The Dark Night Of The Soul

The Dark Night of the Soul Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591): A Spanish mystic and of the Carmelite Order of friar, Saint John of the Cross wrote extensively about his own spiritual journey, which involved intense periods of doubt, despair and purification. He recounts his ordeal in his famous work, Dark Night of the Soul. He was in a horrible prison for over a year. He was brutally treated there, isolated in a ten-by-six foot cell, and subjected to lashings, dark-ness, extremes in temperature, and near-starvation. Nine months later, he managed to escape through a small window in a room adjoining his cell. As soon as he had recovered his health, John continued his efforts at reform.

1. Job, is living in the darkness of the soul

• Job couldn’t see what was going on in his life at that moment. He couldn’t understand; he didn’t have clarity.

• All the stuff that had happened to him was unreasonable and strange.

• He tried to see, understand, but he faced darkness of soul.

2. Job, is not happy. He says, “My complaint is bitter,

• In this darkness, Job wanders in search of answers. Why, I don’t understand.

• He goes looking for God. “O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments” (vv. 3-4).

• He can’t find God: “If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him” (vv. 8-9).

3. How would you define “the dark night of the soul”?

• It’s when you can’t find answers, you don’t understand,

• It is the crisis of faith it is difficult and painful,

• What helps during dark night of the soul? helpful to remember that many have faced it — especially those who take their faith seriously.

4. Those who have encountered the dark night of the soul. Like St John of the Cross

• “Mother Teresa had her dark night of the soul (1910-1997): Despite her outwardly joyful and compassionate demeanor, Mother Teresa wrote in her personal letters about experiencing a spiritual emptiness and feeling abandoned by God for much of her life.

• Theologian Timothy Merrell says, “Job of the Bible is the model of a person struggling to hang on to their faith, or, like a person in a dark room, fumbling around to find the light switch. Job is the poster child for those who wrestle with the complexity of the human experience and the problems of life.

5. Job encountered dark night of the soul he wanted answers

• You’ve lost a child to cancer, a spouse, your job, your house and your future. You’re down and out, at the end of your rope, you’re mad you’re angry. This is Job.

• Job said, “O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me” (vv. 3-6).

6. In the dark night of the soul we learn this about God

• God will find us — indeed; we discover that God has not lost us.

• Job admits in verse 10: “But he knows the way that I take. ”God knows the path we take,

• God knows the way. God knows the way for me.

• In the dark nights of the soul we need faith.

7. Finally, during the dark night of the soul

• Faith helped Job cope. “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you,” according to Isaiah 66:13.

• In Jeremiah, there’s an image of a God who is anxious to be discovered. “When you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.

• When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,

• God tells Jeremiah I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you …” (Jeremiah 29:12-14).

• “I will let you find me.” What an amazing promise!

• What we need is faith to see God when God cannot be seen.“He knows the way that I take” (v. 10).