NIGHT

You shall not be afraid for the terror by NIGHT… – Psalm 91:5a

Our meditations on LIGHT will be incomplete without few thoughts on the word NIGHT, which signifies the time and season of darkness. The night was the time of Peter’s faith, fall, and rescue; the time of his vain toiling; the season of the last supper and of the agony of Gethsemane; as well as the time of Peter’s temptation (Mt.14:25-31; 26:34; Lk.5:5). The night is also the season of slumber, fear, and terror (Ps.91:5). “While men slept” the enemy sows tares in the night (Mt.13:24-28). Beyond the earthly night-time, what is even more significant is that at present, the world is in its spiritual night season. The world lies in spiritual slumber and wickedness: “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness” (1 Jh.5:19). Isaiah prophesied concerning the world being enveloped in “gross darkness” while the Glory of God alights on His people (Isa.60:1). Right now, the unseen is doubly unseen. The world is completely robed in a double cloak of darkness.

Praise God! The dominion of Light is most evident in the Night! Jesus – the Light of the world – came to demonstrate the dominion of Light over the forces of the night: “In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines IN the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (Jh.1:4-5). What this means is that: darkness cannot understand, overtake, overpower, conquer, master or prevail against the light! According to the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first instructions to His disciples were, “Come and SEE” (Jh.1:39). He came to make us see, even in the dark. The three great themes in John’s Gospel are Life, Light, and Love. The central theme of Light speaks of Sight – Inner Sight – spiritual sight; seeing more than meets the eye. Spiritual reality belongs to a different order; that only spiritual eyes can discern (Eph.1:18).

In the natural realm, there are ways to render the invisible visible. The infrared camera can take photographs on the blackest nights. using radar helicopters, police can find a thief in the dark even under shrubs. In the spiritual realm, nobody need walk in darkness. Faith is our Infrared, the instrument for “seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb.11:27b). That’s why believers are described as “sons of light and sons of the day….not of the night nor of darkness” (1 The.5:5). We have the eyes of faith to see and walk confidently through the darkness of ignorance and blackness of our world, as in daylight. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2Cor.5:7). We are on the winning side. Darkness never gets the better of light.

For us children of light, none of the negative connotations of the night is permitted to operate in our lives. Rather, the night is ordained as our season of intimate divine communion, meditation, insight, and instruction: “I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night season” (Psa.16:7); “When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches” (Psa.63:6); “My eyes awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word” (Psa.119:148). The Lord desires to release into our spirit His songs in the night: “The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me – a prayer to the God of my life” (Psa.42:8). The Lord Jesus left us sound examples of how to maximize life in the night: “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued ALL NIGHT in prayer to God” (Lk.6:12). How are you maximizing the virtues of the Night?