Matthew 27:45
"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour."
* * *
Then, suddenly, it grew dark! The silence was eerie; just the occasional splatter of blood on the stones, or the crunch of a soldier's step. the terrible picture of suffering and humiliation faded from view. And what a scene that was!
* * *
This was the Passover season. Just before the first Passover a plague of darkness betokened the curse of God upon his enemies (Exodus 10:21-23). The darkness that enveloped the Saviour at Calvary was clearly a visible expression of the inner darkness that wrung that dread cry of dereliction from his lips: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46).
To be forsaken by God is hell.
* * *
Christ spoke solemnly of ‘outer darkness,’ associating it with unspeakable anguish (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). To redeem his people he entered and endured that darkness.
Now he calls us ‘out of darkness into his marvelous light.’ He is the true light and those who follow him ‘will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ (1 Peter 2:9; John 8:12).
More thoughts from Chapter 13
