The Child of the Lord Walking In Darkness

By the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord spoke to a people in bondage—a people, who because of their sins, experienced a separation between God and their soul. A people who all had had the same privileges. Yet, a people who not all feared the Lord. Therefore, the prophet cries out, “Who is among you that feareth the Lord?”

There is much fear in our life. One fears a heart attack; another fears that the pains he feels are because of cancer within his body. The next one thinks of death and is filled with fear, and that may well be because death is to meet God; and when we are unconverted, then it will be forever too late.

But all this is not the fear of which the prophet is asking. Also not the fear that is brought on by conscience convictions when fear of the wrath of God because of sin can cause a deep anxiety within. No, the prophet is asking concerning that fear which by nature does not live in us, but which is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Solomon calls this the beginning of wisdom. This is a fear which causes man to be humbled before God. When he comes upon his knees and begins to understand Psalm 130, “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, oh Lord.”

But perhaps you will ask when there is a fear worked by the Lord in the heart of man — how does the Lord work that? For this the Lord uses the means. No, that does not mean that He cannot do this without means. He is able to strike you down, as Saul was brought down on the way to Damascus, when he began to cry, “What must I do to be saved?” That is the exception. The normal way by which God converts His people is through the use of means which is the reading and preaching of His Word.

You must understand, I do not say that by using the means we can work this ourselves. No, conversion is a free and sovereign work of God. Here nothing of man can enter into this, for man is as the Lord says, dead in sins and trespasses.

But Rev. Smytegelt says, “When you want to become wet, you must walk in the rain. And when you want to be converted, you must place yourself under the means.” David says, “By Thy light do we see light.” When there has never been any light from above, then we can be religious, but there has never been a true cry, “Oh Lord, that thou would have mercy upon me.” Then we are children of darkness.

But perhaps you say, “How can we know whether that fear the prophet is asking for is a fear that by the grace of God may live in my heart?” Then my answer must be — by the fruits it brings forth, a knowledge of my sins and iniquities, a knowledge of my unworthiness if the Lord would deal with me as I deserve. For then He would cast me away forever.

Is that all? No, then that fear would be total despair. There comes a sorrow after God. There comes a bowing and seeking. True, we stand with empty hands, but it is by that godly fear worked in our heart that we may stretch them forth unto heaven. “Oh Lord, that thou would show mercy unto me. Thou who hast opened a way from the stillness of eternity, that Thou would plant my feet upon that way.” Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant?

It is as if he is saying, are you such a fearing one? Then you are not a stranger to the voice of the servant of the Lord. Does he speak here of the Word of God as we may have it in our homes? Is it only an outward testimony? No, for what is that Word without the Spirit applying it to the heart? When your religion is only in the Word of God, you miss all. We need that the finger of the Holy Ghost may take that Word and write it upon the tables of our hearts. The voice of His servant is not only the voice of Christ as written in the Scriptures, but that voice which is full of strength and majesty calling from death to life. All His sheep will hear this voice. No, I do not mean that an audible voice is necessary. This is the voice of Christ from his holy Word applied unto the soul. The Lord says when that takes place, he becomes a new man. His needs, desires, and longings all become different He comes to know the way of conversion as it is experienced in the life of Cod’s children.

It is of him that the prophet says that he walketh in darkness and hath no light. By nature we all walk in darkness. We travel to eternity without light and have no knowledge of this. But here he speaks to a people who have knowledge of their darkness. What once was light is withdrawn and has become darkness. The prophet says, “They walk in darkness,” meaning that that is time after time their experience. Then the arms of faith hang downward. His tears flow by day and night; oh Lord, hast Thou forgotten me? All thy waves and billows are gone over me. No light. There are also times when he is unconcerned in the darkness; the communion that is missed does not bring him upon his knees. Oh, how dependent he is in all his ways! Who walketh in darkness. What once was light is dark. What was hope is gone. “Oh, Lord, is everything a mistake?” Is this your life, reader?

That is the life of God’s people. There was a time in their life that they went from strength to strength; each day was a day that the love of God made it light within. What a blessed time that was when every morning they had to say, “Lord, keep me this day close by Thy side!”

