch in one of the gloomy recesses, having, as he thought, made his end of the clue safe under a stone. But rising suddenly to alter his sketch, he overturned and extinguished his candle. He hastened to strike a match, but found that through some forgetfulness only two or three remained, and in his nervous haste he failed to get these to ignite. He now hurriedly sought the line to guide him back to the entrance, but he could nowhere find it. It had slipped from its place. In vain he sought for it; casting himself on the ground, he felt for it in every direction, but could nowhere discover it. He despaired of ever again reaching the daylight; he thought he must die of hunger, wandering through the hopeless maze of those dark passages; but just as he threw himself in utter despondency once more on the earth, he felt something beneath his hand. It was the twine--and he was safe! Thus the Gentiles sat in darkness; thus the heathen world groped after truth. They were lost in the gloomy recesses of ignorance and doubt. But the good news of a Redeemer came like a guiding clue, leading them into the warmth and light and sunshine of Christianity. (W. Hardman, LL. D.)

The necessity and glory of Christ

The dayspring signifies the sun. The worship of the sun was the greatest of the heathen worships. How glorious the sun is! How necessary! An apt emblem of the necessity and the glory of Christ. Without Him we could have no check, no conscience, and therefore no peace, and no confidence. But then, if Christ be so necessary, how is it that men can live in ignorance of Him? Are there not blind men in the world? They are very apt images of unbelievers The sun brings up corn and fruit for them as for us. They feel his warmth, and seek it out, not to see him, but because it is warmer. So men of the world are helped and comforted by the virtues of Christians, and what goes on unseen by themselves. And so they are honest, and so forth, because it is the best policy, and sheds a sunny glow over their lives. And all the while they have never seen or known Him, and have only heard of Him with the hearing of the ear. The blind do not see the sun in summer rising higher in the heavens; they only feel that it is warmer. So these do not see Christs kingdom enlarging itself, but only rejoice that there is more honesty and kindliness abroad. In this way the world feels and knows that it is the better for Christs coming. Very different is it with those whose eyes are opened, and who really see. They know in whom they have believed. They are guided into the way of peace. (Bishop E. Steere.)

The dayspring from on high

We may notice three things in the text:--

I. A DECLARATION OF A MOST BLESSED FACT--The daypring from on high hath visited us.

II. THE SOURCE AND ORIGIN OF THAT BLESSED FACT Through the tender mercy of our God.

III. ITS DIVINE FRUITS AND CONSEQUENCES. TO give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace.

I. In looking at these three points connected with, and springing out of the text, I shall rather invert their order; and consider, first, the original spring and source of the blessings mentioned in the text. This is set forth in the words, Through the tender mercy of our God. Mercy is the source and fountain of all our spiritual blessings. But what is mercy? It embraces several particulars.

1. It embraces a feeling of pity and compassion. But pity and compassion do not fill up the whole idea of mercy; for we read, that Gods tender mercies are over all His works (Psa_145:9). Thus the Lord, in sparing Nineveh, remembered even the cattle (Jon_4:11). And when He caused the waters of the deluge to assuage it was because he remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark (Gen_8:1). There is in the bosom of their Creator mercy and pity even for the brute creation. As full of mercy, He also relieveth the fatherless and widow (Psa_146:9); and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment (Deu_10:18).

2. We must, therefore, add to the idea of pity and compassion, another mark, that of pardon, in order to show what mercy is as extended to the family of God. For the Lords people are sinners; and as such, being transgressors of Gods holy law, need pardon and forgiveness.

3. But in order to complete the full description of mercy, we must ever view it as flowing through the blood and obedience of Immanuel. Mercy, was not, like creation, a mere display of an attribute of Jehovah. If I may use the expression, it cost the Godhead a price: Ye are bought with a price (1Co_6:20). But there is an expression in the text that heightens, and casts a sweet light upon this mercy. It is there called tender mercy; literally, as it is in the margin, bowels of mercy. Not mere mercy; but tender mercy. Not cold and naked mercy; but mercy flowing forth out of the bowels of Divine compassion. Now nothing but tender mercy could ever look down with compassion upon the sons of men, or pluck out of the depths of the fall such ruined wretches. But to view mercy in its real character, we must go to Calvary.

II. But we pass on to consider that solemn declaration, that blessed fact contained in the words-- Whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us. There is a connection, you will observe, betwixt the tender mercy of God, and the visiting of the dayspring from on high. The tender mercy of God is the fountain, and the visiting of the dayspring from on high is the stream. Let us then endeavour, if God enable us, to unfold the mind of the Spirit in the words. First. What is meant by the expression dayspring? By dayspring is meant the day-dawn, the herald of the rising sun, the change from darkness to light, the first approach of morn; in one word, the spring of the day. But what is this dayspring spiritually? It is the intimation of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. It is not the same thing as the Sun of Righteousness; but it is the herald of His approach; the beams which the rising sun casts upon the benighted world, announcing the coming of Jesus, the King in His beauty. This expression was singularly applicable in the mouth of Zacharias. The Lord of life and glory had not then appeared; He was still in the womb of the Virgin Mary. But His forerunner, John, had appeared as the precursor, the herald of His approach, and was sent to announce that the Sun of Righteousness was about to arise. But there is another, an experimental meaning, connected with the words. The dayspring from on high is not to be confined to the approach of the Son of God in the flesh; but it may be extended to signify the appearance of the Son of God in the heart. Now, the dayspring from on high visits the soul with the very first Divine intimation dropped into the conscience respecting the Person, work, love, and blood of the Son of God. Until this day-dawn beams upon the soul, it is for the most part ignorant of the way by which a sinner is to be saved. But the first dayspring from on high which usually visits the soul is from a view by precious faith of the glorious person of Immanuel. Until we see by the eye of faith the glorious Person of Immanuel, God with us, there is no day-dawn in the heart. But, in looking at the glorious Person of the Son of God, we catch a faiths view of His atoning blood, and see it to be of infinite dignity. So also with respect to the glorious righteousness of Immanuel. But what a sweetness there is in the expression, visited us! What is conveyed by it One idea contained in it is, that it is the act of a friend. If I have a friend, and I visit him, my visit is a mark of my friendship and affection. But another idea connected with the word visit, is that of unexpectedness. Is it not so sometimes naturally? We have an unexpected visit. We may have been looking for our friend to call; but the time passes away, and no well-known rap is heard at our door. We wonder why our friend delays his coming so long. But perhaps, when we are least expecting it, the form of our friend appears. So spiritually. We may be longing and languishing, hoping, and expecting the visit of the day-spring from on high; but it does not appear; the Lord delayeth His coming; there is no intimation of His appearing, no putting in of His hand by the hole of the door, no looking in through the lattice, no glimpse nor glance of His lovely countenance, But perhaps, when least expected, and least anticipated; when the mind is so deeply sunk as scarcely to dare to hope, so shut up in unbelief as hardly able to vent forth a sigh, the dayspring from on high will visit the soul, and be all the more precious for coming so suddenly and unexpectedly.

III. But this day-spring from on high visits the soul to produce certain effects. Two of them are specified in the text. To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death; that is one: to guide our feet in the way of peace; that is the other.

1. To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death. Is this what the dayspring from on high visiting us is to do? Must we not then know something of the experience here described to be blest with the visit? But let us look at the words a little more closely. To such as sit in darkness. What is the darkness here spoken of? Is it merely what I may call moral darkness? Natural darkness? No; it is not the darkness of unregeneracy; it is not the darkness of sin and profanity; nor is it the darkness of a mere empty profession. These things are indeed darkness, gross darkness; but those who are thus blinded by the god of this world never sit experimentally in darkness. They are like the Jews of old, who said, We see; therefore their sin remaineth. We dark? we ignorant? we scorn the idea. Such is the language of empty profession. Bat the Lords

