Bible Synapse
Does God dwell in light or in darkness?
Hard question · Who God is · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
God dwells “in the light which no man can approach unto”.
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
When the cloud fills the new temple, Solomon says, “The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness”.
And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
At Sinai “Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was”.
And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
In a vision of God coming in the storm, “He made darkness his secret place”.
He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
“Clouds and darkness are round about him”; then fire goes before him, and “His lightnings enlightened the world”.
Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.
“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
The objection
1 Timothy 6:16 says God dwells “in the light which no man can approach unto”. Yet Solomon said, “The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12), and the Psalms say that God “made darkness his secret place” and that “Clouds and darkness are round about him”. Light and darkness are opposites; God cannot dwell in both.
The answer
Both pictures say the same thing: God is hidden from human sight. Paul’s ‘light which no man can approach’ is a glory so bright that no one can look at it. Solomon’s ‘thick darkness’ (Hebrew araphel, H6205, ‘dense cloud’) is the cloud that veiled that glory. At Sinai “Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:21), and at the temple’s dedication the cloud filled the house, so that the priests “could not stand to minister because of the cloud” (1 Kings 8:11). Solomon’s words in verse 12 describe that very moment: he saw the cloud and knew that God had come to dwell in the house.
Psalms 18 and 97 use the same storm-cloud imagery, and Psalm 97 goes straight on to the fire and lightning that “enlightened the world” (97:3–4): the cloud surrounds a blazing light. The darkness is a covering, not God’s nature; in the moral sense “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Dazzling light and thick cloud both keep us from seeing, and both express a holiness that sinners could not bear to look upon.
From the classic commentators
Solomon saw this word of Jehovah realized in the filling of the temple with the cloud, and learned therefrom that the Lord would dwell in this temple.Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 1 Kings 8:12 (1857–78), at Bible Hub
Dwelling in that light which no man can approach unto; in this present, frail, and mortal state; yea, angels themselves cannot bear the lustre of it, but cover their faces with their wings; for God is light itself, as well as clothes himself with light, as with a garmentJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 1 Timothy 6:16 (1746–63), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 1 Kings 8 (1857–78), at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 1 Timothy 6, at Bible Hub
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Psalm 97 (1857–78), at Bible Hub