Tag: darkness

  • 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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  • The great transfer – From Darkness into light

    A man standing in ne shadows moving from darkness to light

    Some friends shared some images of their recent Alaskan cruise on social media. That got me thinking of the Alaska Purchase – where the USA purchased Alaska from Russia. The price in 1867 was $7.2 million, a real bargain. That led me to think of other great transfer stories.

    Most North Americans are familiar with the Louisiana Purchase, in which France transferred land to the US for $15 Million. In a series of purchases, the US bought ½ of what was then Mexico.

    The buying and selling of countries and territories has been going on for centuries. It’s not just an American thing. Countries have been the subject of transfers since near the beginning of time.

    It’s certainly not an everyday occurrence, but it is far from being without precedent. There is a great transfer that is mind-boggling in scope. It’s an event that happened at a specific point in time but is still happening today.

    And although you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and in evil deeds, but now He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. Colossians 1:21-23

    By the grace of God, through what Christ accomplished, sinners are transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light. We go from being rebellious sinners to children of God. We are no longer slaves to sin but covered under the imputed righteousness of Jesus.

    I sometimes think we really don’t understand how powerful a transaction that was. God, the offended party, stepped in to free those who committed the offense. By His own blood, He redeems people who were His enemies. He pays our price.

    We’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve it. We can’t save up enough good deed points to pay our own way. We are lost forever, separated by nature and choice from the one who loves us.

    For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8

    Inconceivable? Unbelievable? Mind blowing? Yes! Yet equally as true. It is the ultimate Great Transfer.

    That’s the reality of the gospel, the good news, the euangelion that the Scriptures proclaim and believers testify to. In one agonizing event, people from every tribe, tongue and age were transferred from darkness to light, a process that continues today.

    Praise God that you have been transferred to His family and tell others that hope is open to them as well.

    Be blessed 

    Kevin 

    SUMMARY

    The greatest “purchase” in history isn’t a territorial transaction but the redemption of sinners by Christ — who, at infinite personal cost, transferred His enemies from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light. Unlike the Louisiana or Alaska Purchases, this transaction was paid not with gold but with the blood of God Himself, and its effects continue to unfold in every generation.

    KEY POINTS

    The Price Was Staggering — While the Alaska Purchase cost $7.2 million and the Louisiana Purchase $15 million, the redemption of sinners cost the Son of God His life — paid on behalf of people who were His enemies and had done nothing to earn it. 

    The Transfer Is Total — Through Christ’s death, believers move from alienation and guilt to being presented before God as holy, blameless, and beyond reproach — a transformation no human effort or accumulated merit could ever achieve. 

    The Transaction Is Still Open — This redemption, accomplished at a specific moment in history, continues to be applied today across every tribe, tongue, and generation, making the proclamation of the gospel an urgent and ongoing mission.

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