“Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. 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 you have kindled. This shall you have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” Isaiah 50:10-11
WHAT IS THE DARKNESS?
This passage is addressing one who fears the Lord and obeys the commands of Christ, and yet “walks in darkness and has no light.” This seems odd in light of the scripture that says “those who walk in darkness and say they know the Lord, lie and the truth is not in them.” Therefore, I think we must conclude that the darkness spoken of in Is 50:10 does not symbolizes evil, as elsewhere in scripture.
I believe this darkness is something almost every Christian will experience, its a time where God seems silent, hidden and indifferent; where God seems to be all talk and no action. For example; Joseph whom the Lord promised so much through his dreams as a boy, was later sold into slavery by his brothers, only to later be falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison. The bible says in the Psalms; “the Word of the God tested him,” This was Joseph's time of darkness and it went on for over a decade.
Consider the Israelites who wondered in the desert. God said, He “let them hunger and thirst in the wilderness, to test what was in their heart.” This was their time of darkness... God allowed them to almost thirst to death before coming through for them, but the Israelites miserably failed the test.
Take Job who was a righteous and just man, whom God prospered because He liked him so much. Nevertheless, as a result of a challenge from Satan, he lost his children, his wealth and his health in a day. To top it off he had condemning counselors and worst of all, he could not get an answer or clue from God what he did wrong, this was his time of darkness.
ARE WE KINDLEING A FIRE?
Isaiah 50:10 exhorts those who walk in darkness to trust and rely upon the Lord. But the passage does not stop there, but goes on to warn us not to “kindle a fire and walk in the mist of the sparks we have kindled.” What does this mean?
I remember being alive and finding great delight in Him. I wanted to witness to everyone I met, His Word was more satisfying then the finest food and I wept during my intercession for others. I once was able to dance and run in circles because of my excitement over the fact that He loves me! I had energy, He was everything to me and I acknowledged Him in all I did.
But one day it was like the lights were turned off, suddenly the sweetness of being with Him was a cloudy dream; like a distant memory that does not quite seem real anymore. It was as if I misplaced my affection for the Lord and I grow weary in my search for it. God seemed like someone I made up in my head. My confidence was washed out and faded as I looked at the long laundry list of crushed hopes and shattered expectations. My faith seemed blind and the bible read like a old history text book and my A.D.D kicked into overdrive every time I tried to pray. The former positive experiences with the Lord were snowed under by all the present negatives; it was like my computer crashed and all the good memories were erased. I felt dependent on Him and yet He seemed unconcerned with my spiritual welfare and I felt left on my own; doomed to fail time and again, while feeling He would not help me tell I somehow got my act together.
Therefore, I became weak and vulnerable to the enemy who has a knack at kicking us while we're down; by stimulating the lust of the flesh and sowing seeds of the cares of this life. When this darkness settles on us like a heavy blanket, it is easy to go looking for cigarette lighters; yes during these times of His absence (darkness), we try to replace Him (light little fires) with relationships, hobbies, addictive past-times, partying shopping, cyber-communications, music, TV, golf, higher-education, carriers, idleness, busyness, friends, family, and religious work. This is what I believe “lighting for ourselves a fire” may refer too, not that these are all bad things, but hey, sex is a good thing, but taken out of its rightful place, it is dangerous, consuming and leads to broken lives and STDs.
We have a void that cannot be filled; we're only happy when something refreshing is going down our bottomless pit, but it's a nagging thirst that cannot be quenched. Here comes the problem, yes we are always thirsty and when we are thirsty we want to drink, but to much of any good thing is deadly and desire easily makes good things twisted and creates Frankensteins and cruel masters that rule and dictate our lives. Everything in extreme is destructive, the only exception is we cannot have to much of the Lord.
God saw to it that He would never 'fill' our void, God made us the bottomless pit, why? so we would always need MORE of Him, the more we have of Him, the more Christlike we become, which is His desire for us. But we replace him and try to fill the pit with drugs, alcohol, people, possessions, money and long list of other culturally acceptable things. No wonder our lives are such a freaking mess.
When we become a Christian, it is like getting married; we vow to be faithful and love to Him alone, for better and for worse, for rich and poor, tell through death we actually meet. But when our love for Him has gone into hibernation and it seems He has tossed us to the piranhas, it is easy to forget the vow and go off and seek affection from lesser loves.
There is a worship song, that says “All of You is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need, You satisfy me with Your love and all I have in You is more than enough” but, as much as I wish this was true, it does not seem to be, for we all look for security, love, financial stability, identity and meaning apart from Him. is He in any true sense more then enough? If we had a gourmet feast in front of us, we would not go looking in the garbage for food. We would not be striking matches for light, if we where experiencing the radiance of the sun!
