God told Israel, through the prophet Jeremiah, to give God glory before He brings darkness.
I know that in my life He had to bring darkness before I would give Him glory. So He did, and through it I met Him, and did give Him glory, and now live my life every day to continue to give Him glory.
And giving God glory is the chiefest of all joys. This is a secret. It is a gem that few know or will ever find. A person’s joy is found only in loving and serving God. There is no joy apart from that, but only darkness.
But here in Jeremiah 13:16, God says to glorify Him before He brings darkness and causes us to stumble and turns even our light into GROSS darkness. BEFORE. He prefers that.
This GROSS darkness is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible and God even says it is a darkness so dark that it can be felt. I will say that I have felt that gross darkness and it drove me into His glorious light. And something about His doing that has caused me to adore Him deeply. How much must He love that He is willing to endure over and again our suffering, when He does have to bring darkness. Have you ever had to sharply discipline a child? I have, and it can be very, very agonizing. To hurt someone you love, even though it is good that you do it, is terribly painful.
I saw something here in Jeremiah a few chapters earlier…something very amazing. Now prophecy is what some would call parried. That is, it is mysterious and cloaked to a degree until God chooses to illuminate it and organize it in a mind that is searching.
This is one of those prophecies. We cannot tell who is speaking. Is it God? Is it Jeremiah? Is it God through jeremiah? Is it Jeremiah for God?
It is intentionally cloaked but I know it is God speaking. Listen to what He says:
Who Is it?
“Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it” (Jeremiah10:19).
This is Jesus. It is His voice lamenting from the cross, hundreds of years before He would be on that cross.. through the prophet Jeremiah. This is how His heart aches when His people disobey and follow other God’s. He has to hurt them. And sometimes His hurting does them no good. That’s His agony. God even says earlier that though He comes in and afflicts, some won’t repent, but will continue in their wayward ways.
This is a picture a Jesus’ suffering for our sins. Sin breaks everyone’s heart, always and all around.
So, the one who breaks a heart, He also sits with a broken heart, when His holiness has to injure. This is love. God is Love.