Darkness

“Let there be light”

God spoke and separated light from dark. And the light was good.

“Where are you?”

A question from God. The man and woman hid, guilty because of their sin, turning away from the light and towards darkness.

“Every thought of his heart was evil continually”

Man embraced the darkness, violence ruled the land. A worldwide flood brought a momentary end to the bloodshed.

“Every man did that which was right in his own eyes”

The moral relativism of Judges wrapped up with unthinkable evil almost resulting in the loss of one of the twelve tribes.

“And they will be thrust into thick darkness”

Isaiah spoke to a people who were sent into captivity, punished for their rejection of God, for their embrace of idolatry and immorality.

“Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse”

Malachi ends with a promise of the coming Day of the Lord, and the possibility of utter destruction.

And then God was silent.

In this first week of Advent, like Israel during four hundred years of silence, we sit in darkness.

We wait.

And hope.