Darkness and Light 6

  

John 16:33 “I [Jesus] have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect]

peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous

[be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]”

 

Continuing this word study of darkness from a biblical perspective, the sixth definition of the English word “darkness” is: 6. Great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities. Genesis 1:1 tells us that, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and that Cosmos is a complex, yet orderly and harmonious system of galaxies and solar systems (time, space and matter) with fixed physical laws; the earth being anthropomorphic, (designed and assembled by God to sustain biological life with mankind being made in God’s image). But, our original parents doubted Creator God and ushered sin and judgment into that perfect world, and the “Fall of Man” brought decay, deterioration, destruction, disease and death – a fallen world of darkness. In Genesis 3:17 “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” Yet, God has an over-arching and on-going plan of salvation, reconciliation and restoration of His creation and creatures. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 tells us, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” There is no “Plan “B”.

Romans 8:19-22 tells us, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

 

Natural disasters (earthquakes and associated tidal waves, hurricanes, tornados, draughts, floods, plagues, catastrophes and other calamities) are called “Acts of God.” Our finite minds fail to grasp the height, width, depth, power and authority in our infinite and almighty Creator, who literally and supernaturally spoke the Cosmos and creation into existence or the profundity of the “Fall of Man” by doubt and sin against our pure, just and holy God. Habakkuk 1:13 explains, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity [our sin].” God is sovereign, Spirit, outside of the dimension of time, infinite, immutable, inerrant, pure, holy, limitless, ever-present, All-powerful, All-knowing, and All-benevolent. Psalm 139:12 clarifies, “Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

 

2 Chronicles 6:28-31 “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.”

 

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God? God has never said, Wow, I didn’t see that coming! Understand Isaiah 59:2, “your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you.” The great troubles and distresses, calamities and perplexities in life and the fallen world are a result of sin. Ezekiel 13:13 Thus says the Lord God: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. Until we go home to be with the Lord, we live in a fallen world. God says in Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” 

 

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

 

Sin killed the spirit of mankind and permeated the human heart, creating our sin nature in mind, will, emotion and body – the sinful flesh desires. Galatians 5:19-21 tells us, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery [drug abuse], hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God”, which lead to great trouble, calamities, perplexities, tribulation, distress and suffering, now and eternally. Our Maker says in Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die.” A holy and just God must punish sin; we deserve Hell. Joel 2:1-2 says, “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains” – Judgment Day. We cannot save ourselves; we need a Savior. 

 

For those who repent and accept Jesus [the Savior of the world], Ephesians 2:1-8 explains that you “were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Jesus is the true light of the world. He calms the storms of life and gives us a future.

Let's continue this biblical word study of "darkness" in the next post.

In Christ, Brian