The Treasures of Darkness
"I will give thee the treasures of the darkness." -- Is. 45:3
The night has its treasures as well as the day. As some one has said, "Blessed is the night, for it reveals to us the stars." These starry treasures of the sky are revealed to us only in the darkness of the night.
Life has a like parallel. Some of the richest blessings we ever experience are those that come to us in the night seasons of life when all is dark about us. Indeed, there are rich gains of experience and treasures of divine grace which we can never know except as we discover them in the darkness.
The floods washed away the home and mill of a poor man—all he had in the world. It was a dark day in his life. But in the midst of that dark day, as he stood on the scene of his loss, after the waters had subsided, downhearted and discouraged, he saw something shining on the bank which the waters had washed bare. "It looks like gold," he said. It was gold. The floods which he thought had ruined him made him rich. That day which had seemed to be the darkest day in his life, turned out to be the brightest.
So it is oftentimes in life. Our greatest fortunes are often concealed in apparent misfortunes. It is darkest just before dawn. Ofttimes what seems to be the darkest day we have ever known, is but the forerunner of a brighter day than we have ever known.
"I will give thee the treasures of darkness." There are divine truths and promises which never shine so bright as when they appear upon the brow of some dark night of trouble and sorrow. Under some circumstances darkness is better than light.
There is a famous painting, called "Night." At first, as you look at it, it seems nothing by crayoned darkness. There are but the slightest traces of light with a very great amount of blackness. But as you continue to look at it, and study it more closely, you begin to detect faint outlines of different figures, houses, trees, lakes in the distance, and the dimly shining moon through reluctantly parting clouds. So it is of the night seasons of life. At first they may seem all blackness, but presently we begin to see in them wondrous visions of divine beauty and evidence of God’s goodness and love.