own quickened, tender-hearted family often painfully know what it is to sit in darkness. But whence does this darkness arise. Strange to say, it arises from light. Darkness as darkness is never seen. Darkness as darkness is never felt. Light is needed to see darkness; life is required to feel darkness. There are children in Hungary born and bred at the bottom of a mine. Do these children ever know what darkness is, like one who comes down there out of the broad light of day? Were they not told there was a sun above--did not some tidings of the light of day reach their ears, they might live and die ignorant that there was a sun in the heavens. So spiritually. Man, born and bred in the depths of natures mine, does not know that he is dark; but when Divine light enters into his soul, that discovers to him his darkness; for it is the light which makes manifest all things; as the apostle says, But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for whatsoever doth make manifest is light (Eph_5:13). Thus, it is the light of Gods teaching in a mans conscience that makes him know his darkness; and Divine life in his soul makes it felt. But what does darkness imply? The absence of everything that brings light and peace into the heart. But there is one word in the text which conveys to my mind much, that is, sitting in darkness. They are not represented as standing; that might imply a mere momentary transition from light to darkness. They are not represented as running; that might imply they would soon get out of the darkness. They are not represented as lying down; that might lead to suppose they were satisfied with their darkness. But they are represented as sitting in darkness. Then surely they are not dead. Nor do they sit at ease and at rest; but are in that posture, because they can neither move backward or forward, nor turn either to the right hand or to the left. In ancient medals that were struck when Jerusalem was led captive by the Romans, she is represented as sitting on the ground. The same thing is intimated in Psa_137:1-2. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Sitting was with the ancients the posture of mourning. Job sat down among the ashes; (Job_2:8); and his friends sat down with him upon the ground (verse 13). Her gates, says Isaiah Isa_3:26), shall lament and mourn; and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground. Sitting implies also a continuance in the state; a waiting, a watching, a desiring, a looking out for the light to come. But again. There is another word added, which throws light upon the character of those who are visited from time to time with the dayspring from on high. They sit not only in darkness, but in the shadow of death. How expressive this word is--the shadow of death! There are several ideas, in my mind, connected with the word. We will look, first, at the idea contained in the expression death. Death with respect to the family of God wears two aspects. There is death experimental in their hearts, that is, deadness in their frames; and there is death temporal--the separation of soul from the body. Each of these kinds of death casts at times a gloomy shadow over the souls of Gods people. The word is very expressive. They are not sitting in death: were they sitting there, they would be dead altogether; but they are sitting in the shadow of death. Observe, death has lost its reality to them; it now can only cast a shadow, often a gloomy shadow, over their souls; but there is no substance. The quickening of the Spirit of God in them has destroyed the substance of death spiritually; and the death and resurrection of Jesus has destroyed the substance of death naturally. Yet, though the gloomy monster, deadness of soul, and that ghastly king of terrors, the death of the body, have been disarmed and destroyed by Immanuel, God with us; yet each of them casts at times a gloomy, darkling shadow over the souls of those that fear God. Is not your soul, poor child of God, exercised from time to time with this inward death? Deadness in prayer, deadness in reading the word, deadness in hearing the truth, deadness in desires after the Lord, deadness to everything, holy, spiritual, heavenly, and divine? Do you not feel a torpidity, a numbness, a carnality, a worldliness, that seem at times to freeze up every desire of your soul? I do. O how this cold, clammy monster death seems to wrap its benumbing arms around a mans soul! I have read of a voyager, who, whilst looking for shells on a desert rock, was suddenly caught in the arms of a huge polypus, a sea monster. The sickening sensation produced by this cold and clammy monster clasping him with his huge suckers, and drawing him to his jaws to devour him, he describes as being unutterable, and he was only rescued by the captains coming to his aid with a knife. I may compare, perhaps, our frequent deadness of soul clasping its arms around every desire of our heart, to the clasping of this poor man in the clammy arms of the sea monster. How it benumbs and paralyzes every breathing of our soul Godward! How all prayer, all panting desire, all languishing affection, all spirituality and heavenly-mindedness, all solid worship, all filial confidence, all the fruits and graces of the Spirit are blighted and withered by the deathliness that we so continually feel!

2. But there is another word added, another result of the visiting of the dayspring from on high--to guide our feet into the way of peace. The way of peace? Does not that comprehend all? Do those that fear God want anything but peace? What do we want? The way of war, of enmity, of rebellion, of restlessness? No. We want the way of peace. But what is implied in the expression? Peace implies two things. It implies, first, reconciliation from a state of enmity; and secondly, the felt enjoyment of this reconciliation in the heart. But we want guiding in the way. And when the dayspring from on high visits the soul, it guides the feet into the way. There is something very sweet in the expression. It does not drive, does not force, but opens a door, and enables the soul to enter in; discovers the way, and gives the soul faith to walk in it. (J. C. Philpot.)

The tenderness of God

God is not only energetic, but tender also in action. He is the God of the dewdrops, as well as the God of the thundershowers; the God of the tender grass blade, as much as of the mountain oak. We read of great machines which are able to crush iron bars, and yet they can touch so gently as not to break the shell of the smallest egg; as it is with them, so it is with the hand of the Most High: He can crush a world, and yet bind up a wound. And great need have we of tenderness in our low estate; a little thing would crush us; we have such bruised and feeble souls, that unless we had One who would deal tenderly with us, we must soon be destroyed. There are many soul diseases to which a tender hand alone can minister; just as there are many states of body which need tender and patient nursing, and which cannot otherwise be successfully dealt with, even by any amount of skill. This tenderness we see continually in action, in womans ministrations in ordinary life. Her voice has notes more sweet and soft than can be distilled from any instrument of music; her hand has a touch more delicate and fine than ever the breath of any summers breeze; it is to her that man carries the stories of his sorrows; it is she that has to soothe his heavy, aching head; well as he thinks he can do without her, in the more exciting scenes of life, he finds he is not independent when the time comes for suffering and grief. And what makes woman equal to sustaining the heavy burden thus cast upon her? How comes the ivy to be able to sustain the oak around which it used to cling, ornamenting it, while it owned its lordship and strength I She does all in the power of the tenderness of her nature; rugged and uncouth would life indeed be if such tenderness were withdrawn. But pass away to Divine things--from woman, to Him that was born of woman, and what do we find but tenderness of action in Him? That tenderness which in any of mankind is but a spark from the fire, is perfect in His bosom; its fulness is there; and it is continually being shown to them. (P. B. Power, M. A.)

Explanation of the imagery

A caravan misses its way, and is lost in the desert; the unfortunate pilgrims, overtaken by night, are sitting down in the midst of this fearful darkness, expecting death. All at once a bright star rises in the horizon and lights up the plain: the travellers, taking courage at this sight, arise, and by the light of this star find the road which leads them to the end of their journey. (F. Godet, D. D.)

The night of humanity

It may seem strange that we should call the condition of our race before Christs appearance night--darkness and shadow of death. But what is the meaning of its being night? It is night where the light is wanting that lightens our way, in whose brightness we are able to distinguish and understand the value of the things around us; that light that shows us where there are ways to walk in, the aims which we should pursue, and the means by which we may attain them. Where there is such certainty of knowledge and work there is day; where that is wanting, the light can only be a dim one; even with open eyes, all knowledge is only fancy, all work only groping in the dark. There no life can bring forth fruit; it may be filled with all kinds of beautiful dreams, but only with dreams; but upon the dream follows an awakening with more bitter pain the more beautiful the dreams were Was it really night upon the earth, before the Saviour came? Yes, we dare not judge otherwise: it was night. Men had indeed attempted to make artificial light, but it did not really illuminate. The focus in which at last all rays must converge, in order to show themselves as truth, was wanting. It was really night--cold, dark, unlovely night. (R. Rothe, D. D.)

The Dayspring from on high: Christ as the Dawn

This splendid figure of speech is taken from the dawn of morning on the night. And in order to understand fully the force of the rhetoric, we must bear in mind one of the natural phenomena of those eastern regions. So pure is the atmosphere there, so far south, that clouds in the sky are not usual save in the rainy season. There seems really nothing to hinder the suns going down, nothing to get in the way of his rising again. When he sets, he goes abruptly behind the adjacent hill; when he rises, he comes up unannounced, and in a quick moment is altogether on hand for his daily work--that is to say, there is positively no twilight, as we describe it, in those latitudes. The instant the day reaches its natural close, the sun appears to slide down the sky without any leave-taking. Just so when the dawn starts. When yesterdays monarch dismisses himself, and it is time for to-days to succeed him, there he is, unheralded and serenely unhurried, calmly seated in his shining pavilion of clear Mr. Zacharias seizes this astonishing figure, and turns it to account. For four centuries it had been dark--dark with sin, ignorance, oppression--and now in one excited instant of disclosure, the Sun of Righteousnesshad risen with healing in His wings. No wonder his heart was full; no wonder his dumbness gave way, and his glad voice lifted such a song! Let us keep singing on, and always singing on about the dayspring from on high which has visited us. The light of the gospel is a gleam of the light of heaven. Oh, what will the full splendour of the noon be by and by? When the Gauls had tasted the wine of Italy, they began to ask where the grapes grew, and they would never be quiet till they came there. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)

The sun an emblem of Christ

The sun is the fountain of light to this lower world. Day by day it rises on us with its gladdening beams, and with the return of light is connected the sense of reviving power in ourselves; invigorated health and cheerfulness; renewed and willing application to appointed duties. God Himself has made it the ruler over the day. All nature seems to own its influence. The flowers that drooped, or closed their leaves during the night, expand themselves again when the sun arises. The gorgeous colours with which the clouds that were lately dark are now illuminated, bespeak the return of the absent king; and the clouds themselves are scattered at his approach. The loathsome or savage creatures that love darkness now get them away together, and lay down in their dens. Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening. Christ is to the moral world what the sun is to the natural world; the source of life, and health, and motion. He is the Sun of Righteousness, because the robe of righteousness in which His people shine is the light from Him which they reflect; and on this account His Church is said to be clothed with the sun. And the inward righteousness also, in which they are created anew after the image of God, is derived from His illuminating presence in their hearts. And He rises on us with healing in His wings, because He brings with Him, day by day, spiritual health to those who are diseased in soul, comfort to those who mourn, rest to the weary and heavy-laden. The world had long lain in darkness and the shadow of death, waiting with earnest expectation for the first tokens of the dayspring from on high, even as travellers in a starless night, or as they that watch in loneliness and weariness, wait with eager longing for the burst of morning. At length the Sun of Righteousness arose, when He who was with the Father from all eternity was born at Bethlehem, and took our nature upon Him. And as the light from the morning sun travels with inconceivable speed to the remotest corners of the earth, and penetrates into the darkest recesses, so did the light from the Sun of Righteousness penetrate the dark places of the earth. It scattered the mists of ignorance and sin, and called forth from the garden of Gods Church those fruits and flowers which it could never otherwise have borne. Nor is His power to heal and comfort diminished by the lapse of years. As the sun in the heavens has the same quickening and cheering power over the material world, as in the day when God first formed it and set it in the heavens; so have the beams of the Sun of Righteousness the same efficacy to heal the wounded conscience, and to comfort the afflicted soul, as when they first shone upon His humble followers. (Bishop Trower.)

