“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”  (Luke 2:29-32 NKJV)

This week we are thinking about mentions of light in the Bible relating to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  These words from Luke chapter 2 were spoken by a man called Simeon who, when He saw the baby Lord Jesus, praised God because he had seen the One whom God had sent to bring salvation to the world.  Simeon described the Lord Jesus as a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles.  A Gentile is simply someone that isn’t a Jew.  This means the Lord Jesus was a light to bring the knowledge of God to those who did not know Him.  Up until that point in history, the Bible tells us, God had primarily dealt with the people of Israel but now His salvation was open to anyone who would believe.  The Bible describes sinners as being in darkness because they do not know God and so each one of us before we trust Christ as Saviour are in darkness.  The apostle Peter, writing to Christians, encourages them to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).  God calls to us in the darkness through His word, the Bible, but it’s only if we respond to His call and believe that we will be brought out of the darkness and into the light of knowing Him and our sins are forgiven.  The Bible tells us the only way that we can know God is through the Lord Jesus Christ.   Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6) .  The Lord Jesus Himself said I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness (John 12:46).