Darkness Sets The Stage
A few weeks ago we experienced something that we all dread - something that we wish would stop happening, something that we wish would change or even be outlawed.
I’m talking, of course, about Daylight Savings Time.
And as if that weren’t enough, Winter Solstice is just around the corner.
A.K.A. The shortest day of the year.
A.K.A. The longest night.
A.K.A. Get used to living in the dark.
And unfortunately, this doesn’t mean we get to just go into hibernation with our hot chocolate and Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes.
No - Life doesn’t pause just because it gets darker.
Jobs still demand our energy, responsibilities don’t disappear, and we still have to push forward.
So, we make adjustments.
We get used to driving with our headlights on, we try to muster energy to work out when we’d rather sleep, we go to bed earlier, we spend more time at home, and maybe we spend way too much money fueling up on coffee.
We learn to navigate life in the dark because darkness, as inconvenient as it is, is inevitable.
It’s been this way since the very beginning.
In Genesis 1:1-2, Scripture tells us,
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
Before there was light, there was darkness - formless, chaotic, and void of meaning.
In Hebrew, the phrase "without form and void" translates to tohu va-vohu, meaning chaos, confusion, emptiness, or meaninglessness.
That’s what darkness is: chaos without purpose.
And isn’t that exactly how darkness feels in our lives? Whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, darkness feels unsettling and disorienting.
It creates confusion, fear, and anxiety because we can’t see what’s ahead.
When we’re faced with uncertainty, when life feels chaotic, when we’re searching for purpose, we long for light.
We long for clarity, understanding, and direction to help us be at ease.
This is surely how God’s people felt in the period between the Old and New Testaments, often called the "intertestamental period."
It’s also the period of time that leads up to the birth of Jesus - the reason we celebrate Christmas.
It spans 400 years of silence—400 years without prophets, revelations, or visible signs of God’s presence. The last words from God came through the prophet Malachi:
"Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple..." (Malachi 3:1).
Then, after Malachi, nothing. Just silence.
And I wonder how long it took for people to notice - “It’s been a while since we’ve heard from a prophet. Any body check the wilderness? Should we be concerned? Eh.. It’s probably fine.”
But as the years stretched into decades, then centuries, the silence must have felt deafening.
Four hundred years—four generations—of people waiting, questioning, doubting, and hoping.
Although we don’t have recorded words in Scripture during those 400 years, life doesn’t stop.
History tells us that after the Babylonians and Persians overtook Israel, and the nation ceased to exist independently, the Greeks came in and began to “Hellenize” the world by spreading their language and culture.
The Jewish people were dispersed and separated from the Temple. They set up local synagogues.
Then, it was the Romans who conquered the world and grew in power. They created roads that spanned the ancient world.
Yet, for God’s people, it must have felt like the world was only growing darker and darker.
The Temple was destroyed, people were scattered, and the promises of a Messiah seemed farther away than ever.
How did they keep going? How did they hold on to faith when it seemed like God had abandoned them? How did they keep waiting?
I imagine there were people on both ends of the spectrum—some who clung to unwavering faith, and others who let their hearts grow cold, walking away from God altogether.
But for the majority, the people in the middle, they likely tried to hold on to hope by pressing into Scripture, surrounding themselves with community, and choosing to trust that God was still at work.
Believing that the darkness wasn’t the end.
Trusting that God’s promises would come true and that the silence was setting the stage for something greater.
I was reminded of this idea of setting the stage on a recent trip to New York with my wife. We love seeing shows on Broadway while we’re in the city and this time around we were blown away by the set designs for The Great Gatsby.
But if you’ve ever watched a play or a musical, you know that scene changes all happen in the dark.
The curtains close, the lights go out, and the audience can’t see anything.
Behind the scenes, the crew is hard at work, moving pieces, shifting parts, and preparing the next act.
When the lights come back on, you’re transported to a new place. The story moves forward.
But imagine if the lights stayed on during the scene changes...
Imagine if you saw everything...
It would ruin the experience.
The darkness is necessary—it keeps the mystery alive and makes the story better.
In the same way, what if the darkness in our lives is God setting the stage?
What if the chaos, confusion, and waiting are God preparing us for something greater? What if the silence isn’t abandonment but a setup for redemption?
When we look back on the intertestamental period, we can see how God used that time to prepare the world for Jesus.
The spread of the Greek language provided a common tongue to share the gospel.
The local synagogues that emerged during the dispersion became places where Jesus, Paul and others would preach.
The Roman roads made it easier to travel and spread the good news.
Even in the silence, God was working.
He was setting the stage for glorious light—the birth of Jesus, the ultimate fulfillment of His promises.
And the same is true in our lives.
When we’re in our darkest moments, when life feels chaotic and without purpose, when we are in a seasons of waiting, we can choose to believe that the darkness is setting the stage.
We can trust that God is at work.
We may not see it or understand it now, but He’s preparing something beautiful.
Let this be a reminder today that:
"Darkness is setting the stage.”
It’s a simple, repeatable truth to center your mind and heart when life feels overwhelming.
Darkness is not the end. It’s the beginning of something beautiful.