Safety in the light of day

A band of fugitives were crossing an eastern desert. The night was dark, but they determined to push on. Soon they lost their way, and had to spend the night in anxiety and fear. It seemed as if the night would never pass. But almost all at once the sun arose, bringing daylight and showing the way of safety. Not one of them ever forgot that sun-rising. So to us, in our wanderings, the Dayspring has arisen, pointing out the way of safety. Illustrate by the case of a man in an open boat, or a traveller crossing a moor at night, and uncertain of his way A cloud passes from the sky, and the polestar is seen. Then he knows the way of safety. (Sunday School Times.)

Christ our Dayspring

How pertinent is that question of the Almighty as it breaks from the whirlwind, Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, and caused the dayspring to know his place? He who has adjusted the movements of all the orbs of light, brings the glow of the newborn day to gladden those who wait for the retiring darkness. Christ our dayspring burst upon the world in the prophetic period of the Divine arrangement. Our spiritual sun-rising, so long waited for, came for the banishment of sin, and the introduction of all righteousness. Christ is the only dayspring of light to the darkened soul. The visible creation, conveying by symbols and material manifestations the thoughts of God, can bring to rest to a soul in which there is a constant strife between conscience and passion The political aspects of society will afford little hope; success in measures of reform will seem hardly valuable enough to compensate for their outlay of exertion, science, in all its departments, will appear but as a perplexing maze, till our dayspring, knowing its place in the counsels of Infinite Wisdom is seen above them all, heralding the splendours of redemption. Agnosticism would be the sad inheritance of all, just leading us to know that we could not know; that the secrets of the universe could never be explained; that we, ourselves, were but perplexities and contradictions, if our dayspring, shining above all science, over all human wants and industries, above all human ignorance, will, and pride, could not be seen by faith, verified by fact, and relied upon by experience. (John Waugh.)

Gods tender mercy

My proclamation certifies to thee, O trembling heart, that this mercy is tender mercy. Thy bones are broken to-night, thy heart is wounded, thy spirits are dried up, and thou art ready to despair; but I tell thee that God has tender mercy for such as thou art. As I sat in the hospital, yesterday, and saw the many cases of maimed limbs and gushing wounds, I could but think how tender the nurses ought to be, and how downy should be the surgeons finger as he set the broken bone or bound up the sore. Doubtless there are some persons who have iron bands and hard hearts, and so, while they are bone-setting or binding up wounds, they do it roughly, and cause the patient much pain. But, O sinner, therein is the tender mercy of our God set forth, which, like a dayspring from on high, hath visited us; a bruised reed will He not break, nor quench the smoking flax. He crowneth us with loving-kindnesses, and with tender mercies; He bindeth up the broken in heart, and healeth all their wounds. Like as a mother comforteth her children, even so doth the Lord comfort His people, and like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. My Lord is as gracious in the manner of His mercy as in the matter of it. Glory be to His name! O sinner, come to the gentle Jesus and live. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Sunshine

We think that all our city folk ought somehow to get every week a few hours in the clear, unmixed sunshine as the Lord pours it out of the heavens. Last Sabbath was a day of unusual duties, and Monday morning, with loud-clamouring work all about us, we said our call this morning is to the fields. We made a bold dash, and at a speed that no one dared halt, we were soon beyond the city limits. As we hastened past, a brother clergyman shouted, Whither away? We answered--In quest of sunshine! And was there ever a brighter luxury? The cup of the morning had been washed out by a shower; the leaves, autumn-turned, shivered their fiery splendour across the path; the hum of the city became fainter, and we found what we wanted floating on the lake, tangled in the bushes, rippling among the green grass, dripping from the sky--sunshine. Glorious sunshine! With it we filled our eyelids, our mouth, our hands. We opened our entire physical capacity to take it in. We took out our soul and saturated it in the lush light. We absorbed it in all our pores, and rolled it around our nerves; and after we could hold no more inside, lifted our face and held it so aslant that it ran down over us--the sunshine. What do the blind do without seeing it? How can the factory employees get on without feeling it? Let all the ministry on Monday morning be turned out into it. By the following Saturday night it will ripen all the acidity out of the sermons. The world wants more sunshine in its disposition, in its business, in its charities, in its theology. For ten thousand of the aches, and pains, and irritations of men and women, we commend the sunshine. It soothes better than morphine. It stimulates more than champagne. It is the best plaister for a wound. The good Samaritan poured out into the fallen travellers gash more of this than wine and oil. Florence Nightingale used it on Crimean battle-fields. Take it into all the alleys, on board all the ships, by all the sick-beds. Not a phial full, nor a cup full, nor a decanter full, but a soul full. It is good for spleen, for liver complaint, for neuralgia, for rheumatism, for failing fortunes, for melancholy. We suspect that heaven itself is only more sunshine. (Dr. Talmage.)

Philosophy and Christianity

Philosophy, in the night of Paganism, was like the fire-fly of the tropics making itself visible, but not irradiating the darkness. But Christianity, revealing the Sun of Righteousness, sheds more than the full sunlight of those tropics on all that we need to see, whether for time or eternity. (Coleridge.)

Beholding the sun

I have read that near the North Pole, the night lasting for months and months, when the people expect the day is about to dawn, some messengers go up on the highest point to watch; and when they see the first streak of day they put on their brightest possible apparel, and embrace each other and cry, Behold the sun! and the cry goes through all the land, Behold the sun! Some of you have been trudging on in the darkness of sin. It has been a long and wearisome night for your soul; but now I cry, Behold the Sun of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings! or, to quote from the chapter that I read at the beginning, The Dayspring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that are in darkness. Behold the sun! Behold the sun! Would God that every blinded eye might now see it! (Dr. Talmage.)

A light in a dark place

A steamboat was once carrying a load of passengers up one of the Western rivers. It was a very dark night. The waters were dark, the soil was black, and not a star was to be seen. The air was full of sleet and mist, and altogether it made a night when the darkness could be felt. The steamboat had struck a snag, and was leaking very fast and beginning to sink. The captain at once ran her ashore and lashed her to the bank. The plank was thrust out, and everybody was requested to go ashore just as quickly as possible. It was thought that if all could only lighten the boat they might save it, while if all remained on board, all would soon go down together. But it was so dark, the passengers could not see either the plank or the shore. The sleet was falling thick and covering everything with ice. The cold wild waters of the river were rushing past beneath, and not offering a very warm reception to any who might fall over. So the company all stood still, not daring to move. Like Paul, they chose to stay with the ship. They seemed to feel that it was better to stay and share the fate of the boat than to step off--they knew mot where; better to endure the ills they had, than to fly to those they knew net of. The captain was as much perplexed as the people. To urge them to hurry off might produce a panic, and make them rush off and push one another into the river. Yet he knew they could not remain long on deck without danger. But he was equal to the emergency. Calling from the upper deck, he told them to be quiet and wait, and he would land them all safe on shore. He then leaped on to the bank with some of his men, and, taking a basket of pitch coal and arranging it in a proper place, he struck a match and lit it. In a few moments it blazed up bright and clear, and, in the words of John Hay.

Burnt a hole in the night.

The whole hillside, and bank, and boat, and river, just glowed in the brightness. It was a wild but beautiful scene--darkness everywhere but just there where they needed light. All excitement and fear ceased, and the people calmly and safely passed one by one over the plank to the solid shore. Never did light seem so grateful and so beautiful as it did shooting up there in that dark place. The expression, light in a dark place, gained a new meaning to all who felt its blessedness on that dark and perilous night. The Bible speaks of Christ as a light to them that sit in darkness, and His truth as a light that shineth in a dark place. There are a great many dark places in our life, but there is no darker place than our sins. Everybody has been troubled about these, and nobody ever knew what to do with them. A great many people dont think anything about them. So those men on that steamboat might have lain down and gone to sleep. They might say, We cannot see the way off, and we may just as well take our ease. So men often forget their sins and feel easy about them. But whenever they do think of them, they are troubled and dont know what to do with them. They dont know how to get rid of them, and the wisest men have been just as much in the dark as the most ignorant. This has always been a very dark place. The river is very wild, the shore is unseen and the way to it is unknown. A great many people have stood here, like those men on the steamboat, waiting for light and not knowing what to do. Christ lets light shine right on this dark place. He shows how men can get rid of their sins and be forgiven. He shows us the way. He is the way. The river is just as deep, and the shore is just as far off as it was before, but we can see it all, and find our way to where it is safe and solid. When we come to see how fearful it is to be in the dark, and not know what to do, we can then know how beautiful and grateful it is to have a light shining in a dark place. (R. Cordley, D. D.)

