Prominence Given to the Morning Hour in the Bible, and its Spiritual Significance.

by: John Bigelow, LL.D.

I have already referred to the great changes, physical, mental, and moral, which we appear to undergo during the intervals of sleep.

“A man,” says Dr. Bushnell, “must be next to a devil who wakes angry. After his unconscious Sabbath he begins another day, and every day is Monday. How beautifully thus we are drawn, by this kind economy of sleep, to the exercise of all good dispositions! The acrid and sour ingredients of evil, the grudges, the wounds of feeling, the hypochondriac suspicions, the black torments of misanthropy, the morose fault-findings, are so far tempered and sweetened by God’s gentle discipline of sleep that we do not even conceive how demoniacally bitter they would be if no such kind interruptions broke their spell.”

All these experiences are doubtless more or less familiar to everybody; and they give a peculiar significance and importance to many of the most momentous spiritual epochs in the history of our race.

It will be a careless reader of the Bible who will not be struck by the frequency with which epochal events are there reported to have occurred in the morning, and, in many instances, when to all human appearances there could be no reason for naming any time at all for their occurrence, and still less for their occurrence at the time named. The reader will do well to note the extreme importance of the communication in every instance here cited.

“The Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go.”2

It was at midnight that the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, but the houses of the children of Israel were passed over. “There shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt, and this day shall be unto you for a memorial and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord.”3

On this fateful night it was ordered that none of the Israelites were to go out of the door of his house until the morning.4

1 Genesis xxviii. 16-18
2 Exodus viii. 20
3 Exodus xii. 14.
4 Exodus xii. 22.

The same night Pharaoh rose and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and he called up Moses and Aaron by night, and said: “Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel: and go serve the Lord as ye have said.”1 So “it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of watching unto the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt: this same night is a night of watching unto the Lord for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.”

As nothing in the divine economy is accidental, nor anything in God’s word which has not a message for us, we are forced to assume that it was not by accident that the hour of midnight was chosen to smite the first-born of the Egyptians for their obduracy; that the Israelites were forbidden to leave their houses that night; and that Pharaoh called upon Moses and Aaron at night to rise up, take his people, and go and serve the Lord as he wished. Regarded as an ordinary concession from a sovereign to a refractory class of his subjects, the wonder is why this judgment upon the Egyptians and this deliverance of the Israelites should have been wrought in the night, when to the natural eye there appears no reason why it might not have been conducted more conveniently for all parties by daylight.

When Pharaoh and his host pursued the children of Israel and went in after them into the midst of the sea, “it came to pass in the morning watch that the Lord looked forth upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud and discomfited the host of the Egyptians… And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned in its strength when the morning appeared… And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all the host of Pharaoh that went after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them… And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

“He took not away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”2

The night was no more to be wasted than the day. But how was it to be improved? Not merely by fleeing from Egyptians, but from their bondage to sins they were leaving behind them.

In what way, then, did they prosecute their journey by night? Of course they could not march day and night. That was physically impossible. Besides, we read continually of their camping in different places. They camped at Elim; they were a long time camped at Rephidim. Then they were camped before Mount Sinai, where they received through Moses and Commandments and a code of laws. There they tarried a long time. After many years they abode in Kadish, where Miriam died and was buried. Later at Mount Hor they mourned thirty days for Aaron, who died and was buried there.

1 Exodus xii. 31.
2 Exodus xiii. 22.

But the Lord went before them all this time. His work with them was not suspended by night any more than by day.

Who can read these citations, thus grouped together, without wondering that the time when the events to which they refer occurred is so uniformly given, when, to all appearance, it is of no earthly importance? The thoughtful reader will be forced to the conclusion that the data in question were either idle and superfluous or that the events referred to had some essential and inevitable relation to the particular time of their occurrence.

The first theory can only be accepted by those who dispute the supernatural origin of the Word. Those who accept the other theory and have read these verses, will have no difficulty in divining what, in the eyes of the writer, that essential and inevitable relation is.

When the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron and pined in the wilderness for the flesh-pots of Egypt, the Lord promised Moses to rain bread from heaven for them.

“And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt.

“And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of God.”1

The Israelites, we are told, subsisted for the next forty years of their wanderings in the wilderness upon this manna sent from heaven. They were instructed to gather it, every man according to his eating, but said Moses, “Let no man leave of it until the morning.” This bread sent them from heaven was to eaten at night; “And in the morning,” adds Moses, “ye shall see the glory of God.”

