Exodus 10:21-23

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

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

23         They didn’t see one another, and nobody rose from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

Left in the Dark

Darkness represented judgment, chaos, and the absence of God’s favor over the people. This plague challenges the Egyptian sun god Ra, showing the lack of power of the Egyptian gods against Yahweh. The fact that this darkness could be felt shows how supernatural this plague would become. Typical darkness would not be described as this kind of darkness. This darkness can be connected to a type of spiritual blindess that Jesus came to dispel.

The fact that this darkness lasted for three days is important. The number three in biblical numerology symbolizes completeness and divine intervention. This parallels two crucial biblical stories: Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish (Jonah 1:17) and the three days between Jesus’ death and resurrection (Matthew 12:40). Three days also allows time for reflection and repentance, even though Pharaoh’s heart remained hard.

The confinement of being in home for three days shows the totality of the plague’s impact, rendering the Egyptians helpless and immobilized. The Israelites were safe. God’s covenant promises to them kept them safe. The light that the Israelites had can be described as a pre-cursor to Jesus – the light of the world.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Think of a time when your power went out and you were stuck in the dark. How did that make you feel? What did you until the power was restored?

Knocking Out Darkness with Light

Without God, people are in a state of spiritual blindness and separation from the truth. Spiritual blindness is to be unaware, avoidant, and separated from the spiritual reality of this world. To ignore the evil forces of the world that operate on a plane that we cannot see, and our focus stays only on the tangible problems in front of us. I believe it to be a recognition that we attempt to focus so heavily on the things we can see in this world that we ignore the internal perspective of why we want to make those changes. People’s beliefs are based on their prior history, their upbringing, their internalized biases and prejudices, and their heart posture about how the world should work. When we start to reflect and challenge these structures, we can start really understand how people operate and how we can work to make proper change. When we start to challenge the “why” behind our beliefs, we can start to challenge the dark forces of the world and we can start to change things for the better.

We can start to align ourselves with the teachings of God and work that God calls us to do to love each other in the same selfess, sacrificial way that Christ loves us. When this happens, the darkness loses its grip and the light of Christ shines into the world.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one thing that you can bring God’s light to in our dark world?