We notice then

I. THE ORIGIN OF OUR REDEMPTION--the tender mercy of our God. But though it be true that all the attributes of God were engaged in planning and in executing the work of our redemption, it must be observed, that the mercy of God appears by far the most conspicuous. What is its nature? Mercy is the pity of the heart; that I believe will be admitted by all to be a fair and correct rendering of the word. Is there not misery enough on the part of man to excite the mercy and compassion of God? We ask, again, to what extent was the mercy of God exercised in the work of human redemption? It extends to the utmost limits of the human family. Mercy then, originated the plan of human salvation. Let us consider--

II. ITS PROGRESS. This plan was not developed all at once; it was communicated under different dispensations and by progressive degrees, as the minds of men were prepared to receive it. The dayspring from on high, the great light, the great luminary of our world, is come. Now, light is remarkable for the power of communication: everything, you know, is tinged and irradiated by the light of the sun. The light which the sun sends forth, as the great medium of light, diffuses itself everywhere; and here we have a fair representation of the power of communication which Jesus Christ possesses, in reference to the knowledge which is essential to the happiness of man; for wherever He is, there is light; wherever His word is, there is truth; and it is said of this word of His, the entrance of it giveth light. Light, again, is remarkable for the rapidity of its flight. Display but a glimmering taper on the summit of a mountain, and it reaches the eye, placed at any given distance, in a moment. And here we may be reminded of the rapidity of the flight of mercy, to meet the misery of man. And we may be reminded here, too, of another important fact, connected with this part of our subject--the disposition there ever is, on the part of the Saviour, to meet the case of a poor penitent sinner, or an afflicted believer. But again, light is remarkable for its purity and grateful influence. The influence of light is the most agreeable, notwithstanding the velocity with which it moves, to that most delicate of all our organs, the eye. It is a pleasant thing to behold the sun. When this light directed you to the Lamb of God, and when, in the exercise of your faith, you availed yourselves of the benefits resulting from His redeeming acts, how grateful was its influence! It communicated light to your understanding, and peace and joy unspeakable to your hearts. But the text tells us that it came from on high. Why, then, Jesus Christ Himself must have existed before He came into this world; and if He existed before He came into the world, He must have existed as God Almighty. Now, that this was the case, is very clear, from various parts of Scripture. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. But, in the text, we read of Him in regard to His human nature. The dayspring from on high assumed the nature of man below, and in that nature became mans suffering substitute. He came from on high--He visited us for this purpose. I stated before, and I must now recur to it, that the light to which our text alludes, was gradual in its communication. There was a ray of it to shine on the patriarchs, a brighter ray still shone on the minds of the prophets; but it was when the types received their accomplishment in the plains of Bethlehem--that the words of this text were literally verified. The dayspring from on high visited us, coming to this world of ours to diffuse His light and life, and liberty, and salvation, from one end of the earth to another.

III. THE GRAND DESIGN OF THIS AMAZING EVENT--To give light, says the inspired writer--to whom? to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. By this darkness we arc to understand the ignorance which is common to man; and, by death, we are to understand that moral death which reigns in the minds and spirits of men, together with that eternal death, to which, as sinners, we are exposed. Now, where a shadow is, the substance cannot be far off. We need not here go into the state of the heathen world, at the time of our Saviours advent, for it must be generally known to every one now hearing me: it was indeed a state of darkness and death; nor into the state of the Jewish people, for it too, was a state of ignorance. But, on what subjects does He enlighten men? First of all, touching the being and perfections of God. If you go into the records of the wisest and best of the heathen philosophers, whether of Egypt, Greece, or Rome, you find no clear and distinct revelation existing respecting God tie came, next, to enlighten men touching their own moral state and condition. Now, that all is not right with man must be obvious. Is man happy? He is not--he is miserable as well as wicked. Well, then, there must be something wrong; something must have happened to our world. Let us, then, thank God that, in the midst of darkness and misery, we have the great light shining upon us, telling us how sin entered our world, the end to which it would lead, and the extent to which it would prevail, if we were not delivered from its power. But He came to give light upon another subject--He came to give the light of salvation. If He had merely discovered to us our disease and left us to perish in it, we should have been the worse, in place of being bettered, by our knowledge. But we come, brethren, to the light; and here we find mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace embracing each other--truth inflexible as a rock, and mercy, tender as a parents tears, yearning over you with infinite compassion. He came to give light upon another subject--namely, the rule of our duty. What, then, must be the rule? Take it, first, in reference to God, it commands us to love Him supremely; take it in reference to man, and it enjoins thus much upon us--Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. But Christ came to give light on another subject--a future state. But Jesus Christ came to give more than light: He came to give peace--to guide our feet into the way of peace. I can merely mention particulars here. To procure peace was the grand object of our Saviours advent. He was to be called the repairer of the breach--the restorer of the paths to dwell in. And as He came to procure peace, He came also to apply it. You will easily perceive a difference between peace procured and peace applied. He came to give peace--He came also to maintain it in the hearts of His people, causing it to grow and increase more and more, until the subject of it is, at last, brought home to himself to be one with the Lord. Did our salvation, then, originate in the mercy of God? Let us learn from it a lesson of humility. But again, were the developments of this mercy gradual? Did it not all shine out at once? What lesson ought we to derive from this circumstance? Mark this, then; your Christianity ought to be progressive--purer, and having more of principle to-day than yesterday; and more of principle, purity, and disinterestedness to-morrow than to-day. It should be gradual and progressive in its progress, both as to principle and practice. Lastly: Was this light sent for the good of the whole world? Then let us endeavour to diffuse it universally throughout the world. (W. Toase.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luke

ZACHARIAS’S HYMN

THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH

Luk 1:78 - Luk 1:79.

As the dawn is ushered in by the notes of birds, so the rising of the Sun of Righteousness was heralded by song, Mary and Zacharias brought their praises and welcome to the unborn Christ, the angels hovered with heavenly music over His cradle, and Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed it. The human members of this choir may be regarded as the last of the psalmists and prophets, and the first of Christian singers. The song of Zacharias, from which my text is taken, is steeped in Old Testament allusions, and redolent of the ancient spirit, but it transcends that. Its early part is purely national, and hails the coming of the Messiah chiefly as the deliverer of Israel from foreign oppressors, though even in it their deliverance is regarded mostly as the means to an end, and the end one very appropriate on the lips of a priestly prophet-viz. sacerdotal service by the whole nation ‘in holiness and righteousness all their days.’

But in this latter portion, which is separated from the former by the pathetic, incidental, and slight reference to the singer’s own child, the national limits are far surpassed. The song soars above them, and pierces to the very heart and kernel of Christ’s work. ‘The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ Nothing deeper, nothing wider, nothing truer about the mission and issue of Christ’s coming could be spoken. And thus we have to look at the three things that lie in this text, as bearing upon our conceptions of Christ and His work-the darkness, the dawn, and the directing light.

I. The darkness.

Zacharias, as becomes the last of the prophets, and a man whose whole religious life was nourished upon the ancient Scriptures, speaks almost entirely in Old Testament phraseology in this song. And his description of ‘them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death’ is taken almost verbally from the great words from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, who speaks, in immediate connection with his prophecy of the coming of the Christ, of ‘the people that walk in darkness and them that dwell,’ or sit, ‘in the shadow of death, upon whom the light hath shined.’

The picture that rises before us is that of a group of travellers benighted, bewildered, huddled together in the dark, afraid to move for fear of pitfalls, precipices, wild beasts, and enemies; and so sighing for the day and compelled to be inactive till it comes. That is the picture of humanity apart from Jesus Christ, a darkness so intense, so tragic, that it is, as it were, the very shadow of the ultimate and essential darkness which is death, and in it men are sitting torpid, unable to find their way and afraid to move.

Now darkness, all the world over, is the emblem of three things-ignorance, impurity, sorrow. And all men who are rent away from Jesus Christ, or on whom His beams have not yet fallen, this text tells us, have that triple curse lying upon them.

Ignorance. Think of what, without Jesus Christ, the world has deemed of the unseen, and of the God, if there be a God, that may inhabit there. He has been to them a great Peradventure, a great Terror, a great Inscrutable, a stone-eyed Fate, a thin, nebulous Nothing, with no emotion, no attributes, no heart, no ear to hear, the nearest approach to nonentity, according to the despairing saying of a master of philosophy, that ‘pure Being is equal to pure Nothing.’ And if all men do not rise to such heights of melancholy abstraction as that, still how little there is of blessed certainty, how little clearness of conception of a Divine Person that turns to us with love and tenderness in His heart, apart from Christ and His teaching! If you take away from civilised men all the knowledge of God that they owe to Jesus Christ, what have you left? The ladder by which they climbed is kicked away by a great many people nowadays, but it is to Him that they owe the very conceptions in the name of which some of them turn round and deny Him.

