Treasures of Darkness
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. (KJV)
I’ve always liked that verse; I like the way it sounds – so mysterious – what are these “treasures of darkness” and "riches of secret places?”
Sometimes we, as Christians, can find ourselves trapped in a situation that we can't seem to find our way out of. It's a hopelessness that feels like a great darkness.
But Paul said this:
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6) (NIV)
That’s just another way, a beautiful way, of saying that Jesus is the Light! That when we see the face of Christ, He’s the Light that shines in the darkness. That’s another phrase that I’ve always loved – “the face of Christ.” The word “face” in that verse comes from a Greek word that means to "stare" or "gaze." (Strong 1983) To see the face of Christ is like making eye contact with Jesus.
It would be one thing to see Jesus in a crowd of people. I mean, that would be great! To watch Him heal, to hear Him preach… that would be amazing! But imagine how it would feel if He actually turned your way and you made eye contact with Jesus – now that would be an entirely different thing altogether!
Seeing the face of Jesus is to know that all His attention is on you. To know that He’s with you, searching your heart, seeing your hidden pain, caring about you.
David, who lived many years before Jesus, talked about seeing His face. In Psalm 27, he wrote this:
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple… My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. (Psalm 27:4-8) (NIV)
In the midst of great suffering, David saw the face of Jesus.
Years ago, I was going through a very hard time. I began to think that maybe God was mad at me or punishing me for something. I grew very distant from God because of this, and I had a hard time praying. One day I heard about a women’s retreat that another church was having, and I decided to go. I didn’t know one person there; I just knew that I needed to somehow reconnect with God.
The first night, we gathered into small groups, and we had to introduce ourselves and tell what we hoped to get out of the retreat. I explained my situation, and immediately one lady got out her Bible and started quoting verses that she thought might apply.
But this didn’t help me at all; in fact, they made me feel worse. I said, “yeah, I know all those verses, but I need something more.”
Then the worship started, and as we worshiped, I began to talk to Jesus. Really opening up to Him, and asking for His help. And then I had a vision. I saw the face of Jesus. And in that moment, He spoke to my heart. Four little words- He said simply, “I know it’s hard.”
That did it. I forgot all about the people around me and I just broke down crying. Not just tears streaming down my face either; I was sobbing uncontrollably, looking like a total idiot in front of all those strangers!! But none of that mattered because now I knew the truth-Jesus wasn’t mad at me!! In fact, He knew how hard it was!!
Sometimes Bible verses are not enough… sometimes you’re going to need the face of Christ. The face of Jesus is the Light that shines in the darkness.
When I was a child I was often confused by everything. I remember thinking how I couldn’t wait to grow up because I thought that adults understood things. When there is confusion in your heart you question everything you do, everything you say. But when I got a little older, I realized that age doesn’t take away the confusion.
I was like everyone else in the world. I was born blinded. I had a veil over my heart. I had eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear. The moment I turned to Jesus, the veil was taken away.
I felt it. I knew it. It was real. Maybe it’s because, back when I was in high school, I had turned to Jesus in the middle of a very hard time. I was rejected by the other kids because of a brace I wore on my back, and I was depressed. I was desperate for some kind of relief from the emotional pain that I felt all the time, and when I called out to Jesus, the relief was immediate!
I felt like a heavy load was taken off of me. The depression was gone and my mind was suddenly clear for the first time! I walked outside and it was like waking up in a whole different universe. I heard birds chirping, I felt the breeze and the sunshine… I felt alive for the first time ever! I felt like the guy who wrote Amazing Grace – I was blind but now I could see!
But over the next few weeks, I learned that the darkness will creep back in. The confusion will return! And I realized that even though Jesus had come into my heart like a light, it was up to me to keep His light burning! So my question became, “How do I keep the light on?”
I began to experiment. I had read in Psalms how David said that He would lie in his bed and seek God. So I tried David’s method. I would lie in bed at night and pray a very simple thing. “Jesus, unmuddle my mind again. Fill me up again with your Spirit.” And I would lie still until I felt His peace pour through me once again. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says:
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (KJV)
See? Glory to glory… the light gets brighter and brighter every time we seek His face. And if we don’t seek His face the light burns out.
I heard a woman say that she had gotten very close to Jesus as a teenager when she was going through a difficult time. Later, she felt sad that she no longer had that closeness, and she drew the conclusion that Jesus was extra close to people when they go through hard times.
But it doesn't have to be like that. She had forgotten the one thing that she had done during that difficult time – during the difficult teenage years, she had been seeking His face. Later, when her life got better, she stopped seeking Him.
Don’t ever stop seeking Jesus, asking Him to fill you up. How? When?
Every night, when you lie in bed
Every worship song, when you close your eyes
Every time you find yourself alone
Every time you turn to him, what happens? The light gets brighter!! You might even see His face, but even if you don't see His face, you will feel the Light!!
His light, His love, His comfort, His peace, and His joy will fill you more and more, and you will be that one who discovers treasures in the darkness.
Richard Wurmbrant was a Pastor in Romania when communists took over the country. Soon after, he was put in prison along with many other pastors. He said that many Christians and pastors in the cells around him would go crazy from the torture, the beatings, and the brainwashing. Only a handful stayed strong. How did some stay strong and some did not? Richard explained it this way:
We didn't see that we were in prison. We were surrounded by angels; we were with God. We no longer believed about God and Christ and angels because Bible verses said it. We didn't remember Bible verses anymore. We remembered about God because we experienced it. With great humility we can say with the apostles, "What we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard with our ears, what we have touched with our own fingers, this we tell to you.” (Caruana 2012)
Richard had found the treasure in the darkness. Jesus is the treasure. And Jesus gave him the strength and courage and sanity to survive.
I don’t like going through hard times. But when I look back I can see that each of my hard times in life has brought me closer to Jesus. Times of darkness are hard, painful, but that’s where we often discover the treasure. Remember, we don’t have to wait for the hard times; it just seems to be human nature not to seek Him until we really need Him.
I met a woman who also had discovered the treasure, and she didn't wait for the hard times to do it. I actually met her at the retreat I was talking about earlier. People were saying that this woman had the gift of discerning spirits and casting out demons. I was curious, so I introduced myself to her and asked her what her secret was.
She was very hesitant to tell me her secret, and she waved her hand like it was nothing and said, “Oh just read the Bible and see how Jesus did it.” But I knew there had to be more, so I just looked at her awkwardly and waited. Finally she sighed, “I find a very comfortable chair. I close my eyes. And I say “Jesus Jesus Jesus,” until He starts to fill me up. I open my spirit and ask Him to come in.”
There you go- what was she doing? She was seeking His face!
And she had found Jesus, the treasure. And she didn't wait around for the hard times. She purposefully set aside time simply to seek Jesus and to be filled with Him.
So don’t wait for a hard time, seek Him anytime you are alone in a quiet place, and you will find Him. But if you do happen to find yourself in a hard time, remember the promise:
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) (KJV)
References:
Caruana, Marisa Zeppieri. “Tortured For Christ.” Good News Christian News, 11 Jan. 2012, www.goodnewsfl.org/tortured_for_christ/
Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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