Translation I did not know I walked in darkness until I saw the light I loved alongside my fellows-each one doing what we thought right We did not always agree on this which meant we had to fight But that was just the way it was we could not escape our plight.
We trusted those who seemed to have the gift of clearer sight We bowed the knee to those who could enforce their vision by their might It was always there of course that tiny shining light But if I kept my back to it It didn't shine too bright.
The light refused to be put out and steadily it shone Stranger still-I heard it speak in a gentle, tender tone It promised It would care for me said I was not alone Strangest of all the Voice itself was one I'd always known.
I tried to share the Voice's words My fellows began to wail and moan "All lies!" they said; "You can't believe a thing that you've been shown It isn't care at all you'll find but a cold and merciless throne It will enslave you and then kill you for the Light consumes its own".
Part of me believed them because they sounded so sincere And I could not deny try as I might I couldn't always hear The Voice that flowed out from the light Its words weren't always clear. I knew if I wished to hear them so I would have to draw near.
Came the day I could hold out no more and though my heart leapt within in fear I began to walk towards the light leaving all I had held dear Though many warned me not to go I didn't turn an ear Away from the voice that called to me I could not cease to hear.
The Light grew as I approached until it was all I could see As I entered into it I found It had entered into me As I dwelt inside the light I made a discovery The Light was not an It at all but Personality.
In Him I was cared for-I was safe My sense of enmity Was something that the darkness birthed there was no need to flee From the truth He'd rule o'er all my life I chose to bend my knee Both His death and life in me now meant We lived in unity.
I still hear the voices of the dark that unrelenting din Some are strange ones I ignore- some are kith and kin Who seek to call me back to them I seek the right words to begin To explain there is no more going out but they can all come in.
There is naught to fear inside His Light this new life is akin To the greatest intimacy of all and yet greater than all have ever been Us in Him and Him in us is how we live herein And anything that might be lost cannot compare to all we win!
I am thrilled to be back this week once more looking at Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” While my previous studies on light are in no way comprehensive, I am moving on from “I form the light” and am beginning to look at “and create darkness.” I noted it once before but it’s worth repeating: the word translated “create” here is the Hebrew word bara which does indeed mean “to create”. It’s the same word as that found in Genesis 1:1: God created the heavens and the earth. It does not mean “allow” or “permit” as I’ve found in some other’s commentaries on this passage. The truth is stated plainly. God creates the darkness.
I will say this portion of the passage has never bothered me. I’ve always liked the darkness-nighttime anyway. It is only at night and far away from the artificial lights of modern civilization, that the spectacular beauty of the cosmos can be seen. Nighttime has always been a sacred time to be alone in the presence of God. I used to like to withdraw from the conversations around the campfire, to sit by myself listening to the sounds of the night, and just be in the presence of God. Of course, I never strayed too far because I never wanted to become lost in the darkness or misstep and harm myself because my vision was obscured so I realize that even in those moments of peace and quiet, there was a wariness of the dark.
There have been times when I’ve been in darkness and felt that wariness turn to fear. Have you ever gone on a cave tour? There’s that moment when the guide switches off the lights and darkness is experienced in a way that isn’t possible on the surface of the earth. We all wave our hands in front of our faces and cannot see them. I don’t know about you but I have a vivid imagination. I wonder what it would be like to remain in that darkness. Would I be able to remain calm if the electricity failed and I had to feel my way out of the depths of the earth? It is a scintillating moment of fear, a safe thrill because the lights have never failed to come back on.
As I began this study on darkness, I remember a book I purchased and read some years ago. It is called At Days Close Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch. I was curious if anything in it would pertain to my study and so I began rereading it. I was fascinated as I read about the fear of the darkness. In his preface, Mr. Ekirch writes, “One can only speculate about when an inherent fear of darkness might first have taken root in the human psyche. In view of the terror that must have struck our earliest ancestors, very likely this most ancient of human anxieties has existed from time immemorial…”1
But did it? The Hebrew word translated “darkness” in my study passage is choshek (Strong’s, H2822). It’s the same word as “darkness” in Genesis 1:2 and, when I look at Genesis, I see no fear associated with darkness. It’s there on the face of the deep in those first moments of creation. God divides the darkness from the light and names it “Night” on the first day. He sets a light to rule it on the fourth. There is nothing frightening about the darkness: it just is. In fact, I see night as a gift from God to humankind. As the sun sets and evening sets in, the work of the day is done. There is nothing to do but eat and rest. God’s covenant with the earth means the sun will rise, there will be morning, and there is nothing to fear (See Jeremiah 33:25-26). That was true as long as humankind stayed in relationship with their Creator.
