Light Has Come, Chapter 1

The Darkness

Key Verse: Isaiah 9:2-3

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.

Once upon a time before time, there was no darkness, only light, because God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. His creation was to be a grand stage for his light to bring warmth and happiness and wholeness to everyone and everything flourishing under his care. Tragically, in God’s perfect garden of light, Adam and Eve rejected his light and with their fall came a suffocating darkness upon all humanity and all of creation.

In the verses just before God’s promise through Isaiah that on those in deep darkness light has shone, he shows us our dilemma. Verses 8:21-22 say, ”And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.” We instinctively look to creation rather than the Creator; we have been deceived by our darkness that our happily ever after will be brought about by someone or something that is itself locked in inescapable darkness.

Darkness frightens. In our darkness we have witnessed, suffered, and perpetrated evil and hurt. In our darkness we have believed that we are forever on our own. This is the root of our fear and the source of all of the pain we see and experience in this world. Billions of frightened people in darkness, fighting for survival.

Darkness deceives. Since we have believed that the root problem of the world’s darkness is out there somewhere, we have become quite certain that we can solve the problem on our own; that we can bring the light that chases away darkness forever. 

Darkness conceals. We are unaware of its severity, for ours is a darkness that is more than around us…it is inside of us, emanating from us. As long as we believe the darkness of our world originates somewhere outside of us, we will never escape it. We are consumed by a cloak of darkness that prevents us from seeing how things truly are. 

The Light that dispels all fear, reveals all truth, and liberates captives is coming from God. He will reverses the darkness and swallow it up in the warmth of His glow. And so we look to him alone. The great light that shines on those in darkness has arrived. Lying in a manger on the outskirts of Bethlehem, Light has come.