Ignorance of God, ignorance of one’s own self and of one’s deepest duties, and ignorance of that solemn future, the fact of which is plain to most men, but the how of which is such a blank mystery but for Jesus Christ-these things are elements of the darkness that wraps the world. Go to heathendom if you want to see the problem worked out, as to what men know outside of the revelation which culminates in Jesus Christ. And take your own hearts, dear friends who stand aside from that sweet Lord and light of our lives, and ask yourselves, What do I know, with a certainty which is to me as valid, as-yea! more valid than that given by sense and outward perceptions? What do I know of God that I do not owe to Jesus Christ? Nothing. You may guess much, you may hope a little, you may dread a great deal, you may question more than all, but you will know nothing.

Well, then, further, this solemn emblem stands for impurity. And we have only to consult our own hearts to feel how true it is about us all, that we dwell in a region all darkened, if not by the coarse transgressions which men consent to call sins, yet darkened more subtly and oftentimes more hopelessly by the obscuration of pure selfishness and living to myself and by myself. Wherever that comes, it is like the mists that steal up from some poisonous marsh, and shut out stars and sky, and drape the whole country in a melancholy veil. It is white but it is poisonous, it is white but it is darkness all the same. There are other kinds of sin than the sins that break the Ten Commandments; there are other kinds of sin than the sins that the world takes cognisance of. The worst poisons are the tasteless ones, and colourless gases are laden with fatal power. We may walk in a darkness that may be felt, though there be nothing in our lives that men call sin, and little there of which our consciences are as yet educated enough to be ashamed. Rent from God, man lives to himself, and so is sunk in darkness.

And what shall I say about the third of the doleful triad of which this pregnant emblem is the recognised symbol all the world over? Surely, though earth be full of blessing, and life of possibilities of joy, no man travels very far along the road without feeling that the burden of sorrow is a burden that we all have to carry. There are blessings in plenty, there is mirth more than enough. There is ‘the laughter’ which is ‘the crackling of thorns’ under a pot. There are plenty of distractions and amusements, ‘blessings more plentiful than hope’; but yet the ground tone of every human life, when the first flush of inexperience and novelty has worn off, apart from God, is sadness, conscious of itself sometimes, and driven to all manner of foolish attempts at forgetfulness, unconscious of itself sometimes, and knowing not what is the disease of which it languishes. There it is, like some persistent minor in a great piece of music, wailing on through all the embroidery and lightsomeness of the cheerfuller and loftier notes. ‘Every heart knoweth its own bitterness,’ and every heart has a bitterness of its own to know.

I do not understand how it is that men who have no religion in them can bear their own sorrows and see their neighbours’ and not go mad. Sometimes the world seems to me to be moving round its central sun with a doleful atmosphere of sighs wherever it goes, and all the mirth and stir and bustle are but like a thin crust of grass with flowers upon it, cast across the sulphurous depths of some volcano that may slumber for a while, but is there all the same.

Brother! you and I, away from Jesus Christ, have to face the certainties of ignorance, of sin, of sorrow-ignorance unenlightened, sin unconquered, sorrow uncomforted.

And then comes the other tragic, and yet most picturesque emblem in the representation here: ‘They sit in darkness.’ Yes! what can they do, poor creatures? They know not where to go. The light has left them, inactivity is a necessity. And so, with folded hands, they wish for the day, or try to forget the night by lighting some little torch of their own that only serves to make darkness visible, and dies all too soon, leaving them to lie down in sorrow.

But, you say, ‘What nonsense! Inactivity! look at the fierce energy of life in our Western lands.’ Well, grant it all, there may be plenty of material activity attendant upon inward stagnation and torpor. But, again, I would like to ask how much of the most godless, commercial, artistic, intellectual activity of so-called civilised and Christian countries is owing to the stimulus and ferment that Jesus Christ brought. If you want to see how true it is that men without Him sit in the darkness, go to heathen lands, and see the stagnation, the torpor, there.

Now, dear brethren, all this is true about us, in the measure in which we do not participate by faith and love, welcoming Him into our hearts in the illumination that Jesus Christ brings. And what I want to do is to lay upon the hearts and consciences of each of us here this thought, that the solemn, tragic picture of my text is the picture of me, separate from Christ, however I may try to conceal it from myself, and to mask it from other people by busying myself with inferior knowledges, by avoiding to listen to the answer that conscience gives to the question as to my moral character, and by befooling myself with noisy joys and tumultuous pleasures, in which there is no pleasure.

II. Now, note secondly, the dayspring, or dawn.

My text, in the part on which I have just been speaking, links itself with ancient Messianic prophecy, and this expression, ‘the dayspring from on high.’ also links itself with other prophecies of the same sort. Almost the last word of prophecy before the four centuries of silence which Mary and Zacharias broke, was, ‘Unto you that fear His name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His beams.’ There can be little doubt, I think, that the allusion of my text is to these all but the last words of the prophet Malachi. For that final chapter of the Old Testament colours the song both of Mary and of Zacharias. And it is to be observed that the Greek translation of the Hebrew uses the same verb, of which the cognate noun is here employed, for the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. The picturesque old English word ‘dayspring’ means neither more nor less than sunrising. And it is here used practically as a name for Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Sun, represented as rising over a darkened earth, and yet, with a singular neglect of the propriety of the metaphor, as descending from on high, not to shine on us from the sky, but to ‘visit us’ on earth.

Jesus Christ Himself, over and over again, said by implication, and more than once by direct claim, ‘I am the Light of the world.’ And my text is the anticipation, perhaps from lips that did not fully understand the whole significance of the prophecy which they spoke, of these later declarations. I have said that the darkness is the emblem of three baleful things, of the converse of which light is the symbol. As the darkness speaks to us of ignorance, so Christ, as the Sun illumines us with the light of ‘the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ For doubt we have blessed certainty, for a far-off God we have the knowledge of God close at hand. For an impassive will or a stony-eyed fate we have the knowledge {and not only the wistful yearning after the knowledge} of a loving heart, warm and throbbing. Our God is no unemotional abstraction, but a living Person who can love, who can pity, and we are speaking more than poetry when we say, God is compassion, and compassion is God. This we know because ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ And the solid certainty of a loving God, tender, pitying, mighty to help, quick to hear, ready to forgive, waiting to bless, is borne into our hearts, and comes there, sweet as the sunshine, when we turn ourselves to the light of Christ.

In like manner the darkness, born of our own sin, which wraps our hearts, and shuts out so much that is fair and sweet and strong, will pass away if we turn ourselves to Him. His light pouring into our souls will hurt the eye at first, but it will hurt to cure. The darkness of sin and alienation will pass, and the true light will shine.

The darkness of sorrow-well! it will not cease, but He will ‘smooth the raven down of darkness till it smiles,’ and He will bring into our griefs such a spirit of quiet submission as that they shall change into a solemn scorn of ills, and be almost like gladnesses. Peace, which is better than exuberant delight, will come to quiet the sorrow of the soul that trusts in Jesus Christ. The day which is knowledge, purity, gladsomeness, the cheerful day will be ours if we hold by Him. We ‘are all the children of the light and of the day’; we ‘are not of the night nor of darkness.’

Brother, it is possible to grope at noontide as in the dark, and in all the blaze of Christ’s revelation still to be left in the Cimmerian folds of midnight gloom. You can shut your eyes to the sunshine; have you opened your hearts to its coming?

I cannot dwell {your time will not allow of it} upon the other points connected with this description of the day spring, except just to point out in passing the singular force and depth of the words-which I suppose are more forcible and deep than he who spoke them understood at the time that visitation was described. The dayspring is ‘from on high.’ This Sun has come down on to the earth. It has not risen on a far-off horizon, but it has come down and visited us, and walks among us. This Sun, our life-star, ‘hath had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar.’ For He that rises upon us as the Light of life, hath descended from the heavens, and was, before He appeared amongst men.

And His coming is a divine visitation. The word here ‘hath visited us’ {or ‘shall visit us,’ as the Revised Version varies it}, is chiefly employed in the Old Testament to describe the divine acts of self-revelation, and these, mostly redemptive acts. Zacharias employs it in that sense in the earlier portion of the song, where he says that ‘God hath visited and redeemed His people.’ And so from the use of this word we gather these two thoughts-God comes to us when Christ comes to us, and His coming is wondrous, blessed nearness, and nearness to each of us. ‘What is man that Thou shouldst be mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou shouldst visit him?’ said the old Psalmist. We say ‘What is man that the Dayspring from on high should come down upon earth, and round His immortal beams, should, as it were, cast the veil and obscuration of a human form; and so walk amongst us, the embodied Light and the Incarnate God?’ ‘The dayspring from on high hath visited us.’

III. Lastly, note the directing by the light.

‘To guide our feet into the way of peace.’ This Sun stoops to the office of the star that moved before the wise men and hovered over His cradle, and becomes to each individual soul a guide and director. The picture of my text, I suppose, carries us on to the morning, when the benighted travellers catch the first gleams of the rising sun and resume their activity, and there is a cheerful stir through the encampment and the way is open before them once more, and they are ready to walk in it. The force of the metaphor, however, implies more than that, for it speaks to us of the wonder that this universal Light should become the special guide of each individual soul, and should not merely hang in the heavens, to cast the broad radiance of its beams over the whole surface of the earth, but should move before each man, a light unto his feet and a lamp to his path, in special manifestation to him of his duty and his life’s pilgrimage.

