The Plague of Darkness

If you have your Bible, I need you to turn with me to Exodus chapter 10. Exodus chapter 10. And today we're going to cover plague number nine. But you know, every week I'm glad that somebody comes, and I'm glad that you're here this week. And I'm so glad that you're here that I'm going to do all I can to make sure you're glad you came. All right? And I think today's lesson is going to be one of those. Serm that will help you understand some significant things about God, maybe some things you've never seen before.

And of course, you probably won't read them in a book anywhere. But it's all about the plague of darkness and what God wants to do to teach us about His great light. So, Exodus chapter 10. Verse number 21. And the LORD said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, 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 sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, Go serve the LORD, only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Even your little ones may go with you. But Moses said, You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the LORD our God. Therefore, our livestock, too, will go with us. Not a hoof Will be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the Lord our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the Lord.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, Get away from me. Beware. Do not see my face again. For in the day you see my face you shall die. And Moses said, You are right, I shall never see your face again. Thus we come to the end of the confrontation of Moses and Pharaoh. Pharaoh's a little perturbed, to say the least. Now, notice with me the disadvantage in the plague.

We'll begin there. The disadvantage in the plague is that there was no warning about this plague. Remember, plague number three.

Plague number six and now plague number nine all come without warning. All the rest have warnings. These three do not. And that's the dis of the plague. For Pharaoh didn't know what was going to happen next. But the point is, he had been forewarned on many occasions. And it's that old principle that once grace is cont rejected, grace will eventually be removed. God said in Genesis chapter six, My spirit shall not always str with man. You see, God is just when He removes His grace, His mercy, His goodness, because for so long He has offered it to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians, but they have refused it.

Second thing I want you to see is the dynamics of the plague. It's amazing when you read what people say about this plague of darkness. It says that it's a darkness that can be felt. Now, think about that. A darkness that can be felt. Moses stretched out his hand, and darkness just flood the land of Egypt. And some commentators seem to think that this was one of those windstorms that come up and blow the sand and cause it to be so th. Thick and so gray that you can't even begin to see. But that's not what this is.

You can't explain the plagues by a natural phenomenon. Because they're all supernatural plagues. They all come about because of the mighty power of God. And God said that what he was going to do was demonstrate his power to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians, that all may know that he was God, that he was Lord. That he was ruler of the world. And the dynamics of this plague are supernatural in nature. You think about this, and you know, we can't relate to this because when the electricity goes out, God forbid it goes out.

In the summertime, when the air conditioner is on, but when the electricity goes out because of a storm, what do we do? We go and light a candle, or we go and Turn on the flashlight, and there's light so we can see. Well, the Egyptians didn't have any flashlights or batteries, they had candles. But some way, somehow, they were unable to do that. How, you ask? I don't know. I don't know. But the darkness was so grave that for three days, no one got out of bed. Now, some of you might like that. Well, that's what they did.

They couldn go, they couldn't see anything. Now, the supernatural nature of this: listen, when you're in a dark room, what do you look for? You look for a light. Right? And you go in the direction of that light, wherever it is, so that you can get out of the darkness. You will note that there is light where the Israelites are. There's light in their dwelling, but there is no light where the Egyptians dwell. So you would think that the Egyptians would look to where the Israelites were dwelling, see the light, and go there to get out of their darkness.

But they couldn't see that light. That's how dark it was. It's a darkness that could be felt. How do you feel a darkness? I don't know. But it's important to understand that. You ever been in a place where it's pitch black and you can't see anything? You almost feel like you're covered in a black cloak, and you almost feel like you can just squeeze the blackness of the air. You can't. But it feels like that sometimes when you can't even see your hand in front of your face Like I said, it's hard for us to imagine that but there were no street lights.

There were no car lights. There were no flashlights just black Black darkness for three days. The dynamics of the plague was a supernatural plague. So supernatural that they weren't able to even Create their own light to be able to see. Point number three is the demotion in the plague.

There was another God that was demoted in the eyes of the Egyptians. It was the sun god Ra because they worship the sun god because they were so into this particular god, God. Would eclipse their God. He would not allow their God to be seen so their God could be worshipped because He was the superior God, because He is the only true God. And so this darkness would eclipse their sun god and help them once again to realize that their God could do nothing. They could not even worship their God because they couldn't see him.

