Light

“So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19

This fallen world, even for the Christian, is so often “a dark place”, is it not? The culture in which we live is shrouded in a godless midnight of unbelief and idolatry. Our own circumstances, when we are in difficulty, can be like dark clouds looming over our heads. Depression, too, can be like a dreadful series of gloomy, sunless days. And then there is, of course, the darkness of our own sin, ever lurking in our hearts, and breaking onto the surface far more than we would like. And so we can identify, I think, with Peter’s reference to “a dark place.”

And yet praise God that we have “the prophetic word” – the Bible – which serves us as “a lamp shining in a dark place”! Praise the Lord for the lantern of the Scriptures! And let us be sure that we use them as such; that we “pay attention” to them! Let us hold the lantern up above our lives, so that we can actually say with the psalmist, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). Dark as things may be, we don’t have to grope around in that darkness! Praise God, He has provided us with a lamp!

And praise Him, too, not only for His provision of light, now … but also for His promise of light, later! For the days will not always be dark, says Peter. They will only be dark “until the day dawns”; until Christ, the Light of the world, shall return to this earth like the morning sun, and shall dawn upon His people with the brightness of His glory. In that day, the midnight of our godless culture will give way to a bright morning sun! And for the Christian, the light of Christ’s presence will, in the words of Henry Van Dyke*, ‘melt the clouds of sin and sadness’ and ‘drive the dark of doubt away’!

So let me urge you, Christian friend – to make use of the provision, and to bank on the promise, of light from the Lord! Open the written word and let it be, for you, “a lamp shining in a dark place.” And look forward to the coming of Jesus, the incarnate Word, who is “the Light of the world”, and who will soon dawn on His people like the glory of the morning sun!

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*From the hymn Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. Van Dyke, it seems to me, rightly employs the words quoted above as a prayer for present light from the Lord (which light the Lord often gives!). I make use of his phraseology, however, as also being an apt way of describing the future dawning of Christ’s light.