Thoughts About Darkness

Thoughts about darkness…

 

Webster’s dictionary defines darkness as “without light or without much light” and also as “gloomy, not bright and cheerful”.

 

God’s darkness:

It struck me that since God is light and shines His light in our hearts, I tend to reject the darkness as all evil.  Yet God created day and night (Genesis 1:5); He led the children of Israel (they didn’t wander in the wilderness, but were led with purpose (Psalm 68:7)) by day and by night (see Nehemiah 9:12); it was at night that the Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt.  God was present as we were being formed in the womb (Psalm 139), a place of darkness for us.  In face, Egypt was a type of “womb” where God grew the nation of Israel up until they were large enough (in number and in strength) to conquer Canaan, and then He “delivered” them.

I believe He is shaping and forming me in the image of Christ during my times of personal darkness.  So…darkness can be a place of rest, deliverance, growth, and God’s presence and guidance, while the rest of the world is cloaked from our sight (and we are hidden from the rest of the world as well).  I know He doesn’t want me to be concerned with a lot of other matters during the “night season”, but to be focused on Him, His will for me, and rest in that.

Another thought about how God led His people by night in the wilderness is:

 

God’s Light:

He led them by a pillar of fire –

As humans, we experience fire as light giving and a vehicle for warmth; we come to it readily when it is small and contained, like in a fireplace or as a campfire, and even a bonfire.  But a pillar of flame?  Large, reaching to the heavens, rolling, uncontrollable and uncontainable by human efforts, bright and hot; we hesitate to get too near it – yet that is the presence of God leading through the darkness!  I looked up the original meaning of the word translated “pillar” and it had to connotation of “abide, to dwell” and my mind immediately jumped to two passages about dwelling with the fire:

Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? 

Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning? 

He who walks uprightly… 

  Isaiah 33:13-16

 

And to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord

was like a consuming fire on the mountain top…

Exodus 24:17

 

In Isaiah 4:5- the fire of the Lord forms a protective canopy.  Psalm 105-39 states that He spreads out a cloud as a covering (indicating comfort and darkness), and a fire to give light at night.

For me, it seems as if by nature I recoil from the pillar of fire (perhaps my old man of sin is recoiling) but I am compelled towards it, too, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is a deposit of this fire within us!  The internal paradox can be frustrating, yet God always promises life, rest, comfort, and peace.

Psalm 112:4 says “Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.”

 

Other Scripture on darkness to consider:

 

Isaiah 50:10 – What to do when we are walking in darkness and have no “light”….

 Who is among you who fears the LORD,

Who obeys the voice of His servant,

Who walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

 

Isaiah 45:3 – There are treasures to be found in the darkness…

 “I will give you the treasures of darkness

And hidden wealth of secret places,

So that you may know that it is I,

The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

 

Powerful!!!