Light and Darkness

Scripture says ‘Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.’ What does it mean when it says that Moses entered the darkness and that he saw God in it? What is recounted here seems to be in contradiction to the first appearance of God to Moses in the burning bush, for then the divine was beheld in light but now in darkness. We should not think that these statements are mutually contradictory. Rather, they point to a sequence of spiritual movement we need to contemplate. Scripture is teaching us here that at first religious knowledge comes to those who receive it as light. Thus, what is perceived to be contrary to religion is identified as darkness, and the escape from darkness comes about when we participate in light...
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When, therefore, Moses grew in knowledge, he declared that he had seen God in the darkness, that is, that he had come to know that what is divine is beyond all knowledge and comprehension, for the text says: ‘Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.’ What God? The God who, as the Psalmist says, ‘made the darkness his hiding place’.

– from The Life of Moses by Gregory of Nyssa (335–394)