Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. 23 No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Psalm 112:4 says: “Even in darkness light dawns for the upright…”

When I went to college at the age of eighteen, I experienced a darkness I could almost touch. I had never known anything like it prior to leaving home for Capel, and I’m not sure I have experienced  it’s like since. There were no street lights on the part of the Rusper Road where I was billeted. We were deep in the Surrey countryside, and a solo night-time walk from the campus was quite scary. I know I was far from alone in feeling this.

Be that as it may, I’m sure the darkness which fell on Egypt was even heavier (23a). But note that God makes a distinction between His own people and those who are not (23b). We ‘have’ God’s light in the “places” where we live, but we are not to keep it there. We must not hoard it but share it. If we will simply be who we are – who God has made us to be – we will shine.

“We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining – they just shine.” D.L.Moody