INTO & OUT OF DARKNESS: Lessons from the 9th Plague

Blogging Exodus 10:20 – 11:8

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt.”

²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

²³ 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.

^{. . . 27} But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.

There are 3 morals to this story, but we begin in darkness.  Terrible darkness.

Maybe it was the Khamsin, the "wind of the desert," a massive seasonal dust storm that blocks out light for days. 

GIANT DUST CLOUD FROM KHAMSIN STORM DESCENDS ON CITY

 Maybe it was a cloud of volcanic ash from a far eruption, possibly in the Sinai mountain range.

VOLCANIC CLOUD MOVING ACROSS ICELAND PLUNGES COUNTRYSIDE INTO DARKNESS

Maybe both, combined with an eclipse.  Maybe God just said, “Let there not be light.”   Probably all of the above and more. 

The ancient Egyptians didn’t understand the mechanisms either.  But when they woke at what should have been dawn, there was darkness, terrible darkness; and  it didn’t dissipate with the hours of the day.  The darkness was so absolute that it seemed tangible, weighty, an absence of light that pressed down on the senses and the soul so completely that the mind told the body to shrink, to slump under the pressure of shadow. 

Inside the darkness, swirling particles extinguished fires or resisted the flames’ attempts to cast illumination against the shadow.  Even those with burning lamps had to feel their way, to  grope for the wall like the blind,  to grope as if we had no eyes; to stumble at noonday as at twilight; to be as dead men in desolate places (Isaiah 59:10). 

They couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces.  They couldn’t see their husbands, wives, or children squatting on the dirt floor of the same hut or slumping on the sofa across the fine room of the great house.  They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days . . . (Exodus 10: 23).

They had no food, their crops and stores consumed by locusts and the preceding plagues.  Even if they’d had light there would have been no bread in the markets nor even grass to tend in a field.  All day, and the next day, and the next, they sat and did nothing.  For 3 silent, hungry days every person in Egypt could do nothing but sit, in the dark, and think. 

They thought about Moses, and Aaron, and the Hebrews, and their God.  Yahweh had done this.  There was no other explanation.  Someone had heard Moses proclaim it after leaving Pharaoh’s palace in anger.  The Hebrew God had done what Apophis (Apep), their religion’s world serpent could not.  Yahweh had defeated Ra and killed the sun, and now they were all going to die.

Darkness is terrible when you’re on the wrong side of God’s judgment.  In the midnight hours when the power’s out and the screens are off,  and it’s just you inside your own head, all the myths you told yourself die, and you’re left unable to ignore the realness of that still, small voice. 

But if you’re on the right side of God’s judgment, darkness isn’t scary.

 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. . . You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,       nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. . . Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked. . . No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling  (Psalm 91:1 – 10).

When you’re in a spiritual place where God’s presence is welcome, the darkness isn’t frightful.  It’s just another place where you can meet and hear from your Father. 

When I remember You on my bed,  I meditate on You in the night watches.

Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.

My soul follows close behind You;  Your right hand upholds me (Psalm 63:6 – 8).

If you're a child of God abiding in His mercy and grace of God,  dark hours are an opportunity to fully focus on that still, small voice. For the people of God, darkness is illuminating.

My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word (Psalm 119:148.)

Somewhere in those days of darkness, somebody checked Goshen.  Pharaoh sent dispatched one of the precious few remaining horses imported for the military stables, and the scout forced his thin, frightened mount through the darkness, finding its footing by instinct, until they emerged from the clouds into light, into Goshen.  Somebody reported that the shadow skirted the boundaries of the slave quarters. 

But all the children of Israel had light in their dwelling s(Exodus 10: 23).

The powerful were in darkness, but the oppressed saw the light. 

Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you.” (Exodus 10: 24).

It was Pharaoh’s greatest concession, but it wasn’t enough. 

But Moses said, “You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind. For we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God, and even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” (Exodus 10: 25 – 26).

Sometime around this exchange the weighted darkness lifted off the geography of Egypt, but it remained heavy on the heart of her king. In desperate anger, he ended negotiations and pronounced a death sentence on the prophet if he tried to restart talks.

Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!” (Exodus 10: 28)

But Pharaoh had missed his opportunity to intimidate Moses.  Moses had seen the light, and the former fugitive with the speech impediment who’d been too afraid to speak defied the monarch of the most powerful empire in their world and gave an unauthorized closing speech.

Then Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.

But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’

And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.”  Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger (Exodus 11:4 – 8).

An up-jumped slave threatened the life of Pharaoh’s heir and then just dropped the mic and walked out, and nobody did a doggone thing to stop him.

That’s FAVOR. And favor isn’t a simple thing.  Consider that to place Moses in a situation where he was powerful enough to say what he said and keep his head, God had decimated A NATION.  When Moses prophesied the death of the first-born, the Egyptians were reeling from the psychological effects of 72 hours of absolute darkness (which, by the way, the Egyptians hadn’t know would last 3 days and not forever) and still trying to process the complete destruction of everything of value that except stone, sand, and metal. All they knew was that every time they opposed Moses, they suffered.  Thus, God made Moses mightier than Pharaoh. 

And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people (Exodus 11:3).

And so we come to the morals of the story: 

1.  Sometimes favor seems to come out of nowhere because sometimes favor comes out of darkness you weren’t a part of.   

2.  When you find yourself sitting in darkness, don’t despair; seek the light by seeking the still, small voice of God.

3.  When God tells you what He wants from you, do it because you’re going to do it, even if God has to direct you into His will by taking you into a dark place.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

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