Lord's Way in Darkness

A message by Walter Beuttler, transcribed word for word from the original recording

Transcriber's note: All scriptures are from the KJV except where noted. This message has been transcribed word for word (from Beuttler’s own teachings) as accurately as possible (due to the quality of the recording). Beuttler had his own dictionary of favorite words he used throughout his messages, and they have been transcribed and spelled out accordingly. Spelling on certain proper names, airports, hotels, locations, etc. may not be exact. Messages were spoken late 1960’s, early 1970’s. Beuttler was a Bible teacher at NBI (a.k.a. EBI, Eastern Bible Institute) for 32 years traveling worldwide since early 1950’s until a year before he went to be with the Lord in 1974.

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This morning we’re going into the area of the “Way of the Lord in Darkness.” Now bear in mind what I had mentioned the other night, the first night I would think. In our Christian experience we go through all kinds of situations. It’s not all butter and honey. It’s not all tambourines and German umba, umba. It’s not always “Onward Christian Soldiers Marching as to War.” Some of these soldiers come back from the battlefield.

I have seen them come back when Germany lost the war in 1918. The glorious, victorious German armies - that’s how they went - in jubilation. I remember when they left for the war in 1914. My they were singing, they were playing their brass instruments, they were shouting. I remember them singing this song (gives it in German then translates into English), “Victoriously we’re going to beat the Frenchmen and die like a brave soldier.” Millions of them did die, but 4 years later, we boys (grown up in 4 years) saw them come back. There was no singing, no playing. They came back bedraggled, heads bound up from wounds, silent. They appeared ashamed. There wasn’t that bravado with which they went.

It’s that way sometimes with Christians. It isn’t all bravado. Sometimes in our Christian path, we’re going through very, very difficult situations. One of these are, what I would like to describe here as periods of darkness. What we want to do there is to get help from God for the dark. The dark may not be present today, but very likely it will be present sooner or later. God does not only give us truth for the situation in which we currently find ourselves. Very often God prepares us for situations yet to come so the Spirit can bring to our remembrance what has been said perhaps years before.

I’ve heard numerous testimonies like that over the years, “Brother Beuttler, when you spoke on such and such a subject, I didn’t get a thing out of it. As the years went by and I got into a situation and was flat on my back, the Lord brought back to me some things you had said that helped me in the time of need.” Some of these talks are preparatory so when the time comes, we have the knowledge of the way of the Lord to help us through a situation. I’m going to read you a passage from Isaiah 45, which is going to be the basis for it.

“Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.” Isaiah 45:1-4

Now it is to be assumed that not all of us are historians, or perhaps not even acquainted with historical situations to which reference is made in the Bible. Cyrus was the king of the Medo-Persian Empire marvelously raised up by the power of divine providence. If you ever get hold of the history of Cyrus the Great, even though it may be purely secular, it will be a great blessing to you when you consider God raised that mighty king up from nothing that he might become, ultimately, the deliverer of God’s people; delivering them from the 70-year Babylonian captivity.

Now Cyrus was an idolater. He was not a Jew. He was a Gentile. He did not know God, yet God called him His anointed. Sometimes we need to revise our theology a bit. Cyrus was the anointed of the Lord. God used him mightily as a tremendous instrument for the execution of the divine purpose, yet the man didn’t know God. It says so in the Word. It’s amazing what God can do.

You take Caiaphas, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. They were there discussing how they might put Jesus to death, yet while they did so, the Spirit of the Lord came upon a man who had murder in his heart. They were there to see how they could put this Jesus to death, yet the Spirit of the Lord came on him, and he prophesied in the midst of it. He wasn’t even saved. It distinctly says, “This spake he not of himself, but being high priest, the Lord spoke through him.” Don’t be surprised when God did such wonders really with Cyrus though he didn’t know God.

Take Balaam’s ass for instance. For all practical purposes, Balaam’s ass prophesied. Balaam’s ass saw what the prophet didn’t see. So the next time you have a vision and you feel tempted to think you are such a great one, think of Balaam’s ass. Balaam’s ass had a vision. It saw the angel of the Lord with the sword drawn. The prophet didn’t see what the ass saw. So when you feel like gloating, “You people never have visions like I do,” think of Balaam’s ass. I don’t know if you got the point or not, but there is a point. That was just in parenthesis for your education.

