SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/25/2024 7:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Supernatural Darkness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 27:45
Message of the verse: “45 Now from the sixth
hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.”
“44 It was
now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth
hour, 45 because the sun
was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two” (Luke
23:44-45). Luke uses the word ekleipo which is translated from our
word obscured, and from this word we get the word eclipse. Now you know that
there was an eclipse earlier this year and where I live in Ohio it went
completely dark, and this is what happened for three hours in Jerusalem when
Jesus was crucified. The problem is that
this was not an eclipse during the time when Jesus was crucified, for the sun
and the moon were far apart on that day.
MacArthur
writes that “The purpose of the darkness is not explained in the gospels or
elsewhere in Scripture, but according to the Babylonian Talmud many rabbis had long taught that darkening of the
sun was a judgment of God on the world for an unusually heinous sin. If,
indeed, that was God’s intention at the crucifixion, He presented a gigantic
object lesson to the world regarding the greatest sin ever committed by fallen
mankind.” Now I am not sure where I
learned what I learned about why the earth went dark at that time, but what I
learned was that God did not want the world to see when He took the punishment
for all sins out on His Son, as He was actually separated from the Son and made
Him sin in order to pay for your sin and my sin so that those who would come to
the Lord and confess that you are a sinner, and sin because you were born a
sinner and then accept this gracious salvation that Christ offered to you
through His death on the cross, and not only His death but three days later
arose from the dead as it was prophesied He would do showing that God was
satisfied for His work on the cross. Now
if you have never done that you can do it right now. Pray something like this, “Lord Jesus I
realize that I am a sinner that I sin because I was born a sinner. I confess to you that I am a sinner and ask
You to forgive me and that You would come into my heart to live there in my
heart so that I can serve you all the rest of my life.” This is one prayer that the Lord will always
answer yes to sincere people who pray it knowing that they need the salvation
that Jesus offers to them through His death, burial, and resurrection from the
dead.
It
seems that MacArthur agrees with the me for the reason that the earth went into
darkness as he writes “Some interpreters have suggested the darkness was a
means of God’s casting a great veil over the sufferings of Christ, and others that
it was an act of divine fatherly sympathy given to cover the nakedness and
dishonoring of His Son.
“But
in light of many scriptural teachings and events, it would seem that the
crucifixion darkness was indeed a mark of diving judgment. In speaking of Assyria’s being used by God to
punish Israel, Isaiah spoke of ‘darkness and distress’ that would cover the
land, when ‘even the light is darkened by its clouds’ (Isa. 5:30). In describing the day of the Lord, the same
prophet declared that ‘the stars of heaven and their constellations will not
flash forth their light’ and that ‘the sun will be dark when it rises, and the
moon will not shed its light. Thus I
will punish the world for its evil’ God said, ‘and the wicked for their
iniquity’ (13:10-11).”
I
will list some other OT verses that speak of darkness and leave it up to you to
look them up. Joel 2:2; Amos 5:20; Zephaniah
1:14-15.
MacArthur
adds that “In those Old Testament passages and many others the judgment of God
is directly associated with darkness, and similar association is found in the
New Testament. Peter declares that God
cast the rebellious angels ‘into hell and committed them to pits of darkness,
reserved for judgment’ (2 Pet. 2:4). In much the same words, Jude speaks of
those angels being ‘ekpt in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of
the great day’ (Jude 6). Jesus Himself
frequently spoke of divine judgment in the terms of ‘outer darkness,’ where ‘there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30).
“The cross was a place of immense divine judgment,
where the sins of the world were poured out vicariously on the sinless, perfect
Son. It was therefore appropriate that the great supernatural darkness express
God’s reaction to sin in that act of judgment.”
With
that we end this discussion of darkness from Matthew 27:45 and Lord willing
will begin looking at “Sovereign Departure” covering verses 46-49 in the next
SD.
It
does seem kind of strange that as I write these words about God’s judgment
taking place in the darkness that even though it is morning now and the sun is
out it is hiding behind come thick clouds as a thunderstorm is now going on.
8/25/2024 8:35 AM
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