Do we feel equally secure when our bank account is plump as when we're digging in the couch for two nickels to rub together to create warmth for our cold toes? if the Lord is our security and provider, it should not matter if we don't have a penny and all the bills are due the next day. Yet we want that credit card as our trusty twig to fall back on, we want the warmth and light of money, though it burns to nothing to moment we touch it.
Oh that we could find security, affirmation, acceptance, meaning, status, value and love in the Lord, I believe our relationship with God can be that deep and intimate. Yet this is so rarely experienced. So few have even had any sort of honeymoon time with God to look back to and so few have stood in His light which makes everything beautiful and alive. No wonder they keep lighting their matches, burning their fingers and stumbling about in the darkness, and later watch in horror, as their house go up in flames.
WHAT MUST WE DO DURING OUR TIME OF DARKNESS?
Lets suppose there was a man named Peter who married a beautiful girl named Liz and just a little while after their honeymoon, he was drafted and shipped off to some war. At this point Peter would not be able meet many of Liz' felt needs. But even though she wants security and love from a man, it would be wrong go out on a date with a good looking, rich and charming young man who takes interest in her while her husband is in combat.
Liz being away from her husband would be like a darkness, and the man who takes interest in her would be her opportunity to 'kindle a fire', bringing illumination to her dark situation. Her need causes her to be much more vulnerable to temptation, yet it would not only wrong for her to enter a relationship with this man, it would be destructive and damaging to her and others in the long-run. So it is no surprise the passage exhorting us to not kindle our own fire, follows with this warning: “and this you shall receive from my hand, you shall lay down in torment.”
What should she do, during this time? Most simply, she must endure and wait, and let those needs pile up and go unmet. No fun at all, but her resisting temptation, going without and staying pure, would prove her love to her husband. This would be a test that could show her love for him was like pure gold. For she was faithful even when his love was doing nothing for her; even though she could not see, feel or hear him. This I think is what God wants from us. He allows us to experience these times of His absence, to see if we will remain faithful.
Are we going to be products of our culture? We live among a people who just switch churches when there is one little thing they dislike, They divorce because they feel their no longer in “love” with their spouse. Yes, ours is a generation that switches majors in college repeatedly and goes from carrier to carrier, never sticking it out, never enduring,
This is the ultimate test. Will we delay gratification and pleasure, will we suffer loss and be persecuted for doing what is right? will we continue to hope, trust and long for Him, even when it seems He has forsaken us?
During our wait in blackness, the passage exhorts us to “Trust in the Lord, and rely upon our God”
God who cannot lie, is the one who speaks of the wedding that is coming, the time the bride of Christ will be clothed in the righteous acts of the saints and be united to her Lord and Saviour. Our time of waiting will not last forever! We need not be like those without hope. The root of waiting is hope, the reason we say 'no thanks' to the junk food that is offered to us now, is that we know we will soon be dinning with King. Oh we have such a great reason to be faithful!
The woman in my illustration earlier, cannot even be sure her husband will come back alive from the war, yet we have exceedingly great and precious promises from the Lord, that if we remain faithful, we will be united to Him and that time of the dark separation will be swallowed by the light of His presence. Therefore, may we suffer our desires and needs to go unmet for a time, that later we may receive something much better then anything we could have had on this earth.
We were created for Him, not the cheap imitations on earth. O how foolish we are, though we're offered infinite joy, innumerable riches and peace unspeakable if only we wait, we don't wait! We settle for shallow paper-thin joys, riches that will perish and we put our security in vanity, building our lives on shifting sands. Oh, what fools we are! Oh how many sorrows we pierce ourselves with needlessly! Oh that we would wake up to this reality! Oh, that we could say with Paul, “I suffered the loss of all things that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.” Oh that we could see He worth the loss of all things.
I exhort you that when he does not seems present or real to you, don’t turn on the TV, or fill your tank with other stuff, food and pass-times, for it is better to go with out. Yet, we're always doing something, this is an active waiting, so during our time of Darkness, We MUST learn to be disciplined!
Tell me what happens when we loose our appetite for food? We no longer want to eat. Now what happens if we stop eating altogether? We die. We must feed on His Word, pray and seek God, even when we have no spiritual appetite, or we will began to waste away spiritual.
God may allow our appetite for the scripture, fellowship, prayer and for the Lord to be taken away, In order to see what is in our heart, to see if we will start reading novels instead, or start seeking to get our needs met through vain relationships.
I implore you. Even when you are not spiritually hungry, EAT, yes discipline yourselves, force yourselves to eat, stuff it down your face, make someone else force it down your throat, or you will die! The only way to awaken the dead appetite is to EAT. And understand that when you try to eat and yet cannot get it to digest, cannot get any nourishment or pleasure from it, to just be love sick and be miserable and wait on the Lord and He will come through in His time. Amen.
