“Who [is] among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh [in] darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” (Isa 50:10 AV)
The question can be confusion unless you understood the context. They that fear the LORD and obey the voice of God’s prophet are not normally referred to as walking in darkness and having no light. This word of encouragement is written to the Israel while in captivity in Babylon. It was written for the second and third generations of those who were carried away. The first generation never repented. They continued in their sin even though they had lost everything. However, their children and grandchildren learned the lesson. They learned the hard lesson that disobedience has hard consequences. So, they feared God and listened to the man of God. Because they were in captivity, they are referred to as in darkness and having no light. Obedience and fear are not enough. If we are to have the light of hope, faith is the ingredient. For Israel, this was painfully obvious. Their situation was not going to improve. They were in captivity for seventy years. When they returned, they would find a city destroyed by their enemies. They would have to contend with enemies within their own territory. For the next four hundred plus years, there would be one empire after another overrunning them and governing them. It mattered not that they were fearing God and obeying His word. Until their Messiah comes to set up His kingdom, there would always be trouble. Faith, and not mere obedience and fear, is the answer.
We are too pragmatic for our own good. We see life as a zero-sum game. This was Job’s problem. As long as he feared God and eschewed evil, life was supposed to be very good. There was no expectation of misfortune, let alone tragedy, for this godly man. But God had a unique design. He used Job as an object lesson to the Devil that men can fear and obey Him even though blessings may be long in coming. Job was our test case. Job was the reason God loves the human race. It is souls like Job who will not sin with their lips even though disaster strikes that deal a blow to the Devil’s plans. Job learned a lesson in the sovereignty of God. Even if he hadn’t learned this lesson, Job still would have lived in fear of God. He would have remained faithful to godly living. Job may not have had the answers he sought, but he understood faith in God was the key to navigating through the trials he faced. We think that if we live right, then nothing but rainbows and unicorns are in our future. We believe that trouble is only a result of sin. We erroneously think that only those who don’t fear God and obey the voice of His prophets are those who suffer in life. If we suffer in life, we default to the position that we did something wrong. Not necessarily so.
Judah and Israel could not give up hope. While in Babylon and under the governance of a pagan nation, Israel had to hope against all hope that God is a God of His word. Israel is not a normal nation. Any nation that has had to endure what they have over the last four-thousand years or so would have given up on God a long time ago. They would have been assimilated into the cultures of the world and cease to exist at the invasion of Rome. Not them! They know they are God’s chosen people and it will be through them that Jesus Christ will reign in a peaceful world. This is the key to enduring through darkness, wherein is no light. When the light of hope is but a mere flicker, it is faith that will stoke it back into a roaring flame. When the oil is running on empty, it is faith that will go to the fields and squeeze more out of the olive. When darkness seems to surround the soul, it is faith that will break through the clouds and peer into the sun. It is faith that will notice the rainbow and ignore the storm clouds. It is faith that will bring sunglasses even though there is a one-hundred percent chance of rain. It is faith that pierces through the darkness and lightens the way of the wayward pilgrim. If we have lost hope, it is faith that will find it again!
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