There is only one way of peace, and that is to follow His beams and to be directed by His preceding us. Then we shall realise the most indispensable of all the conditions of peace-Christ brings you and me the reconciliation which puts us at peace with God, which is the foundation of all other tranquillity. And He will guide docile feet into the way of peace in yet another fashion-in that the following of His example, the cleaving to Him, the holding by His skirts or by His hand, and the treading in His footsteps, is the only way by which the heart can receive the solid satisfaction in which it rests, and the conscience can cease from accusing and stinging. The way of wisdom is a path of pleasantness and a way of peace. Only they who walk in Christ’s footsteps have quiet hearts and are at amity with God, in concord with themselves, friends of mankind, and at peace with circumstances. There is no strife within, no strained relations or hostile alienation to God, no gnawing unrest of unsatisfied desires, no pricks of accusing conscience; for the man who puts his hand into Christ’s hand, and says, ‘Order Thou my footsteps by Thy word’; ‘Where Thou goest I will go, and what Thou commandest I will do.’

Brother, put thy hand out from the darkness and clasp His, and ‘the darkness shall be light about thee’; and He will fulfil His own promise when He said, ‘I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:78 the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us: The Messiah is identified in the Old Testament as a light shining in darkness (Isa 9:2; 42:6-7; 49:6; Mal 4:2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 1:78. Διὰ, through) Construe with ἀφέσει, remission—through, etc.—ἐλέους, of mercy) An allusion to the name John: [In Hebr. = the mercy or grace of the Lord.]—[ἐπεσκέψατο ἡμᾶς, hath visited us) He was the Saviour even before that He assumed human nature. For His incarnation was a visiting of us of His own free choice.—V. g.]—ἀνατολὴ) So the LXX. render צמח, Zec 3:8; Zec 6:12; Jer 23:5: for צמח is also said of the dawn of daylight. See John Gregor. Observ. c. 18, Tom. vii. Crit. col. 585, where there is a copious and admirable dissertation. There is a Metonymy of the Abstract for the Concrete, Day-spring [day-rising], i.e. the Sun-rising. See following verse [“to give light,” etc., which applies to the sun itself, not to its rising]; Jos 9:1; Rev 22:16.—ἐξ ὓψους, from on high) This is said concerning the Son of God in this passage, and concerning the Holy Ghost in ch. Luk 24:49 [Endued with power from on high]: comp. Gal 4:4; Gal 4:6. So [The second man is the Lord] from heaven, 1Co 15:47.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_1:78 f. Διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους κ.τ.λ.] is not to be separated from what precedes by punctuation, but to be immediately connected with ἐν ἀφ. ἁμ. αὐτ.: ἐν ἀφέσει δὲ ἁμαρτιῶν … τῇ διδομένῃ διὰ τὴν συμπάθειαν τοῦ ἐλέους αὐτοῦ, Euthymius Zigabenus. Comp. Theophylact. The reference to all that is said from προπορεύσῃ onwards, Luk_1:76 (Grotius, Kuinoel, de Wette, and others), is the more arbitrary, in proportion to the natural and essential connection that subsists between the forgiveness of sins and Gods compassion.

διά] not through, but for the sake of, see on Luk_1:77; σπλάγχνα is not merely, according to the Hebrew רחמים (see Gesenius), but also in the Greek poetical language, the seat of the affections, as, for instance, of anger (Arist. Ran. 1004) and of sympathy (Aesch. Ch. 407). So here. Comp. Col_3:12; Php_2:1. ἐλέους is genitivus qualitatis, and Θεοῦ ἡμῶν depends on σπλάγχνα ἐλέους: for the sake of the compassionate heart of our God.

ἐν οἷς] instrumental: by virtue, of which.

ἐπεσκέψατο ἡμᾶς ἀνατολὴ ἐξ ὕψ.] to be taken together: has visited us, etc., has become present to ns with His saving help (comp. Xen. Cyr. v. 4. 10; Sir_46:14; Jdt_8:33; Luk_7:16), It is appropriate to ἀνατ. ἐξ ὕψ., as the latter is personified. The figurative designation of the Messiah: Dayspring from on high, is borrowed from the rising of the sun (Rev_7:2; Mat_5:45; Hom. Od. xii. 4; Herod. iv. 8), or as is more in keeping with the ἐξ ὕψιστου, from the rising of a bright-beaming star of the night (Num_24:17; Valck. ad Eur. Phoen. 506), not (in opposition to Beza, Scultetus, Lightfoot, Wetstein) from an ascending shoot (צֶמַח, Isa_4:2; Jer_23:5; Jer_33:15; Zec_3:8; Zec_6:12), against which may be urged ἐξ ὕψ. and ἐπιφᾶναι.[34] Comp. Isa_9:2.

ἘΠΙΦᾶΝΑΙ] Infinitive of the aim. On the form see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 25 f.

τοῖς ἐν σκότει κ. σκ. θαν. καθημ.] those who sit in darkness and (climactic) the shadow of deatha picturesque delineation of the people totally destitute of divine truth and the true ζωή (ἡμῶν, Luk_1:79).

The shadow of death (צַלְמֶוֶת) is such a shadow as surrounds death (personified), and they are sitting in this shadow, because death is ruling among them, namely, in the spiritual sense, the opposite of the true life whose sphere is the light of divine truth. Moreover, comp. Isa_9:2, and on Mat_4:16; on καθημ. also, Nägelsbach, Anm. z. Ilias, ed. 3, p. 65.

τοῦ κατευθῦναι κ.τ.λ.] The aim of ἐπιφᾶναι κ.τ.λ., and so the final aim of ἐπεσκέψατο κ.τ.λ. Comp. on τοῦ δοῦναι, Luk_1:77. Continuatur translatio, nam lux dirigit nos, Grotius. Observe also the correlation of ΤΟῦ ΠΌΔΑς with the preceding ΚΑΘΗΜΈΝΟΙς.

ΕἸς ὉΔῸΝ ΕἸΡΉΝ.] in viam ad salutem (Messianam) ducentem. ΕἸΡΉΝΗ = שָׁלוֹם, opposite of all the misery denoted by ΣΚΌΤΟς Κ.Τ.Λ. (hence not merely peace). It has another sense in Rom_3:17. But comp. Act_16:17.

[34] Bleek wishes to combine the two senses, and infers from this that the source whence Luke drew was Greek and not Hebrew, because צמח would not have admitted a reference to the rising of the sun. But the whole mixing up of two incongruous figures is excluded by ver. 79; hence the inference drawn by Bleek (see also his Einleit. p. 277 f.), and approved by Holtzmann, falls to the ground. The source may have been Greek; but if it was Hebrew, צמח need not have stood in it.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 1:78 . διὰ σπλάγχνα , etc., on account of, etc., indicating the fountain-head of salvation the mercy of God, described in Hebrew phrase as the bowels of mercy of our God . ἐπισκέψεται : the future (aorist in T.R.), though in few MSS. ( [15] [16] [17] ), is doubtless the true reading. In the second great strophe the verbs are all future, and describe what is to be. ἀνατολὴ : happily rendered “dayspring” in A. V [18] The reference is undoubtedly to a light, star, or sun, not to a branch from Jesse’s stem, as it might be so far as usage in Sept [19] is concerned ( vide Jer 23:5 , Zechar. Luk 3:8 , Luk 6:12 ), for its function is ἐπιφᾶναι , to appear as a light to those in darkness ( σκότει ). σκιᾷ θανάτου : vide on Mat 4:16 .

[15] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[16] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[17] Codex Regius--eighth century, represents an ancient text, and is often in agreement with א and B.

[18] Authorised Version.

[19] Septuagint.

The Benedictus is steeped in O. T. language; “an anthology from Psalms and Prophets,” Holtz., H. C.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3 d. Luk 1:78-79.

After this episode, Zacharias returns to the principal subject of his song, and, in an admirable closing picture, describes the glory of Messiah’s appearing, and of the salvation which He brings.

Vers. 78 and 79. “Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us, 79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet unto the way of peace.”

Zacharias ascends to the highest source whence this stream of grace pours down upon our earth—the divine mercy. This idea is naturally connected with that of pardon (Luk 1:77), as is expressed by διά with the accusative, which means properly by reason of.

The bowels in Scripture are the seat of all the sympathetic emotions. Σπλάγχνα answers to א.

The future ἐπισκέψεται, will visit, in some Alex., is evidently a correction suggested by the consideration that Christ was not born at the time Zacharias was speaking. Yet even such instances as these do not disturb the faith of critics in the authority of Alexandrine MSS.!

All the images in the picture portrayed in Luk 1:78-79 appear to be borrowed from the following comparison:

A caravan misses its way and is lost in the desert; the unfortunate pilgrims, overtaken by night, are sitting down in the midst of this fearful darkness, expecting death. All at once a bright star rises in the horizon and lights up the plain; the travellers, taking courage at this sight, arise, and by the light of this star find the road which leads them to the end of their journey.

