Shining In The Darkness Where We Live

Shining In The Darkness Where We Live

According to my dictionary a “type” is “that by which something is prefigured or foreshadowed.” One of the most well-known types in the Old Testament is the Passover Lamb. In Exodus 12, Jewish households were told to slaughter lambs and mark their doorposts with the blood. Then God said, “The blood will be a sign ... when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt” (Ex. 12:13 NIV ). The Passover Lamb foreshadowed Jesus Christ, the New Testament “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29).

While the Lamb of Exodus 12 may be the most well-known type of Christ, a most interesting type of our Savior appears in Exodus 10, in the form of light. When God brought the plague of “total darkness” upon Egypt, His chosen people were the only ones who had “light in the places where they lived” (Ex. 10:23). This “light” in their homes foreshadowed the Savior who would appear in the New Testament as the “light of the world” (Jn. 8:12). How attractive were those homes in Egypt’s “total darkness”? How attractive can ours be in today’s moral and spiritual darkness?

John presented Jesus as the fulfillment of this type when he wrote that He “was the light of men ... the light that shines in the darkness” (Jn. 1:5). He later reported that Jesus Himself “cried out ... I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should stay in darkness” (Jn. 12:44,46) – that is, in moral and spiritual darkness.

If we want more of God’s light, Jesus tells us how to get it: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). If we want others to see it, we should also remember that he said, “You are the light of the world ... let your light shine before men” (Mt. 5:14,16). His light is our light. Are we shining in the darkness where we live?

By Larry Ondrejack