WHAT IS CAUSING A SHADOW BETWEEN YOU AND GOD?

Yesterday I wrote about the "shadow of death," and how shadows are not reality, but images of it.  Today, I want to look at what causes the "shadow of death," or better yet, who causes it.  In Hebrews 2:14-15, we read:  "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 

It was Satan who enticed Eve to doubt God and to partake of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:1-6), and though he was not called Satan in the passage, it is clear from Matthew 4:1-10 that "the serpent," a.k.a. "the devil," and "Satan," is "the tempter."  This can also be seen from Revelation 12:9 which says, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world:  he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

So how does Satan cast such a intimidating shadow?  He places himself between mankind and God!  He gets us to focus on our circumstances, instead of upon the One Who can save us from them.  God is Light (1 Jn. 1:5), and anything that prevents His light from reaching man, casts a shadow that can potentially result in death!  Like His Father, Jesus is Light (Jn. 8:12; 9:5), and being the "express image" of Him (Heb. 1:3), and being God "manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16), He could proclaim in John 14:9,  "...Have I been so long time with you, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; and how do you then say, Show us the Father?"

Jesus, as the "Light of the world," came to His own people and they rejected Him (Jn. 1:11-12);  as a result, Jesus offered salvation to all, saying, "I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness" (Jn. 12:46)!  That is why neither God, nor Jesus, cast a shadow, of death or any other thing:  They are Light!  And that is why Isaiah could write:
 
"Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first He lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined" (Isa. 9:1-2; See aslo Mt. 4:15-16)!

 

But beware:  

There is coming a day when darkness shall prevail upon the earth (Joel 2:2; Zeph. 1:15).  

Trust in Jesus, the Light of the World, while you still can!