Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Wintertide Tractations: Darkness

I'm still trying to get caught up with my daily Wintertide Tractations.  The word is Darkness.

Start.

During this Christmas season when I think of the word Darkness, my mind goes to one of the pieces from my favorite oratorio, Messiah, by Georg Frideric Handel.  

The words of one of the movements come from Isaiah 60:2-3, "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."


The song opens in deep, almost foreboding tones.  What does this mean that darkness shall cover the earth?  I had never really thought about it; the song wasn't one of my favorites from the CD I have.  But then come the words that turn the song bright, "but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee."  As I pondered the words in bed last night, suddenly, the meaning came to me.  


At Christ's crucifixion, Matthew recounts, "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour" (Mat 27:45).  It was just as Isaiah had prophesied!  

But Christ did not stay on the cross.  Isaiah's prophecy was further fulfilled when He brought Himself to life again by His Divine power!  In Paul's sermon in Acts 13, he says of Jesus, "And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.  But God raised him from the dead:  And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.  And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Act 13:29-33). 

The Lord arose and I have the privilege of joining with so many of His people who declare His glory!  I am one of the Gentiles prophesied of so many centuries ago.  I have seen the light of Christ for myself and darkness has given way to life through His name!

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