Then there came a time that it went from complaint to complaint Now a time that it goes from sigh to sigh. He that walketh in darkness and has no light. That is the experience when that light has been removed. The religious world has no knowledge of this. They can make their own light But the Lord’s children must come upon their knees in the darkness where they may plead, “Lord, is it then not thine own work?”— pleading upon what lies in the past Who walk in darkness and have no light. No, not that there was never any light, then you would not know the darkness, but walking in darkness which God has made in the life of His child, in that darkness is a special light, light to see my sins as an ever-flowing fountain. Light to see God’s judgment as righteous because of my sin. Light to see that from my side there is nothing but darkness. Light in darkness to see that in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only true light.

But the way to that is so hidden. Jesus himself says, “No one can come unto me unless the Father draweth him.” It is when he walks in darkness that he may learn how the Father is drawing. There he may more and more lose his life in himself so that he may receive it in and through Christ.

The prophet says, “Who has no light.” That means he has no glowing light. If he truly had no light, then he would be a child of darkness. Here it is of His people that the Lord says, “For ye were sometimes in darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord” (Eph. 5:8). Light to see the curse of the law, but no light to see that this curse has been taken away. Light to see how totally leprous he is, but no light to see how the great Physician has stretched forth His hand to heal. He has the wound, but not the balm. He is empty and not filled with the assurance—”He is mine and I am His.”

No, not that in his heart there is not a need and desire of “Oh, that I might know Him in the cleansing power of His blood!” But no light because he does not know that the robe of righteousness woven with the blood of Jesus is ready also for him.

Do we leave him here? No, because the Lord does not leave His child in darkness without some precious words of comfort. The prophet says, “Let him trust in the Name of the Lord.” Notice, dear reader, he does not say, let him trust in his experiences of the past, in his tears, in his prayers. Let him trust in his darkness for that is a darkness of the child of God. No, but in the Name of the Lord. That is that Almighty God, the Jehovah of His people, He who has never given His children a stone for bread, He who has promised, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” He who said, “I have graven thee in the palms of My hands.”

But you say, that is now just the case. I cannot believe; I have no faith; I am full of unbelief. May I ask you: What is it that causes your heart to cry for His mercy; why is it that you do not go back into the world? Why is it that you have to come to your inner chamber so many times and plead upon the mercy and grace of this Lord? Is that not the working of that faith planted by His divine hand? Do you know what else you are admonished to do?

The prophet says, “and stay upon his God.” Oh, that is not just the problem — his Cod. No, he does not dare to say that he may own Him in this way. I can understand that.

Stay, that is to lean upon, to trust in his God. It is as if the Lord is saying, although you do not dare to say my God, yet I am your God. I alone uphold you in your walking in darkness. I alone lead you unto the full glow of that light vested in my Son.

Then in his walking in darkness, this child of God can understand the blind Bartimaeus when standing in the presence of that light, and upon the request, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” had only one request—”Lord, that I might receive my sight.” So the child of the Lord walking in darkness must cry, “Lord, that I might receive my sight.”—to see in Thee the light of my life.

Reader, who is there among you that feareth the Lord? May you answer that question? Then you will know that walking in darkness and having no light, because that is often the walk of God’s child. It is to him that the Lord says, “Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God.”

He Leadeth Me

In pastures green? Not always; sometimes He
Who knoweth best, in kindness leadeth me
In many ways where heavy shadows be.
Out of the sunshine warm and soft and bright—
Out of the sunshine into the darkest night,
I would faint with sorrow and affright,
Only for this — I know He holds my hand;
So whether in the green or desert land
I trust although I may not understand.

And by still waters? No, not always so;
Oftimes the heavy tempests round me blow,
And o’er my soul the waters and billows go.
But when the storms beat loudest and I cry
Aloud for help, the Master standeth by
And whispers to my soul, “Lo, it is I.”
Above the tempest wild I hear Him say,
“Beyond this darkness lies a perfect day.
In every path of thin I lead the way.”

So whether on the hilltop high and fair
I dwell, or in the sunless valleys where
The shadows lie—what matters? He is there.
So where He leads me, I can safely go,
And in the blest hereafter I shall know
Why in His wisdom, He hath led me so.

— Rev. J. Chaplain

Rev. J Den Hoed is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Rock Valley, Iowa.

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