“If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:11-12
Ever been in a room of total darkness? Unable to see anything, not a glimmer of even you own hand before your eyes.
One can feel terrified, lost and utterly hopeless when in this darkness. I remember during my survival school, during ‘resistance training’, the ‘captors’ locked each airman in separate rooms. Rooms not tall enough to stand straight within, nor reach out your arms without hitting the walls. Cold concrete floor beneath. Commanded to stand in the middle and told ‘they’d know’ if you knelt or sat. The fear in those cells was palpable. Made infinitely worse by the darkness and silence. Left only to the imagination of what lay ahead. It still gets my heart beating fast now, thirty years later. That was the purpose of the exercise.
Souls can feel in utter darkness when in sin. As if buried in the tomb, far from sight and lost, not even able to see itself in the utter darkness. The worst is a soul which locks itself in a cell. He fears to move or call out for help lest he face the wrath of the enemy. Unable to see or hear anything. Hope dwindles and dies leaving the soul knowing it’s internal darkness and feeling God could never find him in that darkness.
“even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
“Adonai El Roi” The God Who sees me.
No matter how dark is the night in which the soul has trapped itself, God can see it. But, what hope is there for such a soul? It fears exactly that, that God can see it, in its shame and sin. Then, in that utter, total darkness there is a tiny flicker of light. Not much, at a far distance, but it is light. Light thought forever lost to the soul. The heart flutters in distant hope. Then, the soul hears a distant voice. As the voice draws near, the soul can hear a word spoken but still unclear. The light comes closer and the voice is louder. Clearly now the soul can hear the word spoken. Spoken through the darkness and distance with the cell the soul had entombed itself, the soul hears his name called.
Sin can bring total, terrifying darkness around the soul. Imprisoning the soul is a cell of its own making. The longer the soul sits in this darkness, the more it’s hope dwindles. Until finally it is afraid of the light. It fear to even approach God. The enemy has whispered words of punishment and the soul has come to believe it deserves God’s hatred. It believes even if it wanted to be found, God wouldn’t find him in the darkness.
Behold the cross. Proof that the Light will come into the darkest of darkness to find the lost soul, entombed in its sin. And, from Heaven itself the Father calls to the soul…”Ed, Ed…I’ve come a long way to take you from you dark prison.”
No matter how dark the cell of you sin may seem, God is Light and no darkness is dark for Him. Even the darkness is light to Jesus as He seeks to free you of your darkness. Have hope and listen to Him call your name. Even in total darkness, He will find you.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” Psalm 139:23-24