I will Turn Darkness into Light

"I will Turn Darkness into Light" - Isaiah 42:16 We were blind to God; we knew nothing of God. Our God has changed the darkness into light, and the rugged (full of stones, steep slopes that hinder the passage) into plain. He never forsakes us. It never deprives us of protection; to forsake, it is necessary to have protected before. Guiding them on paths they had not known. "On the path of obedience there are rough, harsh difficulties, but God smoothes them (smoothing, removing obstacles, making problems easier) "with His power and His grace."

I. The priests carrying Jehovah's Ark of the Covenant were high and dry.

A. "Stand firm in the midst of the Jordan" (Joshua 3:17).

1. Until all the people finished passing the Jordan.

2. Here God had arranged for the Ark to be stopped to show that "the same power" that had divided the waters "kept them separate" until the last one passed.

3. The priests had been commanded to "stand firm" in the middle of the river: a) To test their faith. Just as they had taken a great step of faith by plowing themselves in the waters of the river, so now they were to show a great permanence of "faith" by standing firm for a long time in the middle of the river; but they knew that they were carrying with them what was a reliable protection; b) To encourage the "faith" of the people and cause them to enter Canaan triumphantly”, fearing no evil as they passed through this valley of shadows of death, they were assured of the presence of God, who came between them, and the haughty currents of the river, which would have completely covered them had it not been for the miraculous intervention of God.

4. (Isaiah 46:1-10) It is against God's intention for His people to be a fearful people.

5. They have to depend on His presence among them as their God: I am with you; I am your God who strives you; I will always help you; I will always sustain you (sustain, maintain, encourage, endure) with the right hand of My righteousness.

6. (Isaiah 46:4) The true God never disappoints His worshippers.

7. He formed us as a people and gave us His constitution (the law that establishes who and how power is exercised and regulates such power that He must maintain with His people).

8. God has carried us as if in His arms, "from (3) the belly, from the womb," from the day we were born as a people, and He is to carry us likewise into old age.

9. (Isaiah 46:4) Until old age I myself, until gray hair, since we needed someone to take care of us (mother) "for their childhood weakness, until they need all kinds of support, for the weakness of old age.

10. I will carry, I will endure, and I will keep.

11. We change, but God is always the same. His omnipotent arms (all power, He is able to do everything, He has no difficulty doing anything) always have the same strength.

12. (Psalm 91:12) For to his angels He will give order concerning you.

13. His angels are all.

14. They are the personal guard of the princes of "the royal blood of heaven," and have been ordered by the Lord and ours to watch carefully over all the interests of the faithful.

15. (Vs. 12) So that your foot does not stumble on stone.

16. And these angels, "seeing that we are loved" by God, to the point that for us He did not exempt (did not deliver from death) His own Son, accept the command with all their hearts and do all their duty from our "birth" to "the end of our life."

17. (Hebrews 13:6) The Lord is my helper (Psalm 118:6).

18. Jehovah is with me; I will not fear.

19. When God is with us, He is supreme, and this should remove all fear.

20. This was true of David: The Lord is with me; I will not fear what man may do to me.

21. Let him do me all the evil he can: frowning, threatening, intriguing (scheming), arming himself, beating; "The Lord is at my side; He has special care of me; He is a shield for me; I will not fear, but I will wait.

22. (Psalm 18:35) Above all we must take up the shield of faith, for nothing else can quench Satan's fiery darts and they will be harmless.

23. His kindness has magnified me.

24. His goodness, softness, meekness, softness, is dwarfed as He approaches us, as if exercising that softness.

25. It is God, making Himself small, who is the cause of us being magnified.

26. We are so little, that if God manifested Himself in His greatness without condescension (adapts, gives pleasure, pleases at the will of other people) we would be crushed without remission; but God, who bends down to look at the heavens and the angels, looks upon the humble and contrite and magnifies them. Amen.