Illumination

Have you ever heard the term Golden Hour? This is a time in the afternoon when the sun is in the correct position to give off perfect lighting. Most people don’t know this, but in the late summer and early fall, these evening times can bring people the greatest joy. I bet if you think back, you can remember a time of sitting on the porch, around a campfire or overlooking some beautiful view where you felt this incredible peace and extreme satisfaction, and you wished it would go on forever.

Today we will again see Jesus use vivid imagery to remind the people attending the Feast of Booths why He came. He compares Himself to this beautiful ceremony at the Feast called The Illumination of the Temple. During the festival, four huge poles were placed in the Court of the Women, each having four large oil lamps (chandeliers) at the top. These had been lit at night to illuminate the courtyard and all of Jerusalem for the festivities, which included singing and dancing. Jesus repeatedly uses images from the Exodus to explain His ministry. He compares Himself to the serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness (Jn 3:14), the manna from heaven (Jn 6:32-33, 45- 51), and the rock that poured forth living water (Jn 7:37-38). Then on the eighth day of the Feast of Booths, when the great lamps in the temple courtyard had been extinguished, He compares Himself to the pillar of fire that led Israel through their journeys in the wilderness.
As families lay at night in their brush arbors to remind them of the crude shelters their ancestors had made while crossing the Sinai Peninsula (Ex 2:15; 3:1, 12), their shelters would illuminate as fathers and mothers told the story of how God provided a pillar of fire at night for the Israelites. They imagined their ancestors safely navigating jagged rocks as they walked because they followed the illuminating Light that led them. The light radiating from the lamps is imagery to symbolize the pillar of fire that led Israel at night, rested above the tabernacle, and shone from the top of Mt. Sinai (Ex 19:18; 24:17).