The substantive ἀνατολή, the rising, which by general consent is here translated the dawn, has two senses in the LXX. It is employed to translate the noun ֶצמַח, H7542, branch, by which Jeremiah and Zechariah designate the Messiah. This sense of the word ἀνατολή is unknown in profane Greek. The term is also used by the LXX. to express the rising of a heavenly body—the rising of the moon, for instance; comp. Isa 60:19. This sense agrees with the meaning of the verb ἀνατέλλειν; Isa 60:1, “The glory of the Lord hath risen (ἀνατέταλκεν) upon thee;” Mal 4:2, “The Sun of righteousness shall rise (ἀνατελεῖ) upon you.” This is the meaning of the word ἀνατολή in good Greek. And it appears to us that this is its meaning here. It follows, indeed, from the use of the verb hath visited us, which may very well be said of a star, but not of a branch; and the same remark applies to the images that follow, to light and to direct (Luk 1:79). Besides, the epithet from on high agrees much better with the figure of a star than with that of a plant that sprouts. The regimen from on high does not certainly quite agree with the verb to rise. But the term from on high is suggested by the idea of visiting which goes before: it is from the bosom of divine mercy that this star comes down, and it does not rise upon humanity until after it has descended and been made man. Bleek does not altogether reject this obvious meaning of ἀνατολή; but he maintains that we should combine it with the sense of branch, by supposing a play of words turning upon the double image of a sprouting branch and a rising star; and as there is no Hebrew word which will bear this double meaning, he draws from this passage the serious critical consequence, that this song, and therefore all the others contained in these two chapters, were originally written, not in Aramaean, but in Greek, which of course deprives them of their authenticity. But this whole explanation is simply a play of Bleek’s imagination. There is nothing in the text to indicate that the author intends any play upon words here; and, as we have seen, none of the images employed are compatible with the meaning of branch.

The expressions of Luk 1:79 are borrowed from Isa 9:1; Isa 60:2. Darkness is the emblem of alienation from God, and of the spiritual ignorance that accompanies it. This darkness is a shadow of death, because it leads to perdition, just as the darkening of sight in the dying is a prelude to the night of death. The term sit denotes a state of exhaustion and despair. The sudden shining forth of the star brings the whole caravan of travellers to their feet (τοὺς πόδας), and enables them to find their way.

The way of peace denotes the means of obtaining reconciliation with God, the chief of all temporal and spiritual blessings. Εἰρήνη, peace, answers to שָׁלוֹם, H8934, a word by which the Hebrew language designates the bountiful supply of whatever answers to human need—full prosperity.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or bud, or branch; he alludeth unto the places in Jer. 23:5; Zech. 3:8 and 6:12, and he is called a bud from on high, that is, sent from God unto us, and not as other buds which bud out of the earth.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Through the tender mercy of our God--the sole spring, necessarily, of all salvation for sinners.

dayspring from on high--either Christ Himself, as the "Sun of righteousness" (Mal 4:2), arising on a dark world [BEZA, GROTIUS, CALVIN, DE WETTE, OLSHAUSEN, &c.], or the light which He sheds. The sense, of course, is one.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(78) Through the tender mercy.—Literally, on account of the bowels of mercy of our God. After this manner the Jews spoke of what we should call “the heart” of God. The word was a favourite one with St. Paul, as in the Greek of 2Co_7:15; Php_1:8; Php_2:1; Col_3:12. The pity that moved the heart of God is thought of, not as the instrument through which, but that on account of which, the work of the Baptist was to be accomplished.

The dayspring from on high.—The English word expresses the force of the Greek very beautifully. The dawn is seen in the East rising upward, breaking through the darkness. We must remember, however, that the word had acquired another specially Messianic association, through its use in the LXX. version as the equivalent for the “Branch,” “that which springs upward,” of Jer_23:5; Zec_3:8. Here the thought of the sunrise is prominent, and it connects itself with such predictions as, “The glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee” (Isa_60:1), “The sun of righteousness shall rise” (Mal_4:2). What had become a Messianic name is taken in its primary sense, and turned into a parable.

Hath visited us.—Better, hath looked upon us.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

78. Through the tender mercy of our God] Literally, “Because of the heart of mercy.” Σπλάγχνα (literally ‘bowels’) is favourite word with St Paul to express emotion (2Co_7:15; Php_1:8; Php_2:1; Phm_1:7; Phm_1:12; Phm_1:20, &c.). The expression is common to Jewish (Pro_12:10, &c.) and classical writers.

the dayspring] The word Anatole is used by the LXX. to translate both Motsah ‘the Dawn’ (Jer_31:40) and Tsemach ‘branch’ (Zec_3:8; Zec_6:12. See on Mat_2:23). Here the context shews that the Dawn is intended. Mal_4:2, “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings.” See Isa_9:2; Mat_4:16; Joh_1:4-5.

hath visited] or shall visit, in some MSS.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through the tender mercy of our God,.... or "bowels of mercy", to which the forgiveness of sin is owing; the source and spring of pardon, is the free grace and abundant mercy of God; it takes its rise from thence, though it is channelled in the blood and sacrifice of Christ; and which no way derogates from, but rather heightens the riches of God's grace and mercy: for it was mercy that moved God to enter into a covenant with his Son, in which forgiveness of sin is promised; and it was mercy to set forth his Son, in his eternal purposes and decrees; and to send him forth in the fulness of time, to shed his blood for the remission of sins; it was the mercy of God to us, that provided a lamb for a burnt offering, and then accepted of the sacrifice and satisfaction of his Son, in our room and stead, and forgave all our sins, for his sake; and whatever the pardon of our sins cost God and Christ, it is all free grace and mercy to us: it is owing not to the absolute mercy of God, or to the mercy of God as an absolute God, but to the mercy of "our" God; our God in Christ, our covenant God and Father, whose bowels yearned towards us, and whose pity is that of a tender parent: whereby

the day spring from on high hath visited us: the word here used, and is translated "the day spring", is the same which the Septuagint use, in Jer 23:5 where the Messiah is spoken of, under the name of the "branch": and undoubtedly the Messiah Jesus, is intended here, who is the man, that branch, that has grown up out of his place; not from below, but from above; and who is the phosphorus, or bringer of light, that bright and morning star, that sun of righteousness, who has light in himself, and communicates light to others; even light natural, spiritual, and eternal; and with his rays and beams of light, life, and love, refreshes, exhilarates, and warms, the hearts of his people: and by the "visit" he has made in our "horizon", is meant his assumption of human nature; which, like a friendly visit, proceeded from pure love to the children of God; and was a drawing near unto them, for it was a taking on him their nature, in which he represented their persons; and was done through much difficulty and great condescension, since he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with him; and his stay on earth in this nature, was but for a little while; so that on all accounts, it may be truly called a "visit": and which, as the remission of sin is wholly owing to the tender mercy of our God, who put him upon it, called him to it, sent him forth made of a woman, and in the likeness of sinful flesh, to obtain eternal redemption, in which mercy and truth met together: the end and design of this visit, are signified in the next verse; for the following words belong to the day spring from on high, and not to John the Prophet of the Highest.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

Ver. 78. Whereby the day spring] Or as Beza rendereth it, the branch (ανατολη) from on high, not from beneath, as other plants or branches. So the anchor of hope entereth not into the deep, but into that within the veil, Heb 6:19.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereby the dayspring ... - The word “dayspring” means the morning light, the aurora, the rising of the sun. It is called the dayspring “from on high” because the light of the gospel shines forth from heaven. God is its Author, and through His mercy it shines upon people. There is here, doubtless, a reference to Isa 60:1-2; indeed, almost the very words of that place are quoted. Compare also Rev 22:16.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The rising light,[12] or the rising sun, hath visited us from on high. The Rheims translation hath the Orient, the Protestant, the day-spring. Both seem more obscure than they need be. The Latin, as well as the Greek, hath a noun substantive, by which Christ himself is signified. Yet the same word, in both languages, is sometimes taken for a rising light, and sometimes for a bud, or branch; in which latter sense it is expounded by St. Jerome. (Comment in Zachar. p. 1737, tom. 3, Ed. Ben.) But in this place it is rather taken for a light that riseth, by the following words, to enlighten them that sit in darkness, &c. (Witham) --- The Orient. It is one of the titles of the Messias, the true light of the world, and the sun of justice. (Challoner) --- By this he shews that God has forgiven us our sins, not through our merits, but through his own most tender mercy; (Theophylactus) and that we are to solicit this forgiveness through the bowels of his most tender mercy.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Oriens. Greek: e anatole. Vulgo ortus Solis. See Mr. Legh Crit. Sacra on Greek: anatello, orior, germino, S. Hierom [St. Jerome] on Jeremias chap. xxiii. ver. 5. tom. 3, p. 634. suscitabo David germen justum, sive orientem justum. And on Zacharias vi. 12, p. 1737. Ecce vir, oriens nomen ejus, where he expounds it by Greek: anatole, anaphue, and Blastema.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

In the Greek it is, through the bowels of mercy. An ordinary expression, and very natural, to signify great and deep compassion, Gen 43:30; 1Ki 3:26. Our remission of sin floweth from God’s bowels of mercy; it depends not upon our satisfactions and penances, (as papists dream), but God’s free and tender love; yet God must be just, and declare his righteousness while he justifieth the ungodly.

Whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, ανατολη εξ υψους. Some think that the Greek word answereth the Hebrew word, translated the Branch, Jer 23:5; Zec 3:8; the seventy interpreters translate it by ανατολην, Jer 33:15. Those texts manifestly relate to Christ, who is called there the Branch. Others think it rather answereth the Hebrew word אוד we translate it a great light. Others think it should be translated the East. So they say Christ is called Zec 3:8; Zec 6:12; but we translate it the Branch in both those places. Be it the Branch, or the Light, or Dayspring, or the East, it is certain Christ is meant, who is called the Sun of righteousness, Mal 4:2. That God might be just in the remission of our sins, he sent Christ to visit us, and in our nature to die for us.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

78. Dayspring from on high—The beautiful English word dayspring is taken, we suppose, from the conception of the spring or fountain of light, from which day is conceived to be poured upon us from the morning sky. The Greek word here used, ανατολη, signifies rising, namely, of the sun at dawn; and thence it signifies the east, or region of sunrise. But it is objected that the rising of the sun does not come from on high, but is at the horizon. Hence some commentators have, very tastelessly, referred the Greek word to the upspringing of the plant, as the image of the Messiah. Professor Owen refers it to the sun, but confines the figure to the word ανατολη, referring the phrase from on high literally to the Messiah, as being from above. But the dayspring is not limited to the luminary alone. The ανατολη is the rising of the morning light, not merely of the sun; and the ascent of the daylight, or dawn of a clear morning, from which the commencing day comes down upon us, really mounts the firmament and reaches the zenith long before the sun attains the horizon. The dawn or dayspring, therefore, is from on high, as belonging to the firmament above us, and not to the plane of the earth beneath us. As so descending from above, it is here the beautiful image of light and salvation from heaven.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through the tender mercy of our God. And, goes on Zacharias in his noble hymn, all this tender care for Israel (but really for mankind, though perhaps the speaker of the hymn scarcely guessed it) is owing to the deep love of God . Whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us. The beautiful imagery here is derived from the magnificence of an Eastern sunrise. In his temple service at Jerusalem the priest must have seen the ruddy dawn rise grandly over the dark chain of the distant mountains, and lighting up with a blaze of golden glory the everlasting hills as they stood round about Jerusalem. The thought which pictured the advent of Messiah as a sunrise was a favorite one with the prophets. We see it in such prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi as, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold... Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of the; rising". (Isa_60:1-3) "Unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings". (Mal_4:2)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The day spring - Or the rising sun; that is, Christ.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

because of the tender mercy of our God

It might be helpful to state that God's mercy helps people. AT: "because God is compassionate and merciful to us" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the sunrise from on high ... to shine on

Light is often a metaphor for truth. Here, the spiritual truth the Savior will provide is spoken of as if it is a sunrise that lights up the earth. (See: Metaphor)

shine on

"give knowledge to" or "give spiritual light to"

those who sit in darkness

Darkness is here a metaphor for the absence of spiritual truth. Here, people who lack spiritual truth are spoken of as if they are sitting in darkness. AT: "people who do not know the truth" (See: Metaphor)

darkness ... shadow of death

These two phrases work together to emphasize the deep spiritual darkness of people before God shows them mercy. (See: Doublet)

in the shadow of death

The shadow often represents something that is about to happen. Here, it refers to approaching death. AT: "who are about to die" (See: Idiom)

guide our feet into the path of peace

Here "guide" is a metaphor for teaching, and "path of peace" is a metaphor for living at peace with God. The phrase "our feet" is a synecdoche that represents the whole person. AT: "teach us how to live at peace with God" (See: Metaphor and Synecdoche)

translationWords

mercy

God

darkness

die

peace

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

78. διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους. Literally, “Because of the heart of mercy.” Σπλάγχνα (literally ‘bowels’ rechamîm) is a favourite word with St Paul to express emotion (2Co 7:15; Php 1:8; Php 2:1; Phm 1:7; Phm 1:12; Phm 1:20, &c.). The expression is common to Jewish (Pro 12:10, &c.) and classical writers. (Aesch. Choeph. XL. 7.)

ἀνατολή. The word ἀνατολὴ is used by the LXX[45] to translate both Motsah ‘the dawn’ (Jer 31:40) and Tsemach ‘branch’ (Zec 3:8; Zec 6:12; Jer 23:5. See on Mat 2:23). Here the context shews that the dawn is intended, though the word itself might equally mean the rising of a star, as in Aesch. Agam. 7. Mal 4:2, “Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings.” See Isa 9:2; Mat 4:16; Joh 1:4-5; Rev 7:2.

[45] LXX. Septuagint.

ἐπεσκέψατο, in some MSS. ‘shall visit.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

78.] ἀνατολή is (see reff.) the LXX rendering for צֶמַח a branch or sprout—and thus, ‘that which springs up or rises,’ as Light:—which, from the clauses following, seems to be the meaning here.

ἐξ ὕψ. may be taken with ἀνατ., as in E. V.:—or perhaps with the verb ἐπιφᾶναι. But however taken, the expression is not quite easy to understand. The word had come apparently to be a name for the Messiah: thus in ref. Zech. ἰδοὺ ἀνήρ, Ἀνατολὴ ὄνομα αὐτῷ: and then figures arising from the meaning of the word itself, became mixed with that which was said of Him. The day-spring does not come ἐξ ὕψους, but from beneath the horizon; but the Messiah does. Again the ἐπιφᾶναι κ.τ.λ. of the next verse belongs to the day-spring, and only figuratively to the Messiah. See Bleek’s long note.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

78. διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους Θεοῦ ἡμῶν. The concluding strophe, referring to the whole of the preceding sentence, or (if we take a single word) to προπορεύσῃ. It is because of God’s tender mercy that the child will be able to fulfil his high calling and to do all this. Comp. Test. XII. Patr. Levi 4., ἕως ἐπισκέψηται Κύριος πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐν σπλάγχνοις υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ ἕως αἰῶνος: also Lev_7. and 8.

Originally the σπλάγχνα were the ‘inward arts,” esp. the upper portions, the heart, lungs, and liver (viscera thoracis), as distinct from the ἔντερα or bowels (viscera abdominis). The Greeks made the σπλάγχνα the seat of the emotions, anger, anxiety, pity, etc. By the Jews these feelings were placed in the ἔντερα; and hence in LXX we have not only σπλάγχνα (which may include the ἔντερα), but also κοιλία and ἔγκατα used for the affections. Moreover in Hebr. literature these words more often represent compassion or love, whereas σπλάγχνα in class. Grk. is more often used of wrath (Aristoph. Ran. 844, 1006; Eur. Alc. 1009). “Heart” is the nearest English equivalent for σπλάγχνα (RV. Col, iii. 12; Phm 1:12, Phm 1:20). See Lft. on Php 1:8. “Because of our God’s heart of mercy,” i.e. merciful heart, is the meaning here. For this descriptive or characterizing gen. comp. Jas 1:25, Jas 1:2:4; Jud 1:18. Some would make γνώσιν σωτηρίας an instance of it, “saving knowledge,” i.e. that brings salvation. But this is not necessary. For ἐν οἶς see on ἐν βραχίονι, ver. 51. For ἐπισκέψεται1 comp. 7:17; Ecclus. 46:14; Judith 8:33; and see on ver. 68.

ἀνατολὴ ἐξ ὕψους. “Rising from on high.” The word is used of the rising of the sun (Rev 7:2, Rev 7:14:12; Hom. Od. xii. 4) and of stars (Æsch. P.V. 457; Eur. Phœn. 504). Here the rising of the heavenly body is put for the heavenly body itself. Comp. the use of ἀνατέλλω in Isa 60:1 and Mal 4:2. Because sun, moon, and stars do not rise from on high, some join ἐξ ὕψους with ἐπισκέψεται, which is admissible. But, as ἀνατολή means the sun or star itself, whose light comes from on high, this is not necessary. Seeing that ἀνατέλλω is used of the rising or sprouting of plants, and that the Messiah is sometimes called “the Branch” (Jer 23:5, Jer 23:33:15; Zec 3:8, Zec 6:12), and that in LXX this is expressed by ἀνατολή, some would adopt that meaning here. But ἐξ ὕψους, ἐπιφᾶναι, and κατευθῦναι are conclusive against it. These expressions agree well with a rising sun or star, but not with a sprouting branch.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

mercy [σπλαγχνα ελεους] . Lit., bowels of mercy. See on 1Pe 3:8; Jas 5:11. Rev. gives heart of mercy in margin. Wyc., frightfully, entrails of mercy.

The day - spring from on high [ανατολη εξ υψους] . Lit., the rising. The word occurs in the Septuagint as a rendering of branch, as something rising or springing up, by which the Messiah is denoted (Jer 23:5; Zec 6:12). Also of the rising of a heavenly body (Isa 60:19, Sept.). Compare the kindred verb arise [ανατελλω] in Isa 60:1; Mal 4:2. This latter is the sense here. See on Mt 2:2. Wyc. has he springing up from on high.

Hath visited [επεσκεψατο] . See on Mt 25:36; 1Pe 2:12. Some, however, read ejpiskeyetai, shall visit. So Rev.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.