Mensa Otabil - Darkness and Light
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Welcome to a brand new week. As you know, for a long while we’ve been looking at the book of Exodus and God’s dealings with Israel. We’ve looked at the plagues and various forms of the plagues, and now I’m jumping to the ninth plague. Later, we’ll look at the tenth plague as we examine Exodus chapter 10, verses 22 to 23. So Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. This is the ninth plague that God brought on the people of Egypt. So much has happened: plagues that have touched the land, touched their vegetation, touched the animals, and touched their bodies. Still, Pharaoh is not making any move towards heeding what Moses is talking about. The plagues had progressed in severity, but as they progressed in severity, so did the stubbornness of Pharaoh.
Now, this plague touches the sun or light. Like most Egyptians, Pharaoh also worshiped the sun god. The sun god was a supreme god for the Egyptians, and so God had to do something to let them know who was superior- whether the sun god was superior or whether Jehovah was superior. The sun was not shining in Egypt, but the sun was shining in Israel. This demonstrates that this is not just a natural phenomenon; it is a supernatural act of God to, within close proximity of space, block sunlight and release sunlight. This is a divine work.
Two things I want you to notice: first, there is darkness in Egypt, and this darkness lasted for three days. It was palpable, a darkness you could feel-a thick darkness with no source of light. I said probably the lanterns that they had, but when you read the context, it would seem that even their lanterns and other artificial lights were not working because the darkness was so deep that people could not rise from where they were sitting. At the same time that there is darkness in Egypt, there is light in Goshen, where Israel is staying. This shows the hand of God, and if you’ve noticed throughout the last plagues, there was always a distinction between what happened to Egypt and what happened to Israel. God had to make a demarcation and preserve His people.
So this plague is telling Egypt that God rules over all, and He rules even over the sun. But it also shows the darkness that Egypt is in-the spiritual darkness that they find themselves in. On the opposite, it shows the light that God wants His children to fall into or to live in. One of the things we have to understand about the Christian faith is that when we become Christians, we’re supposed to be children of light in a world full of darkness all around us. God shines His light in us, on us, and through us, and so we must live the light of God. That message is clear to us: God separates the light from the darkness, and the children of light must walk in the light, live in the light, and exemplify the light. That’s what we see as we study the beginnings of this plague that befell Egypt in the ninth plague.
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, You are my light. Though the world lies in darkness, surround me in Your light. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.