Are you scared of the dark? We’ve had some campouts and I’m thankful for the light. One boy in the group is always asking about the bears in the woods. It is as if he imagines they are all lurking behind the trees waiting for him to go to sleep and then he’s done for!

I’m not really interested in your childhood fears. Actually, the darkness I’m thinking about comes from 1 Samuel 3. There we learn that Eli’s eyes began to wax dim. This is “biblical-shorthand” intended to prepare the reader for what is about to happen. Look throughout scripture and you will find bad things happen when this word is mentioned. It was “when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see” when Jacob stole the birthright from Esau (Genesis 27:1). On the other side of the equation, when Moses died we are told specifically that “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Deuteronomy 34:7). This word for darkening is used several times in Leviticus where the details of the plague of leprosy are described.

When I ask if you are scared of the dark, maybe now you catch my meaning? In Eli’s case, we see the result of his darkened vision when we read about his struggle with his sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

1 Samuel 3:13
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.

The same root for Eli’s eyes (”wax dim”) is used for “restrained”! This is not glaucoma or cataracts. Eli is not simply struggling with a physical ailment, his life has been covered with darkness. He had grown content in the darkness.

We are warned about this spiritual eye problem.

Romans 1:21
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

You will know you are slipping into the darkness when you fail to exercise restraint. Are you scared of the dark? Are you aware that it is the tendency of your heart to incline to darkness?

Psalm 89:15
Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

Make sure you walk in the light of the Lord’s countenance. “If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world” (John 11:9).