From Darkness to Light

Post date: Sep 15, 2014 1:22:09 AM

Today I was considering the meaning of the word darkness. It has been a practice of mine while doing any biblical study to seek for correct word translations. It is not my intent to start a theological debate over a words’ usage but only to share with you a few incites which I believe will surprise you as they did with me.

Genesis 1: 4 “And God saw the light was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Light: Hebrew word “owr” meaning: illumination, lightening, happiness

Darkness: Hebrew word “choshek” meaning: misery, sorrow, death, destruction, darkness, ignorance, night, wickedness.

These words have helped to enhance my understanding of this scripture:

“And God separated the light (illumination, happiness) from the misery, sorrow, death, destruction, ignorance, wickedness or darkness.”

It is reasonable to assume from this example that it was not God’s will for man to experience the negative effects of evil. Adam’s original act of disobedience caused mankind to free-fall from the intimate presence and protective influence of God.

1 Peter 5:8 "… Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

Recently I was talking with a friend who shared with me the details surrounding the death of his wife. A wave of compassion flooded my soul as I listened since I felt his pain and saw his emotional scars. To a degree I understood his grief since as a 4 year old child I experienced a similar trauma when I eye-witnessed the accidental burning and death of my grandmother. The memory of this tragic event lingered in my thoughts throughout my childhood relentlessly harassing my young mind and scarring my tender emotions. Time eventually blurred the vivid images but the reoccurring nightmares that I experienced as a child and the disabling sense of insecurity that I felt, as a young adult, remained flooding my soul with sorrow, ignorance and death. Jesus queried in Matthew 6: 22 “if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?”

John 8:12 "…I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

The Oxford dictionary defines the word darkness to be the “absence of light”. Spiritual darkness is therefore the absence of spiritual light. Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus describes the devil in this way; ( John 10:10) “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…”  James 4:7 says “resist the devil and he will flee from you”. It was hard for me to resist when I held the world’s ill-conceived view that the devil is just another religious myth and that my misfortune was only a product of circumstance. This view numbed my thoughts to the subject of heaven, hell and the eternal spirit.

1 Peter 2:9-10 "But you are a chosen generation , a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His special people; that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Who once were not a people, but now are the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

Gospel: Hebrew word “eauggelizo” meaning: to announce good news/glad tidings

Bible: Greek translation “Biblia” meaning the “Books” containing the sacred scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

When I was fifteen years old I met a man who shared the story of his miraculous deliverance from drugs and alcohol. After tragedy invaded my life for a second time it was this testimony that encouraged me to seek the scriptures for the God of miracles. It was then that I realized it was God who had planted a seed of hope in heart when He inspired this man to share the good news with me.

James 1:17 "…Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

It has been 35 years since Jesus first entered through the door of my heart. His presence shattered the darkness within me and flooded my soul with an overwhelming sense of peace and hope. In just a few years following my first encounter with God I had experienced a miraculous deliverance from death, the assurance of divine acceptance, healing for my bruised emotions, a physical healing, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, my wife’s miraculous conversion and a hunger for the Word of God which was accompanied by a continuous flow of scriptural revelation.

Colossians 1:9-14 "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That you might walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened will all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy; Giving thanks unto the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and conveyed us unto the kingdom of the Son of His love: In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins…"