Can't worship what you can't see, right? So they couldn't even bow down before him because they couldn't see him because it was black, it was dark. So defeated they were that they didn't even get out of bed for three days. They never left their place of dwelling because they couldn't see to go anywhere. Again, hard for us to imagine, but it is supernatural. Which leads us to the deprivation from the plague. Boy, we're moving fast this morning, aren't we? I'm saving everything for point number seven: the deprivation in the plague.

You know, they were deprived of doing their daily activities and duties. They couldn't go to work. Some of you like that when you can't go to work. But they couldn go to work. They couldn't recreate. They couldn't play. They couldn't do their parties. They couldn't worship. They couldn't do anything. They were deprived of everything They wanted to do or could do because of the plague of darkness. And I find that very interesting because, you know, as Christians, we tend to think that we're deprived.

We don't get to do what everybody else gets to do. You know, the Lord gives us these commandments. The Lord gives us this word of God that tells us where to go, what to do, how to look, how to live. And we've got all these rules, and we don't have the freedom that the world has to do what they want to do. But the deprivation comes not for the believer, but for the unbeliever. You see, they think they can do what they want to do, but in reality, they're slaves to sin. They're in bondage to their sin.

And so what they see as the party and the luxury and the wonderful opportunities before them really are there. To accentuate the darkness of their lives and the sinful nature of their lives, we, the believer, have been set free from that. We experience what the Bible says, the abundant life of Christ in John 10.

We understand that, as the psalmist says, that at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. That true joy and true pleasure come from a relationship with Jesus Christ. That no matter what happens to me, I can experience the joy of the Lord. I can rejoice always, as the choir is saying this morning. I can rejoice in my God. And so, while these Egyptians were deprived of the opportunity to do what they always did and even wanted to do. It accentuates the fact that the unbeliever is enslaved to his dark nature, his dark life, because he's ruled by the prince of darkness.

You see that? The fifth thing I want you to see is the division in the plague. The division in the plague. And that is that Egypt was separate from Israel. That is, the Israelites had light in their dwelling, but the Egyptians did not. Again, the supernatural nature of what God was doing and how we can make this whole thing happen. It says that the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. You know, it's almost as if God is preparing us for how the believer functions. The Bible says over in John 8, verse number 12, I am the light of the world.

He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have. The light of life. The universal truth that's applicable to all men is that those who follow Christ have the light of life, and those who don't walk in darkness. And there they were in darkness. Which then leads us to point number six. And that is the decision in the plague. Now, Pharaoh calls for Moses. Now the question comes: did he call for him in the midst of the plague or after the three days is over? My guess is after the three days is over.

Remember, Moses is in the light, right? So wherever Moses would go, there'd have to be light. He'd be like a big light bulb walking down the streets of Egypt, you know, shining here and there. And so I would tend to think that he called for Moses after the three days. And Pharaoh said enough. He says, I you what I'm going to do. I'm going to let you go. Sounds good, doesn't it? Same old, same old with Pharaoh. I'm going let you go. And I'm even going to let you take your little ones with you. Remember last time, the plague of the locusts?

He said, You can't take the little ones because you're going to cause them harm. But now he says, You know, you can even take the little ones with you. You can take the frail ones with you. You can take them all, but you've got to leave some of the animals behind. See, Pharaoh made a decision. His decision was to let the people go on one condition, and that is they had to leave the livestock. That Israel had behind because he had to replenish his livestock. They were all dead. So he had to have something to replenish what he had lost.

And so he says, okay, you can go, but you got to leave your livestock here. His decision was based on a condition. But that was not what God had said. And Moses then made a decision, didn't he? What did Moses say? Oh, that's not going to happen. I'm sorry. But we have to offer sacrifices to our God. So we're not going to leave one hoof behind. Not one. We're taking them all with us. And that infuriated Pharaoh. Because see, Pharaoh can't win. He couldn't win against a man, listen, who wouldn't compromise.

