Doubtless you remember the television commercial in which a man steps up to a bar and says: "Give me a light." After he is blasted with every possible sort of light, from fire to laser beams, he sheepishly corrects himself: "Give me a Bud Lite."

This is a modern parable. Like all living beings, we look for light, but often we are willing to settle for lite beer! It is just something to get us through the night, a little pleasure in a bottle, a little truth in a can. Give me a Bud Lite! It comes to us brightly packaged and with great promise. It can numb us, but without all the calories. It leaves us in the darkness.

The people of Israel were in the darkness in the 5th century B.C.E. They had returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon with great hope. They were going to rebuild the city,…