(410) – IF… 1

If darkness is the place where is done only evil, for Jehovah says to Ezekiel, the prophet: “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery?” (Ezek. 8:12), if darkness is the place of the shadows of death, for the psalmist says to Israel: “Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron” (Ps. 107:10; Job 3:5; 10:21-22; 34:22), darkness is the place of criminal plots, for Job says: “The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face. In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light. For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness” (Job 24:14-17).

If darkness is the place where there is only evil, and where the evil men practice evil works, for they hate the light and love darkness, as the apostle John declares, saying: “This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed” (John 3:19-20).

If whoever walks in darkness, does not know where he is going, as Jesus says: “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going” (John 12:35).

If whoever walks in darkness has fellowship with Belial (wickedness), for this reason the apostle Paul says: “Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor. 6:14-15).

If the works of darkness include all forms of corruption: “But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate; but rather giving of thanks. Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Therefore don’t be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:3-8).

If the Holy Spirit of God asks that we do not communicate with the fruitless works of darkness, for what they do in hiding is improper to say in the open (Eph. 5:11-12).

If the one who is in darkness is under the power of Satan, Jesus said to Paul: “But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you; delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Eph. 5:11-12).

If the condemned will all be cast into darkness, for Jesus said: “but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12).

If darkness is the place where the principalities and powers that fight the Christians: “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

If darkness is the hiding place where the murders of Jesus plotted his death, and so Jesus said to princes and priests: “Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and elders, who had come against him, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you in the temple daily, you didn’t stretch out your hands against me. But this is your hour, and power of darkness” (Luke 22:52-53).

If there is no darkness in Jesus, only light, for he said: “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

If God, the Father, is light and there is no darkness in him (1 John 1:5), why did Jehovah manifest himself in darkness? When Jehovah gave the Ten Commandment on Mount Sinai, the text says: “The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (Ex. 20:21). And Moses declared to the people: “These words He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely on his God spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me. It happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders” (Ex. 5:22-23).

How has Jehovah hidden in darkness, if where there is light, is there not darkness? David said: “He made darkness his hiding place” (Ps. 18:11).  It seems to us that Jehovah is the god of the darkness, therefore his people walked in total darkness (Is. 59:9-10).

Jehovah is not light, for Isaiah said: “He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely on his God” (Is. 50:10).

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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