It’s so important to look at the Serpent’s words in Genesis 3. The intimation of The Lie is that God isn’t really trustworthy, in fact He’s a liar (“you will not surely die”), He’s keeping something good from humankind, and it would be best if humans did away with Him entirely and became gods in their own right. When both chose to believe the Serpent rather than God, one of their first acts were to hide themselves from each other and then to hide from the One who had been their companion in the Garden (Genesis 3:7-9). With such a devastating breaking of relationship and this new fear causing our parents to be unsure whether or not God could really be trusted, I am not surprised that Mr. Ekirch’s research caused him to conclude fear of the dark has existed since time immemorial.
This fear of the darkness is found in religion. Mr. Ekirch writes, “It would be difficult to exaggerate the suspicion and insecurity bred by darkness….Just as heaven glowed with celestial light, darkness foreshadowed the agonies waiting transgressors after death. Often likened to hell (“eternal night”), nighttime anticipated a netherworld of chaos and despair, black as pitch, swarming with imps and demons….Indeed, it was the conviction of some divines that God created night as proof of hell’s existence. ‘Like the face of hell,’ was how a seventeenth-century Venetian described the advance of evening.2
Further on in the Chapter, I read, “Night,” cautioned a proverb, “belongs to the spirits.” The uninviting climes of evening-their horrible sights and foreign sounds, their noisome vapors-beckoned a host of demons and spirits, which the Stuart playwright John Fletcher called the “blacke spawne of darknesse.” The sky was their empire, the night air their earthy domain. None, of course, was more feared than Satan, the “Prince of Darkness,” whose misdeeds were legion, spread far and wide with the growth of printing by popular tracts and scholarly texts.”3
I had not remembered how many quotes by different believers through the ages were shared by Mr. Ekirch. I found the substance of these quotes surprising although I don’t know why I did. I read popular tracts and scholarly texts written in this day and age that tell me this fear of the darkness and the belief that Satan rules over it is not something left back in earlier centuries. It is terribly sad that believers don’t seem to know that Jesus has come! Through His death and resurrection, He has destroyed the one who had the power of death and He now holds the keys to both death and hell [or the grave-the word hades has been translated both ways (Hebrews 2:15, 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, Revelation 1:18)]. All authority is His (Matthew 28:18). There is no need whatsoever to fear the darkness.
While darkness itself is not something to be feared, there is no denying the deeds humans choose to do in it make it worthwhile to exercise caution. I am under no illusions as to the state of the heart of some humans and am extremely careful when and how I make any after-dark forays. I am not suggesting our freedom from fear should then make us foolhardy. The point I am trying to make is that when God created darkness, He did not create something bad. Night does not belong to the spirits nor does it belong to those who seek to hide their deeds in it. It belongs to the One who created it and I trust Him to watch over me. He is the Covenant Father and, resting in Him, I know that when I lie down I will not be afraid and my sleep will be sweet (Proverbs 3:24).
Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are quoted from The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982
Ekirch, Roger A., At Day’s Close Night in Times Past, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, New York, 2005, Page 3
In my study of Isaiah 45:7, and specifically my study of light, I have had two scriptures running through my head. The first is James 1:17; “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” The second is 1 Peter 2:9; “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”.
The passage from James was foremost in my mind as I was reading about light in Dr. Ben Still’s Mind Maps: Physics and read about atomic spectra: the range of light emitted by atoms. Dr. Still writes, “Since the mid-nineteenth century, chemists have noticed that atoms did not emit light of all colors, but instead emitted light of just certain wavelengths.” Dr. Still does go on to describe how Niels Bohr explains the why of this but I remained stuck on the fact that atoms emit light at all. I look at my body with new eyes and in wonder knowing that, even though I can’t see it, there is a light show going on at the atomic level.
