It has been truly said by someone, that the Old Testament Scriptures end with the hope of the coming of the "Sun of Righteousness"; and the New with that of the "Morning Star." Sweetly beautiful is this. The godly remnant of Israel, who feared the Lord and spake often one to another (Mal. 3), had that precious consolation before them—that of the coming of the Sun of Righteousness "with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4). And we find them in Luke 2, the Simeons and Annas, and "all them that looked for redemption in Israel."
But, alas, His beams fell coldly on the hearts of His nation; they had no hearts for Him. Men were morally unfit to have God among them; and so He was obliged to hide His beams of blessing in the darkened scene that surrounded His cross, and to reserve the day of blessing till another season. Meanwhile our calling was revealed and our hope presented to us; not as the Sun of Righteousness, but as the Morning Star.
The more we contemplate the fitness of this symbol of our hope, the more does its divine origin appear. It is the watchman during the long night who sees the morning star for a few moments, while the darkness is rolling itself away from off the face of the earth, and before the beams of the sun enliven the earth with their rays. And so with the Christian's hope; he watches during the moral darkness of the world, till the dawn; and just as the darkness is deepest, and is about to roll itself away before the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, his hope is rewarded in seeing the Morning Star (Rev. 22:1616I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. (Revelation 22:16)), in His earliest brightness, coming to take up His people to Himself, that they might shine forth with Him as the sun in the kingdom of their Father in the heavenlies (Matt. 13:4343Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 13:43)), when He reveals Himself to the millennial earth as the Sun of Righteousness.