Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

NIGHT

“Night” occurs in the Bible in both a literal (the period between sunset and sunrise) and metaphorical sense. In both cases it is related to the idea, and often the word, “darkness,” even at creation when God’s word separates light from darkness (“night”). However, night is not demonized in the OT since the central religious festival, Passover, is a nocturnal meal recalling the “night of deliverance” (Exod. 11–12).

OT references to “night” often occur in combination or contrast with “day” and thus become a mode of describing time. Night is the time for restful sleep, and thus a sleepless night is agony (Job 7:3-4). When employed literally, the night is often divided into three or four watches (1 Sam. 11:11; Ps. 63:6[MT 7]; 119:148; Matt. 14:25; Luke 12:38). Although it is often associated with danger or calamity (Job 24:13-15; Ps. 91:5; Mic. 3:6), night is also the time for “dreams,” frequently valued as a medium of divine communication (Gen. 40:5; 41:11; Dan. 7:2).

Within OT apocalyptic writings, night becomes a symbol for evil in a fuller, almost cosmic, sense ended by God’s coming (Zech. 14:7). This metaphorical use is expanded in the intertestamental period, especially in the Qumran community. Night is the power of darkness (1QS 6:6; 1QH 8:29; 10:15). Thus, in the War Scroll (1QM) the final conflict is a battle between the “sons of light” and the “sons of darkness.”

The Gospel of John uses “night” as a symbol of death (John 9:4; 11:10), part of what opposes God. Thus, when Judas leaves to betray Jesus, it is “night” (John 13:30), which can be understood both literally and figuratively. Jesus can then say it is the “hour of darkness.”

For Paul, for whom Jesus represents the shift of the eons, night is a metaphor for the fading rule of evil as salvation (i.e., “light”) increasingly brings the rule of God (Rom. 13:2). Because of this contrast, Paul uses night to describe life apart from faith (1 Thess. 5:3-7). Believers are now removed from the night, and it no longer shapes their lives. Here night is used metaphorically to describe a moral life apart from God (cf. Paul’s plea to live as “children of light”; Eph. 5:8-11).

Night is absent in the new Jerusalem. Because God has defeated that which opposes him, there is “no night there” (Rev. 21:25; 22:5).

Wendell Willis

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

NIGHT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)