Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
The verse is a plea for God to remember and have respect to the covenant because the dark places of the earth are full of cruelty. Those dark places are places of spiritual gloom and error, and of moral and spiritual destitution, filled with cruelty. They include communities and places with no churches, where lost people wander without help, enshrouded in gloom and in need of God's truth and light.
The covenant entrusted Israel with preserving the knowledge of God and carrying His light to the dark places of the earth. Those dark places were the heathen nations, whom Israel was to call away from idolatry to serve the true God. Israel broke the covenant by following the idolatrous practices of other nations, but when God scattered them among the nations as captives many repented and spread the knowledge of the true God.
In one application the dark places are heathen lands where people from civilized nations force liquor, tobacco, opium and other destructive vices upon the inhabitants. That traffic brings degradation and destruction, and the conduct of the outsiders makes them hated. The verse marks such places as fields for seeking and saving the lost. There the light of Christ's life is to shine through Christian families who live and work among the people, reaching them through human service after Christ's example.
The verse therefore calls Christian families to leave comfortable settings to labor among the dark places wisely and perseveringly, even at personal cost. Their work is so that people without hope and enshrouded in spiritual gloom may hear of the Saviour and receive the gospel. The truth must be proclaimed in those places without delay despite obstacles. As God's servants carry the lamp of life there they help hasten the coming of Christ.
The verse is a plea for God to remember and have respect to the covenant because the dark places of the earth are full of cruelty. Those dark places are places of spiritual gloom and error, and of moral and spiritual destitution, filled with cruelty. They include communities and places with no churches, where lost people wander without help, enshrouded in gloom and in need of God's truth and light.
The covenant entrusted Israel with preserving the knowledge of God and carrying His light to the dark places of the earth. Those dark places were the heathen nations, whom Israel was to call away from idolatry to serve the true God. Israel broke the covenant by following the idolatrous practices of other nations, but when God scattered them among the nations as captives many repented and spread the knowledge of the true God.
In one application the dark places are heathen lands where people from civilized nations force liquor, tobacco, opium and other destructive vices upon the inhabitants. That traffic brings degradation and destruction, and the conduct of the outsiders makes them hated. The verse marks such places as fields for seeking and saving the lost. There the light of Christ's life is to shine through Christian families who live and work among the people, reaching them through human service after Christ's example.
The verse therefore calls Christian families to leave comfortable settings to labor among the dark places wisely and perseveringly, even at personal cost. Their work is so that people without hope and enshrouded in spiritual gloom may hear of the Saviour and receive the gospel. The truth must be proclaimed in those places without delay despite obstacles. As God's servants carry the lamp of life there they help hasten the coming of Christ.