Now here are lessons for us from this passage of scripture. As you know from Corinthians, all these things are written for our edification, and there are lessons to be drawn from this remarkable account concerning Cyrus the Great. What we’re doing here is how to apply these lessons to Christian experience when God, in the wisdom of His providence, leads us through periods of darkness. What I mean by darkness is circumstances we cannot understand, circumstances upon which God does not shed any

light. We say, “I am simply in the dark. I do not know. I can’t understand. I can’t understand why God allows this, does this, or doesn’t do this.”

We are in total darkness. We pray for light and there is no light. Now actually, by the time we get done with this lesson, if we really get it (How shall I put that because it sounds like a contradiction in terms?), we are no longer in the dark about our situation, though circumstantially speaking, we’re as much in the darkness as ever. Can you twist around that one with me? There is such a thing as going through circumstances of what we’ll call darkness. We’re befuddled; we can’t understand; we can’t see the way; we have no course; we just can’t figure it out. And yet we can go through a period of darkness while having the light of the ways of the Lord within, so while we are in the dark, the dark is not in us. Like a ship may be in the water, but the water does not need to be in the ship. If it is, you know what happens. The ship sinks.

If some of you this morning, or in the future, are in the dark, and you’re full of the dark, by means of this lesson the darkness can come out of you and light replace the dark even though you, yourself remain in the very same circumstances. There is a great difference between the ship being in the sea and the sea being in the ship.

We are turning now to Isaiah 50. It will take us a little bit to get into this so you just come along. I have heard preachers say (fortunately we don’t have to believe everything a preacher says) that for the Christian who walks with God there is no such thing as a period, a time, circumstances of darkness. Well that just (may I put it this way) ain’t so. I will agree there ought not to be any darkness in us, but that doesn’t mean we’re not in the dark as far as our environment, our circumstances are concerned.

Now notice something: Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him examine himself, and confess his sin, and get right with God so that the darkness might be expelled. Excuse me, I have been reading from some people’s version, but not the one of Isaiah. We’ll come back to that. Now notice again:

“Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” Isaiah 50:10

“Who is among you fears God?” The true fear of God causes us to abstain from every form of evil. Proverbs makes that clear. “That obeyeth the voice of his servant.” In other words, who among you recognizes the sovereignty of the Lord and complies with the demands of that sovereignty in obedience to do His will. The prophet is talking about the person that fears God and obeys God. Here is no question of sin, and yet walks in darkness. Put those two thoughts together and judge the position. You see on the one hand a godly person; on the other hand this very same person still walks through darkness, notwithstanding his or her godliness.

When that occurs, such a one is not asked to repent, to make restitution, to get right with God, but rather let him “trust in the name of the Lord.” That is to say let him trust in the character, the integrity of God. Now what God’s saint in darkness is asked to do is put their confidence in the integrity of Almighty God no matter what is happening that shouldn’t happen, or no matter what shouldn’t happen that does happen. Such a saint is not accused of wrongdoing, but is encouraged, is admonished now to blindly (although I don’t like the use of the word blindly), but without any other rational explanation put confidence in the absolute wisdom, integrity, and character of Almighty God.

That’s what Job did. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” Or if you prefer: Even though God will kill me dead, I’ll still trust Him. God takes us through situations if He dares, if He dares. Why do I say that? Because God does not dare (and I mean dare) to take some people through some circumstances through which He takes others because they’d backslide on Him. They’d throw away their faith. They’d be lost.

But there are other choice saints whom God can trust with a severe trial with a darker darkness to make such choice saints choicer still. Can you follow that? There are times when our circumstances, the hardness of the way, the darkness of the night are in actuality a compliment from God in that He has confidence in us to take us through a hard place of deep darkness to do for us what cannot be done in any other way. There are times when our darkness, our difficult situations are a compliment from God, a sign of His confidence.

I know this is unusual teaching, but that’s the way it is. So let him “trust in the name of the Lord.” “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” “Let him trust in the name of the Lord.”

Now then, what God really wants to do, is to give us what is here in a historical sense, called treasures of darkness. In experiences of darkness there are treasures to be found that cannot be found anywhere else. We’re going to look into those treasures a bit.

How are we going to have that confidence? It’s one thing to say, “Trust the Lord,” but it’s another thing to trust. You know if you have any trouble anytime, have you ever noticed how easily it is for people to say, “Well, just trust the Lord. God is able,” things that you knew from doomsday on to doomsday. They feel they ought to say something. They don’t know what to say, so they say it.

