I have been in many churches, and have seen many beautiful stained-glass windows adorn the buildings. From simple patterns, and sometimes no discernible pattern at all, to the beauty of Biblical scenes elaborately depicted in glass, I have seen it all. When the sun is shining on a stained-glass window, it lights up the entire sanctuary with its beauty.
In my home town, there is a church that has the most beautiful sanctuary I have ever seen, and one of its loveliest features is its stained-glass windows. Adorning the walls of the building, they surround the worshipper in light. They are beautiful depictions of events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the Annunciation of his birth to His Second Coming. They depict beautifully that Light that has come into the world to dispel the darkness wrought by the Fall of man. As the light of the sun streams through the window to tell their story, so the Son has come as the light of the world to pierce the darkness of men's souls. And the light shineth in the darkness," as John 1:5 says, "And the darkness comprehended it not." But has the light pierced the darkness of your soul?
It has been said that, "Without faith, we are like stained-glass windows in the dark." Without light a stained-glass window has no function. Go into a church sanctuary at night, and you will not see the beauty of the window, because there will be no light to capture it. There will be nothing there to see. Furthermore, the darkness will remain in the sanctuary because no light is streaming through it.
So a man needs the light faith provides in his soul to dispel the darkness. If you are without faith in Jesus Christ, you are like a stained-glass window in the dark, and this "dark night of the soul" will extend to an eternity in the darkness of hell if the Sun of righteousness does not shine in your soul.
Just any faith will not do. This light of faith must come through a specific person-the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the light that must come streaming through, firstly, to shine in your soul and guide you to God, and secondly, to reflect that light outwardly to the world through you, to lead others to faith in that Light.
Jesus said in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Jesus said this. Not Mohammad. Not Buddha. Not Joseph Smith. If anyone else had said it, he would either be a lunatic or a liar. Jesus is the Way, our guide out of the darkness. He is the Truth that shines in the soul from the moment He comes into the life. He is the Life Who gives light and spiritual life to everyone who accepts His gift.
Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel (basket), but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." Jesus is the Sun of righteousness. Christians are like the moon reflecting the light of His glory so others may come to receive the Light.
One clear example of the conflict between light and darkness in Scripture is found in our text. For 430 years, the Israelites lived in Egypt, much of it in slavery. According to Exodus 1:14, the Egyptians "made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor."When Moses was about 40 years old, Pharaoh (the King of Egypt) died, and we see in Exodus 2:23 and 25 that "the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage...And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them."
The next thing we know is that God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. But before He lead them out, He would bring ten plagues on Egypt to force Pharaoh to let His people go. It is the ninth of these plagues, that of darkness, where our text is found; three straight days of intense darkness, darkness that could be felt.
We will see,
- Firstly, that like stained-glass windows in the dark, disobedient Egypt, being in spiritual bondage as well as physical darkness, could not function in either sphere, and,
- Secondly, that the children of Israel, like stained-glass windows with the light shining through, were busy working in the light to leave the bondage of Egypt for the physical and spiritual freedom of the Promised Land.
I. First, let us take a glimpse at the Egyptians in these three days, and try to imagine turmoil this kind of darkness would cause. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church and Bible Commentator, made some observations about the physical, mental, and emotional effects of the plague:
As to the physical effects, it was a total darkness that could be felt. The darkness was so severe that according to verse 23, "They saw not one another, neither arose any from his place for three days." No source of light was available to the Egyptians. No sun. No fires or candles. No light at all. For three days the Egyptians were blind in the darkness. We can only imagine the pain and headaches caused by the strain to see anything at all.
The effects on the minds of the Egyptians must have been "very frightful and amazing." Citing Psalm 78:49, "He cast among them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them." Wesley said, "The tradition of the Jews is, that in this darkness they were terrified by the apparition of evil spirits, or rather by dreadful sounds and mummers they made...He (God) poured upon them the fierceness of his anger,by sending evil spirits among them; for those to whom the devil has been a deceiver, he will at length be a terror to."
The emotional effects are compounded by the mental ones. Fear. Abject terror. Their mightiest God, Ra, the sun-god, could not help them. Wesley said, "It continued three days; six nights in one." That does not begin to cover the fear and anguish the Egyptians felt. This supernatural darkness was extraordinary and deep. Horror confined everyone to his home, every bit as paralysed as though he was in a wheelchair. They did not dare move out of their places. They were TERRIFIED!!!
Their eyes were useless. They might as well have been blind. But those who are not born again really are spiritually blind. As Matthew Henry, commenting on these verses said, "Spiritual darkness is spiritual bondage; while Satan blinds men's eyes that they see not, he binds their hands and their feet, that they work not for God, nor move toward heaven. They sit in darkness."
