Light, Even in Darkness That Can Be Felt

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt."  So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.  No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.  Exodus 10:21-23

Man, what a dense few verses of Gospel goodness I just stumbled upon!  "Darkness that can be felt" is so descriptive of the daily experience of life for so many of my dear friends lately, and oh how I feel it myself, some days more intensely than others.  It's that raw sting of disconnected relationships or even traumatically broken ones.  It's the churning anxiety of mounting expenses and draining bank accounts.  It is felt in the weariness and even guilt of motherhood when the end of the day presents a messier house than the one that may have been cleaned with effort earlier in the day, and children whose hearts cannot be "fixed" by schedules or threats or earnest pleading.  Disapointment, disillusionment and depression.  That "darkness that can be felt" isn't a condition unique to me, or to her, or to him or to us, but is a common experience of the effects of broken shalom.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:20-21

The frustration and the felt darkness are not happening out of control, as a result of chaos, or by the choice of any instrument of the frustration or darkness.  It occurs by the will of the One who subjected it, by the Lord's will and outstretched hand.  And this outstretched hand of frustration isn't for punishment or condemnation, as if the right formula might have prevented it, but is actually used to liberate His creation from bondage.  The Israelites endured the plagues, and years of wandering, to enter the Promised Land.  They were only a small example of God's redemptive work in all of history, of which I am a part and by which I can have hope that any valley of darkness I am led through is a necessary route to freedom.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Cor. 4:4-9


"Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived."  What a succinct statement of the hope we have even in the darkest places.  The very One who made light out of darkness has made his light shine in our hearts.  This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.1 John 1:5  Jesus, who followed every letter of the law perfectly, endured the full intensity of darkness so that I will never know that kind of utter abandonment.  That moment was the last in which darkness was allowed to truly reign.  While it still gets to press, perplex, persecute and even strike down, the darkness can not annihilate God's Kingdom, His goodness, His love or any facet of His character.  I can trust that even a situation I seem to have created, even guilt that is well earned, even in illness and joblessness that couldn't be avoided, in loneliness and disappointment, and in every form of felt darkness, it comes from the trustworthy hand of the One who is making all things new.  It is the Gospel's way of redemptively frustrating (shake shake shake?) creation to make something new, a new creation to which any earlier version pales in comparison, which brings light into the hearts of His people even in the midst of a very dark night -  in Egypt, Gethsemane and Golgotha, and tonight.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."  Rev. 21:3-5