In The Dark

Trusting God in the Dark

Sunday, November 18, 2018

8:04 AM

Isaiah 50:10-11 (KJV)

10 Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.

11 Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

While darkness isn't always night time - so often it is nighttime. It is interesting to think of all the things that happened in the dark in the Bible

Night is a foreboding time, even scary. We associate it with the unknown.

Night can also be a very spiritual time. I sometimes study at night - it can be some of the quieter times in my house.

The writers of the Bible felt the same way. When your life is troubled you don’t look forward to the night. Job said: 4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

In Psalm 30:5 it says: 5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

It’s natural to feel all alone at night but fortunately we are never far from God’s care.

The Bible also contains a symbolic view of the night. Night stands for the spiritual darkness of people’s minds. John 11:10 says: 10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

An example of this is the traitor Judas. John 13:30 tells us: “As soon as Judas had taken the bread he went out. And it was night.”

Darkness stands for the evil age we live in. Romans 13:12: 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Spiritually, Christians shouldn’t belong to the night. 1 Thessalonians 5:7-8 warns us:7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Two great salvation events associated with the night. At the birth of Jesus, shepherds are said to have watched their flocks during the night (Luke 2:8).

And at the Second Coming of Jesus it is the nighttime that is portrayed:Mark 13:35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: 36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

Of course, Jesus could come back at any hour of the day, and it will happen at different hours for people around the world. But it is interesting that it is the hours of darkness that are highlighted here.

Night is not forever. Revelation 22:5 tells us that night is one of the things that will pass away when we see God face to face. 5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

But for now we are walking in the darkness of this world - While this no doubt was first written to the remnant of Jews during the ministry of Isaiah I think it applies well to us today as well. We are living in an age of darkness, of confusion, of so much learning but no real increase of knowledge or wisdom.

The first part of the chapter Christ is showing that He did not abandon his people.

God asks through Isaiah rhetorically, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, or whom I have put away?..." along with some other questions. He is telling them - I did not leave you, you left me You walked away.

But down in verse 10 where I am talking tonight he asks some more questions - and these are not rhetorical - I want you to catch the synonymous parallelism a fancy word for a form of Hebrew Poetry they are two similar things that mean the same thing.

Who among you fears the Lord? That obeys the voice of the servant?

Who is the Lord? Whoever the "Lord" is equated as "the servant" Someday I want to do a sermon or series on this "Servant of Isaiah" It is the Lord Jesus Christ -

Who Fears the Lord and who obeys the voice of his servant?

Then he asks - Who is walking in darkness and has no light?

Dr. John Oswalt a tremendous teacher and commentator on the book of Isaiah I personally think one of the greatest scholars on the book of Isaiah says of these two verses 10 and 11 there only two options when you walk in the dark.

You can light your own fire - This hasn't worked real well in the past. Nadab and Abihu In Leviticus 10, Numbers 3, Numbers 26, 1 Chronicles 24 all bear the sad tale of what happens when people bring strange fire before the Lord - they were consumed, they were killed.These men were not accustomed to the false - they had been with Moses, Aaron, and the Seventy elders up on the mountain in Exodus 24:8-10 where they "Saw the God of Isreal: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness." They saw this, they were a part of this - they new what the real presence of the Lord was and they wanted something else - substitutes will always fall short of the real thingPeople are trying to light their own fires today - Through education - education is not wrong or bad, but using it as a substitute for God isTrying to make our own way instead of asking what God wants us to doGod says, "This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." It will bring pain and sorrow. Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end therof are the ways of death. Or you can be like the person in verse 10 - If you fear and obey the Lord, but you are walking in the dark, you don't seem to have any light - YOU CAN TRUST IN THE NAME OF THE LORD AND STAY or RELY UPON YOUR GOD

Here Isaiah is telling us that just because you follow God doesn't mean you won't have some dark times - its what we do in those dark times that is so important.