WHAT IS THE DARKNESS?
This passage is addressing one who fears the Lord and obeys the commands of Christ, and yet “walks in darkness and has no light.” This seems odd in light of the scripture that says “those who walk in darkness and say they know the Lord, lie and the truth is not in them.” Therefore, I think we must conclude that the darkness spoken of in Is 50:10 does not symbolizes evil, as elsewhere in scripture.
I believe this darkness is something almost every Christian will experience, its a time where God seems silent, hidden and indifferent; where God seems to be all talk and no action. For example; Joseph whom the Lord promised so much through his dreams as a boy, was later sold into slavery by his brothers, only to later be falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison. The bible says in the Psalms; “the Word of the God tested him,” This was Joseph's time of darkness and it went on for over a decade.
Consider the Israelites who wondered in the desert. God said, He “let them hunger and thirst in the wilderness, to test what was in their heart.” This was their time of darkness... God allowed them to almost thirst to death before coming through for them, but the Israelites miserably failed the test.
Take Job who was a righteous and just man, whom God prospered because He liked him so much. Nevertheless, as a result of a challenge from Satan, he lost his children, his wealth and his health in a day. To top it off he had condemning counselors and worst of all, he could not get an answer or clue from God what he did wrong, this was his time of darkness.
ARE WE KINDLEING A FIRE?
Isaiah 50:10 exhorts those who walk in darkness to trust and rely upon the Lord. But the passage does not stop there, but goes on to warn us not to “kindle a fire and walk in the mist of the sparks we have kindled.” What does this mean?
I remember being alive and finding great delight in Him. I wanted to witness to everyone I met, His Word was more satisfying then the finest food and I wept during my intercession for others. I once was able to dance and run in circles because of my excitement over the fact that He loves me! I had energy, He was everything to me and I acknowledged Him in all I did.
But one day it was like the lights were turned off, suddenly the sweetness of being with Him was a cloudy dream; like a distant memory that does not quite seem real anymore. It was as if I misplaced my affection for the Lord and I grow weary in my search for it. God seemed like someone I made up in my head. My confidence was washed out and faded as I looked at the long laundry list of crushed hopes and shattered expectations. My faith seemed blind and the bible read like a old history text book and my A.D.D kicked into overdrive every time I tried to pray. The former positive experiences with the Lord were snowed under by all the present negatives; it was like my computer crashed and all the good memories were erased. I felt dependent on Him and yet He seemed unconcerned with my spiritual welfare and I felt left on my own; doomed to fail time and again, while feeling He would not help me tell I somehow got my act together.
Therefore, I became weak and vulnerable to the enemy who has a knack at kicking us while we're down; by stimulating the lust of the flesh and sowing seeds of the cares of this life. When this darkness settles on us like a heavy blanket, it is easy to go looking for cigarette lighters; yes during these times of His absence (darkness), we try to replace Him (light little fires) with relationships, hobbies, addictive past-times, partying shopping, cyber-communications, music, TV, golf, higher-education, carriers, idleness, busyness, friends, family, and religious work. This is what I believe “lighting for ourselves a fire” may refer too, not that these are all bad things, but hey, sex is a good thing, but taken out of its rightful place, it is dangerous, consuming and leads to broken lives and STDs.
We have a void that cannot be filled; we're only happy when something refreshing is going down our bottomless pit, but it's a nagging thirst that cannot be quenched. Here comes the problem, yes we are always thirsty and when we are thirsty we want to drink, but to much of any good thing is deadly and desire easily makes good things twisted and creates Frankensteins and cruel masters that rule and dictate our lives. Everything in extreme is destructive, the only exception is we cannot have to much of the Lord.
God saw to it that He would never 'fill' our void, God made us the bottomless pit, why? so we would always need MORE of Him, the more we have of Him, the more Christlike we become, which is His desire for us. But we replace him and try to fill the pit with drugs, alcohol, people, possessions, money and long list of other culturally acceptable things. No wonder our lives are such a freaking mess.
When we become a Christian, it is like getting married; we vow to be faithful and love to Him alone, for better and for worse, for rich and poor, tell through death we actually meet. But when our love for Him has gone into hibernation and it seems He has tossed us to the piranhas, it is easy to forget the vow and go off and seek affection from lesser loves.
There is a worship song, that says “All of You is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need, You satisfy me with Your love and all I have in You is more than enough” but, as much as I wish this was true, it does not seem to be, for we all look for security, love, financial stability, identity and meaning apart from Him. is He in any true sense more then enough? If we had a gourmet feast in front of us, we would not go looking in the garbage for food. We would not be striking matches for light, if we where experiencing the radiance of the sun!
