Articles
A Longing for Light
The days are getting longer, and I am not complaining. Throughout Scripture, light and dark are metaphors for good and evil. Light is preferable to the darkness.
In Joshua 10:12-13, the people are given ample light in order to defeat their enemies. We can assume that they would not have been victorious in the darkness. However, in the light, they have victory.
Then Joshua spoke to the LORD on the day when the LORD turned the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
And moon, at the Valley of Aijalon!”
So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.
Is it not written in the Book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hurry to go down for about a whole day.
As Christians, we have the choice of walking in the darkness or walking in the light. We will surely lose our spiritual battles in the darkness. However, “if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Light and darkness is a major theme in the writings of John. This carries forward into the book of Revelation. We walk in the light in this life in anticipation of an eternal life in the light. When we walk in the light, we get a small taste of what it will be like to truly live in the presence of unending light. We read of a time when, “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5). The book of Revelation is not the only place we find this. We also encounter this sort of language in Isaiah 60:19-20.
No longer will you have the sun for light by day,
Nor will the moon give you light for brightness;
But you will have the LORD as an everlasting light,
And your God as your glory.
Your sun will no longer set,
Nor will your moon wane;
For you will have the LORD as an everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning will be over.
As the days get longer and longer, let us contemplate the day when the light will never cease, because God, the true light, will be always fully present.
