I went to a funeral yesterday of a friend I’d prayed with many times over the last couple of years. Outside of prayer I didn’t know her that well, but there is some sort of gift you get from praying for a stranger and then sharing in and rejoicing in the answers with them as they go along in life.
Several weeks ago, she came up to me to tell me how she had been asking God to help her see clearly where he was speaking. That night as I spoke at an event, I unknowingly talked about the same scripture that she had heard our pastor speak about that morning in Sunday school. She was thrilled as she realized that God was revealing himself and his Word clearly to her.
As I sat at her memorial service, they read a couple of her favorite scriptures that she had on her refrigerator. I couldn’t help but smile when one of the verses was one that I had just journaled and prayed about that last week…
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4-5
Life in this verse and most verses that refer to Jesus is the Greek word zoe, it encompasses not just the natural but the spiritual, the source of all life.
I find this somewhat comical, but I am currently typing with all our lights off. Our power went out for some unknown reason about an hour ago, it is not raining and is in fact sunny outside. There is very little I can accomplish workwise because most of life these days requires the internet, but I can type on my laptop as long as my battery lasts and our house is still lit up, thanks to the sun.
Much like electricity or the sun, the son of God is our source of power, of life, of vitality. I love what the verse says, “that life was the light of all mankind.” It doesn’t matter if he is your Savior and Lord or not, he is still the One that gives you breath and sustains your life. He is the one who formed you and gave you every gift and ability you have whether you acknowledge him or not. I can get by without electricity though it makes life more difficult and dark, but if you eliminated the sun, we’d all be dead in a matter of moments. I’ve never found it to be a coincidence that the sun is called the sun and one day in the kingdom the sun will not be necessary because the Son of God will provide all the light needed.
Last week the Lord led me to look up this word (place) Ir-Shemesh, it was part of the land that the tribe of Dan inherited in the promised land and it means “City of the Sun.” This area “mark[ed] the transition from the Philistine plain to the Israelite highlands.” There is a note on this city that says “Ir-shemesh symbolizes the calling of God’s people to bear light where pagan influence looms. Jesus, ‘the true light’, commissions his church to shine with the same clarity.” (Topical Lexicon)
The tribe of Dan did not fully conquer the lands that God had given them, because they did not trust him to help them. In fact, the Danites, decided to go invade and take another land that had no protection rather than go where the Lord told them and take what he was giving them. In the process they picked up false idols and adopted an entirely pagan practice of worship. (See Judges 17-18).
The other word the Lord showed me this week that went along with Ir-Shemesh was “frontier.” Not the typical definition that I think of or find though, he highlighted this one particular definition from Meriam-Webster “a line of division between different or opposed things,” like light vs. darkness or good vs evil. That was the place of Ir-Shemesh —on the edge of Israel’s land near the Philistine’s pagan practices. It was the place where the light of God was supposed to shine on the land living in darkness.
Interestingly, do you know what the tribe of Dan’s assignment was in the wilderness? They were the rear guard—the last tribe to leave wherever it was that they were and make sure no one was left behind. The Hebrew word for rear guard also means to gather. It was important that everyone made it to the next destination, that no one was left behind, because they were slow, weak or feeble. That is a big responsibility. Yet, when they got to their promised land they wavered in their faith, in their understanding, and in what they were committed to. They adopted the practices of the darkness instead of shining the light.
I see this as such a word for the followers of Christ right now. That we are living on the frontier. As the darkness grows darker, we are called to be the light, unwavering in what we do. The darkness will not overcome the light of all mankind (Jesus), yet if we are not careful with how we live and the things we choose to worship it can overcome our light as individuals. We can end up like the tribe of Dan—in the wrong place, worshipping the wrong gods because fear, complacency or lack of discernment led us there—or because comfort and ease was more appealing.
It is time to choose if we stand in light or darkness, there is no other option. We, like the Danites are the ones who are bringing up the rear and called to gather, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” (Matthew 9:37)
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