Between “God created” and “the Spirit moved” there was a whole lot of empty nothingness that looked meaningless and pointless… and then God said “Let there be light” and “It was good.” So Christian, if things look dark it may be because God is about to shine the light.
When God began to make the world and put it into order and cause light to shine, it was a chaos, in a state of utter confusion, “without form and void, and darkness was upon the face thereof” [Gen. 1:2]. So commonly things are in a state of great confusion before God works some great and glorious work in the church and in the world, or in some particular part of the church or world, and oftentimes towards particular persons. Any very great and remarkable work of God is in Scripture commonly compared to a work of creation; and before God appears in such a work, and so causes light to shine, things are commonly in a most dark, confused and woeful state, and appear most remote from anything that is good, and as if there was no hope of their ever coming to rights. So we may expect it should be before the beginning of the glorious times of the church of God, and after this confusion, light will be the first thing that will appear—light, clearly to explain and defend the truth. The doctrines of the gospel will begin to shine forth with clear and irresistible light.1
- Jonathan Edwards, “‘Images of Divine Things’ ‘Types,’” in Typological Writings, ed. Wallace E. Anderson, vol. 11, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1993), 74–75. ↩
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