“The Lord’s able, dear sister. God answers prayer. Just trust Him.” Yea? One, two, three, presto, chango, duno.

Now the Lord has a way, and the things we’re using here will help us in our confidence to put our anchorage in the character of God.

“Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” Psalm 139:12

Here are four basic facts. Do you remember in Acts when Paul was in this ship that was sinking in a vicious storm? The storms in the Mediterranean Sea can be awful because it’s relatively shallow so it throws up quite a fuss. It says they cast out four anchors. Now here are four anchors. Remember in Paul’s case it says, “When neither sun nor moon nor stars appeared for many nights, and no small tempest lay upon us. They cast out four anchors and wished for the day.”

So what! You and I can get into situations, “into rough seas when neither sun nor moon nor stars appear for many nights, and you wish for the day.” Oh, that I could see! “But lest they be driven unto the shoals, they cast out four anchors so they wouldn’t go on the rocks.” I’ll give you four anchors to hang onto to keep us from going on the rocks. One is from the scripture in Psalm 139:12 that I just read.

God is the same. That’s one comfort. Even though it looks like my ship is sinking. Even though everything is pitch dark and I haven’t got a ray of light, I open Your Bible and find nothing but words. Lord, I’ll do what somebody told me once: “knock and it shall be opened” - rap, rap.

Have you ever been on a rolling ship in a storm at sea? Not only rolling, but pitching at the same time? That’s what gets you. I’ve stood on the upper deck when huge, mountainous waves came by. You had to stand on the upper deck because you couldn’t get out on the lower one or you’d get washed off. I do not know what the realities, the appearance were concerned, but as far as the signs were concerned, that ship was down in the valley and came up toward the crest and folkses, when that thing turned the crest, the screws of the ship were out of the water. You could tell every time they were out because of the rotation. Then the thing slipped down a mountain - that’s the way it looked anyhow - and dove down into the next huge wave (enormous things), and dove right into it. It slowly came up. I’ll tell you that thing was in there and shook so you wondered if it was still moving or what. There it trembled. Apparently it was moving all right, or the waves were. Those waves came over that ship that the water even came out the smokestacks. Out she came, up she tipped, screws out of the water, down she slipped, dove into the bottom of the next mountainous wave and just stood there like, so it seemed, trembling. Then very slowly she shed the thing over and kept moving.

What about the passengers? I was hanging on to a ring in the wall by my bunk all night long or you’d fall out. The trunk would slide over to one side with a bang, come back again, all night long. That’s right, no exaggeration. Water came down the stairways. That’s right. The smell came down from the scenery. They locked different parts of the ship off. The next day the railing of the ship was lined with people. The worst had gone, but there were plenty left. Literally, they were lining the rails feeding the fishes. Amen. Some of them never made it and left things on the deck and the sailors were there sweeping the decks. You understand? Yours truly was sick. Ooh! I had to go for the railing like the rest and turned around to go back in. A lady came along in a hurry for the railing, but did not quite make it. I had a nice tailored, navy blue suit on. She came right for me and blurpppp. (Lots of laughter)

Did you ever get seasick when you go through a storm, and I mean spiritually? How people bring up their - you know what I mean. There are complaints, criticisms, finding fault with the world, with God what have you. Well, God has a remedy here. He is the remedy. One remedy is: God is the same. Another remedy is in Isaiah 45:7.

“I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

God makes the darkness in other words: “All things work together for good” to those that love the Lord. We all know that. At least we quote it. So if this is true, then when we go through a period of darkness, then we ought to give God the credit for putting us into a situation in which He can do a new thing for us. Again Isaiah 50, Let such a one put their “trust in the name of the Lord,” His character, His integrity, what God is.

We can say, “Lord, you allowed this. You permitted it to come my way. I sure am in the dark.”

I’m thinking of a lady now. Her husband died within a year or something like that. She was a good Christian woman, but that poor soul does nothing but bemoaning, questioning, is in a constant state of melancholy. I think she feeds on it. I think it makes her happy to think she’s sad. All she can talk about is of her miserable state, and it is bad.

She said to us, “I’ve never gone to see my husband’s grave. I can’t stand it.” That’s been some time ago and I don’t think she’s been there yet. You cannot talk to her. She just does not rise up.

