So far in this series of blogs, we have been exploring the profound message found in Job 38:12-14:
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? 14 It takes on form like clay under a seal, and stands out like a garment.
Today we are paying attention to the clause “and caused the dawn to know its place.” This clause seems to imply that the dawn is often misused or manipulated by contrary forces, and from the context of the passage, these are wicked entities from the world of darkness. What then is the place or purpose of the dawn? We know that the dawn is that period of the day which signals the approaching day light or physical light to replace the darkness of the night, usually between 5.00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. The dawn thus speaks of the ushering in of the generally regarded segment of the day when most people engage in productive, progressive, and prosperous activity. The dawn is also called the “dayspring,” analogous to the spring or source of a river, from which the entire river springs forth.
From a spiritual standpoint, Jesus is described as the “Dayspring from on high” by Zecharias, the father of John the Baptiste (forerunner of Jesus), in Luke 1:78-79: Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
For more reasons than one, therefore, the dawn would naturally be a menace to Satan and his cohorts if it remains in place by way of properly commanding, ordering, managing, controlling, or exercising authority over it. Satan and his emissaries are experts in the works of darkness and cannot thrive in the light. Job captures this truism in Job 24:13, 17: There are those who rebel against the light;
they do not know its ways nor abide in its paths. For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death; If someone recognizes them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
On the other hand, we who know God personally are children of the day, or children of the light, not of the night, according to 1 Thessalonians 5:5: You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. That is, we have the first rights to the dawn, given its purpose.