Darkness apprehended it not…

And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not. (John 1:5 DARBY)

I will go more with the Darby's translations of this verse in bringing home the reality of this scriptures to us. 

The light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not. 

To apprehend means to take hold of or to seize. It means to take hold of with the understanding, i.e. to conceive in the mind. The word "apprehend" clearly expresses a key behavior of darkness. Have you ever wondered why whatever you place in front of a little baby, he/she would always want to take hold of it even if that object could hurt him/her. It is innate in man to always apprehend his immediate environment.

Apprehension was a result of the fall of man. When God created man, he was never created to apprehend by inquisition but by intuition. Let us look at the first assignment Man performed before the fall.

And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. (Genesis 2:19 KJV)

We would note here that Adam did not conceive this idea of naming the animals in his own mind. God initiated the move by bringing all the animals before him. Where did Adam get all the names? See what the last Adam, Jesus said in the 2 verses below

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (John 5:30 KJV)

I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. (John 8:38 KJV)

Intuition was God's way of cognition for man. It is a subtle spiritual revelation through which God makes known His will. 

Darkness could not apprehend light for lack of capacity to do so.. 

Jesus' life transcends human understanding. A careful look at His earthly existence as recorded in the gospels showed right from the time of his birthing to dying, what we would call an anomaly to human reasoning.

He was given birth to by a virgin. Though King and the Son of God, he was birthed in a manger. The magi could apprehend his star as that of a king and went looking for him in the palace. They could not apprehend why it had to be a manger for his birth place. Had they not been warned in their dreams, they would have reported back to the palace. 

John the Baptist could not apprehend why Jesus, Him who had no sin, had to be on the queue of sinners to be baptized unto repentance. Jesus' disciples remarked "what manner of man is this?" when they witnessed storms being calmed at his words. He prayed for forgiveness for the very hands that nailed him to the cross. Satan and his princes are still left bamboozled till date not understanding how the very death blow they dealt to Jesus would be their undoing... "for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:8 KJV). 

Darkness can never apprehend light, so can life in the flesh (human nature) never understand the ways of the Spirit. No one can walk as a child of light and yet reason like a child of darkness. Associating with the ideologies of light does not amount to an apprehension of light. Light and darkness are 2 different natures with no point of intersection. They are parallel natures on different planes. 

Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants. To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace. And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact they cannot obey it. Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.

Romans 8:5‭-‬8 GNB