I know that what is “born of flesh is flesh” and “what is born of spirit is spirit”. This body was built from the flesh of my parents (and their parents, and their parents…) and so the lights my atoms give off are a biological mechanism and is likely not what James had in mind when he wrote, “Father of lights.” And yet; I am not separate from my body. My spirit is knitted to it and, because I am One Spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ, His Spirit is also knitted to it. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and I await the day when this mortality is swallowed up in His immortality and this body is made like His. Until then, I look at this body with all its imperfections and see it as the dwelling place of God. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14) and now the living God is perfectly at home living in me. If that doesn’t wipe out any vestige of feelings of worthlessness, I don’t know what will.
I’ve been thinking about what it means for God to be living inside of us, dwelling in a temple of living stones rather than one made with hands. There is no denying that while it is the absolute truth that I now am One with God through the unity of the Holy Spirit, this body is still subject to hunger, pain, and death. There are dimensions to this life in Jesus that are not yet made manifest. I read the New Testament and find so many scriptures urging me to press in, lay hold of, pursue, run towards the goal, etc. In his first letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul writes; “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:12-16).k
There is so much in this passage it deserves a dedicated study of its own. For the sake of this one, one of the questions I asked myself was, what is this unapproachable light? I can study the aspects of light in my physics books, see attributes of God, and know that I cannot ever study the creation enough to know God. The light that He is is uncreated and therefore far above and beyond the electromagnetic spectrum capable of being studied. This light that God is, called the Shekinah in the Old Testament, could not really be known in those days either. First, most of the tabernacle was off limits to the people of Israel. Only the tribe of Levi could minister to the Lord and then the number of people who could enter the different sections got smaller and smaller until only the High Priest could enter beyond the veil into the Shekinah of God and he could only do so once a year. (I’m simplifying for sake of space. Read Leviticus, especially Chapter 16). Until Jesus.
The Book of Hebrews describes what Jesus fulfilled-what the tabernacle of old pointed to. The Book of Hebrews describes Him as our High Priest who offered Himself as sacrifice once and for all, by one offering perfected forever those who are being sanctified and SAT DOWN at the right hand of God. This is so amazing. Whereas the high priest of old could only enter the presence of God one day a year and then had to do so year after year after year, Jesus, our best and last High Priest, entered into the presence of God and has never left it. He abides in that unapproachable light and, just as the high priest of old represented all of Israel as he ministered in the Holy of Holies, so did Jesus represent every one of us.
I was listening to a teaching this week on the Feasts of the Lord and I saw this so clearly: Jesus entering into the Shekinah-that uncreated light of God-once and for all. I hold this picture in mind as I think on what it means to be “in Christ”. By offering up Himself, Jesus had made a new and living way through the veil “that is, His flesh. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest…” (Hebrews 10:10, 9) He opened the way for everyone. He opened the way for me. It is astonishing to know that even as I sit at my desk I am In Him, that at this moment I am seated with Him in heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:6) and as He is so am I in this world” (1 John 4:17).
He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He is the light of the world, the light shining in the darkness which the darkness cannot put out. Because we are as He is, so are we the light of the world. Because we are in Him and Him in us, we too dwell in the unapproachable light, the secret place of the Most High, the very life and light and heart of The Father. This is our present reality because His Spirit lives in us. Jesus Himself is the treasure we have in earthen vessels, the eternal life we lay hold of. We await the transforming of our mortal bodies to be like His glorious body but that waiting does not change the truth that now, at this moment, we live and move and have our being in the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of life.
Amen.
Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are quoted from The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982
References
Still, Dr. Ben, Mind Maps Physics: How to Navigate the World of Science, 1st Edition, Unipress Books Limited, 2020, Page 98
I’m not sure how I took this-my hands might have been shaking-but I thought it was cool.
I am continuing in my study of Isaiah 45:7, specifically the study of light. The Hebrew word for light in my passage is owr (H216) and has a fairly basic definition: illumination, luminary (in every sense including lightening, happiness, etc.), bright, clear, day + light (ening), morning, sun. The Hebrew word translated light in my passage is the same word translated light in Genesis 1:3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light’”. I was curious to see if I could learn anything from this but, as I went through other scriptures where owr is used, I wasn’t getting any light on the matter (ha ha).
