Proverbs 13:9
"The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked goes out."
Proverbs 20:20 says: He who curses his father or his mother, his lamp will go out in time of darkness.
Job 18:5,6 says: Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out, and the flame of his fire gives no light. The light in his tent is darkened, and his lamp goes out above him.
Psalm 37:5,6 says: Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light. And your judgment as the noonday.
Proverbs 4:18,19 says: But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.
Matthew 6:22,23 Jesus says: The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, 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 that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
As you can see from the above verses, the themes that Solomon is illuminating are repeated themes in the Scriptures – the fact that darkness grows on the wicked and the light grows on the righteous.
light
This is the Hebrew word or which means light or dawn. We are not used to referring to our priorities or our eyes as light or fire, but this is what the Bible is talking about. The Scripture calls the number one priority that is guiding your life, your light – the thing that informs all your decisions. You may not even be aware of how much money, sex, pride, vengeance, or some other thing is what is guiding you; but others can see it. If what is guiding you is the desire to please God, then your decisions in life will reflect that. Everyone has something that is guiding their decisions; illuminating the path that they are taking; acting as their muse in literary terms.
We can track what is acting as your light by the consistency of your decisions. If your decisions reflect a deep desire to please God, then your priority rejoices with you in the decisions that you make. If, however, your priority is money or power or some other selfish pursuit, then it will increasingly fail you when you need it and it will not produce the warmth and love and wholeness that it promised when you started following it. It will go dark as a source of light for your journey.
It is sad that many people learn too late that the guiding principle of their life is wrong. They have been following a dark torch, which results in brokenness and failure. Even if you get what this dark torch was leading you to, there is no joy in its attainment.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz