Light and darknessThe conflicting themes of light and darkness fill the Bible from creation to the end of the book of Revelation. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all,[2] and he has existed from eternity past. Yet when God first created the physical universe, it was filled with darkness until God said, “Let there be light”[3] Light flooded the physical cosmos and God saw that the light was good, but he kept both light and darkness.
On earth he separated the light from the darkness, calling the light “day” and the darkness “night”. Perhaps this is our first hint in scripture that the universe was to be a place of conflicting ideals. Creation continued with each day adding more wonders to God’s lovely world until it was finished, whereupon God declared it “very good”.[4] The world was full of living things that were dependent on both light and darkness, and nothing would continue to live without that
ongoing rhythm of day and night. Yet in the heat of the day, we will often seek out a patch of cool darkness under a tree or roof, while at night we often carry a torch to dispel the inconvenient darkness. In fact, most animals carry around with them their own personal tools to exclude the light. We call them eyelids and they block out the light when it is inconvenient. We’ll talk about that more later. Although God is light, he created both light and darkness[5]
and uses them as object lessons to teach us about right and wrong. Many writers in the Bible acknowledge this link, referring to both light and darkness together. For example, when David says that light comes from God he acknowledges what light can do: “For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens
my darkness.” 2 Samuel 22:29 David’s son, Solomon, aligns the extremes of light and darkness with those of wisdom and folly: “Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.” Ecclesiastes 2:13 In the Law of Moses, the annual Day of Atonement was a day for people to make themselves right with God by acknowledging their sins and denying themselves (which included fasting). Over the years, it seems that their self-denial became a sham, a way of looking righteous instead of being righteous. God condemns this hypocrisy in Isaiah 58 and describes a better way: “…if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.” Isaiah 58:10 Actively helping the underfed and troubled shines light in the darkness of a world that doesn’t care.
Not only so, but it causes light to flourish in us so that even the darkest parts of us will be light. Jesus also exhorted his followers to do their best to give glory to God, not themselves.[6] It is easy for us to lose our focus on God’s light and focus on ourselves instead. John 3:16 is a very well-known verse, but it is closely followed by an incisive assessment of our world: “And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the
light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.” John 3:19-21 Jesus is the light of the world[7] and was crucified for exactly the reason given above – evil people saw his light and hated him. People who loved light, however, followed Jesus and soon spread the light all over the world. In physical terms, however, light is something positive; darkness is nothing. As long as the light keeps shining,
darkness will never win.[8] However, there are those who pervert light and darkness. Their goal is to stop the light shining. If they succeed, darkness can spread everywhere: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter
for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20 This approach is something we are familiar with from the last century. We even see it in colloquial language where the meanings of words are deliberately reversed (eg. wicked to mean excellent; bad to mean good; sick to mean very good). As shown by Isaiah, writing 2,700 years ago, this concept is nothing new. After all, if you can confuse the meanings of words enough, God’s unchanging words
from long ago will lose their meaning and can be ignored! This is a sign of people choosing not to see, deliberately closing their eyes to the light of truth. When writing to believers in Corinth, Paul asked a simple rhetorical question: “…what fellowship has light with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14 There can be no cooperation between the two. At creation, God made light in the universe, and when someone chooses to follow the light of God, they are a new creation:[9] “...for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as
children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” Ephesians 5:8-12 God’s ultimate plan is to fill the universe with light and remove darkness completely.[10] But we don’t have to wait until then to
join in his plan: the true light is already shining, so let’s revel in – and reflect – its brilliance.[11] For the upright, this is the beautiful direction of life: “…the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” Proverbs 4:18 [to be continued…] Notes[1] A dipole is a pair of equal and oppositely charged or magnetised poles separated by a distance.
[2] 1 John 1:5
[3] Genesis 1:1-3
[4] Genesis 1:31
[5] Isaiah 45:7
[6] Matthew 5:14-16; 6:22-23; Luke 11:33-36; John 15:8
[7] John 8:12; 9:5
[8] Psalm 27:1; Psalm 36:9; Psalm 56:13; Isaiah 58:8; John 1:5; 16:33; Romans 13:12
[9] See also John 12:46; 2
Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
[10] Isaiah 60:19-20; Revelation 21:23-24; Revelation 22:5
[11] 1 John 2:8
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