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H. Hoeksema
Walking in Darkness

"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. 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." (Isaiah 50:10,11)

Terrifying experience!

Walking in darkness!

Thick darkness is all around you. You find yourself in unfamiliar regions, in places unknown to you. You find yourself on a path that you never walked before and that you do not know; the direction the path takes is hidden from you, and its end you cannot see.

The night is dark -- so dark that you cannot know what lies right before your feet, so that you are not confident about even one step you take. Besides, you have no flashlight that you can switch on, so that in the darkness of the night you can at least illuminate your immediate surroundings with it. Yet you must go forward. If you could just remain where you are, where you feel the ground under your feet, in order to wait for the dawn, then you would not be so fearful and anxious. Yet there is no possibility of your standing still, of resting there. You must always move forward. No matter how dreadful uncertainty may grip your heart and seize your mind, no matter that with every step you must anticipate that you could stumble and fall down into the ditch, you must move forward, always forward.

Such is the picture that the text presents to our mind's eye. God's word here speaks of walking in darkness.

In this figure is portrayed the life, the pilgrim's journey of the individual Christian and of the church of the Lord in all ages. Especially three elements are found in this description. First, the element not only of uncertainty and unfamiliarity with the way that God's child has been called to walk in the world, but also of complete ignorance regarding the immediate future. He walks in darkness. He does not see the way that lies before him. He does not know what his circumstances will be in the next moment. From the perspective of the things that are seen, he proceeds toward an unknown future. Second, from the same viewpoint there is in this figure the element of ignorance regarding the end. He does not see any way out. The end of the way is hidden from his eyes. He cannot see where he is walking, nor can he see the end of his way. His destination, from the viewpoint of the things that are seen, is not in sight. Third, there is in the figure of walking in darkness the idea of danger, specifically, unknown and unseen dangers that threaten him -- dangers of the path itself, dangers of depths, precipice, and abyss, and dangers of stalking enemies who threaten to attack and are intent on killing him.

Indeed, a true and poignant figure.

So it is with the church in the world. So it is throughout the history of the church. From the viewpoint of the things that are seen, she walks a hopeless journey. She does not see the way on which she must walk, and confidence escapes her. She does not see the end that she confesses to be the object of her hope. She is always threatened by enemies who attempt to devour her and who appear to have gained the victory over her. Such were the circumstances in the period of Israel's history in which Isaiah prophesied. After all, how could Zion understand the way she had to walk, when her way ran straight to and through Babylon? How could she understand when God's covenant appeared to be shattered, when the city of God lay in ruins, when the temple was destroyed, and when the people groaned under the oppressive yoke of a mighty power of this world? How could she understand the way to the end that Zion had been promised -- an end of complete deliverance and victory? Zion walked in darkness.

This figure is no less true when applied to each child of God in the world.

The world is a vale of tears. This life is nothing more than a continual death. The child of God, a pilgrim in this vale of tears, is surrounded by high mountains over which he is unable to peer. And in the valley rules the darkness of a pitch black night. He is not able to see his hand before his eyes. For a long time already there has been only darkness on account of this earthly and temporal existence to which he has been bound -- darkness that he cannot defeat, darkness made worse by the dominion of sin, guilt, and death. Into that darkness he was born. In that darkness the child of God must journey onward. From the moment that he is born until the moment that he sets his foot in the Jordan of death, he must always go forward and onward. For him there is no rest.

Moreover, the great darkness of this vale of tears, into which he was born and in which he must walk and live, reveals itself to him and is experienced by him in various forms and in many different ways.

The child of God walks not merely in darkness, but in many different kinds of darkness, in darkness multiplied.

There is the darkness of the guilt with which he was born, from which he knows not how to free himself, and which only increases with every step he takes. There is the darkness of the depravity of his heart, of his nature, of his mind, will, and desires, against which he can never gain the victory and from which he is unable to struggle free, a darkness that always appears to become ever more impenetrable. There is the darkness of the shadow of death, which from the hour of his birth hovers over his existence, and which includes the suffering and the misery that is inseperably bound to death and its operations. There is the darkness of the danger presented by enemies: the world, sin, and Satan, the forces of darkness that ever threaten him.

And finally, there is the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death, wherein he will soon set foot, and about which he knows really nothing, for he cannot see through and beyond death's darkness.

Walking in darkness -- in darkness multiplied.

Surrounded by the night's dense darkness.

Nonetheless, he must walk ever onward.

Terrifying experience!

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Marvelous authoritative word!

He who walks in darkness also lives in trust.

Just exactly the opposite of what you would justifiably expect: trusting!

When the child of God finds himself where he is unable to see any possibility of a successful outcome, when his heart is filled with dreadful uncertainty, when anxiety and fear take hold of his mind, when a thousand deep concerns and necessities and extreme sorrows press his heart, then trusting!

Trusting says that the mind of this traveler in the darkness is filled with a calm certainty and a happy expectation. Instead of sitting down in discouragement or hesitating with every step he takes because of terror, he strides forth in courage and willingly moves forward. He walks in confidence through the darkness of sin and guilt, suffering and misery, passing through affliction, deep concerns, and death. He strides confidently through the midst of threatening enemies. And presently, when he must place his feet in the waters of the Jordan of death, he does not hesitate.

Trusting!

