At the start of the Book of Revelation, the victorious Christian is promised the ‘morning star.’
For someone who is reading the book without aid of a concordance and commentary, the meaning of this gift—its identity—is not revealed, so to speak, until the very end of the book. It is there in Revelation 22:16 that we get this astonishing declaration:
I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star.
We get the connection with David. But why does Jesus identify himself with the morning star here? To be sure, the association between Jesus and light is so deeply ingrained in Christianity that it is actually asserted in our creed—‘light from light’ as the Nicene puts it. But why is this particular celestial body singled out here? Why is it so fittingly applied to Christ?
Before the sunrise: The morning star, which is actually the planet Venus, derives its name from the fact that it appears before sunrise. Its appearance therefore heralds the coming of a new day while it is still dark. This is exactly what Christ does. He is the light shining in the darkness, announcing the coming kingdom of God while the world still groans under the curse of the Fall. He is the first to be resurrected—the ‘firstborn of the dead’ as Colossians 1:18 puts it.
Brightest and highest: Notice that Jesus is called not simply ‘the morning star’ but the ‘bright morning star.’ This calls attention to another aspect of this celestial light. As one astronomy Web site puts it,
If you head outside any clear February morning, your eyes will be drawn to a blazing light hanging in the southeastern sky. At first you might think it’s a plane coming in for a landing. But this is no object flying low in our atmosphere—it’s the brightest planet in the solar system. Venus appears especially prominent in February because it shines brightest and appears highest in the morning sky.
It is not fitting that Jesus, the king of kings—the ‘first in everything’ as Colossians 1:18 says—should be identified with that celestial body that shines brightest and highest?
Constant light: Stars twinkle; planets, especially Venus, don’t. The light of Christ never wavers, never fails. (For the astronomical explanation of why the light of stars is different from that of planets, see this site.)
Morning and evening: Venus is not only a ‘morning star’ but also an ‘evening star.’ (See here.) This makes it all the more fitting as a name for Christ, who is called the alpha and the omega and the beginning and the end in Revelation. In fact, that famous passage occurs in the very same chapter of Revelation where He called the morning star! (The verse is Revelation 22:13.) Just why is Jesus the ‘beginning and end’? Because He encompasses all of creation—all things were made through Him and will also be remade through Him. As one commentator explains,
The idea here is that he will thus show that he is the first and the last—the beginning and the end. He originated the whole plan of salvation, and he will determine its close; he formed the world, and he will wind up its affairs. In the beginning, the continuance, and the end, he will be recognized as the same being presiding over and controlling all.
The idea that Christ is the morning and evening star—ushering in and ending what in ancient Israel counted as a ‘day’—should have a familiar ring to it. This is, after all, the language used in Genesis 1 to describe the days of creation. So it is most fitting that we find a similar motif when we come to the new creation.
The Shepherd’s Star: The fact that Venus appears in both the evening and morning has also lent it its own nickname. One astronomy writer explains why:
Originally, the terms ‘morning star’ and ‘evening star’ applied only to the brightest planet of all, Venus. Far more dazzling than any of the actual stars in the sky, Venus does not appear to twinkle, but instead glows with a steady, silvery light. The fact that Venus was a ‘wandering star’ soon became obvious to ancient skywatchers, who noticed its motion relative to the background stars, going from the eastern sky in the morning to the western sky in the early evening. Nicolas Camille Flammarion, a noted French astronomer in the late 19th and early 20th century, referred to Venus as ‘The Shepherd’s Star.’ I myself like to refer to Venus as the ‘night light of the sky.’
Although this nickname was coined many centuries after Revelation was written, one can’t help but take note of the extraordinary coincidence—if it can even be called that—that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is also identified with what would later become known as the ‘Shepherd’s Star.’ Certainly, while Venus may not have had that name in the first century, a shepherd keeping watch over the flocks by night indeed might have been among the few in ancient Israel—other than insomniacs and military guards—to always glimpse this star in both its evening and morning appearances.
image: Frog Dares / Shutterstock.com
