The Hebrew called the Sun Shemesh from being the great luminary of the heavens. And from its beneficial use and influence, as appointed by the great Creator, it is no wonder that men in the darkened state of a fallen nature, made it the idol of worship. It is only from Revelation, that we learn that the Sun in all his brightness, is but the creature of God. And hence, under diving teaching, Job could and did say, that he dared to kiss his hand in token of adoration when he saw the Sun shining, in his strength, or the Moon walking in her brightness. (Job 31:26-28)
The Holy Ghost hath been pleased to teach the church to consider the Sun as the servant of the Lord Jesus, and as becoming a faint emblem of his glorious shining. The prophet Malachi to this purpose was "commissioned to say, that to them that feared the name of the Lord, the sun of righteousness should arise with healing in his wings." (Malachi 4:2) And indeed when we consider that the Sun, as the creature of God, becomes the source and fountain of light and life to the whole world, of animal and vegetable life; there is certainly a great beauty in the allusion to him, the Sun of righteousness, from whom the whole of the spiritual as well as the natural world, derive their very being, their upholding, and prosperity. Who shall describe the wonderful, unbounded, and endless influence of the Lord Jesus, in calling into life, continuing and carrying, on that life, and warning, referring, healing, and in short imparting all the properties of the sun of righteousness in his blessed and everlasting influence on the souls of his people. But the emblem of the Sun of this lower world, considered as referring to Christ the Sun of righteousness, falls far short in a thousand instances where Jesus becomes most precious to his people. The planet of the day reacheth but to the day, and leaves a long wintry night wholly destitute of his power. Not so with Jesus, his is a Sun that goes not down, but frequently in the darkest shades of sorrow, makes his rays most bright and glorious. %Very blessedly therefore the Holy Ghost caused it to be recorded by one of the prophets, that when the Lord Jesus shall come to be glorified by his saints, and admired in all that believe that his superoior lustre shall make his creature the sun to blush and not shine before him. "Then shall the moon be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his antients gloriously." (Isaiah 24:23)