Trust is the spiritual power of the believer's heart of faith that reveals itself as a joyful confidence with every step the child of God takes in this darkness. Confidence that the way is good, so that he need not fear to press onward, even though he does not see his way. Confidence that the end is glorious, an eternal redemption, and that the way, no matter how dark and dangerous and wrong it may appear to be, will bring him to eternal glory. Confidence that the enemies, no matter how they storm and rage, and no matter how it may sometimes appear as if they will have the victory over him, are nevertheless unable to harm him. Yes, confidence even that they must serve his experience of complete deliverance, the blessedness of eternal life.

Trusting!

But trusting in what? In whom?

Not in our own self-provided light. Not in the light that a sinful world may provide. According to the figure of the text, we do not trust in the sparks of a self-ignited fire that glow and sputter in the darkness.

That is what the world does and what sinful man does.

In the darkness of their own guilt, the wicked turn to the light of their own goodness and let the sparks of their own works sputter everywhere, in order to walk in the meritorious sparks of those works until their time of death. Over against the darkness of the misery and suffering of this present time, the darkness of death, they illuminate their way with their own philosophy, with the sparks of human wisdom and learning, and with their attempts to make this world better. They permit these humanistic efforts to glow and sputter, in their impenetrable and engulfing darkness, for the redemption of humanity.

Vanity characterizes all their activity.

They walk in the light of the flame of their own fire and in the sparks with which they have surrounded themselves. This vain endeavor is the divine judgment due them from the hand of the Lord. For the wisdom of the world that will not come to the light and therefore will not trust, cannot trust, nor can will to trust in the Lord must be put to shame and exposed as foolish. Thus they walk and act in the pseudolight of their own goodness and wisdom, which is really nothing other than the glow of hell that overspreads their way. In that glow of hell they walk on, just as the moth flits about the flame of the campfire, until they reach eternal destruction. In sorrow shall you lie down.

But trust in the name of the Lord. Through that name of the Lord go forward, leaning on your God.

The name of the Lord is the revelation of Jehovah, the God of your complete salvation. Upon the Lord must trust the traveler in darkness. One who walks in darkness must trust in the Lord. He must rely on his sovereign God. Only then can he have confidence in the darkness through which he must walk. He does not see the Lord, and God, the Almighty, is hidden from view. No one has ever seen God. But the child of God knows his name, for the Lord declared his name in the darkness and made it known to his children, so that they would trust in that name and through that name, rest in the sovereign God.

Trusting and resting in God.

Trusting is to be confident of his love of you, the love wherewith he has loved his own from before the foundation of the world. We are to know with certainty that in eternal love he has ordained the end of everlasting glory for us: life out of death, light out of darkness, righteousness out of guilt, holiness out of sin and corruption, and eternal salvation out of the night of sorrows.

We must also be confident that God has determined the way, and that the way can lead nowhere else but to the glory of the kingdom of heaven and eternal victory.

Finally, we must be confident that throughout our journey and in the darkness, the Lord, the sovereign God, leads the way.

That is true trusting in the name of the Lord.

That is true resting in our God.

An encouraging word of authority!

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Heavenly comfort!

Let him trust in the name of the Lord. Let him rest in his God.

His voice sounds forth that message into the ears of the weary pilgrims in the midst of the darkness.

How wonderful! How full of comfort in the pitch black night is the voice of one well-known to us, to hear a friend's voice calling out and instilling courage! Do you know that voice? Do you? Do you hear it? Does the sound of his voice penetrate to the depths of your soul as the voice of most splendid majesty, the voice of eternal love, and the voice of peace that works in your heart a peace that transcends all understanding?

Listen! You still do not see him, but the sound of his voice penetrates the darkness to reach your soul. It is the voice of the servant of the Lord, of him who was sent into the world by Jehovah God, and who confronted the darkness, to prepare comfort and redemption for his brethren who walk in darkness. In obedience to the Father, and as the servant of the Lord, he came into the darkness to dispel it. He came into our night to create the eternal day. He came into the darkness to prepare life out of death. He is the redeemer of the brethren. He is Immanuel, God with us. He journeyed through the darkness upward to the eternal light. Descending into death, he swallowed up that enemy and showed himself to be the Son of God by preparing a way to life as the head of his brethren.

He calls you.

He is the servant of the Lord, who speaks the name of the Lord alone. The Lord has given to him the tongue of the learned, and he knows how to speak the word with and to the weary at the right time. The word of the servant of the Lord does not proclaim human wisdom, but speaks of God -- always of God, of his name, his virtues, his glory, of his eternal counsel and covenant with his people, and of eternal things. He knows how to proclaim appropriately the things that are not seen, that are exalted far above the darkness of this present life, things that are hidden behind the mountains that surround this vale of tears and enclose us on all sides. Therefore, he knows how to speak a word to the weary. He cries out to you, "My brethren, do not employ your own light. Refrain from your own works, and do not surround yourselves with the vain sparks of your own kindled fire. I am the light of the world. Whosoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but has through faith the light of life in the midst of the darkness of the things that are seen. Come to me with your sins and your debts, with your sufferings and death, with your fears and dreadful anxieties. I have prepared for you forgiveness and redemption. I will give you rest, light, and peace. Come here."

Do you fear the Lord, pilgrim walking in the darkness?

Has the grace of life been poured out into your heart, whereby you have been delivered from your vain walk? Has the fear of the Lord been given to you, so that in principle you go to him?

Then hear the voice of his servant, not only with your natural ear, as the world does, for they despise, slap, and crucify him. But hear him with the ear of faith.

Trust in the Lord in the midst of darkness of every kind.

You will not be put to shame!

The eternal morning will soon dawn!