The New Testament speaks of this spiritual blindness in II Corinthians 4:3 and 4, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."
In his confrontation with Moses, Pharaoh, as the pawn of Satan, refused to allow the Light to shine into his life or the lives of his people. He believed he was the offspring of the Egyptian "god" Amon-Ra, the sun god. All ten plagues were judgments on the false gods of Egypt by Yahweh, the true God. Ra could do nothing against the true God, the Creator of light and darkness. The plague of darkness demonstrated Ra was completely powerless to give the light of the sun to the Egyptians. This was a judgment on him and his worshippers, showing he, like the other idols of Egypt, were false and useless "gods," - nothings. But the people of Egypt, like stained-glass windows in the dark, manifested the darkness of their unbelief. Pharaoh was obstinate in refusing to let the Israelites go, and most of Egypt followed him. Now they are like stained-glass windows forever in the dark, and the "dark night" of their souls continues to this day and will never end.
II. Secondly, we see that the children of Israel were not in turmoil. They "had light in their dwellings."
While the Egyptians could do nothing, the children of Israel were busy preparing to leave Egypt and slavery behind. They were gathering their flocks and herds together, along with gathering for the Passover to be eaten when the time came.
The three days of darkness was the ninth plague. The deadliest one, the deaths of all the first born in the land of Egypt, would come after it. There was a short period of time before the deaths when things became relatively normal. In this time, the Lord was giving the Egyptians space to repent. In the 11th chapter a result of the plague of darkness is revealed.
Verses 1-3 say, " And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; Afterward he will let thee go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people."
Imagine the scene. The Egyptians had been subjected to a horror of darkness for three days. Yet in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, those houses had light. When it said God gave favor to the children of Israel in the sight of the Egyptians, it could mean that the Egyptians were afraid of what would happen if they crossed them again. It seems that everyone but Pharaoh got the message that Moses was no one to mess with, so God had to teach him one more tragic lesson. The final plague was the deaths of the first born, from the oldest child of Pharaoh to the most impoverished Egyptian maidservant. Moses said in Exodus 11:4-6, "Thus saith the Lord, About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth on the throne, even unto the maiden that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." After this, Pharaoh would finally let the people of Israel go. They would at last be free of the Egyptian bondage.
But we are not concerned with the end of the story, although that should be kept in the back of our minds. What we are now looking at is the fact that the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. As this was true then, so it is now true that Christians have the light of God in their hearts.
Let us now return to II Corinthians 4, and read verses 5 and 6: "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord: and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
As the light of the sun shines through stained-glass windows, streaming light that brings out the beauty of the church, so the Light of the Son should shine in the Christian's heart, showing forth the beauty of holiness and giving glory to the One Who is the Light. This is the key - living by the faith of Christ, since without that faith we are like stained-glass windows in the dark. With faith in Jesus, the Light shines through His Holy Spirit and reflects into the world "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It is only by grace that we are saved, and it is only through faith that our light may shine, that through that reflected light, salvation might dispel the darkness in others.
The conclusion of the matter is this: It has truthfully been said that "without faith, we are like stained-glass windows in the dark." People like Pharaoh, who obstinately turn from God's light, and set their faces against it, will in the end have their places in the darkness of hell forever. Be warned - Matthew Henry was right when he wrote, "When men drive God's Word from them, He justly gives them up to their own delusions." Today, this is happening in many churches. You might have the most beautiful building and sanctuary in the world, but unless the Bible truth is preached there, the light streaming through the windows will mean nothing. The hearts of the people will still be full of darkness, and that church might as well not exist. I would rather be in a tiny store-front church with an out-of-tune piano for the song service listening to a man preach the light of God's Word, than in a cathedral with a perfect organ, listening to the most eloquent modernist preacher put on display the darkness in his own heart. That man might as well be speaking to a pitch-black night when the moon and stars are hidden. The windows would be worthless.
If the three-day plague of darkness that befell Egypt was terrible, that does not begin to compare with an eternity in the darkness of hell.
By faith, come and be like a stained-glass window in the Light. The Lord Jesus Christ offers you light, hope and a new life. II Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away: behold all things are become new." By faith, take Him as you Savior and Lord. As he has promised in the Gospel of John 8:12, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Do not scurry away in the darkness because your deeds are evil. Repent. Give up your evil ways. Be reconciled to God. Follow Jesus into a joyful eternity. He will keep His promise. As the children of Israel had light in their dwellings," so your mansion in heaven will be full of light forever.
+++
