TOPIC:"From a Night of Emptiness to a Day of Fullness"
"We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing...And they came, and filled both the ships" (Luke 5:5, 7, KJV)
Have you ever taken time to check out some of the night scenes of the Bible? It is a very interesting study. Go back with me to Exodus the 12th chapter. It was a time of deliverance for the nation of Israel. Moses was the great prophet of the hour. He pleads with Pharaoh to let God's people go. Pharaoh refused as he hardened his heart towards God. So God declares: "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:12). It was a night of DEATH.
In Genesis chapter 32 we have another night scene. It is Jacob's spiritual crisis at Peniel. God had to bring him down in order to break him of his self-confidence. We read in verse 24: "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day." In the darkness of that night Jacob came to the end of himself. Showing us that all of our struggling, striving, fighting, and resisting with God is going to get us nowhere. It was a night of DELIVERANCE.
Or in John chapter 3 we meet a Jewish ruler by the name of Nicodemus. It states in verse 3: "The same came to Jesus by night..." What a night meeting he had with Jesus. He was never the same again. His life was changed. As morning dawned, Nicodemus stepped out of night life into the new life. From a life of goodness to a life of grace. It was a night of DISCOVERY. He discovered Jesus for himself.
Or there is our Lord in the 13th chapter of John's Gospel looking with penetrating eyes into the heart of Judas and saying, "What you are about to do, do quickly" (v. 27, NIV). And then we read: "As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night" (v. 30). It was a night of DARKNESS. So there you have some night scenes from the Bible. A night of death. A night of deliverance. A night of discovery. A night of surrender. A night of transformation. A night of darkness.
And now we come to another instance of the word night. It is found in . . .