No circumstance connected with the proclamation of the Ten Commandments can be treated with indifference or as of secondary importance. Here is the account of that event as recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, and the reader will please note the time selected for the most important message perhaps that was ever given to our race:

“The Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which thou breakest. And be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai and present thyself there to me on the top of the Mount… And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.”

1 Exodus xvi. 6, 7.

When the Lord gave Moses the tables of stone and the law and the commandment that he might teach them, “Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the mount, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel… And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient.”1

When Hannah, and Elkanah her husband, went to the high-priest Eli, and obtained his blessing upon their petition that she might become a mother, “her countenance was no more sad. And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned to their house to Ramah.”2

When the Philistines insisted that David should not go down with them to the battle, Achish told David: “I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God; notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle. Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of they lord that are come with me: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart. So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines.3

We are told that “David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And when David rose up in the morning, the world of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and speak unto David, Thus saith the Lord: I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.”4

When the Philistines captured the ark of God from the Hebrews, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. Early the following morning, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The Philistines then sat Dagon again in his place beside the ark of God, “and when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands lay cut upon the threshold, only the stump of Dagon was left him.”5

In both these instances, the prostration of Dagon, and finally his mutilation, occurred in the nighttime, and when the Hebrews, to whose advantage the idol’s overthrow inured, were presumably asleep.

One of the most important and pathetic colloquies with a sovereign ever reported was that which Samuel the prophet had with Saul, the King of Israel, because of his disobedience, finally resulting in Saul’s downfall and the establishment of the dynasty of David, from which Jesus the Christ was begotten. Saul had offended the Lord “for having turned back from following and performing his commandments.” His offence was reported in the night to Samuel, who rose early to meet Saul in the morning.

“Saul said to him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. and Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

1 Exodus xxiv. 4-7.
2 I Samuel i. 19.
3 I Samuel xxix. 9.
4 2 Samuel xxiv. 10
5 I Samuel v. 5.

“Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, Though thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel; and the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst that which was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilga. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hat also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou has rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.”

The prophet Ezekiel tells us that “it came to pass in the twelfth year of captivity, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me saying, The city is smitten. Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening, before he that was escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.”1

This was the beginning of the most impressive message ever delivered by Ezekiel. It was to show how and by what tribulations men who with their mouth show much love but their heart goeth after their gain, are sometimes made to know that the author of such messages was the Lord.

It is important to notice that Ezekiel’s mouth was opened, and he was no more dumb in the morning because the hand of the Lord had been upon him in the evening.

“It is of the Lord’s mercies,” says the prophet, “that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.”2

King David sings:

“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. in the morning will I direct my prayers unto thee and will keep watch.3

“My soul fleeth unto the Lord before the morning watch; I say, before the morning watch.”4

1 Ezekiel xxxiv. 21.
2 Lamentations iii. 22, 23.
3 Psalm v.
4 Psalm cxxx.

“Thous hast proved and visited my heart in the night season; thou hast tried me and shalt find no weakness in me: for I am utterly purposed that my mouth shall not offend.”1

“Sing praises unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; In his favor is life: Weeping may tarry for the night, But joy cometh in the morning.”2

“As for me, let me behold thy face in righteousness: Let me be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”3

John, the child of Elizabeth, was proclaimed by his father Zacharias as “the prophet of the Highest,” who was to go” before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways and give knowledge of salvation unto his people,” “whereby,” he adds, “the Day Spring from on high hath visited us, to shine upon them that sit in the darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet in the way of peace.”4

So in Job: “Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days began, and caused the day spring to know its place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it.”5

Why on both of these most important occasions is such importance given to the dawn or springtime of the day?

Does it mean anything more to us than any other part of the day would have meant to us?

It was in reference to precisely this event that the Angel Gabriel said to Mary, “No word from God shall be void of power.”6

The Lord Jesus was buried in the evening and was raised on the third day in the morning.

It was on the first day of the week that Mary Magdalen came early while it was yet dark to the sepulcher and saw the stone had been taken away from the sepulcher. This led to her being the first to see Jesus and to receive the first communication that was made by Him to the human race after his crucifixion.7

It was early in the morning that Jesus came into the temple, and all the people came to Him, and sat down and taught them.8

To the angel of the church at Pergamum–“To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. And I will give him the morning star.”9

By the Morning Star, the Lord himself, of course, is meant.10

1 Psalm xvii. 3.
2 Psalm xxx. 4, 5.
3 Psalm xvii. 15.
4 Luke i. 79.
5 Job xxxviii. 12.
6 Luke i. 37.
7 Mark xvi. 2.
8 John viii. 2.
9 Revelations ii. 12.
10 “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and Morning Star.”–Apoc. xxii. 16. “The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me: one that ruleth over men righteously, that ruleth in the fear of God. He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds.”–2 Samuel xxiii. 3, 4.

Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees and a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night to ask how a man could be born again when he is old.1

It is significant that the seemingly unimportant fact that the first visit of Nicodemus to Jesus was by night should be here recalled, when Nicodemus appears to assist at our Saviour’s burial.

When the Lord promised Solomon long life and riches because, instead of asking for them, he had asked for an understanding heart to judge the people and discern between good and evil, which prayer also was gratified, Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream in the night.2

“I will praise the Lord, who hath given me counsel; yea, my reins instruct me in the night seasons.”3

“Weepin may tarry for the night, but joy cometh in the morning."4

Though upon a mystery of this character the Word is the highest authority that can be appealed to, yet, unless confirmed to some extent by the experience and judgment of men making no claim to supernatural inspiration, it might fail to produce conviction even in minds professing the most absolute faith in revelation.

Of such confirmation there is a great abundance, but here it will be necessary to refer only to three or four, but such as will make up in weight for numbers.

Dante speaks of

“… the hour when her sad lay begins,
The little swallow, near unto the morning,
Perchance in memory of her former woes,
And when the mind of man a wanderer is
More from the flesh and less by thought imprisoned
Almost prophetic in its vision is.”5

1 John iii. 4.
2 I Kings iii. 15.
3 Psalm xvi. 7.
4 Psalm xxx. 5.
5 Purgatorio ix. ii.

This theory of morning dreams is in accord with, and no doubt an allusion to, what some call a superstition, but which would be more respectfully described as a conviction among the ancients that aomnium post somnum efficax est atque eveniet sive bonum sit sive malum; a conviction which Ovid perpetuated in the following lines:

“Namque sub Aurora dormitante lucerna
Somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent.”1

The truth of morning dreams, as affirmed in the lines above cited from Dante, was the happy inspiration of the following lines of the late T. W. Parsons, written on the death of his wife’s cousin:

“Presso al mattino del vor si sogna.–Dante

“Love, let’s be thankful we are past the time
When griefs are comfortless; and, though we mourn,
Feel in our sorrow something now sublime,
And in each tear the sweetness of a kiss.
Weep on and smile then: for we know in this, O
Our immortality, that nothing dies
Within our hearts, but something new is born;
And what is roughly taken from our eyes
Gently comes back in visions of the morn
When dreams are truest.”

Milton, invoking his heavenly muse, Ourania, says:

“On evil days though fallen and evil tongues,
In darkness and with darkness compassed round,
And solitude; yet not alone while thou
Visit’st my slumbers nightly or when morn
Purples the east.”

Pope, in h is Tempe of Fame, founded upon Chaucer’s House of Fame, says:

“A balmy sleep had charmed my cares to rest,
And love itself was banished from my breast
(What time the morn mysterious visions brings
While purer slumbers spread their golden wings);
A train of phantoms in wild order rose,
And joined, this intellectual scene compose.”

Dryden, in his version of The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, says:

“Believe me, madam, morning dreams foreshow
Th’ event of things, and future weal and woe.”

Virgil tells us that when his hero Æneas was laying the foundations of the Roman Empire in Latum and was much disturbed by the anxieties which beset him, having laid down his weary limbs to give them some long-needed rest, Tiber, the river god, appeared to him, encouraged him not to flinch from his purpose, not to be dismayed by threats of hostility, but with the first setting stars to offer prayers to Juno and by suppliant vows vanquish her resentment and threats, assuring him finally of his success. When the river god had finished he hid himself in the deep lake, while Æneas at the dawn of day awoke and proceeded to put up to him a prayer of thanks, with promises to rely upon his aid and to sacrifice upon his altars.

It is a very curious fact, and very proper to be noted in this place, that morning prayers and adorations among the early Romans were put up to the celestial gods, and those of the evening to the infernal.

1 Heroides Epist. xix. 195.

About the Author

John Bigelow, LL.D.