R? And would it be that we would make those kinds of decisions in our church and in our families, person as well as corporately, that we would stand strong on the word of the Lord? Never compromising what God has already stated and made very clear, either by principle or precept in His Word. And Moses made the right decision. Phar was so angry at Moses. So angry at him. Beware, as if he controlled everything. Next time I see you, if I ever see you again, you're going to die. As if Pharaoh was in charge.

But he wasn't in charge. I mean, that was evident by all the plagues, right? God's in charge. So, what did Moses say? You're right. You're right. It's over. I'm never going to see your face again. Which leads us to point number seven: the depiction. Of the plague. What does this whole plague depict for us? What does it show us about what God is doing and how God operates? Remember, the Bible is a record of our God, His nature, His character, and how He functions. It's not just a history lesson. Although all this is history, and although this all happened just like Moses said it happened, because it's all inspired by God Himself, it's a lesson about the character and nature of our God that if we take.

To heart and learn from, it will revolutionize the way we see our God and the way we see the world we live in. So, what does this depict for us? Understand this. Darkness in the Bible is always symbolic of the judgment of God. Always. And that judgment, listen very carefully, you need to get this too. That judgment is always seen in the abandonment. God. And that's what darkness symbolizes in the Bible. As you read through it, and this ninth plague that happened to Pharaoh and the Egyptians symbolized the fact.

That God's judgment was coming to them. Because the next plague is what? The death of the firstborn. And what happens after that? The Egyptian army and Pharaoh are all killed in the Red Sea. And so God is symbolizing his judgment once again through darkness. And that darkness typifies the abandonment or literally the absence of God. God says, that's it.

Grace rejected is now grace removed. And it's all illustrated by the very fact that for three days there will be darkness in the land of Egypt, because darkness depicts the absence and abandonment of God. How do we know that? Well, let me read to you a few verses.

Isaiah chapter 5, verse number 30, says this, And it shall growl over it in the day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress, even the light is darkened by its clouds. Isaiah is prophesying about the destruction of Israel and what God was going to do as darkness would overcome them. There's always two parts to the prophecy in the Old Testament: as these prophets would talk about the destruction of Israel and what God was going to do to them because of their rebellion and disobedience to him, as well as what would happen in the end times.

Right before the Messiah himself would appear, and it's always symbolized by darkness and by gloom. Listen to Joel chapter 2. Verse number 1. Blow a trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. Surely it is near. A day of darkness and gloom. A day of clouds and Thick darkness. Amos chapter 5, verse number 20, reads this way: Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

Again, we know that the tribulation period is a day symbolized by darkness and gloom. Why? Because the tribulation is God's judgment upon the world. It is going to be characterized by darkness and gloom and thick clouds. Because it's characteristic of the abandonment of God upon man, because God is removing Himself from Him to remove His grace and His mercy to judge man that He might be separated from Him forever. Are you with me so far? Knowing that, there are seven blackouts in the Bible. I want to give you those seven blackouts.

Number one is Exodus chapter 10. That's the first one. And God, in Exodus chapter 10, forewarns us about all the other blackouts that are going to happen. Through the book of Revelation. And how grace rejected is now grace removed. So darkness comes because darkness is symbolic of the judgment of God, which is characterized by the absence and abandonment of God Himself. From those people. Number two, you know where number two is.

Happened 2,000 years ago. Where was that? Calvary. Turn to Matthew 27. Verse number 45. Now from the sixth hour. Darkness fell upon the land until the ninth hour. Okay, now listen.

If darkness is symbolic of God's judgment, And the judgment typifies and characterizes the absence and abandonment of God. There was something happening at Calvary for three hours of darkness. So I believe that darkness encompassed the entire world because Christ would die for the sins of the entire world. And darkness fell over the whole land, not just Israel, but the entire globe. Number three, the third blackout.

Joel chapter three, verse number thirty. And I will display wonders in the sky on the earth: blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. Listen.

Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, before the tribulational period, there's going to be thick blackness and darkness. You say, Well, how can that be? I don't know. God's going to do what God's going to do. But this I do know: 2 Thessalonians 2, verse number 7 says that before the man of lawlessness is revealed. The restrainer has to be removed. If you take the restrainer to be the power of God, represented by the presence of God, he would have to be removed. And this Antichrist, who comes on a white horse in Revelation chapter 6, is going to reveal himself as a man of peace and bring the world together.

