Psalms 89:37

It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.

The character of the Church of Christ upon earth as symbolized by the moon in our solar system

In the history of the creation it is written (Genesis 1:14). How the sun and the moon in our solar system come to be “for seasons and for days and years,” the astronomer is able to inform us; but why, and of what they were intended to be the signs, revelation alone can explain. Accordingly, if we look into the Word of God, we find that the heavenly bodies are held forth as emblems of certain things, and of certain principles bearing upon the Church and people of God. Thus Jesus Christ is represented by the sun (Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:78), and we are permitted to trace certain points in their analogy (John 14:6; John 11:25; John 5:24; Galatians 2:20; 1 John 5:11). The ministers of Christ are symbolized by the stars of heaven (Revelation 1:20). In like manner, the moon in our solar system is more than once introduced as representing the Church of God in the world. In the Book of the Revelation (Revelation 12:1), this luminary represents the Church of God under the law elected for the especial guardianship of the original revelation, which declared the one true God. In the Song of Solomon (Song of Solomon 6:10) the same symbol is applied to the Church of God under the Gospel elected for the especial guardianship of the second revelation which declares the one true Mediator. It is in this latter sense--as representing the Church of God under the Gospel--that the words of the text are to be understood.

I. It will be my endeavour to sketch the character of the Church of God under the Gospel, by cautiously tracing certain points of analogy between her and the moon in our solar system.

1. The moon was ordained to “rule the night”--to furnish us with light in the absence of the sun. Visible she may be at times after the morning dawn, but if visible she gives no light--she wanes beneath the light of the superior orb. Were the sun always to shine upon our shores, there would be no night here: the moon would have no place in our firmament; or, if she appeared at all, she would shed no light.. And so it is with the Church of Christ in this lower world: the absence of her Divine Head in the heavens, whither He has gone to perform an essential part of that work of redemption which He covenanted with God the Father to perfect for the salvation of mankind--renders necessary the existence of a Church in the world, which is ordained to exist and to be visible until His coming again. He is the Sun, she is the moon.

2. The moon has no light of her own. The purpose for which the moon was at first, and still is, set in the heavens is to reflect upon us and for our benefit the light of the sun during his absence from the part of the world we inhabits--or, to speak more correctly, during our absence from him. In this peculiarity the moon is cited in Scripture to symbolize the Church of Christ upon earth. The latter was ordained to reflect upon the world the light of the “Sun of righteousness” during his absence in the heavens. In herself she has no light at all; without her Sun she has virtually no existence; severed from Him she is nothing worth. The Church has nothing whatever in herself whence can radiate those beams of light and life and love, without which all is darkness within--yea, a darkness that may be felt. No doctrine will fully enlighten the mind but the doctrine of Christ (Hebrews 6:1; John 2:9). No truth will dissipate the error of fallen nature’s teaching but the truth as it is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21).

3. As the moon has no light, so neither has she any heat of her own. Did not the sun arise upon the land, and daily cheer us with his rays, as well as benefit us by his light, in vain should we seek a substitute in the transparent brightness of the moon. She is set in the heavens simply and solely to reflect his light. In this respect also does the moon symbolize the Church of God upon earth. It is not from the Church herself, separated from her Divine Head, that we are to look for that quickening power, that holy enthusiasm, that heavenly glow of joy and peace in believing which cheers the heart of every child of God. The ordained purpose of God is that the Church upon earth should not dispense the heat of her absent Sun, but continually and extensively reflect His light. For this, and this alone, was the Church ordained to exist in the world.

II. I close with a remark of a practical character. From what has now been said, we infer the necessity of an outward witness for Christ to satisfy the candid inquirer, and to silence a gainsaying world. Let me add, there must also be an inward witness for Christ (1 John 5:10), for the satisfaction and the comfort and the security of the believer himself. If grafted into the body of Christ’s Church, by the Lord’s own ordinance of baptism “rightly received,” we are doubtless to be numbered with those symbolized by the moon. But beyond this, for the comfort of the believer, and to discriminate between a dead profession and a living faith (Romans 8:13; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15; Acts 8:37; Mark 16:16; Acts if. 38; James 2:17), there is another and an inward witness to be superadded to the visible testimony. When the soul becomes quickened (John 5:25; Ephesians 2:1) into spiritual action; when the mind (Ephesians 1:17) becomes enlightened, the heart cheered, the affections warmed, the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, affected and moved by the constraining love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14), the blessed experience of that peace of God which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7); this is the inward witness, not seen by those that are without, but more convincing far to the individual soul, because he inherits thereby a well-grounded hope of an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of Christ (2 Peter 1:11)--if he do but retain and exhibit the evidences of his renewed life (John 15:8). (W. J. Kidd.)