And when the sixth hour [midday] had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
Mark 15:33
At the birth of Jesus, we’re told that shepherds were watching their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them (Luke 2:9).
When Jesus was born, there was light at midnight, but when Jesus was crucified, there was darkness at noon. Now whenever you come across something unusual in the Bible, it’s a good rule to ask: “Where have we seen something like this before?”
When did darkness suddenly come over a whole land in the middle of the day? This is precisely what happened during the plagues that God poured out on Pharaoh, who made God’s people slaves in Egypt and refused to let them go.
In the ninth plague: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days” (Ex. 10:21-22). What was happening here?
Peter tells us about false teachers who corrupt the church: “For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved” (2 Pet. 2:17). In other words, the Bible describes hell as a place of darkness.
When darkness was over the land of Egypt, it was a sign that the judgement of God was being poured out. And this is what was happening at the cross: the judgement of God toward human sin was being poured out, and it was being poured out on Jesus.
If God’s judgement toward human sin was being poured out on Jesus at the cross, what does this mean for us?
