Prov 7:9 [ESV] in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
For a picture of darkness and what that can feel like, I have used the opening chapter of my auto-biography – I do hope that’s ok.
What happens inside a young person when they decide to run away from home? I remember my own first night when I ran away at the age of around 12. It seemed alien – to be up so late, but I was well prepared, clothes neatly placed under the mattress and a bag of stuff ready to go. Trying to be quiet, every noise amplified inside my head, as I packed my school bag with such a foreign cargo and then crept towards the front door. There was no way I could close it, the noise would wake up the whole tenement.
So I snibbed it open, feeling a little guilty, and pulled it too, behind me, and slid silently down the five floors of blackened-sandstone stairwell towards the final obstacle – the clattering half hinged downstairs entrance door. What did I feel, what was I thinking of? I was a little scared, but mostly relieved. Relieved to be free of the stifling discipline and painful beatings that had plagued my life and enclosed my future. Relief to have an open road nearly before me, relief to have an adventure and hope that somehow this road to nowhere may lead to something more than that. Slowly, like paint drying I pulled the stairwell door open, straining to take the weight and reduce the creaks. Then I was out, in the street, with the sulphur yellow street lights casting a strange and quiet light, with shadows of hidden danger around the street fringes. The memories of endless streams of tears began to fade a little, a sense of purpose and hope took hold of my young heart as I strode out, tight into the same shadow fringes, heading towards a sense of freedom.
KNOWLEDGE
What we look at each day, and how we look at it determines a lot of our life. Job says something interesting late on in his book – Job 31:1-4 [NIV] “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman, For what is out lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high? Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? Does he not see my ways and count my every step?”
Job makes a powerful statement, then uses two great searching rhetorical theological questions to establish why he is taking this action.
I love this process – what are your and my non-negotiable positions in life, and what rhetorical, theological questions can we provide to accompany our reasoning?
UNDERSTANDING – Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
The word used for “time” in the Hebrew is pronounced as ” ‘iyson” and carries the meaning of “the black centre of the eyeball” This word is also be used to indicate “the apple of the eye” but here we are seeing another application, really the “dark centre of the eye”. In the New Testament Jesus brings this insight. Matt 6:22-23 [ESV] The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.”
In the LXX the Greek used is ηνίκα αν [enika an – when ever] and this appears twice in the New Testament, translated as “whenever”. 2Corinthians 3:15 & 16. I think we definitely miss something in the translation when we come to Greek and English compared to the Hebrew.
WISDOM – We get to choose who we build relationships with, even when it’s hard, sometimes it’s best to say “no”.
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: The Talent of “Adaptability” loves to go with the flow. Make sure the choice of which flow you go with, sits with you, and it God centred.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – “at dusk at the time of shadows, and at the black centre of night and gloomy despair.”
In the twilight – at dusk
in the evening – at the time of shadows
at the time – at the black centre
of night – of night
and darkness – and gloomy despair
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to be aware of my surroundings, my timing, and my location in life.
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