OUR LORD WHO IS THE GREAT LIGHT

We who were lost and in deep despair can relate to the words of Isaiah the prophet when He describes a people trapped in pitch blackness and suddenly, an overwhelmingly bright light appeared.

Isaiah describes the event this way;

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Interestingly, when Mathew quotes this verse in Mathew 4 verse 16, it goes like this:

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

It seemed like over the passage of time, the people who were walking in darkness when Isaiah was writing were now sitting in darkness like they had given up and had ceased wandering in the dark and just sat down. 

We get the picture that these people, after a protracted period,  became  despondent and gave up trying to find a way out of the uncharted gloom they were trapped in. 

It was at this time of having given up and fallen into despair and just sitting  in the impenetrable darkness when a Great Light sudden appeared. 

How those people must have trembled and wept and cried out when the Great Light shone over them and showed them the way out of the shadowy desolation.

Our Lord is a wonderful God, who appears in blinding incandescent light to chase back darkness and bring us into His marvelous light.

Amen.