Darkness: The Secret Place

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Published: Tuesday, 14 November 2017 03:27
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Darkness: The Secret Place

By Augusto A. Kho; Mc Donalds Carmen, Rosales, Pangasinan

November 12, 2017 (Sunday); 12:00 Midnight

Updated: November 15,. 2017 (Wednesday); 11:00 A.M.

 

 

The mystery of life begins from darkness

 

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Above photo from the internet

 

Above photo from the internet

 

Genesis 1:2, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. “

 

 

Darkness

Are you afraid of the dark? Phobos is the Greek goddess of fear.

 

Darkness is the polar opposite to brightness. It is the absence of illumination or the lack of visible light. Humans are unable to distinguish color in conditions of either high brightness or darkness according to W. Wundt (1907); “Outline of Psychology.” In conditions of insufficient light, perception is achromatic and ultimately, black, Wundt added.

 

The Holy Scriptures claimed that before the world begun, “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep,” (Genesis 1:2)

 

The emotional response to darkness has generated metaphorical usages of the term in many cultures. Complete darkness is when the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon according to the readings.

 

 

 

Darkness reveals

Sometimes it is when it is dark when mystery is revealed. Our perception of darkness differs from the mere absence of light due to the effects of after images on perception

 

It is during the darkest moment of your life when you will find your weakness and innermost fear. It is from there you”ll find your inner strength. Even Paul mastered his strength during his darkest times when he said, “For Christ’s sake: for when I am weak then I am strong, “ (2 Corinthians 12:10). Also when you’re at your darkest hour when it reveals who will remain faithful to you. .

 

David has not coveted the position of a king. It was Samuel as the Lord commanded the prophet to anoint David as a king in replacement of King Saul. From that time on, David became an object of manhunt from his father –in-law and his whole army.

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Above photo from the internet

 

David in his darkness moment

Let us learned from David in his darkest moment.

 

Jonathan, king Saul’s son became David sole defender and consoler. Jonathan stayed faithful to his friend David,. When King Saul told to his son and to his men to kill David, Jonathan immediately warned his friend David saying, “Be careful and stay hidden in a secret place, “ (1 Samuel 19:2/ ISV). Darkness reveals who our true friend is. It is on darkest hour of your when you will find a true friend who will stay side by side with you no matter how much it cost.

 

David who fears no one though found an opportunity to kill his enemy to defend his life chose not to slay God’s anointed. It was during his life’s darkness that righteousness in him dawned as a light when he spared the life of Saul rather than taking the king’s life into his own hands. It is the light of God that had shine on him. Light conquers darkness. David’s purity of heart has conquered the jealousy and hate that darkened his life. Light can always subdue the darkness of our lives.

 

Jeremiah into darkness
Why God allows darkness to overwhelm us at times. Even the prophet Jeremiah said, “He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into life,” (Lamentation 3:2).

 

 

It is said that God has raised up and appointed Jeremiah as a prophet to the nation, then why would God allows him to experienced wilderness in his life (1 Chr. 12:10), under restraint or surveillance by a wicked king, (Jer. 36:5), witnessed how Jerusalem besieged into ruins by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 37:4-5) in 589 B.C.; cast into prison by a powerful king (37:15-38: 13) and confined in almost absolute darkness?

 

So when Jeremiah said, “He (God) hath led me, and brought me into darkness,” he was talking literally. God sometimes author our journey in the dark for whatever reason that only Him knew.The Lord may allow darkness to oppress us but He will also provide a secret place for our protection. In Psalm 31:20 / ISV, it says, “You will hide them in the secret place of your presence, away from the conspiracies of men. “

 

 

Darkness is always dark but it doesn’t mean that God is no longer with you in the dark.

 

 

Tara Soughers in her book entitled “Treasures of Darkness” writes, “Like most people, I have tried to avoid times of darkness. In the midst of darkness, it can be difficult to see anything worth celebrating. ..There are times when God seems absent in the darkness> There are times when I feel lost and even abandoned … Although the darkness of these stories can be threatening and frightening, it also holds many hidden treasures. Jesus suffered his own darkness. In the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed that the cup should pass him by, on the cross he cried out that God had forsaken him. If that isn’t darkness, I don’t know what darkness is… Perhaps in those times of darkness that wee are given a glimpse of what it means to be really faithful … In the darkness, our faithfulness comes out of a love that expects no rewards .. How can we find those treasures of darkness? “

 

God is always there. God is there even in the midst of darkness.

 

 

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” - Genesis 1:2.

 

 

Darkness in Hebrew “choshek” (kho-shek means “darkness, obscurity (secret place).” Strong: misery, destruction, ignorance, death, sorrow, wickedness, dark, night, obscurity. Meanwhile, the word “waters” in Hebrew “mayyim” means literal or figurative. Figuratively it means “danger, violence, course (of life), or transitory things. In other words, it can be interpreted this way, “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of (your time) of danger.”

