The Dew of Light

Guest Article by Rudy Ross

Rudy Ross and I are finishing up a study on the Book of Deuteronomy. Today’s study features a good news story for obedient people. It can be found on the Bob Spradling YouTube channel.

Today’s blog article concludes Rudy’s insights about Light. If you take the time to “dig” into this study, you will discover insights that will challenge and bless you.

The dew of light comes down from above and brings the dead back to life. Those awakened are told to enter their chambers for a little while longer until the fury has passed. In the Bible, this image reemerges when John overhears the same kind of wording while seeing the fifth seal opened 800 years later.

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.

“They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’

“Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been” (Revelation 6:9-11).

In this part of Revelation, the individuals who died for their witnesses of God are under the altar in heaven, given white robes, and told to rest a little longer until the whole number of their brothers would be complete, who would also be killed for their belief in the LORD.

Combining the white robes with the dew of light is possible by His direction to wait and enter their chamber for a little while; thus adding a detail common to both passages, leading me to believe they are of the same event.

Being told to wait or rest longer relates to Isaiah, where he hears: until the fury has passed. Revelation gives a new wrinkle by telling us why the wait – until the complete number of our fellow servants and brothers is complete.

That completeness is tied directly to the fairness of the LORD, which sounds strange, but this principle is associated with the Parable of the Workers and their pay being the same, no matter how long they worked.

Our fellow-servants/brothers’ death is not eternal; it’s one that the dew of light corrects, which is our reward, paid simultaneously, and of equal value for all. We cannot know the amount of time that the wait is describing, it’s enough to know there is an order.

I also believe “dew” is an echo of the morning dew that nourishes our lawns, and that relates to the white robes we receive in Heaven, which also serve as coverings. That becomes a way to understand this construct: themes and their echoes stay in harmony because He never changes.

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord, our God, the Almighty reigns.

“‘Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

“And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’

“Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy'” (Revelation 19:6-10).

The Bride of the Messiah

As we read this climactic account of life as we know it, we find the people of God now referred to as His Bride and are given bright fine linen clothes to wear. We hear this clothing (covering) represents our righteous deeds.

Just before that event, the great prostitute is judged for corrupting the world, and the smoke from her judgment will go up forever and ever. As these events race to their finale, the judgment on earth has occurred, and the smoke of this battle will be seen forever.

These events’ context parallels Isaiah’s fury showing how those actions and timing are used to put the finishing touches on His Bride.

This event also reveals that there are at least two streams of people who make up the Bride. Once the people of God are saved and are one with Him, they create a perfect picture of what was written about a husband and a wife becoming one flesh; the others are separated from the people of God and are left to live eternally in the place named the second death.

What would the original hearers have thought the dew of light meant? They must have thought there was an afterlife. Some years later, Daniel was given more information concerning this. People have been thinking about an afterlife since the beginning of time; however, these passages are the first to document an afterlife in the Bible.

Light’s Role in God’s Kingdom

As you can see, Light certainly holds a prominent place in the Kingdom. It was the first terminology used by the LORD to describe His life-giving process. We know He is all-knowing, which means we will always find a connective thread in the Bible’s depiction of Light, leading back to His presence.

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth” (Revelation 12:1-2).

In the vision above, we can see a woman clothed with the sun. She’s certainly not wearing a garment with an emblem of the sun on it; no, her clothing (covering) is light. As these words slip into our understanding of Light, we can surmise she is emitting light.

Her garments are collectively the bright white linen robes given to the saints under the altar from Revelation 6 and 19. We now know the light emitting from the Bride is not from the sun, but the Son. The Bride’s image gives us yet another piece of the puzzle because she is metaphorically all the people of God.

That reveals the basis for God’s legal system because that image fulfills His greatest promise: being one with Jesus as He is one with the Father, and correctly aligns with the biblical principle of a husband and wife being one flesh.

We will never prove to the world this side of Heaven that these images mean what we believe them to be, but we must recognize they are universal truths amongst ourselves. As the people of God, while in or out of this flesh, we will still be under Kingdom principles.

Light’s underlying premise is in our bright white clothing, which we received for our faith in Jesus. We find that association deepened by the Hebrews writer: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

That’s a familiar passage for New Testament readers, but 1500 years earlier, the basis for the principle of righteousness by faith was revealed when the LORD allowed Moses to see this historical event and write about it.

“After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’

“But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’

“And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.’

“And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’

“And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:1-6).

Faith – A Spiritual Line in the Sand

Knowing the way faith works reminds us there will always be things in the Bible that are not provable.

The analogy that faith is a spiritual line in the sand – one side being provable and the other side not provable, doesn’t mean we should stop investigating. It means at some juncture, we must take some things on faith. That’s the point, and why it’s the foundation of how and why righteousness is ascribed. Remember, He’s the one who made that criteria.

James’ revelation that the only source of any good idea is God is in complete accord with the sentiments from Isaiah 26.

