In the beginning, God set limits on the light and the dark. 

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:3-4

God set limits on the light and the dark. And he’s never stopped setting them. deciding where night goes and where it does not — in generations and nations and my own tired soul.  

At the end of Isaiah 8, the people choke on their obscurity:

They will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness (Isaiah 8:22).

I have stumbled there with them, hidden in my own circumstances or want. 

How marvelous — how wonderful — how beautiful and hideous that my Jesus has, too.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-46)

For the joy set before him — for the chance to make me His own — He who had forever been light walked into the darkness. 

He lost sight of His Father so that I could have mine.

For Jesus knew the ancient boundaries in place since time began — that God separated the day from the night — that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:15).

He knew that Isaiah 8 turns the corner into the staggering, blinding brightness of Isaiah 9:

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish…
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone  (Isaiah 9:1-2).

In the beginning, God set limits on the light and the dark. 

The lines are still drawn and His promises are yes and amen. 

Our nights will give way to the day.