Meeting God in the Darkness

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. (Is. 45.3)

We like Clarity, Simplicity and a free path forward,
but the God of the Bible is beyond our facile theories
and our human concepts.

David is speaking autobiographically in Psalm 18, 
and he speaks of God answering his cry,
and coming in a trembling earth,
a shaking heaven,
darkness and thick clouds,
with winds and burning,
and a shaking of the foundations of nature.

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." (Ps. 23.4)
Why would God allow His children to experience the terrors of a shadow caused by Death?
Why would He allow them to be exposed to the fear of being hemmed in by unmovable mountain walls?
Why would He allow their path to go through a place of no escape?
Why would He do all this unless it were for the reason of knowing Him as greater than the greatness of the valley?


A similar thought is expressed in Psalm 107:
 "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.

... They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: 
their soul is melted because of trouble."

"These see"... because their souls have known the melting of trouble.
Others don't see, because they have always sought their ease,
and avoided the cost of a deeper knowledge of the realm of God.
.

We live in a generation which seeks to avoid the negative, 
and to experience only the positive.
Salvation without Damnation,
Healing without Hurt,
Hope without Despair.

It is a  time when men seek:
Light without Darkness,
Joy without sorrow,
Knowledge without the hard process of Learning,
Maturity without Aging,
Fullness without Emptiness,
Joy without Sorrow,
Comfort without Mourning.

As we have said before,
the gospel has been turned upside down as we have become accustomed to possess the Kingdom of God without Poverty of spirit,
and as we seek to possess the earth without paying the price of meekness.

Abraham, the "friend of God" experienced "the horror of a great darkness"
(Gen. 15.12) before receiving a clearer word from God.

There are treasures which are only to be found in the darkness -
not merely a coming out to Light but Treasures,
and beyond the other treasures -

             the treasure of knowing that the One Who comes in darkness 
                  is our Lord and our God.