When Darkness is Mercy

The Gift of Repentance

Darkness thick enough to touch…three days when Egypt could not see, could not move, could not even rise from where they sat. Yet, in the homes of the Israelites, light remained (Exodus 10:23). Not just a flicker like candlelight, but a presence, a promise: God’s people would not be swallowed by the same shadows that paralyzed their oppressors.

Transformation rarely begins in the sunlight. Sometimes, it starts when the familiar world dims and the old certainties fail, when we can no longer look to familiar faces for direction. In the agony of that darkness, Egypt’s bonds of idolatry and self-sufficiency began to crumble. Pinned down by darkness, there was no reason to believe the sun would rise again, no reason to trust in Egypt’s gods. If not in their great empire’s deities, where could even a glimmer of hope be found? Rabbis have often warned the pain filled darkness should not be considered a plague. It should be treasured as a gift.

Because the Hebrews would leave the land a “mixed multitude’, in these moments of despair, for at least a few a gift of repentance must have crawled through their pain filled midnight to be embraced. Watching from the daylight, Hebrew slaves learned to comprehend both the terror, which grows from sin, and the unfathomable mercy of a God, who could offer such a treasure, a window of repentance, even to those on the verge of destruction. Transformational repentance was not a New Testament notion.

“Great is repentance, for it brings healing to the world… The Holy One, Blessed be He, says: Open for Me a gate of repentance as small as a needle’s eye, and I will open for you gates wide enough for wagons and carriages.” Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma 86b

In addition, Maimonides (Rambam), the great Jewish sage teaches:

“Repentance is always appropriate. Even if a person has sinned his whole life and repents on the day of his death, all his sins are forgiven… Repentance is a gift from God.” Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 7:5

Transformation, then, is not the absence of darkness, but in the discovery of Light that endures and overcomes it. No matter how deep and heavy your darkness, the Light is still there, able to overcome the darkness, and that is Worth Remembering.

“When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my cause and executes judgement for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon His vindication.” Micah 7:8-9

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12