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Topic:
Darkness
With respect to the word "darkness…"
The plague (the ninth) of darkness in Egypt (Ex. 10:21) is described
as darkness "which may be felt." It covered "all the land
of Egypt," so that "they saw not one another." It did not
extend to the land of Goshen (ver. 23). When Jesus hung upon the cross
(Matt. 27:45; Luke 23:44), from the "sixth hour there was darkness
over all the land unto the ninth hour." On Mount Sinai, Moses (Ex.
20:21) "drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." This
was the "thick cloud upon the mount" in which Jehovah was when
he spake unto Moses there. The Lord dwelt in the cloud upon the
mercy-seat (1 Kings 8:12), the cloud of glory. When the psalmist (Ps.
97:2) describes the inscrutable nature of God's workings among the sons
of men, he says, "Clouds and darkness are round about him."
God dwells in thick darkness. Darkness (Isa. 13:9, 10; Matt. 24:29) also
is a symbol of the judgments that attend on the coming of the Lord. It
is a symbol of misery and adversity (Job 18:6; Ps. 107:10; Isa. 8:22;
Ezek. 30:18). The "day of darkness" in Joel 2:2, caused by
clouds of locusts, is a symbol of the obscurity which overhangs all
divine proceedings. "Works of darkness" are impure actions
(Eph. 5:11). "Outer darkness" refers to the darkness of the
streets in the East, which are never lighted up by any public or private
lamps after nightfall, in contrast with the blaze of cheerful light in
the house. It is also a symbol of ignorance (Isa. 9:2; 60:2; Matt. 6:23)
and of death (Job 10:21; 17:13).
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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