A Solemn Warning to Those Who "Kindle Their Own Fire"

No one likes walking in darkness.  We are all impatient and we want things figured out, solved, fixed, right away.  This is true for little things like broken dishwashers (our's is now broken for, what, the 3rd or 4th time?!) and big things like pandemics.  Yet I read something this week that I have never seen ever in the Bible before and it has changed my thinking on this forever.  The devotional that accompanied it was so profound as well that I had to share it.

It's Isaiah 50:10 and 11, "Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?  Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.  Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches!  Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled!  This you have from my hand:  you shall lie down in torment."

I was rather confused at verse 11 at first until I read the commentary on it that followed.  It basically described how this is a "solemn warning to those who walk in darkness and who try to help themselves find the light."  These are people like Abraham and Sarah who were promised a son, but that son didn't come for 25 years!!!!  So, Abraham felt like he needed to step in and help God because clearly he'd been forgotten and God must need some help....wrong......!!  The amazing thing is that God doesn't stop him!!!  He doesn't stop Hagar from getting pregnant.  He doesn't send a messenger to warn him that that was a bad idea.  He lets Abraham "kindle a fire" and that's where the verse suddenly became clear.  These people who make "fire", their own light, so to speak, equipping themselves "with burning torches" will end up lying down "in torment".  In other words, there will be consequences for not waiting on God, not letting God work, in HIS TIME, not our's.

This is how we do this.  We "try to help ourselves", the devotional says.  "We seek the light of the natural way and the advice of our friends.  We reason out our own conclusions and thereby may be tempted to accept a path of deliverance that would not be of God at all."  But these are always the wrong path.  The light is bright, sure, but it isn't God's light.  They are "deceptive beacons leading us toward the danger of the rocks."  And this is the scary part, "God will allow us to walk in the false light of those sparks, but the end will be sorrow."

I have had multiple friends now in rough marriages and these are Christian marriages, at least where the wife is a believer.  Most of the women have done the right thing, and by God's grace, have stayed together.  They have stayed the path of faithfulness, of literally walking in darkness, never knowing if the husband will ever be saved, never knowing if they'll have the dream marriage they long for.  I marvel at this kind of strength as marriage is really hard even if both are saved!  How they do this is only supernatural.  But the amazing fruit coming out of their faithfulness is incredible - children who love the Lord, who are following God's way all because of the willingness of the Mom to trust God in her darkness.

I've always advised staying together, always.  I've encouraged periods of separation to work things out, but I've never advised divorce.  I've encouraged getting outside help, but never leaving permanently.  I've been told, "You have no idea."  I know.  I don't.  I've been told, "You wouldn't understand."  I haven't claimed to.  All I have is the Bible and I only know what I know, what I read in it.  I believe the promises.  But, there's always been this part of me that really doesn't know their pain and so I understand that it must be harder than I could ever imagine.  I've tried even then to encourage a deep faith in God, even though they are in the midst of what seems like torture probably.

But this verse was a real challenge to me and the devotional went on, "Beloved, never try to get out of a dark place except in God's timing and in His way.  A time of trouble and darkness is meant to teach you lessons you desperately need.  Premature deliverance may circumvent God's work of grace in your life.  Commit the entire situation to Him and BE WILLING TO ABIDE IN DARKNESS, knowing He is present.  Remember it is better to walk in the dark with God than to walk alone in the light."  (caps mine)  Those have to be the most challenging words I've read in a long time.  Verse 11 goes against everything we think.

We joke that if my kids don't get married soon, we'll have to step in and help God clearly.  Well, I'm not joking about that anymore.  But it's a good example of how we don't think God is going to do His part, so we might just have to step in and find spouses for them off some bridal website.  Wrong.  Better to live as a single person than marry the wrong one.

Working this out in a difficult marriage is still easier on paper than in real life.  Walking in darkness with God is still going to be hard, but as the verses earlier in the chapter state, "Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?  Or have I no power to deliver?" 

This chapter in Isaiah has now given me more courage than ever to walk alongside people in darkness in a whole new way.  I won't be afraid or have doubts deep down anymore when I advise them to trust in God in the darkness.  The darkness is where He wants us sometimes.  Darkness with God can be a good thing.  It doesn't say "if" you walk in darkness "  it says, "let him who walks in darkness".  That sounds to me like you're going to have times of darkness, times of no light.

We've all seen people who didn't wait for God to redeems their stories and now they are suffering the consequences of those choices, but even then, even in those situations where they kindled their own torches, God can still redeem them....if they come to their senses and if they repent and confess.  Isaiah says, "Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.  The Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward."  Awaken my ears morning by morning.  Open my own ears.  Help me not to light my own fire, but instead to wait in the times of darkness and to keep encouraging those in darkness to not give up.