But nighttime was an especially dangerous time in the ancient world. Robbers and enemy armies used the cover of night to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. Without the security that electrical lighting provides, ancient sentinels once stood guard through the long watches of the night waiting anxiously for the dawn. The first break of dawn signaled that the nighttime threat of attack was over. Dawn implies that the threat of the darkness is over.
Darkness is a metaphor that the Bible uses for sin and every evil.
Throughout the Bible darkness is also symbolic of our sinful and lost condition. Besides danger, darkness brings with it a certain disorientation. I remember a news story from a few years ago where a driver in England was attempting to drive slowly through heavy nighttime fog by sticking his head out of the driver s side of his car. In the thick fog he didn t run into another car, but into another head from a driver driving his car in the opposite direction. Their cars were fine, but both men suffered concussions.