“Why did the Lord? What am I going to do?” It’s all true. “I’ve got a house to be paid off. I can’t get any work. I have an adopted boy that’s not right. Look at my situation. It’s terrible.” Boohoo, boohoo

It’s all true, but the poor soul either cannot or will not rise up to take a position in God. What she says is true, ever so true, but it isn’t going to help to bemoan and keep bemoaning the death of her husband. You can’t keep that up. You can’t afford to continue bemoaning a husband, or a wife, or a child or any other situation, as the case may be.

You can’t keep crying, “Why did it have to happen to me? It doesn’t happen to many others. Look at that one, why me? What have I done?” You can’t do that, you’ll sink. People will stay away from you because they cannot take it. They have their own problems.

You know what I mean? Whenever you walk in, it’s the very same thing like on a recording, that moaning, that crying, that why, why, poor me, me, me. I haven’t been to the grave. What am I going to do? It’s the same thing over and over and over and you cannot get through to the poor soul. Finally people stay away.

Then they cry, “Nobody visits me.” Why, it’s a pillow to visit the poor soul! And however sympathetic one might be, however true the predicament, we have to rise above it. There is no other way. God IS the same. He IS in every situation. He has permitted it even though I can’t understand it in any way whatsoever. There has to be a rising up or the sea will get into the ship. God made it. In other words, God permitted it.

I had a brother who died in Moscow. He was shot in the war. My Mother never got over it.

I knew a man whose wife died, an A/G preacher. That man moaned and moaned, and bemoaned and deplored the death of his wife until God had to rebuke him and let him know that this is a closed chapter now. Forget it and go on, do your work. Sometimes we need to be taken by the neck and get shook up or we’ll go down into melancholy and sure defeat. I don’t know who I’m talking to. I don’t know why I’m so strong, but that’s the way I feel. Don’t think I don’t know what it is in practice. Don’t you kid yourself!

“And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.” Exodus 20:21

Look at that. Exodus 20:21: “And Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.” Do you see something? God is not only in the light; God is also in the dark. Moses drew near, we run away. We are running after glory, but Moses knew enough about God that he knew in this darkness my God is, and he “drew near unto the thick darkness.” The very circumstances of dark in which he knew that God was. So God is in it.

Our fourth anchor here to keep a faith in God is the treasure we get while in the dark helps us minister to others. Now I’m not going to speculate, but I want to tell you a little something. In saying that, I’m not trying to rationalize where rationalization is not appropriate.

I have a sister in Germany who contracted polio before she was born. While my Mother still carried her, she had polio. They didn’t know it for many years, but finally as knowledge gained about polio, the doctor told her that’s what happened. My sister today is around 64 years old. She is in a state home because she needs complete care. Nobody can do it. Another sister cared for her for many, many years until her health began to break, partly because of it.

That Gertrude used to say to me, “Walter, what good am I?” All she does is sit in the home and exist at state expense. It cost a 1,000 marcs a month. Do you know what? The Lord is using that girl in a little ministry. Now she cannot walk. Well, she can walk, but very difficult. Her hands are in, her feet are in, sometimes she falls, but do you know what she does? She goes from room to room with other patients, reads the scriptures to them, has prayer with them, ministers to them. That girl reaches people that could never be reached by anybody else.

She wrote me some time ago and said, “Walter, I have a little ministry from the Lord.” And so she goes around with her little Bible, sits down in those patient’s room and ministers to them. Now I’m not saying that is why she was born that way. I wouldn’t go that far. I wouldn’t even rationalize. To rationalize there would be foolish. What do we know? But nevertheless, inasmuch as she is in that place, the Lord is using her with people that nobody would think of going to visit and to minister unto them.

Now a few things about the treasures and we’ll go home. This Cyrus was told by God, “I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places.” Cyrus became the conqueror of Babylon, the unconquerorable city. When God said, “I will open before him (that is Cyrus) the two leaved gates,” God referred to the city of Babylon.

The city of Babylon was a large city. It had two huge doubled walls around it. It was impregnable. There was no military power or combination that was able to take the city of Babylon. The walls of Babylon were so wide that 40 chariots could go side by side on top of the walls. They could engage an enemy in combat on top of the double walls.

The city had 24 main boulevards running from one side of the Euphrates (the city was half way on either side), across the Euphrates. The 24 boulevards had strong gates of brass that were shut at sundown for security. Nobody could take the city. And yet God said, “I will open before him the two leaved gates.”