In the Genesis Account, plants are created before the sun, moon, and stars. The Word of God declares, “…let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth” (Genesis 1:14-15). The light of Genesis 1:3 cannot be sunlight and I was curious what my science books had to say on the subject.
In John Wiester’s book The Genesis Connection, he writes, “The Universe began at a sharply defined instant in time in a fiery explosion of intense brilliance. In the beginning, pure energy was transforming itself into matter. One of the greatest contributions of nineteenth-century physics was the statement of the law of conservation of energy. In essence this law says that energy can change form, but it is never destroyed. Thus in the Big Bang, pure energy would alter itself into forms of matter about which we can only theorize. The first particles to emerge were photons (particles of light) and neutrinos (subatomic particles that travel through solid bodies at the speed of light). These were almost instantaneously followed by electrons, positrons, protons, and neutrons. Initial temperatures were beyond comprehension, such as one hundred thousand million degrees. The Universe was filled with light.”
I found a similar quote in Mind Maps: Physics by Dr. Ben Still: “It is thought our universe started with a Big Bang. Before this event, there was nothing, including no space for things to move in, or time to grow old by. At some point, some quantum fluctuation triggered energy, space, and time to be unleashed. In the first moments, the universe expanded outward into the nothing faster than the speed of light, a tiny period of time known as inflation. Space and time unfurled like a carpet as the universe doubled in size many times over until it reached about the size of a golf ball. This young universe, much less than one second old, was very hot, as huge amounts of energy were confined to a very small space. In the moments that followed, energy was converted into different forms, including the mass of many fundamental particles. Strong interactions almost immediately bound quarks into baryons and mesons, while electrons and other leptons stood by as spectators. At just minutes old, the universe was a plasma of electrically charged particles, each sharing energy through the exchange of light.”
Both of these quotes paint fascinating mental pictures for me. That beginning must have been glorious and beautiful beyond explanation. I am awed at the thought but don’t feel I am gaining any insight into what light actually is. I continued to peruse both books and in Dr. Ben Still’s book, found a section titled “The Strange Behavior of Light.” In Mr. Wiester’s book, I found: “Light is the key to all life in this world. It is the form of energy that is necessary for all life on Earth. It is an imperfectly understood gift that behaves as both a wave and a particle to provide the energy upon which all life ultimately depends.”
In reading both books, I got the sense that scientists don’t fully understand light and my attention was captured by Mr. Wiester’s words, “imperfectly understood.” I was reminded of 1 John 1:5 which says, “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.” Like the created light that, while studied and knowledge is growing all the time remains imperfectly understood, so does the God who is light remain imperfectly understood. Or, He would if He had not chosen to reveal Himself to us. All through the Old Testament we have God revealing Himself but this revelation is piecemeal. No one person had a complete picture. There are promises like this one in Isaiah: “The Sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory” (60:19). And then, in the fullness if time, every promise was fulfilled.
The Word became flesh and, in Jesus, we see the final, full, and complete revelation of God. John’s Gospel says,”No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). Light can now be perfectly understood.
My study has only touched on the darkness mentioned in Isaiah 45:7 as I have looked up scriptures and seen darkness and light mentioned together. I have not looked at all at the word “evil” in the passage and I am interested to see where the study goes as I look at the words that carry a negative connotation. What I can say for certain at this point is that I have often quoted scriptures like, “…that in all things He might have preeminence” (Colossians 1:18) and “God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9) without fully understanding what they mean. As I study, I am convinced that Jesus is everything.
Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is my Salvation, my Peace, my Rest, my Inheritance, my Promised Land, my Health, my Mind, my Source, my Very Life. In Jesus is Life. That life was, is now, and always shall be the light of all mankind. In Him all the promises of God are Yes! This day we declare; “Arise! Shine! For our light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon us!” (Isaiah 60:1).
Amen.
Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are quoted from The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982
References
Still, Dr. Ben, Mind Maps Physics: How to Navigate the World of Science, 1st Edition, Unipress Books Limited, 2020
Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990
Wiester, John, The Genesis Connection, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1983
Last week I wrote about asking questions of the Holy Spirit, especially “why”. I do ask “why”, even though I know I may not get an answer. My thought on that is, God already knows the “why’s” rattling around in my head so my wanting to know why isn’t a surprise to Him. I have found if I just ask Him the why of things then it’s with Him, I can trust He’ll answer me when and if He is ready to do so, and my mind is clear to ask Him other questions. A question I ask with far greater frequency that “why” is, “what does this mean?”
I have had many scriptures interpreted for me by organizations that do, I am sorry to say, have far more dedication to tradition than a desire to know what the scripture actually says. Scriptural Interpretation is more in line with who these organizations have decided God is than in line with who He has revealed Himself to be. It can be a struggle to come to a passage of scripture and look at it with fresh eyes, laying aside all I’ve been taught to believe it says, and to have the Holy Spirit teach me what it means.
One of the scriptures I’ve been meditating on for a few years now is Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” I find this a difficult passage to understand, even after I read it within the context of the surrounding verses. God is making a point that He alone is God: there is no other. Yes, I believe that. This is the same God declared by John to be love (1 John 4:16). Yes, I believe that too. What then, does this passage mean? It doesn’t seem possible that a God who is love would create darkness and calamity but I read these words spoken by God Himself. I want to know and so I present the passage to the Holy Spirit and ask, “What does this mean?” Then I begin a word study.
Being a rather linear, methodical sort of person, I begin my study with “I form the light”. Hebrew is a fascinating language, a language of pictures, and I am not very far into my study before a picture begins to take shape. The Hebrew word for “form” in this passage is yatsar (H3335). The Strong’s Concordance gives this definition: “probably identical with 3334 through the squeezing into shape, to mould into a form; espec as a potter; fig to determine (i.e. to form a resolution):-earthen, fashion, form, frame, make, potter, purpose”.
Of course I want to press on to the creating darkness and calamity part of this passage but I cannot. My attention is seized by this picture of light being squeezed into a shape and being molded into a form. I see Jesus in this brief line of scripture and I am awed by Him. I remember how often Jesus is compared to light, especially John 1:4, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men”, and the words of Jesus Himself in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world”.
While remembering these scriptures among others, I was also reminded that Jesus’ name means “salvation.” His name is Yeshua-Jesus being an anglicized pronunciation-and this is so exciting when I read passages like Isaiah 49:6: “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel: I will also give You as a light (!!!) to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation (yeshua) to the ends of the earth”.
“I form the light”. In these four words, I see Jesus, the Word of God, the One we meet in the act of creating in Genesis One, becoming man. I remember Philippians 2:5-7: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men”. Some translations, including the English Standard Version and New American Standard have “emptied Himself” rather than “made Himself of no reputation”. I find the idea of Jesus emptying Himself to be a stronger word-picture revealing all He sacrificed in order to become man.
I think about 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” I also think about Jesus’ prayer: “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). I think about these scriptures and wonder if I’ve ever really thought about them and I wonder if I’ve ever understood what they mean.
I don’t know that I, finite and human that I am, can understand what it was like for The Creator to become His creation. I ponder the words “squeezed into shape” and “moulded into form” and think it must have been agony. I think about Jesus being “The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) and wonder at the intention of God. There’s a hymn that goes, “O how He loves you and me…He gave His life, what more could He give?” The thought expressed here is the truth: Jesus did give His life on the cross. And yet, He gave so much more than that. He gave His Life, a God-life beyond description, when He became human. He gave His life before He ever got to the cross.
The Creator becoming His creation is an expression of a kind of love which I have not yet begun to understand the breadth and length and height and depth. I am absolutely certain I do not fully understand what it means to be the object of that love. Jesus became one of us. My value then is the life of God Himself. What an identity that is! And, it’s not just mine. His life is the light of humankind and He is salvation to the ends of the earth. The value of every other human being is the life of God Himself.
This then is my prayer in this upcoming week. I pray this love with which I am loved becomes so real to me that it permeates every thought I have and directs every action I take. I pray the same for each of you. May we know what it means to live and move and have our being in Jesus Christ whose life is the light.
Amen.
Unless noted otherwise, scriptures are quoted from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1982
References:
Strong, James, LLD., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990
Renaissance Woman 
You must be logged in to post a comment.