QUESTION: In 2 Peter 1:19 we read of a day star that will arise in our hearts. What is this day star?

ANSWER: The day star, or Morning Star (according to better translations) is a beautiful reference to the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes to take His people to His Father's house in heaven. It will be the fulfillment of that promise that the Lord Jesus made when He was here on earth. "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (see John 14:1-3). This coming, also called the rapture, is referred to once again by the Lord Jesus in the book of Revelation with these beautiful words: "I 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).

The complete verse in the reference in 2 Peter 1:19 reads as follows: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Morning Star arise in your hearts." It may be hard to understand how the Morning Star could arise in our hearts. The verse does not mean that the Morning Star is to arise in the heart of the believer.

F.W. Grant, an able Bible teacher, has punctuated the above verse as follows: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, (as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Morning Star arise) in your hearts." This puts the emphasis where I believe it belongs. It means that we should take heed in our hearts to the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus as given in the prophetic Word. This Word will serve as a light in this dark world until the age is ended and Christ appears in the clouds to take His waiting people home. He is coming first to take His people home to heaven to be with Himself. See 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17, and Revelation 19:11-16.

There is a beautiful truth in the expressions "until the day dawn, and the Morning Star arise in your hearts" and "I am the Bright and Morning Star." There is the physical darkness of the night and then the bright morning star appears in the sky before the sun rises. This would remind us of the moral and spiritual darkness of this world in which we live. It is getting darker each day.

We who believe in Christ were once a part of that darkness (Ephesians 5:8,11). Now we are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to come and take us to His home in the glory. This is when He will come as the Bright and Morning Star. Seven years later the Lord Jesus will come to judge the world. He will be known at this coming as the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:1,2). What a wonderful day that will be for the world when His kingdom of peace and righteousness will be established and the world delivered from its sin and corruption. May we, then, until He comes, "serve the living and true God; and … wait for His Son from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 1:9,10).

—John D. McNeil

In hope we lift our wishful, longing eyes,
Waiting to see the Morning Star arise;
How bright, how gladsome will His advent be,
Before the Sun shines forth in majesty.
    —J.G.Deck