Christmas Song #4: The Light Descends

It’s probably happened to you at some point. You see a big crowd gathered around something, and you got over to see what it is. It’s probably something much smaller than the crowd that it has attracted!

The third verse in this magnificent Christmas carol begins with a crowd – a crowd of angels. What’s going on?

Rank on rank the host of Heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

We don’t know everything that was going on “behind the scenes” before or during the birth of Christ. We do know that the angels were very interested. Peter himself tells us, “angels long to look” into God’s wonderful gospel work (1 Peter 1:12).

But of course we do know that a heavenly army appeared to the shepherds, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14) Maybe it was only a small portion of God’s angelic hosts. A song from the 1970s by John W. Thompson suggests that “the angels spilled over heaven’s edge and filled the air”! The song (“That Night”) captures the joy and excitement that the angels must have felt.

But this carol, and probably Luke 2 as well, suggest something less chaotic and more organized and awesome – rank on rank – the angel army – and why are they there?

Rank on rank the host of Heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

The Light of Light descends – Christ Himself. You’ll remember that term – Light of Light – from one of my two votes for the greatest Christmas carol of all time. God of God, Light of light. The term is from the Nicene Creed, and you can click the link the learn more about that.

There is endless day in heaven because God Himself gives it light:

The sun shall be no more your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon give you light;
but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Isaiah 60:19-20

And we learn this in Revelation:

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gives it light,
and its lamp is the Lamb.

Revelation 21:23

Jesus is light and life. John describes the light that was “coming into the world”:

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:4-5

This little Baby was truly the everlasting light, and now the light of the world (John 8:12, John 9:5). Why had He come? Let’s read the whole stanza…

Rank on rank the host of Heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

The writer imagines Christ as a light plummeting out of the heavens, led by His army of angels. As the Apostle John wrote, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The Light chases away all the darkness of hell.

Because, after all, all of creation was under a curse (Romans 8:20-22). All humanity was dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), lost forever (Romans 3:9-20), simply inventing new ways to do evil (Romans 1:30). There was no light. Something had to come to us from outside of the creation. Something – or Someone – not dependant on the creation itself. And that Someone did come. The only One who could banish the darkness, because He is the only Light.

And the final stanza of this carol, which we’ll get to next week, will suggest that He was indeed successful in His mission. The end of the story is a sharp contrast, for us, to the image of a Baby in a manger.