Light and darkness

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  –1 John 1:5-6 (ESV)
 
April 8, 2024 will mark an event that has a lot of people pretty excited – a widely visible solar eclipse. The place I live is not directly in the path of the moon’s shadow, but close enough that the effects will be obviously noticeable for just under four and a half minutes around 1:50 pm Monday afternoon. I have my special glasses and will be among the many looking skyward in that moment.
 
A total solar eclipse is fun because it a rare and fascinating occurrence. Far more common, and a lot less fun, is the blockage of the light of God on the human heart that occurs when we allow something to come between Him and ourselves. The book of Judges is one of the saddest in Scripture. The children of Israel were poised to enter the Land of Promise. But there was no succession plan in place to pass the baton of godly leadership.
 
And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.  –Judges 2:10 (ESV)
 
Operating in the limitations of their own strength, the Israelites were unable to displace the Canaanite people who occupied the land. As God had warned, they circled the drain in a repeating cycle that consisted of forsaking Yahweh for the gods of their neighbors, falling into oppression, crying out to the LORD for relief, and getting delivered by a hero or judge. As the book progresses, the judges get worse and the seasons of peace and prosperity grow shorter.
 
The last of the Judges judges was Samson, a one-man wrecking crew driven by lust and anger. In his arrogance, he played with fire, assuming that he would always be under God’s blessing. The fact that God is able to work His sovereign will through sinful people was more a testimony to His faithfulness than Samson’s rightness. Samson forfeited his blessing, but by the time that happened, he was so disconnected from God that he failed to realize it.
 
And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.  –Judges 16:20 (ESV)
 
The remainder of the book is as disgusting and grotesque a display of human depravity as you would ever want to see, as the nation descended into chaos and decay. Darkness had camped in God’s people because they had chosen to camp in darkness.
 
Without God, there is no light. Without God, people are unable to govern themselves rationally. Even people who ought to know better. Without God, we have no hope, either individually or as a community. Enjoy the solar eclipse this week. Beware the eclipse of the true light.
 
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  –Judges 17:6, 21:25 (ESV)