The people which sat in darkness saw a great light… – Matthew 4:16

It is said next that they “sat in darkness.” Matthew did not quote from Isaiah correctly; I think he purposely alters it. Isaiah speaks, in his ninth chapter, of a people that “walked in darkness;” but here the evangelist speaks of a people who “sat in darkness.” That is a state of less hopefulness. The man who walks is active, he has some energy left, and may reach a brighter spot; but a man sitting down is inactive, and will probably abide where he is. “The people that sat in darkness”-as if they had been there a long while, and would be there longer yet. They sat as though they had been turned to stone. They “sat in darkness,” probably through despair; they had, after a fashion, striven for the light, but had not found it, and so they gave up all hope. Their disappointed hearts told them that they might as well spare those fruitless efforts, and therefore down they sat with the stolidity of hopelessness. Why should they make any more exertion? If God would not hear their prayers, why should they pray any longer?…They said, “What matters it, since there is no hope for us? Let it be as fate appoints, we will sit still, we will neither cry nor pray.” How many have I met with who are not only thus in darkness, but are half-content to dare the terrible future, and sullenly to wait till the storm-cloud of wrath shall burst over them. It is a most sad and wretched condition, but what a blessing it is that this day we have a gospel to preach to such…The fact is that when a man is sin-sick, his soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and unless the Beloved Physician shall interpose, he will die of famine with the Bread of Life spread out before him. Dear friends, may the Lord visit you with His saving health, and give to the saddest of you joy and peace in believing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1010.cfm