By Henry Mobley
In March 2010, the Apostolic Standard published an article entitled “The Stranger.” This essay was an allegory of a family whose father allowed television to be brought into the home. Things that were never tolerated before now became acceptable. Filthy language, violence, alcohol, tobacco, etc., now infiltrated the home. Unfortunately, once this stranger invaded the home, he was made welcome and never left the premises.
In Matthew 6:22-23 Jesus said, The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the.light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.
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It is clearly evident that the eye is the window of the soul, It is the eye that communicates images to the soul, whether they be good or bad. The eye is the lamp that allows light to flow inward. This allows us to move about without stumbling in darkness. The Old Testament teaches that the “eye” is the indicator of the direction of life. If the “eye” be “single,” or “pure,” it allows the sunlight of God’s love to shine through to the soul. Thus, a person can serve God according to Deuteronomy 6:5; “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
The two key words in Matthew’s scriptural reference are “light” and “darkness.” We know that God created light. However, God did not create darkness. Darkness is simply the absence of light. The opposite of “light” is not darkness, but rather the opposite of “light” is “EVIL!” Matthew records Jesus making a statement that, to the human mind, seems to be a paradox. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. How can light be darkness, and, not just darkness, but GREAT DARKNESS? John gives us further clarification about the darker side of humanity. John 3:19; And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
TWO KINDS OF DARKNESS
Let’s begin by examining a passage of scripture that was recorded by the prophet Isaiah in which he declares that darkness has two func-tions/in the human experience. Isaiah 60:2; For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. In the King James Version of the Bible, the prophet has used the word “darkness” twice within this same passage.
However, an examination of the Hebrew reveals that in the original language two different words were used that the King James scholars translated into the English word, “Darkness.” In the statement, …darkness shall cover the earth…, the Hebrew word for darkness was “Choshek,” (Strong’s Hebrew word number 2822). This word means “misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness, dark (-ness), night, obscurity.” This is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:2; And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep… This darkness was a result of a cataclysmic change that the Earth had undergone as a result of divine judgment, Ezekiel 28: 12-15.
The second kind of darkness that Isaiah spoke about was gross darkness that covers the people. Here, the Hebrew word for darkness was “araphel,” (Strong’s Hebrew word number 6205). Here the word means PEOPLE WHO ARE BLINDED BY FALSEHOOD AND IGNORANCE! IT MAKES YOU FEEL UTTERLY DESOLATE! Evil deeds are exposed by the LIGHT of God’s presence. People who want to live in sin hate the LIGHT. Darkness better suits their desires. There is only one thing worse than being in the DARKNESS OF IGNORANCE. It is thinking we know what’s going on when we haven’t got a clue!
HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN?
As I thought about this subject of light and darkness, my mind wondered back over the years and I began to recall many people I have known. Many of them were, at one time, strong men of God and defenders of the faith. When they moved away from God, they got further and further into the darkness.
Actually, we cannot see light. We can only see the reflection of His light as it strikes His people and is reflected into our eyes. (The only way many people are going to see Jesus is to see the reflection of the light as it hits his people and is reflected into the eye of the unbeliever.) Consider the story of the death of King Saul in the first chapter of Second Samuel. At least three times in this chapter David asked the question, How are the mighty fallen? 1st and 2nd Samuel recount the story of Saul from the days of his youth, through forty years of his kingly reign, and his ignominious death on Mount Gilboa. In order to get further insight into the fall of this man, I re-read the story of the fall of Lucifer, one of only three archangels who are named out of all of God’s creation. He was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. He walked in Eden, the garden of God. Ezekiel says that he was anointed. Evidently, he walked upon Mount Sinai with God, (Ezekiel 28:14). God’s report about the fall Lucifer was, Ezekiel 28:15; Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. God further clarified Lucifer’s fall in verse seventeen. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. The thing that destroyed Lucifer was that which came through his EYES.
THE FALL OF MAN
After Lucifer was cast out of heaven to the earth, he used the same trick in the Garden of Eden. Notice what the scripture says in Genesis 3:1-7; Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your “EYES” shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil.