Introduction: The Weight of the Unseen
Imagine a night so dark you can’t discern friend from foe, a blackness that swallows every landmark. Your feet falter, your breath quickens—where are you going? In that void, darkness isn’t just the absence of light; it’s a presence, a question mark over existence itself. The Hebrew word for this is “Choshek”—darkness, yes, but deeper still: ignorance. Not a simple lack of facts, but a spiritual blindness, a turning away from the knowledge of God and His ways. As God laments in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” In that cry lies a truth: darkness is our cradle, but it need not be our tomb.
The Paths of Darkness
Scripture paints a stark portrait of those who dwell in “Choshek.”. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” declares Psalm 14:1, and so he walks “in the ways of darkness” (Proverbs 2:13), forsaking the paths of uprightness. This isn’t mere folly—it’s a deliberate drift. “He that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes,” Jesus warns in John 12:35, a haunting echo of lives unmoored, stumbling toward nothingness. Proverbs contrasts this with the wise: “The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:14). The darkness isn’t passive; it’s an active force that blinds, confuses, and leads astray.
This ignorance is no light matter. Ephesians 4:18 speaks of being “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them” and a vanity of mind that darkens understanding. Hosea 6:6 declares, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Without that knowledge, we’re lost, our “eyes of understanding” dimmed (Ephesians 1:18), groping in a shadow that blinds the heart itself (2 Corinthians 4:4). We are not just ignorant—we are blind. As Jesus warned in Matthew 6:23, “If your eye is dark, great is the darkness, and the whole body is full of darkness.” Spiritual blindness doesn’t just limit sight; it affects the entirety of our being. When our spiritual perception is clouded by ignorance or sin, it permeates our lives, leading us into deeper darkness. It’s not just a lack of knowledge, but a blindness that transforms our entire way of living, causing us to stumble in ways we can’t fully comprehend.
The Reign of Ignorance
There’s a ruler in this gloom, a “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), the god of this world who “has blinded the minds of them which believe not” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Satan’s throne is “in darkness” (Revelation 16:10), his kingdom a prison of deception. We inherit this darkness at birth, as heirs to an original sin that blinds us to the truth of God (1 Peter 1:14). In Acts 17:30, Paul declares, “The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent.” This raises critical questions: Why does God issue this universal command to repent? And how can He do so, given His awareness of humanity’s total depravity, which renders salvation beyond our own capacity? The answer lies in the nature of divine grace. As stated in Titus 2:11, “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” This theological perspective asserts that redemption is not a product of human ability but is solely achieved through God’s grace. This grace, universally offered, gently tugs at every heart during the current era—often termed the dispensation of grace—which has been extended to humankind. It is a divine invitation, as expressed in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me.” Moreover, this call reaches even those who are spiritually dead, for as John 5:25 declares, “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” Through this persistent and powerful outreach, grace not only seeks entry into each life but also awakens and grants life to all who respond. Yet, this period is understood to be finite, with its closure anticipated in the near future.
In former times, God permitted a period of human ignorance, as Paul notes in Acts 17:30, “The times of this ignorance God overlooked.” However, with the revelation of Christ and the outpouring of His grace, this allowance has ended, and there remains no justification for persisting in ignorance. Divine grace, which brings salvation and is made available to all (Titus 2:11), beckons humanity from the darkness of ignorance into the light of truth. It is this grace that both calls individuals to repentance and illuminates the path to redemption. Yet, if left unaddressed, such ignorance becomes a perilous legacy—a fatal inheritance. As John 3:36 warns, “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” a consequence stemming from “the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18).
This is “Choshek’s” full weight: not just not-knowing, but not-seeing, not-living. Paul writes that “the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness” (Colossians 3:6), and ignorance is its fuel. Once, some “were enlightened” but fell away (Hebrews 6:4), trading light for darkness they chose. Hosea mourns, “They know not the knowledge of the Lord” (Hosea 4:6), and in that void, confusion reigns—though “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33).
The Triumph of Light
Yet darkness has an enemy: light. In Hebrew, knowledge is light, and its pinnacle is “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). God, who “commanded the light to shine out of darkness” at creation, now shines into our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6), breaking “Choshek’s” hold. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil (1John 3:8). But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah, the Savior of the world—1John 4:14), the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name—John 20:31. “In Him is no darkness at all,” John declares (1 John 1:5), for God is light, hiding “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3). Christ is that light—“the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world” (John 1:9)—shining in darkness, though “the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:4-5).
This is redemption’s dawn. “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light,” Paul was sent (Acts 26:18), echoing God’s call: “Repent, and turn to Me” (Acts 17:30). When we do, “the eyes of your understanding are enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18), and “the true light now shines” (1 John 2:8). “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,” Peter prays (2 Peter 1:2-3), for only through that knowledge do we escape. “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:5), a treasure darkness cannot steal.
Christ is the “day star” rising in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19), the One we must acknowledge (1 John 2:23). “While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light,” Jesus urges (John 12:35–36). From ignorance’s grip, He delivers us “into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13), where darkness is but a memory.
Conclusion: Step Into the Dawn
So what does “darkness” symbolize? It’s “Choshek”—ignorance, the shadow of sin, the fool’s maze, the prince’s lie. It’s the blindness that binds us, the alienation that dooms us—until light intervenes. “God, who commanded the light to shine,” invites us still (2 Corinthians 4:6). Today, where do you stand? In the dark, denying His ways (Job 21:14), or in the light, eyes open to His glory? The verses cry out: turn, believe, know. The Day Star waits. Will you let Him rise?
And this is the condemnation: that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For every one that does evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:19-21
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Psalm 10:4