Cyrus attacked the city and could not take it. He was there with his troops for a long time, but could not take the city. The city wasn’t takeable. It is recorded in history that he claimed (I think his claim is right) God gave him a dream on how to take the city. Following the dream, he withdrew his troops outside the sight of the watchmen on top of the walls. He asked his soldiers, out of sight of Babylon, to dig a ditch around both sides of the city, but not to bring the ditches close to the Euphrates - only near so the dikes could be opened quickly.

Then there was a great three-day feast in Babylon where they were given to drunkenness, etc. Cyrus felt his time had come. So when the Babylonians were engaged in their festivities and felt secure thinking the armies under Cyrus had withdrawn, they gave themselves to all kinds of looseness and carrying on. Cyrus asked his men by night to open the dikes between the canals they had built and the Euphrates. It worked.

Lo and behold! The Euphrates flowed around the city. Troops were stationed on the northwest side and on the southeast side. As soon as the Euphrates had emptied into the canals around the city and came down again into the riverbed below the city, his soldiers came down through the dry riverbed of the Euphrates, one army from the southeast, one from the northwest. There were strong gates also along the riverbanks where there also were walls. Cyrus knew he could not get in there any more than from without, but he ordered his troops to go in and the gates were wide open.

History cannot record what happened. The conjecture is that the guards were drunk; the gatekeepers through neglect didn’t bother to close the gates at sundown. So Cyrus’ troops poured through the gates into the city. At that very time Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall, “Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.” That was the night when Cyrus’ troops poured through the open city gates that had been neglected in being shut and took the city. That’s how God fulfilled this remarkable scripture that we have of Cyrus.

Now then in closing, what do we get here? “I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places.”

I must add something here. One of the enemies of Cyrus was Croesus, the richest man in the world - some believe to this day. To take Babylonia, the other nations didn’t like it and banded together to stop Cyrus, but couldn’t. The king of Lydia, Croesus, went to the oracle at Delphi to find out what would happen if he attacked Cyrus. The oracle said that if he attacked Cyrus, he would destroy a great empire. Croesus thought the oracle meant he was going to destroy Cyrus’ empire, but the oracle didn’t say which. Actually he destroyed his own empire. That’s how God turned over to Cyrus the riches of the richest man in the world.

Through periods of darkness, God brings us into spiritual riches of the knowledge of God and His ways that we could not reach in any other way. With that is the revelation of the I AM. You have that in verse 3, “that he would know that I, the Lord...am the God of Israel.” There is where we get a deep reality of the great I AM in our lives. Matthew 10:27 reads, “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light.” What you get from God while you are going through the dark, God will let you use later to minister to others who are likewise in the dark.

I spoke on this in one place and a lady said, “Brother Beuttler, where did you get that message?”

I said, “In the dark.”

She said, “I mean, what commentary did you find it in?”

I said, “That’s not in the commentary. That’s in the experience.” I guess that was the end of her questioning. Why do you think I can speak on this - and I’m condensing? “I’ve gone through the dark more than once.” Now you can help others with the things that we ourselves have been taught in the dark.

In Acts 16:25 we find Paul and Silas singing at midnight. Now they had been beaten bloody. They were chained. Their feet were in the stocks. You can see those stocks in the Tower of London. You can also see them in Rome in Peter’s prison. Stocks where they used to be tied, chained to the cobblestones, chained by their wrist to the cobblestone floor. They were beaten, hurt, but they didn’t grumble. We are told they sang at midnight, that the prison shook and liberated other prisoners.

Do you know what? God wants to give us a song in the dark, songs in the night where even though we are going through deep darkness, He has given us such a reality of Himself within ourselves. Even though our eyes might be stained with tears, we can sing in the dark.

It says, “The other prisoners heard them.” There are other people in the dark, when they see we can sing in the dark, they get liberated as well as we. So here are some of the ways of the Lord in the darkness. If you’re not in it now, there’s a mighty good chance you’ll get in it someday, and by the grace of God, hopefully He will remind you of some of these things so that you can hold steady in the dark without wavering.

This message is one of the sixty-six surviving transcripts of Walter Beuttler's teaching. To hear his voice, visit the Messages page. To read the story of his life — from the Brooklyn Bridge to the school of the Spirit — see Who Was Walter Beuttler? The True Story of the Man Who Knew God.

Lord's Way in Darkness

The Man Who Knew God