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“And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there)” Rev. 21:23-25.
The evening comes before darkness. Darkness before light. When will it be pitch black on the earth? When will the earth and the people feel such darkness?
“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt” (Exodus 10:21).
There are multiple ways to feel darkness. Anyone who has lived very long upon this earth has felt some form of darkness. One of my favorite books is called Night by Elie Wiesel. In one portion of the book, Wiesel tells a story that has never left me. This story makes all the darkness I’ve experienced seem lighter in comparison. One portion of his account of the holocaust recounts the hanging of a young child. Wiesel hears a man asking, “Where is God? For God’s sake, where is God?” Elie Wiesel writes:
“And from within me, I heard a voice answer: “Where is He? This is where—hanging here from this gallows.” His most potent passage paints a scene so black one can see the chimneys’ blackened smoke and smell the horrors of death.
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget the smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”
Elie Wiesel, Night–
During this darkness, a few in the camp put God on trial. Elie said, “It happened at night; there were just three people. At the end of the trial, they used the word chayav, rather than ‘guilty’. It means ‘He owes us something’. Then we went to pray.”
Elie continued to pray to HaShem His God there in the camps. He continued to keep the Sabbath as best as he could. He risked his life to put on tefillin that were smuggled in. In the “night,” he still prayed the Shema. Jesus/ Yeshua said this was the greatest commandment.
“Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ h No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31—Deut. 6:1-19).
Elie Wiesel experienced evening before night. It was gradual. The sun was setting, but he could still see light. Things got a little darker before too long and a little more until he was crammed in a cattle car with dead bodies and a bucket for waste. Evening is something I want you to meditate on. Evening means “the mixing.” It is a mixing of darkness and light often used to describe people. Our prayers begin in the evening. (Psalm 55:17) “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.”
When Noah landed and let the black raven out, it flew back and forth. Much flesh was awaiting its beak, not so with the dove.
“And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth” (Genesis 8:11).
May we return to Him in the evening like the dove–to the Ark of His covenant. Returning with Israel freshly plucked and in our beaks (mouths), white (pure), and hovering over the waters. The dove returned in the evening. Evening can cause many to return to Him. Evening comes before darkness, and darkness comes before the Messiah. The day of the Lord Adonai is said to be a day of darkness and not light.
“Blow the ram’s horn in Zion;
Sound the alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all who dwell in the land tremble,
for the Day of the LORD is coming;
indeed, it is near—
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness” (Joel 2:1-2).
Evening has its own mysteries.
(Gen.19:1) And there came two angels to Sodom in the evening. . .
Violent men came out in the evening in Sodom, but so did Abba’s two messengers who may also represent the (Torah/prophets—Moses and Elijah).
Wicked men who wanted to sodomize the messengers came forth in the evening. Then something happened that is very prophetic in nature.
“But the men (messengers/ angels) inside reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door” (Gen. 19:10).
Yeshua is the door.
These wicked men cannot find the door due to their darkness. Yeshua said, “But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:23). The Father shut the door of the Ark during the flood. “Then the LORD shut him in” (Gen. 7:16). The Father did not remove Noah and his family from the storm; he protected them in the darkness. But what was happening at evening? What did evening look like for Noah and his family? Was he busy working even in the dim light?
“…the righteous Noah rebuked them, urging, ‘Repent; for if not, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring a deluge upon you and cause your bodies to float upon the water like gourds, as it is written, He is light [i.e., floats] upon the waters. Moreover, ye shall be taken as a curse for all future generations, as it is written, their portion is cursed’ in the earth.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a).
Not only was it evening during Noah’s day, but it was evening during Abraham’s day in one location, Sodom and Gomorrah.
“But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Matt. 17:29-30).
There is a woman that comes out in pitch darkness.
“For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, And I saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man lacking heart, Passing through the street near her corner; And he went the way to her house. In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night. And look, a woman met him, Dressed like a whore, With a hidden heart” (Proverbs 7:6-9, ISR).
The fall feasts listed in Leviticus 23 are all about Jesus/ Yeshua. They come just as it gets darker outside. Not only does evening come swiftly, but the darkness in our streets filled with unrest also seems to grow more significant with darkness.
Darkness is also a word used to describe protection and beauty, as magnificent as a black stallion—a black panther slinking through the jungle, A black butterfly, or a black sapphire ring. Darkness is a womb protected by water. Darkness represents being hidden. Darkness is when the beast comes out of the jungle, the fields, the forest, stalking, and searching to devour something in the darkness. When someone is robbed, shot, or sexually assaulted, if it happens in the daytime, we proclaim, “They did it in broad daylight!” Yet, Adonai dwells in thick darkness.
“The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness” (I Kings 8:12).
“He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies” (Psalm 18:11).
`araphel is Strong’s H6205: thick darkness (8x), darkness (3x), gross darkness (2x), dark cloud (1x), dark (1x). (Exo 20:21) “And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness H6205 where God was.”
“He bowed the heavens also, and came down.
With thick darkness under His feet.
“And He rode on a cherub and flew;
And He appeared on the wings of the wind.
“And He made darkness canopies around Him,
A mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky.
“From the brightness before Him
Coals of fire were kindled.
“The LORD thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice.
“And He sent out arrows, and scattered them,
Lightning, and routed them” (II Samuel 22:10-15).
