Tag: Christian living

  • Darkness in Scripture: From Egypt to the Cross

    Hope in the darkness

    dark morning just before sunrise, a sliver of light visible

    It’s almost 7:00 AM, and it’s still dark outside my window. I know that’s normal for this time of year, but I miss the summer days when it’s already full daylight, and the birds have been singing for hours. I’m grateful I no longer live farther north, where the days are even shorter. Oh, well, in just over two months, the days will start getting longer by a small margin.

    Yesterday, I wrote about the crucifixion, particularly the hyssop branch used to offer Jesus a drink as He thirsted. As I read the various accounts of the crucifixion in the gospels, I was struck by the period of darkness that preceded Jesus’ death.

    And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Luke 23:44 ESV

    It’s just one short sentence in Luke, but the event is also included in Matthew and Mark.  Why a period of darkness in the Scripture? In the Old Testament, darkness was associated with the Lord’s judgment.

    “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.” Amos 8:9-10 ESV

    The plague of darkness was the final plague on Egypt before the Passover.

    Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. Exodus 10:21-23 ESV

    Darkness is also a sign of the coming day of the Lord.

    Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.Joel 2:1-2 ESV

    The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Joel 2:31 ESV

    If times seem dark or you’re going through a period of personal darkness, don’t despair. God didn’t abandon His people then, and He won’t abandon you now. His timing is perfect.

    Hold fast, my friends. The Light is nearby.

    Be blessed.

    SUMMARY

    Throughout Scripture, darkness signaled the Lord’s judgment. God didn’t abandon His people then, and He won’t abandon you in your darkness now.

    TAKEAWAY

    Luke gives the darkness at the cross a single sentence, but Matthew and Mark record it as well.

    In the Old Testament, darkness marked the Lord’s judgment, from the final plague on Egypt before the Passover to the prophets’ warnings about the day of the Lord.

    If you’re going through a period of personal darkness, don’t despair. God didn’t abandon His people then, and He won’t abandon you now.

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  • I thirst

    The maker of water had none

    Rocky cliffs and spires rising above a sunlit, grassy hillside under a cloudy blue sky. McAbee fossil beds, Cache Creek, BC

    Years ago, I visited the McAbee Fossil Beds for a fossil dig. The beds used to be open to the public for supervised digs.  The beds lie high atop a ridge in desert-like conditions, in what was an ancient lakebed, near Cache Creek, BC. It was in the heat of the summer. I walked up the long trail from the valley floor, dug for a couple of hours, and came down laden with fish and plant fossils. I hadn’t taken enough water, and by the time I reached where Kathy and the dog were resting comfortably in the shade, I was parched. I was so thirsty it felt like I hadn’t had a drink of water in days. That cold bottle of water was so good.

    A slab of tan stone holding dark fossil impressions of a fern-like sprig, two broad leaves, and part of a third leaf. From McAbee Fossil Beds Cache CRrek BC

    Thirst is one of those sensations the body is designed to pay attention to. Sufficient water is vital to our health in every way. Looking at a picture of the beds recently, I recalled that thirst, and it brought to mind a familiar Bible Passage.

    Jesus has been crucified, and John is recounting the last painful moments of our Lord on the cross.

    After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:28-20 ESV

    John says this was to fulfill Scripture. Most will turn to the Psalms to see the prophecy.

    They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. Psalm 69:2 1 ESV

    John also hints at something else. The Romans gave him a drink on a hyssop branch. During the first Passover, they painted the lintels with blood using hyssop to appeal for protection (see Exodus 12:22).

    The man who was thirsty made every bit of water that ever existed, yet He had none on the day He died for us. He made it possible for us to thirst no more. Jesus told the woman at the well… 

    “…everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14-24 ESV

    The next time you are thirsty, pause to remember the one who died to give us the living water.

    Praise His name

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    On the cross, the One who made all water cried, “I thirst,” so we could thirst no more. The next time you are thirsty, pause to remember the One who died to give us living water.

    TAKEAWAY

    When Jesus said “I thirst,” He fulfilled Scripture. The hyssop branch that carried the sour wine points back to the hyssop used to paint the Passover blood.

    The One who made every bit of water that ever existed had none on the day He died for us.

    Whoever drinks the water Jesus gives will never be thirsty again. Let your next thirst remind you of Him.

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