"A darkness to be felt" ( Exodus 10:21 )
Last week we looked at Mary's song, known as the Magnificat, that is recorded in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, and for the second week and lighting of the next candle in the Advent wreath, I thought it important to look at two other songs. These are found in the Book of Exodus, and sung by the great leader and prophet Moses and his sister Miriam.
I decided to combine my weekly blogs for the month of December in the Advent season.
The Exodus out of Egypt is the epic story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and toward the land of Canaan, the land God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12 & 15 when he promised to bless all nations of the earth through him and his offspring.
As the tenth and final plague strikes the Egyptians due to Pharaoh's hardened heart and refusal to let God's people go, the Israelites obediently smear the blood from their slain lambs on the doorpost of their dwellings. Because of the lamb's blood, God does not permit the destroyer to enter their homes but to pass over them.
This act commanded by God of applying the blood to their dwellings is a type and shadow of the blood to come from the sacrifice of his own Son, the Lamb of God, who would come and die for the sins of his people, releasing them out of their life of slavery to sin and into a life of freedom in Christ.
In the biblical narrative as the children of Israel hurry to eat their meal and make their way out of slavery that dark night, they reach the Red Sea where God has guided them and where there is seemingly no way of escape. Pharaoh's forces are pursuing close behind them, as Pharaoh has once again changed his mind.
It's an impossible situation, but God does the miraculous by opening up the sea in front of them. He made a way - just as he does in the New Testament in his plan of salvation for his people. He again opens up the only Way.
And this was his plan all along. We see it in the promise to Adam and Eve in the garden after their sin, and with each patriarch God's covenant becomes clearer and more intense, with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David.
Back in Egypt, the ninth plague that God imposed on the land after Pharaoh's stubborn refusal was darkness. "Then 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.'" ( Exodus 10:21 )
I remember before I came to faith in Christ the darkness that permeated every area of my life - it was so heavy upon me that I couldn't find words to describe its bondage; until I saw this verse recently in the Book of Exodus.
"A darkness to be felt." ( 10:21 )
That's exactly how I would describe my life before Christ. Maybe you understand exactly what I mean. The human condition of slavery to sin is such a horrific, dreadful feeling because it's a reality of the darkness that grips the lost soul. When this darkness is felt, that means there is actually hope. We must first be awakened to the darkness, the seriousness of our true condition of sin, in order for us to see the Light, the Way that is opened before us.
In order for the Light to be good news, we first must understand and feel the darkness. If we don't know our need, we will never come to Christ for salvation. If we don't understand that we are completely cut off from God because of our sin with no way through the deep darkness, we will never see the beauty and abundant life Christ bled and died and resurrected to give us. "While we were sinners Christ died for us." ( Romans 5:8 )
That's the glorious good news of Christmas. When the Holy Spirit regenerates our hearts and gives us faith to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that truth leads us to praise him as Miriam and the other women did after they made it through the Red Sea. It's an organic act of worship out of a humble heart when we see our desperate need and then the Way opened up before us.
It's the angels piercing the dark night above the lowly shepherds watching over their flock, to proclaim the great tidings of joy that Christ the King is born in Bethlehem.
And as we saw Mary singing and praising God for his salvation after the angel Gabriel visited her, we see the same with Moses after the children of Israel are saved from slavery and walking through the Red Sea.
I think back to Moses as an infant floating in the Nile River inside of that little "ark" his mother constructed to save his life out of papyrus reeds that she daubed with bitumen and pitch. I think of his big sister Miriam watching her little brother from a distance to see what would become of him.
Now they sing and dance together because of the LORD's saving grace. What a story. That's the story of God redeeming his children through his own Son.
"The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." ( Exodus 15:2 )
"And Miriam sang to them: ( by the way, Miriam is the Hebrew name for Mary ) Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea." ( 15:21 )
"You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode." ( 15:13 )
This weekend and into next week take some time to reread Luke 1 and Mary's Magnificat, and Exodus 14 &15 and the Songs of Moses and Miriam.
The Bible is so good when we learn to read it in context and for what it truly is - God's story of redeeming mankind through the life and death and resurrection of his Son. "Every verse whispers his name." "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." ( John 1:29, 1:36 )
That's the glorious, good news of Christmas.
💜
( I thought I'd share a Christmas photo from the HBF archives of the late, great Atlas. I sure miss that big old boy. 💔💚 )
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