But before that happens, there's going to be a day of darkness, a day of gloom. That's blackout number three.

Blackout number four, Revelation chapter six. Sixth seal, verse number 12. And I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair. And the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. and the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Blackout number four happens at the breaking of the sixth eel in the tribulational period, which causes anarchy.

In the world. Number five, Revelation 9, verse number 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the key of the bottom pit was given to him, and he opened the bottomless pit. And smoke went up out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Blackout number five happens with the blowing of the fifth trumpet in the tribulational period. Remember.

If you go back and read what the Old Testament prophets say, Zephan chapter 1, the whole tribulational period is a day of darkness, a day of gloom, a day of thick blackness, a day of clouds. Why? Because God is judging the world. That's why. And then Revelation 60 is number 6. And the fifth angel poured out bowl upon the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened. The kingdom of the beast becomes dark. You say, well, why is that so significant? Because the only kingdom that is left in the third of the world that's still around by the pouring of the Fifth bowl is Satan's kingdom.

And it all becomes what? Dark. One more warning. Beware. Judgment is imminent. It's another warning. And now comes number seven. And if you don't repent before the ending of the first six, when number seven comes, it's too late.

And for that, you got to read Matthew chapter 24, verse number 29. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heaven will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. It is pitch black. And you got all these people coming to battle.

They're in the middle of darkness. They can't see where they're going, but they know that they're going to somehow find their way to fight the King of Kings. It's pitch black. And then all of a sudden, bang! It's light all over the place. Because the glory of the Lord returns, you see. He sheds light in their darkness. It's over. They cut themselves, they mourn because they know their doom is imminent. Because the judgment of God. And you know what happens? Simply this. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

So what has God condemned them to? Darkness. Right? He gives seven warnings, the number of completion, by the way, seven blackouts, all to warn of his impending judgment. And when the seventh one arrives, it's over. In Matthew chapter 22, verse number 13, then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot. and cast him into the outer darkness in that place there shall be weeping and gn of Have you ever been so angry at somebody that you just grit your teeth and say, If I could just get my hands on them, I would kill them.

You ever been there? Nah, that's the second service people. You guys are never there. I understand that. But you get so irritated, you grit your teeth, and you gnash your teeth and you become so enraged. That's the way these people will be throughout all eternity. And you know what? It's in outer darkness. It says in 1 Samuel 2:9, the wicked shall be silent in darkness. God gives them. What they love, and they hate him for it. People think they're going to go to hell and they going to be with their friends.

You can't see anything. You say, wait a minute, I thought there was fire in hell. There is. There is. It's unquenchable fire. Well, how can you have fire which gives off light and yet be in blackness and darkness? Let me tell you something.

God's got a way to do that. And all that. In the Bible, it takes you back to Exodus chapter 10 and says to Pharaoh, Grace, reject it. Is now grace removed. Plague number nine: the plague of darkness. Now comes the death of your firstborn. It's going to happen. And then, Pharaoh, comes the death of you, because you would not respond to the grace that was given at the time it was given. Folks, let me tell you something.

This is a message of the impending judgment of God upon man who rejects the truth. And we need to understand that. And we need to understand the significance of Jesus Christ being the light of the world. And as he prayed in the garden, take this cup from me. Which was representative of the wrath of God. And what is the wrath of God? The ultimate wrath of God is the absence of God, the abandonment of God for man to be left to his own sinful ways. And our Lord would hang on that tree for six hours, three of them in complete darkness.

And the only time he cried through the whole excruciating experience was when his Father in heaven had abandoned him. Because he had borne in his sins, in his body, the sins of the world. See that? And then what did he say when it was all over? It's finished. It had been completed. He had paid the penalty that you deserve and that I deserve. So the veil was torn in two. Because he was aband by God, we don't have to be. We can have what? Access to God. And that's the magnificence of Calvary. And what God wants to teach us is the plague of darkness.

Let's pray.