 

The word, “Deep “ in Hebrew “tehom” i.e. “deep places, abyss, depths, subterranean water supply.”

 

Lessons from darkness

There are many good lessons from darkness.

 

In my own experience, I’ve found many precious lessons during my darkest times. Darkness may be too scary as if it brings you hopelessness but when you survived and surpassed those obscurities, it is from there that it gives you a greater dimension of understanding of what life is all about. During darkness when God reveals how void life is without Him.

 

Sir Cliff Richard said, 'God looked after me during my darkest hours'. The singer went through two years of hell over sex abuse allegations but never faced charges and spoke out at a charity Gala as reported by Mark Jefferies published in The Mirror dated October 25, 2016. Inspirational writer, Tara Soughers is right when wrote, “There are treasures of darkness and that is finding God when hope is hidden.”

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Photo clip from The Mirror

Treasures in darkness

Isaiah 45:3 says “And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” 

 

Though in Greek mythology, Hades is the god of the underneath treasures (where the rich deposits of minerals are hidden), and the psalmist says, “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Are we not the gold being refined from the depths of darkness? (Zechariah 13:9).

 

Treasures of the deep belongs to God alone. Treasure in Hebrew “otsar”: means “storehouse or treasure of gold, silver, etc); a depository, a cellar. “

 

I once said that “Old men aged.” Old men have grown into maturity of refined character because a grape juice can only be converted into wine once it reached its full maturity of storage period. Aging is a process. Aging requires the fullness of time. The same is true to man of God when God allows you to be somehow in spiritual detention of darkness to squeeze the best (matured) wine in you.

 

Men and women of God found treasures in their darkest times. Abraham obeyed God and offered his only son Isaac and learned righteousness to be called “a friend of God. (2 Chronicles 20:7)” Jacob wrestled with God. (Gen. 32:24). Moses as a former prince of Egypt matured in the wilderness of Midian for 40 years and another 40 years in the wilderness to qualify him as the earth’s meekest man (Numbers 12:3) David ran for his life to be “a man after God’s own heart,” (1 Samuel 13;14).

 

Moses’ dark hour

Is this Moses’ dark hour when he said, “If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!" (Numbers 11:15/ NLT)? How could Moses rant with His God?

 

Israelites first appear in the archaeological record on the Merneptah Stele from between 1208-3 BCE at the end of the Bronze Age. For 430 years, the Jews worked as servants to Egyptian masters according to historian Josephus.

 

For 430 years, the people of Israel waited for the fulfillment of God’s divine covenant to their patriarchs - Abraham, Jacob and Isaac to bring them to the Promise Land. When Moses, a son of Levi was born, Israel’s darkest moment found a glimpse of light. Moses too, thought he was the deliverer but he felt he was a failure then when God decided to destroy the whole nation of the Israelites after all. In Exodus 33:5 the Lord revealed to Moses that He will consume (destroy) all the Israelites for they are stiff-necked people.

 

 

So Moses have lost hope and he have given up and said, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence,” (verse 15). But it was during that dark hour when Moses said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory” (Exodus 33:18). From there that God revealed His glory to Moses. And God have spoken saying, “And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: 23  And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen,” (Exodus 33:21-23).

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The Creation of Light by Gustave Dore

 

In darkness, God speaks. It was during darkness that the Spirit of God hovers above the waters and God said, “Let there be light : and there was light,” (Genesis 1:3). There could be no life without light and light is revealed from the darkness. God is thus so creative. Out from the dark, something is formed, something is made. Julia Cameroon said, “Creativity – like human life itself – begins in darkness.” Look at the life of a child in a mother’s womb! In Moses’ darkest moment, he saw the glory of God as well.

 

 

 

Sardis

We went to the ancient city of Sardis on June 12, 2017. It is not far where the Temple of Artemis is located overlooking the Mount T’molus along the River Lycus.

The American archaeologist Mark Fairchild climbed and stood up straight from the fallen ancient broken pillar and read the Greek inscriptions that are written on the stone. It reads, “phos” and “zoe.” What those ancient Greek words stand for? And what is the Temple of Artemis is to the inhabitants of the ancient Sardis?

 

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Artemis is the Roman name of Greek goddess, Diana, the chief goddess in Ephesus where her 220 years old shining marble is built. Diana’s statue there is 342 feet long and 1264 feet wide.

 

And Paul saw it existing during 262 AD before it was destroyed by the Goths (Acts 19:23-41).

 

Artemis or Diana is the goddess of hunt, Moon and archery. Artemis like the dark haunt her prey and shoot her victim with the dose of fear.

 

And I wonder what Artemis or Diana doing to Sardis where the Seven Churches of Asia is located (Revelation 1:11; 3:1). Why God as Light be in the middle of the dark in Temple of Artemis?

 

 

Light in the dark

God created the light because it is dark. God gave hope of light to the Jews who have been under captivity of darkness for 430 years. Out from the dark, Moses was born to deliver the Israel from the obscurity of despair. Were you born like Moses out from the dark?