Could the evening be approaching our timeline spiritually? Evening comes before the Son/ sun. Evening comes bringing Jacob’s trouble and great tribulation before we see the sign of the Son of Man. Evening comes before wars, rumors of wars, before pestilence, and famine. Evening and “mourning” come before death and destruction. Evening comes, and the world grows cold and dark. Thieves break in and steal in the evening. They wear black. Death is draped in black clothing, black scarves, and black caskets driven in black hearses. But evening is not pitch black. Evening still has some light to work with. We are told to work while it is still light because the fall feasts represent the time of our Messiah’s return, and this occurs before winter brings death.
“It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord GOD,
“That I will make the sun go down at noon
And make the earth dark in broad daylight.
“Then I will turn your festivals into mourning
And all your songs into lamentation;
And I will bring sackcloth on everyone’s loins
And baldness on every head.
And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son,
And the end of it will be like a bitter day” (Amos 8:9-10).
In Zechariah 7, we see a glimpse of the return of the Messiah. All the nations will gather against Jerusalem to battle.
Please meditate on the last passage, verse 7 below.
“In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!
In that day, there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light” (Zechariah 7:4-7).
In the evening, there will be LIGHT.
Back in March, before Pesach/ Passover, the Father spoke to me and said the Spirit of Elijah is here. Invite him in and open the door for he is here.
Now, He is telling me it’s evening. The evening can last a long time–years even in Adonai’s timeframe since a day to the Lord is a 1,000 years and 1,000 years is a day (2 Peter 3:8). It takes anywhere from 70 to 1,000 minutes to become dark after evening. 7 is completion. 1,000-year reign with our King. Symbols are everywhere.
Evening may be swiftly approaching when things get darker on the earth. I’m not date setting, but even the people in Noah’s day had a timeline.
A few years ago, I had a dream. During this time, my husband and I led up meetings and Feast gatherings at a city building. In my dream, we were in the building, and a couple came in with a baby in a car seat. A blanket partially covered the baby, and it was a boy. I greeted the mother and asked her what she had named her son. She said Methuselah. I just looked at her with large eyes. His name means, “When He Is Dead It Shall Be Sent, Man Of A Javelin.” When he died, the flood came and destroyed the earth. His name and life were a warning. Man doesn’t live as long these days as they did in his day. I am thinking it is evening, but evening also has its powerful symbols.
I want to shift this message to an uplifting one and close with powerful verses that are beautifully filled with His Holy Spirit that hovered over the water in the darkness, just like the dove Noah released.
“As evening approached, he made the camels kneel down near the well outside the town at the time when the women went out to draw water” (Genesis 24:11).
Women are drawing water right now. This is Abraham’s servant Eliezer. He is a foreigner and younger. He is going to find a bride for Isaac (laughter) at evening, and his name means Yah is my help or helper. The Holy Spirit is called a helper. Eliezer also means Yahweh’s ten. Can you see the Holy Spirit coming in the evening and women drinking from the wellsprings of life? “The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host: (Psalm 68:11, ESV).
Eliezer came for Rebbeca and adorned her with jewels/ gifts. This is the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). He is the giver of gifts and fine jewels, not Tiffany and Co.
In John 8:12, Yeshua spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Ephesians 5:8-9 says, “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.”
There is a Kingdom of darkness and a Kingdom of Light. (Isa 60:2). Darkness may cover the earth, but Adonai shall arise, and His glory will be upon us. Can you picture it?
“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness ( ערפל araphel -H6205) the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”
“HEBREW WORD OF THE DAY: Darkness (ערפל araphel, Strong’s #6205): There are two words in the Hebrew translated as darkness. The most common is the word hhoshekh [str:2822] and means “darkness.” The other word is “araphel” and has a meaning that is something more than just darkness. In Exodus 20:21, we read, “And Moses approached the “araphel” where God was.” This darkness is a different type of darkness. It may be alluded to in Exodus 10:21, which mentions the “plague of darkness” (hhoshekh) that could be felt. We often associate darkness with evil, and light with good, but, interestingly, most of the times when God appears, it is in this araphel, such as we saw in Exodus 20:21 but also in 2 Samuel 22:10, 1 Kings 8:12, Job 22:13, Psalm 97:2 and other places.” Jeff Benner.
Jeff Benner has one more nugget that I found worth sharing. It’s the definition of the word shine.
Shine–The word ‘or, as a noun means “light” and as a verb, it means to “give light” or “shine.” It is also related to the idea of bringing order, in the same way, that you bring about order in the darkness when you turn on the lights. |
May He appear, and may His Spirit hover over the water. May light spring forth out of the darkness and heal His people. May we be pockets of light all over this earth, shining.
So much to ponder Bon……and with such a deep resonance, do your words echo the deep, low tones reverberating in my own Spirit..
Yes, in the twilight of evening, into the coming darkness, even through the valley of His coming, may we be made to be pockets of Light, dripping with the oils of His Love, made ready for our Beloved! 🙏💓🤲🔥🕊🌌🌠🌩🌅💞☝️👑🙌💖
Amen!! May it be so.
Amen. He is in the darkness, and He is in the light. May we all be shining lights for His glory.
Link to the youtube is no good??
Thank you. We have been having some difficulties. It is on my channel. I’ll try and fix the link here. Blessings!