Sun Spots
His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, and there is the hiding of His power. Habakkuk 3:4 NASB
Hiding – Now pay attention. Think carefully about the simile in this verse. “His radiance is like sunlight.” What does that mean? What is sunlight like? Well, first, it is a scientific conundrum. It acts like both a wave and a particle. But, of course, Habakkuk wasn’t interested in the scientific issue here. He is Hebrew. The world is as it appears, and without sunlight it doesn’t appear at all. Whatever we see of the creation is determined by the presence of light. That’s fairly obvious. But what isn’t quite so obvious is that we don’t actually see the light. We see what the light illumines. In fact, if for some reason you happen to look directly at the source of sunlight, you can’t see it. Your optical senses are overwhelmed by the intensity. You see spots before your eyes when you are forced to close them. Sunlight directly apprehended in its full capacity hurts! There is a very good reason you are warned to use special filters when observing a full eclipse of the sun. Until the precise moment when the moon slips over the circumference of the sun, you simply risk optical damage by looking at the source of all this light. Rather amazingly, our sun is one of the smallest of light emitting celestial bodies, but even so it is too much for us.
Now if God has flashing rays from His hand, do you imagine for a single moment that you can actually see them? You might see the evidence of their power, but you don’t see them directly, just as Moses was incapable in embodied form to look upon the glory of YHVH. Habakkuk is not suggesting that we actually observe God as radiance. In fact, he isn’t even suggesting that we observe the power of God directly. What he is saying is that, just like light, the real source is hidden from us. We see the results. The ‘oz (power) is hibbaywon (veiled). This particular form of the word is found only in this verse. Habakkuk is quite forceful about God’s power, but it is not the kind of power one can directly observe or readily understand. What it illuminates is observable and perhaps understandable, but that is not the same as saying that the power itself falls within human capacity. We serve a God who is dangerous, ultimately mysterious and intimately unexplainable. If you believe that you love Him because He is predictable, you are making a serious mistake. The reason we love Him is because, despite the danger and mystery, He loves us! But don’t ask me to explain that. Just accept it as a fundamental element of the cosmos. Observable, but not seen directly.
We live in a Greek world. The tendency is to dismiss what cannot be observed, measured or understood. If we use that methodology, we will not only exclude some particularly important component parts of the world we inhabit, we will also dismiss most of the mystery of the real power of the cosmos. We get to choose how we will interact with this world “not made with human hands,” and the choice might just embrace a lot of hidden things. Or did you think it necessary for God to reveal it all to you?
Topical Index: hiding, hebyon, power, light, radiance, Habakkuk 3:4
~ Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high? ~
A great post, Skip.
When I was an undergraduate, a physics professor told us that on M,W,F we think of light behaving as a wave, and on Tu, Th and Sat we think of it as a particle. On Sundays we go to church and pray for guidance 🙂
LOL! My youngest son is enamored with the subatomic. He has been looking at various homemade contraptions lately, called “fusers”, that attempt to promote particle fusion in a near-vacuum chamber. (I guess we are all still looking to harness a cheap source of energy.) He says our bodies get bombarded with many neutrinos a day. Most of them pass right through, as there is so much space between particles in our bodies, but that maybe once a week, one may collide with an electron somewhere, and create an isotope, and we experience a neutrino event.
The supposed boundaries between micro and macro physics may not be as clear as we think. Creation has such strange behavior on the frontiers. We just like to think we ‘know’, when the ones among us that know the most know better. We limit ourselves with our paradigms. If Skip preaches one thing true, it would be that.
It is true that our bodies are composed of modified light. The first clothing was light itself. We are inherently designed to interact with light, as well as the Father of all lights. I think we really truly do not know very much at all.
Miracles never get old.
How great (and mysterious) is He who loves us
and graciously overwhelms us with His “handiwork”!
I think this Hymn which I remember from my youth sums up the topic of this post beautifully.
1 Far beyond all human comprehension,
Measured by an infinite dimension,
Wonderfully broad in its intention,
Is the boundless love of God.
Refrain:
Love divine surpasses all that human tongue can tell,
While on earth or in eternity;
Higher than the mountains where the soaring eagles dwell,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea,
Love sufficient to redeem and set a captive free,
As shoreless and as endless as eternity.
2 Great enough to sacrifice with pleasure,
And to give away its richest treasure,
And to drink of pain in brimming measure,
Is the wondrous love of God. [Refrain]
3 Greater than my sin and condemnation,
Great enough to give me, full salvation,
And to fill my soul with jubilation,
Is the matchless love of God. [Refrain]
4 Deep enough for those in degradation,
Higher than the highest elevation,
Broad enough to take in ev’ry nation,
Is the boundless love of God. [Refrain]
Source: Alexander’s Hymns No. 4 #187
The shechinah or glory of God! Hand represents power, authority, and honour.
Exodus 34:29, Moses’ “face shone,” or, literally, “emitted rays,” where the Hebrew word karan–from keren, a horn–means “to shoot forth horns,” hence applied to the horn-like rays of light coming forth from His Hand.
From absurd translation arose the belief that Moses actually had horns, as often depicted in mediaeval paintings when bearing the tables of stone, and the grotesque error has been too often followed by modern artists.
The horn was naturally a symbol of strength, became naturally an emblem also of honour, and thus of royal power and dignity the horn is frequently used as a metaphor for a king or kingdom in Scriptures.
God’s concealments are not arbitrary; they are a necessity; and while they are so, they serve, in a most Divine way, the purposes of human instruction.
Revelation, like all other things, has been progressive. While much was given, much was withheld for the “fulness of time. He does not reveal all He has in store for us at any one moment. There are reserves, hidings of Divine help until want presses, then the help will come, and come in fullest measure.
God is educating and disciplining us by various processes, we learn from this- Reverence; Confidence; Hope, and Trust.
Thankfully, in all His works we have evidences of restrained power. Who can bear looking directly at the sun?
Who can apprehend all the awesome wonders of Him in our finite minds? Mysteries are stimulating and challenging!
Job 26:14; the greatest part of that which he knoweth is but the least part of that which he knoweth not.