 

Moses to stretch for his hand toward heaven : and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days,” (Exodus 10:22). Darkness also in Hebrew “chashak” (khaw-shak) means “to hide.”

 

The Ten Commandments is called the “statutes,” (Hebrew) ‘choq” (khoke) means “ordinance, enactments, decree, specific decrees or law in general, commandments, measures”. Originally “chaqaq” (khaw-kak) means “to cut out, to engrave”. The Ten Commandments is “prescribed’ from darkness when there was no Rule of Law yet. The Law or Torah is made to guide us from obscurity. And when we are walking in the dark, God will guide us by His Words.

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Deut. 5:22, “These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me. “

 

Darkness, a place to hide.

Don’t you wonder why when light dawns, darkness immediately lurks at the corner and on every side? Why? Is it the dark is afraid of light? While darkness is so deep it cannot contained Light. Darkness can never overshadow God. And there is no secret place where dark can hide when there is Light.

 

Oftentimes secret sins are placed in the most darkest place. But God as Light knows whatever things we hid from the dark. Shall we afraid of the light from the dark? Plato once said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

 

Psalm 139:11-12/ NLT, “ I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day.

Darkness and light are the same to you.”

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                                                         Photos above are taken from the internet

 

Remember how David kept his hidden secret pertaining his relationship with Bathsheba? God revealed his secret to the prophet Nathan who later rebuked the king. Hide if you may but God reveals the darkness or the place where you hide yourself. “Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever,” – Isaiah 9:1/ NLT. Sin looms in the dark side of ourselves but in God it fades away. Prophet Isaiah said, “Arise shine for thy light has come for the glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee,” (Isaiah. 60:1).

 

 

Yes, darkness lurks. Light travels at the speed of 399,792 km per second. If you are indeed the light you merely overshadow darkness.

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Photos above are taken from the internet

 

Isaiah 60:1-2, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. “

 

Darkness and life

Greek graffiti at the Temple of Artemis not far from the ancient Church of Sardis writes, “phos” and “zoe.” I wonder why such a holy inscriptions are doing in a profaned Temple of Artemis (Diana)?

 

I came to realize that God as light is always present when there is dark. The dark can not overcome light. Light will always prevail the darkness of our lives. The good always prevail against evil.

 

Phos is the Greek word of “light” while “zoe” speaks of “life.” When there is light then there is life according to Science.

 

 

In Mount Sinai, Egypt is around 7,750 feet above sea level. It is where the Ten Commandments where written by the finger of God. It is the place where the people of Israel wandered for 40 years in a barren, futile-like desert where darkness crept in the night. It is like a place for the dead. Yet it from this place, where the Law have been encoded on the Tablet? From this darkest place of the earth, law is inscribed to rule life. Jeremiah, the prophet described in a gruesome descriptions which is as follows:

 

“Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? ”

- Jeremiah 2:6

 

 

Surprisingly when we climbed to this mountain for 4 hours ascending alone, this mountain as described by Jeremiah as the “land where no man passes through” reveals a living spring on top of the mountain of Sinai as well as greenery. How could such life survives in such a barren condition? A profound mystery can only be answered by God who can create life out from darkness. And I found that there is an equation in the creation of the world from the Written Word of Genesis 1:1-3 and John 1:1-5 and it goes like this:

 

 

 

Equations

Darkness – words (dabar)

Darkness – words (dabar) - Light

Darkness –Words (dabar) – Light - Life (John 1:1-4)

 

 

When night falls, darkness hides what we see in the day. We see nothing, yet we believe. Its purpose is to blind us to self so that we see only God – David Wong

 

 

When darkness sprawling on our lives that we could hardly move and breathe, you may say,

“It’s been so dark right here. O’ Lord give me some light!” But sometimes only in the dark that you see light (Matt. 4:13,16). We often see the dark more than the light. However how we see things in life is how we see God (John 1:3). Annie Dillard once said, “You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is required. The stars neither require it nor demand it.”

 

Darkness can not drive out darkness only light can do that.– Martin Luther King Jr.

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Life could not ever exist nor live without the light. It is the light that gives colors to the vegetation called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis in Biology is the process by which a green plant turns water into carbon dioxide into food when the plant is exposed to light. .

 

Life is always associated with light. And life begins from the word (being spoken). In Christ there is light and in Him there is life. John 8:12 says, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light (phos) of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (zoe). ”

 

The creation of the world begun when there was darkness. This tiny planet Earth is empty and void. But God’s presence is in the midst of darkness. Out from darkness, the Word of God have been spoken. And there was light. And life begins. The Book of Beginning called “Genesis” revealed that to us. Genesis is the start of light and life. But who is the Word where various life came from? The Word was the Lord Christ. That is why, John the Beloved said:

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. ” (John 1:1-5)

 

NOTES:

  • Scriptures qouted from the King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise specified

  • Some photos are taken from the internet

  • Some Biblical verses on Darkness