GOING DARK
"After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and
said...night...darkness...neither let the light shine... darkness...shadow...
cloud...blackness...night...darkness...night...dark...never saw light.."~ Job 3
"Going dark," is a military term. It refers to communications. I’d like to apply it to tribulations in the saints‘ lives.
In reading Job recently I came across something very interesting, God allowed this good and godly man (like Peter) to be put into Satan's sieve, as seen in chapters one and two. This great trial came after years of experiencing good health, enjoying his family and friends, and an unusual prosperity.
The Holy Spirit called my attention to the first two words in chapter three, "After this..." That is, when the afflictions set in. It is then Job went dark. At least a dozen times, in this chapter, he makes reference to darkness and words akin to it. Suffering does not always bring out the best in us. It seems to shade everything with gloom and doom. Like a jaundiced child, whatever is looked upon changes into another color than what it actually is.
Paul looked at severe testings as one of those things working for his good, Rom. 8:28. He says in chapter 5, verse 3, "... we glory in tribulations...knowing that tribulation worketh..." It takes most of us, I've observed, quite some time to learn this invaluable truth! But happy is the man or woman who has found it to be so in their own life. Job could testify to this fact.
"O what owe I to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus."
(Samuel Rutherford: 1600-1661)
by an Aged Saint
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