The Child of the Lord Walking in Darkness

Rev. J. den Hoed, Franklin Lakes, NJ

The prophet is speaking to a people in bondage. “Who is among you that feareth the Lord?” What is that, to fear the Lord? It is not something which we have, by nature. It is possible that we fear coming to the end of our life and that we will soon have to stand before the tribunal of a holy God. However, it is not that type of fear of the Lord about which the prophet is speaking. He is asking about a fear which lives in a heart touched by the drawing love of an ever good-doing God—a heart where the Lord has awakened a tender godly fear. Because of this awakening, there lies a void, an emptiness for which the world has nothing but for which God has everything.

It is true that there is now an enemy who assaults that awakened tender fear. In that assault he lays many grievous concerns in the awakened heart. He will go so far as to say, “The Lord does not know of your concerns. Your cry is not the cry of a child of the Lord.” As one now experiences those fiery darts of the enemy, he wants only to cling to the Servant of the Lord, but now there is such darkness upon what was once the tender fear of the Lord. Now he no longer dares to call it the fear of the Lord. The thought often arises, “Oh, I wish I had never said anything. It must be all wrong with me.” That voice again comes to them, “Who is among you that feareth the Lord?” Oh, Lord, was it ever the true fear of God in my heart?

Notice in our text how the prophet points away from the trembling heart and speaks about obeying the Servant of the Lord. That is the voice of Jesus Christ. It is as if the prophet is saying that that is where those spiritual needs and concerns may find a home. What a wonder it is when that tender fear may now look to the only blessed Sacrifice, when the eye of faith may have received a glimpse of the Servant of the Lord. When that tender fear was awakened, then at first there was only a hunger for the Lord. When the trembling heart was drawn by the love which the Lord had worked in it, in that wonderful beginning, it was as if He were almost present when that longing heart could come by the Lord. He is such a good-doing, wise Holy Spirit; He knows that the awakened heart can only rest in the precious blood of the Saviour.

Then a persons eyes are opened for the breach between a holy God and a deeply fallen sinner. When he sees it, he confesses that this is the breach which I have made. His cry becomes, “Lord, how can this breach ever be healed?” Only by obeying the voice of My Servant. Is that where a complete Saviour and a complete wretch may meet each other? A place where the sinner may look and find a hiding place in the blood and righteousness of another? Now the desire is expressed, “For one drop of that precious blood to wash away my sins.” There is a hunger to have that hiding place behind His blood and to hear the Holy One say, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

Years ago God’s people would say, “Seeing is not possessing.” This saying expresses that to see something of the Servant of the Father is a precious time for such trembling hearts, but they often sigh for the application. They sigh for the time when their tender-fearing heart may know that He, the Servant of the Father, is their Lord and their God. Seeing can be such a blessed time when there is so much light upon the way and they think that it will never become dark again. Yet, that faithful Guide upon the way deems it necessary that they again experience, “That walketh in darkness, and hath no light.”

To walk in darkness means the light has been taken away. There is no light to see and experience that tender fear. No light to see the way which I once believed was opened for me in a dying Saviour. No light to see the gift of God standing in the breach for my poor soul. No light where once there seemed to be a hiding place for my trembling heart. In that darkness I dare not say what David cried when it was dark for him: “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.”

However, in that darkness there is light to see my sinful heart. There is light to see the depths of the breach between God and my soul, but one again walks his way in darkness. Yet, nothing can befall him without the will of a heavenly Father. He knows how dark it has to be. He has molded and shaped the cross of that darkness. Every ounce of gall and bitterness upon the way is weighed by His wise decree. Every wound, every sorrow is numbered and has a divine purpose in the life of that wandering pilgrim. “Who is he that feareth the Lord?” One has a treasure that is greater, deeper, more wonderful than all the riches of the world, for there is a God in heaven who says, “Let him trust in the name of the Lord.”

“Let him”—that is the one who is walking in darkness.

In that darkness he cries, “I am shut in and cannot come forth.” There the Lord says, “Come, you can trust in Me, a covenant-keeping God. You have no light? Come so that you can walk in My light, the light of a Saviour who has promised, ‘I am ever with you.’” Then, when a complete wretch hears that he may come and trust in a complete Saviour, there are no bitter times. Then He, Jehovah God, is willing to say, “Come with all of your darkness, and I will give light so that you may flee to the fountain of living waters.” You say you have no strength and you do not know the way? “Who is he that feareth the Lord? Let him come and stay upon his God.” In that darkness a person dares not say, “My God,” but here the Lord is saying to those fearing people walking in darkness that the Lord is their God. To “stay” means to lean. Is there ever a better time for those people than when they may lean upon a Father who has loved them from the stillness of eternity? Is there ever a better time than when they may lean upon the Son of God who promised, “I have come to seek and to save those who are lost”? There they may lean upon a complete Saviour.

Is there ever a better time than when they may lean upon the Holy Spirit and completely trust His leading? A time when they may spread forth their empty hands, saying, “Take me by heart and hand, and bring me to my Saviour”?

Dear reader, how rich you are when you may be one of those fearing people—one who knows the Lord as your God and Saviour. Soon you may be with Him where you will never fear again and where it will never be dark. There in His light, the light of an eternal Triune God, you may be amongst those who serve Him without fear and without darkness for a never-ending eternity. Remember, that wonder begins here below, and because of that beginning, it stands secure to all eternity.

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