Do we feel equally secure when our bank account is plump as when we're digging in the couch for two nickels to rub together to create warmth for our cold toes? if the Lord is our security and provider, it should not matter if we don't have a penny and all the bills are due the next day. Yet we want that credit card as our trusty twig to fall back on, we want the warmth and light of money, though it burns to nothing to moment we touch it.
Oh that we could find security, affirmation, acceptance, meaning, status, value and love in the Lord, I believe our relationship with God can be that deep and intimate. Yet this is so rarely experienced. So few have even had any sort of honeymoon time with God to look back to and so few have stood in His light which makes everything beautiful and alive. No wonder they keep lighting their matches, burning their fingers and stumbling about in the darkness, and later watch in horror, as their house go up in flames.
WHAT MUST WE DO DURING OUR TIME OF DARKNESS?
Lets suppose there was a man named Peter who married a beautiful girl named Liz and just a little while after their honeymoon, he was drafted and shipped off to some war. At this point Peter would not be able meet many of Liz' felt needs. But even though she wants security and love from a man, it would be wrong go out on a date with a good looking, rich and charming young man who takes interest in her while her husband is in combat.
Liz being away from her husband would be like a darkness, and the man who takes interest in her would be her opportunity to 'kindle a fire', bringing illumination to her dark situation. Her need causes her to be much more vulnerable to temptation, yet it would not only wrong for her to enter a relationship with this man, it would be destructive and damaging to her and others in the long-run. So it is no surprise the passage exhorting us to not kindle our own fire, follows with this warning: “and this you shall receive from my hand, you shall lay down in torment.”
What should she do, during this time? Most simply, she must endure and wait, and let those needs pile up and go unmet. No fun at all, but her resisting temptation, going without and staying pure, would prove her love to her husband. This would be a test that could show her love for him was like pure gold. For she was faithful even when his love was doing nothing for her; even though she could not see, feel or hear him. This I think is what God wants from us. He allows us to experience these times of His absence, to see if we will remain faithful.
Are we going to be products of our culture? We live among a people who just switch churches when there is one little thing they dislike, They divorce because they feel their no longer in “love” with their spouse. Yes, ours is a generation that switches majors in college repeatedly and goes from carrier to carrier, never sticking it out, never enduring,
This is the ultimate test. Will we delay gratification and pleasure, will we suffer loss and be persecuted for doing what is right? will we continue to hope, trust and long for Him, even when it seems He has forsaken us?
During our wait in blackness, the passage exhorts us to “Trust in the Lord, and rely upon our God”
God who cannot lie, is the one who speaks of the wedding that is coming, the time the bride of Christ will be clothed in the righteous acts of the saints and be united to her Lord and Saviour. Our time of waiting will not last forever! We need not be like those without hope. The root of waiting is hope, the reason we say 'no thanks' to the junk food that is offered to us now, is that we know we will soon be dinning with King. Oh we have such a great reason to be faithful!
The woman in my illustration earlier, cannot even be sure her husband will come back alive from the war, yet we have exceedingly great and precious promises from the Lord, that if we remain faithful, we will be united to Him and that time of the dark separation will be swallowed by the light of His presence. Therefore, may we suffer our desires and needs to go unmet for a time, that later we may receive something much better then anything we could have had on this earth.
We were created for Him, not the cheap imitations on earth. O how foolish we are, though we're offered infinite joy, innumerable riches and peace unspeakable if only we wait, we don't wait! We settle for shallow paper-thin joys, riches that will perish and we put our security in vanity, building our lives on shifting sands. Oh, what fools we are! Oh how many sorrows we pierce ourselves with needlessly! Oh that we would wake up to this reality! Oh, that we could say with Paul, “I suffered the loss of all things that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.” Oh that we could see He worth the loss of all things.
I exhort you that when he does not seems present or real to you, don’t turn on the TV, or fill your tank with other stuff, food and pass-times, for it is better to go with out. Yet, we're always doing something, this is an active waiting, so during our time of Darkness, We MUST learn to be disciplined!
Tell me what happens when we loose our appetite for food? We no longer want to eat. Now what happens if we stop eating altogether? We die. We must feed on His Word, pray and seek God, even when we have no spiritual appetite, or we will began to waste away spiritual.
God may allow our appetite for the scripture, fellowship, prayer and for the Lord to be taken away, In order to see what is in our heart, to see if we will start reading novels instead, or start seeking to get our needs met through vain relationships.
I implore you. Even when you are not spiritually hungry, EAT, yes discipline yourselves, force yourselves to eat, stuff it down your face, make someone else force it down your throat, or you will die! The only way to awaken the dead appetite is to EAT. And understand that when you try to eat and yet cannot get it to digest, cannot get any nourishment or pleasure from it, to just be love sick and be miserable and wait on the Lord and He will come through in His time. Amen.
