2021 Good Friday Meditation #8 — Darkness Presages New Creation

Mark 15:33, KJV: “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”

The sixth hour is noon; the ninth hour is 3:00 p.m. Jesus has been on the cross since the third hour: 9:00 a.m. (Mark 15:25). At 3:00 p.m., Jesus will die. Some scholars believe at the same time Jesus dies on the Cross on the other side of the city, the priests will slaughter the lambs for the Passover meals of the people who live in Judea. Other Scholars believe that the very moment Jesus is being nailed to the Cross the Passover Lambs are being killed.


Scripture often marries Darkness as a Judgment prelude to a new creation. Before the earth is fashioned we read that “darkness covered the deep.” Soon following we see God’s new creation coming to pass.


Darkness was the ninth Judgment plague God put on the Egyptians (Exodus 10:21–29). The darkness enveloped Egypt for three days; in the death of the Lord Christ, it lasts three hours. Soon Israel would be released as God’s new creation people.


As God took the firstborns of the Egyptians to secure the rescue of His people the Israelites, God now accepts the death of His own Firstborn as a “ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). In each case, however, judgment typified by darkness is the prelude to deliverance.


In Isaiah 60:2 we read, “For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you.”

With the death of Christ, the darkness covering the earth serves as a metaphor for the judgment darkness covering the nations. However, three days hence the LORD will rise and His glory will appear and with His glory, the new creation is established.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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