1 John 1:5-7 “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
The excellent word “darkness” is defined as: 1. Absence of light. (Note, light is not the absence of darkness – light expels darkness and not vice-versa). 2. Obscurity (unrevealed, cannot be seen, incomprehensibility, vagueness, dimness, foggy); want of clearness or perspicuity (articulacy, clarity, fluency, lucidity); that quality or state which renders anything difficult to be understood (lacking enough facts to make an informed decision; missing all pieces of the puzzle). 3. A state of being intellectually clouded; ignorance. (an obstructed view that does not allow you to see, comprehend, ascend to the full truth). 4. A private place; secrecy; privacy. (Hidden, out of the sight of others, behind the scenes, behind closed doors, not wanting the attention or notice of others). 5. Infernal gloom; hell; as utter darkness. (eternal damnation as the wages of sin and unbelief). 6. Great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities. 7. Empire of Satan. (the power of darkness). 8. Opakeness or Opaqueness. (Land of darkness, being impervious to light, the grave). - 1828 Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (added detail mine).
What a word study these eight definitions of “darkness” is to the children of God to help them know, understand and apply to the world in which we live and have our being. It starts with Almighty God, the Father of all creation. Genesis 1:1-5 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So, the evening and the morning were the first day.” Jehovah Jireh means “God our Provider”. The Lord, our God, is the provider and sustainer of everyone and everything in the earth, including physical darkness.
Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
In theology, providence is the care and superintendence which God exercises over his creatures. He that acknowledges a creation and denies a providence, involves himself in a palpable contradiction; for the same power which caused a thing to exist is necessary to continue its existence. A belief in divine providence, is a source of great consolation to good men for by divine providence is often understood God himself. In Isaiah 45:7 the Lord God says, “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’”
2 Corinthians 4:6 “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Let's continue this message on "darkness' in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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