Deeper Life #68

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel!

—Isaiah 45:3

THE TREASURES OF DARKNESS” IS a remarkable phrase. We can see the stars in our natural world because of the surrounding darkness. And it is because of the mysterious darkness of God’s providences that the deep secrets of God are ever known to us.

The prophet Isaiah greeted God’s message with the question, “Who is this?” (Isaiah 63:1). He was plainly astonished and almost staggered with the unfamiliarity of the revelation coming to him from God. Have you ever faced a similar situation? It is good for us to recall the “horror of the great darkness” that befell Abram, or the statement made by Moses that God “met him in an inn to put him to death.” Or remember David, in the case where Uzzah put forth his hand and steadied the ark, and God smote him to death. We read that David was so astonished that he was “displeased” with God.

When the sovereign God brings us an astonishing revelation, we are to be a mouthpiece of God Almighty, not a systematic expounder of our own private convictions. The tendency to be true to our own convictions, not to the Lord, is apt to produce a troublesome attitude toward divine revelation.

Prayer Thought: Lord, I accept Your Word and the circumstances resulting from Your intentions in my life.

SUGGESTED READING: Isaiah 63:1–6