In Genesis God creates light and declares it good. In Exodus God provides a light for the Israelites so they could see where they were going and have something tangible to follow. In the book of Job, Job says that God’s light guided him. The Psalms talk about light all the time – often connecting God’s instructions to light. Solomon connects light and wisdom in his writings. God tells Isaiah that he will send a light to save Israel and the Gentiles. Also in Isaiah, God connects justice and goodness with light. Micah discusses light in the context of restoration from sin.
In John chapter 3 Jesus discusses light with a Rabbi. He says that sin happens in the darkness and the light has come into the darkness to expose this sin and to liberate man. When you stand in darkness – you can’t move . . . your eyes never adjust – in short – you are paralyzed. I love John 8:12 which says
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
There are two interesting things about this verse – First, light is connected to life, which implies that darkness is connected to death. Second, and not so obvious, is the word in the Greek for follow is different than the one used in Matt 4. In Matthew 4 the word for follow simply means come hither . . . come over here and I’ll teach you some stuff. In John 8 the word for follow is different and it has 5 different usages(I suspect that John used this particular word intentionally):
1) Following a Captain into battle
2) A Slave accompanying his master on a journey
3) Following wise counsel
4) Following rules
5) Following a certain line of teaching.
Each of the above ways of following Jesus is exposing in themselves. They act like a light in our lives. Each one requires us to give up some sense of control or safety.
Eric
