August 30

Psalm 36 For just one second the light was out. It was long enough to know that I had forgotten how dark utter darkness is. We were in Hezekiah’s tunnel. If you have ever been in a cave or cavern without light or in a photographic darkroom, you know exactly what I am talking about. You can try to see all you want, but it will never happen. In the midst of Hezekiah’s tunnel, I began having thoughts of what if. What if, my cheap $1.00 dollar flash light wasn’t strong enough to make it to the end? What if, I dropped it in the water? What if I did not have the emotional stamina to walk 500 meters in utter darkness? What if, the tunnel had a fork that led you into a loop from which you could not feel your way out? The last question was leading me into unreality. I had read about Hezekiah’s tunnel, and I knew that there were no loops. Sure it twisted and turned a lot, but there were no loops. But then, right before we entered Hezekiah’s tunnel we came to the entrance of the Canaanite Tunnel or the dry path. I had never heard of that before. What if there were other such tunnels at the end, which I had not read about. What if... Darkness is unsettling. What makes the wicked, wicked? David says that it is, “There is no fear of God before His eyes. He flatters Himself in His own eyes.” The wicked takes the spiritual vacuum in his life and says, “I know what is here, and this god, who is here, is like this. . .” In reality he has no concept of the true God. Will this gracious God leave us to wander in darkness and all its attendant fears? The wicked think they know what true pleasure and delight is. They think that the true God only wants to take those pleasures away. They think that His light depletes their pleasure. They think this because there is no fear of God before their eyes. Will God leave him to wander in spiritual darkness? Will he spend his days wandering in loops of utter spiritual darkness? Have I not at times been there, and are there not times when I am there? I am convinced that this is the plight of every child ever born on the planet earth, save, of course, Jesus. But this is where the glory of the Lord Jesus comes in. He is the fountain of life. He is the fountain of true pleasure. In His light we see light! When He is before our eyes, when there is a true fear of Him, we can see reality. Yes, we see the ugliness of things around us, but we also see that His pleasures can eventually wash the ugliness away. Drinking from and walking in His waters washes away the ugly dryness of our souls. It causes true beauty to gradually emerge and begin growing. We don’t have to try to manipulate the darkness because we see His reality. Hezekiah’s tunnel was truly refreshing. As we walked through the cool waters of the tunnel with our little flashlight, we were refreshed from the heat of the day above ground. Jesus is the same way. As we walk in the waters of His cleansing fountain, in the light of His path, we are cleansed, healed and refreshed and gradually see the true nature of reality. The whispers of ‘what if’ fade away in the pleasure of the fountain of His water and the glow of His light. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john