Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 333 · November 29
Calves of the Stall
“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”
Picture a barn door pulled open at the end of a long winter. The young cattle come out into light they have not seen for months, and they cannot walk in a straight line for joy. They kick and jump and run sideways across the yard.
That is the picture Malachi gives near the very end of the Old Testament, and it is the second of two pictures. The verse just before it is about fire: "the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble." Then, about the same day, comes a word for a different group of people: "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." One day is coming, and it means two very different things.
The sun in this picture does what the sun always does. Nobody has to arrange a sunrise. It rises because God made it to rise, and its rays spread over the land like wings, carrying warmth. The last words describe calves that have been kept indoors in the stall, and the Hebrew verb behind "grow up" pictures young animals springing about and leaping. So the verse is about release, and the joy of a creature finally let out into the sun.
For everyone who fears His name, winter does end. It ends on a day God has set, a day you cannot hurry. When it comes, you may step out a little clumsily, on legs that have not been used in a while. But the light that finds you will be the Sun of righteousness Himself, and He brings healing the way the morning sun brings warmth. May you feel that warmth on your face, and may you go out leaping.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 333 is God Not Ashamed (Hebrews 11:16).