Daily Archives: June 26, 2014

Darkness Which May Be Felt

Have you ever been to Mammoth Cave? Have you been to the large “room” when they turn off the lights? The darkness is so thick you cannot see your own hand in front of your face, you can’t see the person sitting next to you and you cannot even see a pinpoint of light anywhere. It really does give you a feeling of total helplessness because you would be completely lost without some source of light. It is not that your eyes stop working, it’s just that there is no light to reflect off of any object there for your eyes to receive.

The world must have been something like that before God created this world’s light (Gen. 1:3). At that time, before God spoke those powerful words, “Let there be light,” the world was without form and it was void and complete darkness engulfed the created cosmos (Gen. 1:2). But God could not leave the world that way because He is light and in Him is no darkness at all (I John 1:5). Thus, He brought light into the world, even before there were stars (Gen. 1:14-19).

Egypt knew this kind of darkness. God had smitten Egypt with plague after plague because Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Lord, not letting the children of Israel go worship Jehovah. Just before the final plague and the blackest night in Egyptian history–the death of the Egyptian first born–God sent a darkness upon the land that was palpable, it was a darkness over the land of Egypt that could even be felt (Ex. 10:21). It was so dark that they could not even see one another (much like the Mammoth Cave experience) and so they did not dare move from their place for three days (Ex. 10:23). This was a removal of God’s light from their presence. But the children of Israel had light in all their dwellings (Ex. 10:23).

When men live their lives in sin, they are in a darkness which may be felt. If the eye of a man is evil, the whole body is full of darkness, and how great is that darkness (Matt. 6:23)! Those that walk in darkness have no direction in life for they cannot know where they are going (John 12:35). The way of the wicked is darkness (Prov. 4:19). The works of darkness are unfruitful (Eph. 5:11) and lead to a rejection of the God of Light (Rom. 1:21) and alienation from Him (Eph. 4:18). Unfortunately, we often love darkness rather than light (John 3:19).

But, the “people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). While the world lay in darkness, the darkness and blackness of sin, God once again said “Let there be Light,” and there was, indeed, true Light. Jesus said “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, a kingdom of marvelous light (Col. 1:13; I Pet. 2:9). “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:6).

So let your eyes be opened, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that you may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ (Acts 26:18). Walk as children of Light (Eph. 5:8)! Put on the armor of Light (Rom. 13:12)! Have no communion with darkness (II Cor. 6:14). Walk in the Light even as He is in the Light (I John 1:7)!

If we do not, then shall the king say to His servants, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14).

Eric L. Padgett