The darkness of sin ruled our planet. Regions of shadows gave way to darker places of dread and fear. Lonely environs of death. Shameful caves of forgotten innocence. Banished souls wandering in dense forests of failure, unable to find an open range of peace; for the darkness was too great. And the world was void; a circular shape of evil empires that bled away into the making of another, more powerful, yet increasingly wicked empire. False prophets abounded on peaks of self interest and multitudes bowed to lies and images of pseudo gods; gods carved by the hands of the very men who swore their distinct existence to be Divine.

The cancer of deception ate away remnants of light; any ray of truth seemed easily extinguished by the lustful desires of immoral men who wanted dust and degradation more than freedom and forgiveness. And in this nebulous world religious men made themselves the only light some could see; and the dimness of their emanating pretension wasn’t enough to stir hope, only more humiliation and shame. For those who deemed themselves couriers of law and acted as oracles of God Himself only deepened the darkness, adding an abysmal shade of self righteousness in which all truth seemed lost.

Malice and murder expanded. Death and destruction increased. Lies and corruption became the norm. Extortion and betrayal was especially multiplied; for in a world of abject darkness these things are at home, and they dwell with little or no contrast. It was like the very beginning when the Scripture declares that the “earth without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

To be without form and void is to be a region of waste. It can also be understood to mean emptiness and confusion; as is related in Isaiah, “It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.” Isaiah 34:10-11

And so in the cavernous realm of earthen darkness, of evil unbridled, of hopes vanquished and hell empowered, God did for the world in redemption what He had done for the world in creation. He said, “Let there be light.” And a child was born. “Let there be light”. And a son of God was raised in the shadows of the Roman Empire. “Let there be light.” And a Messiah was revealed on the banks of the Jordan River, and his cousin baptized him, and as God had uttered the self pleasured words when examining the light of creation, saying, IT is good; he looked now upon the dripping figure of his son, the light of the world, the hope of all humanity, and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Oh What a light!!