Today we will discuss the significant use of the ‘or,’ light, in the New Testament.
Jesus, Yeshuah draws a clear distinction between night/darkness and day/light:
‘For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape. But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.’
The darkness of the day of the Lord is supported in the Old Testament as well:
‘Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Very dark with no brightness in it?’
The darkness if the metaphor of evil. It is mentioned in other verses as such:
‘But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’
Darkness hence, is also the set of the theater of doom. This has affected my cultures, traditions and customs around the world and close to home such as Halloween.
The believers in contrast, are not affected by the darkness and its evil powers because they are the children of light. Jesus reassures the believers:
‘You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,’
Believing did not only mean believing in Jesus the Savior, as many view it today. It meant accountability. It meant following his demand to follow the instructions of the Father. Jesus, as a Hebrew speaker knew what most believers today don’t know. He was aware of the Torah being light ‘or:’
‘For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life;’
Torah means teachings and rhymes with ‘orah’, light. In Aramaic the Torah is called ‘Oray•tah’ which is close to ‘or,’ light. ‘The Torah was considered light because God Himself is light:
‘Rejoice not against me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.’
‘Who covers himself with light as with a garment; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain;’
This is the true light in which we understand these verses:
‘Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.”
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