We also realize that we’ve only been saying yes to Him in situations that have good outcomes. We find the actions that followed the good results came from a deeper level of thought in understanding why we said yes. Ultimately, it was faith in what we thought was our inner voice.

Trust in Him brings benefits, and in the end, that is displayed by the Bride (us) clothed with the Son. The Light that we perceive is His presence, and is easily seen as His face shining on us.

My hope now is that as you read the Bible and light is in the subject matter, you’ll see the echo shining through the message. A biblical heads-up to that occurring is the word Behold, which means to see or look.

That relates to this because we can’t see anything without Light, and that leads us to understand that when Behold is written, Light is present, and the King is near.

For example, Revelation 21:5: “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”, and that’s the goal of the entire Bible!

Everything is made new, but not exactly the way we’ve been taught. The difference in this state of renewal is we will now be able to say truthfully: Jesus is the only one worthy to reign, which discloses the meaning of this life.

As I said, everything has a purpose.

For example, did God expel Adam and Eve from the Garden because He was mad at them, or did He remove the possibility of them eating from the Tree of Life and then being stuck in that rebellious condition for all of eternity?

Acknowledging that to be true alerts us to this reality: our thought process is the crown jewel of life. After all, He made us this way and is the only One who can read our hearts. Again, free will is the only thing that can say no to God, and He knew we couldn’t choose Him without it. That’s why we need this life with its memories so we won’t rebel in eternity.

The outcome of how free will operates must be prayerfully considered because our hearts are the new Holy of Holies. After all, they are now one of the places Heaven and Earth touch.

Without expanding our landscape, we can’t see how the individual parts of His plan fit together. The problems we have with free will are the same as they were for Adam and Eve. The difference in eternity is our past experience is where the downfalls of free will are better understood.

The Message of Revelation

Again, Revelation assures us that our past life experiences combined with the removal of the desires of the flesh will dramatically help the way we react to daily life.

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.

“They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

“The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 21:22-22:5).

We’ve all experienced a foggy morning when the mist is everywhere. The dew Isaiah speaks about is not like the dew we see in the morning is not wet; it’s Light.

In the same way that the mist is everywhere, so is the dew of light, with the power to bring the dead to life. The dead are raised because when the Light of the Universe shines on anything, the molecules it touches can have only one response, Life.

In puzzling through this idea of Light and Life, the only avenue available is to wonder what it means. My conclusion is: the same event that we read about in Revelation 21 and 22 is also going on in Isaiah 26.

The dew we see reflects God’s glory, and its lamp (filament) is the Lamb! All of this is promised to occur, but only in God’s timing. As we imagine being clothed with the Son (in the robes of righteousness), we kind of understand what that means. Praise the LORD!

When it’s read that there is no need for sun or moon, that doesn’t mean they no longer exist. No, they are out-shined by the Light of the Lamb. It’s like the sun is a candle, compared to the SON. The sun is still there because whatever was created and said to be good remains. That principle stands true because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If Jesus says it’s good, then it’s good forever and ever.

So, as this subject is wrapped up, we should be confident that Light’s importance rightfully belongs just below the King’s theme because He is the source of that Light. As the effects of this universal truth permeate the way we see the Kingdom, it enhances our ability to visualize God’s Plan consistency.

The Aaronic Benediction is a prime example of that. It’s a prayer given to Moses 3500 years ago. He was instructed to pass it on to his brother Aaron and has been in continuous use; most Jewish services use it as their benediction.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them’” (Numbers 6:22-27).

On the largest scale possible, this 3500-year-old prayer depicts Jesus asking us to ask the Father to shine His Face on us and bring us to life. That glimpse into the future connects us to His first words: let there be light because He is the source of Light, and peace is the byproduct.

Finally, this helps us to see why there is no need for the sun or moon for light in Heaven. The connecting string is the result asked for in Aaronic blessing being caught in the Woman (Bride), clothed with the sun. They provide a cohesive truth that the one Who gave us Israel’s story has always been leading us to His presence.

Again, The Priestly prayer asks us to ask for His countenance, which is His Face shining on us. The dew that Isaiah saw in his 26th chapter had the same source and the same effect, life. These are not coincidences; they are proof texts written over hundreds of years, confirming that He is outside of time, shepherding us to an abundant life.

The claims against the Bible being something other than inspired are laid to rest when we see how the stories point to the same goal without drifting. The numbers add a series of witnesses to the unmistakable direction of God’s word. They stand alongside the themes of Kingdom and Light and add irrefutable substance to the LORD’s plan of us being one with Jesus as He is one with the Father.

Conclusion

This concludes the guest article by Rudy Ross. I have the privilege of meeting each week with Rudy and going over these thoughts on a regular basis. I hope you will return to his articles and mine the gold of truth that is in them.

Tomorrow’s article will present an introduction to the Gospel of Luke.

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