GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 6
GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 6 ~ ~ Mark 15:33 ~ ~ “Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
One of the plagues God put on the Pharaoh of Egypt when he hardened his heart and wouldn’t release God’s people, was three days of intense darkness. This wasn’t a normal, night time type darkness. It was deep, so that you could feel it. It was frightening. This was the last plague before the death of all first-borns of the Egyptians, but not of the Israelites. This darkness was God’s judgment on the sin of the Egyptian leader in keeping His people under bondage.
When Jesus was on the cross, to take the punishment for our sins, that thick, touchable darkness came again. Judgment came again, this time on the sin that keeps His people, each of us, under bondage.
It was that same, sickening, stifling, touchable darkness that seemed to last forever. But this only lasted three hours instead of three days, and the wrath of God was focused on the Man Jesus Christ, the Father’s first-born Son. So after the darkness, the First-born was killed, as they were in Egypt.
But what went on during that darkness, besides people panicking, screaming, crying doomsday chants?
In that darkness, God’s punishment for every sin committed by every person, for their entire lives, who lived from the beginning of time, beginning with Adam’s.
The Father’s judgment and wrath had to fall on the sin, and that sin was all wrapped up in the package of one man, the Second Adam, the God/man, who gave up His power to take our sins as a mere man.
It was thickest of any cold, crackly-hard blackness to ever fall upon the earth, since before that first day of creation when those three words were spoken, “let there be light”. They were the Words of God—of Jesus, the Living Word of God who not only brought light upon the surface of creation,on that first day, but to the inhabitants of the World in His incarnation 4,000 years later. He is the Light of the World, but now that light was dark again!!!
There He hung, by His own choice, having given up His glory with the Father, and now, giving up his life, but before He does that, He had a victory to bring about.
In those 3 hours of darkness, what no one else saw, except Himself and the Father, he was surrounded by every demon in hell. Every demon who ever oppressed or possessed every human being who ever lived for their entire lives were salivating, growling, wanting to get their revenge on the Son of Man. They were so desperate they were giddy. They had the Son of God, the Son of Man in their grubby hands!
They could already taste their control of mankind without interference from God. Satan was sure he finally won, after all, look at that pathetic excuse for a man on that cross. This is a piece of cake. He could already feel the crown on his head when he’ll be higher than the Most High God!
Let’s not forget this: Those demons were there by the authority of the Father. They were on God’s mission, although they didn’t know it at the time. Remember, the devil is God’s devil. He’s His creation, and He still has a use for him, to test and grow those He loves.
The Father in His great justice and love for you and me, cut the tether on that lion of death, and leg him rage and pounce on His Dear Son in the name of eternal heavenly Love for us. Us—selfish, proud, whiny and rebellious critters, while we were still uglier in our sins than the demons themselves!!!!
They did their best to gnaw and rip and tear on the Savior, but something happened in the darkness that turned things around. The details we will have to ask in our eternal life, but the outcome is raised above us with a HALELUIA!!!
Jesus, though He was struggling for breath and very near death, suddenly yelled out, IT IS FINISHED!!!, and breathed His last earthly breath in this body. Jesus marched into death as a conquering warrior, not as a victim.
The Light came back! The people gasped! They had no understanding, of course, of why the Light left and why it came back, they only knew they were relieved. What they didn’t know, either, was that nothing was the same as when the darkness fell. It looked the same to them, but the lion is now toothless, his demons are wrinkled, wimpering, cowering nothings, who know what their eternal life will be and the torture they will take from their equally as defeated leader., Now the lion is back on his leash, and the Father won’t give him any more slack than His great wisdom will allow. He’s like a weak pet poodle on a leash, until he will be forever in the lake of fire.
We need not fear him if we have Jesus!
This is what was going on in the darkness while the people were staggering around trying to figure out where they were.
The three days of darkness in Egypt was repeated as the three hours of equal darkness at Calvary, and the first-born deaths of Egypt were repeated with the ultimate victory of the death of God’s first-born.
LET THERE BE LIGHT!
Will you walk from the darkness of judgment that can be felt and be one with the Light of the World?
Everyone who is trying to win their own salvation through rituals, memorized prayers, good works, and perceived goodness, is under judgment because these things will fail.
Only believing that Jesus died for YOUR personal sins, and trusting in His substitution to satisfy the justice of God, will put you into the Light of the World.
Live in the Light of Our Lord 