And Moses stretched out his hand toward the heavens; and there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt three days
This is the ninth plague. Moses raises his hand, and darkness covers Egypt for three days — a darkness thick enough to feel. What was it saying to a nation that worshipped the sun, and to a king who would not let Israel go?
Commentators differ on what "a darkness to be felt" in verse 21 means.
As we see in verse 21, the ninth plague came with no warning. Again Moses was to stretch out his hand toward heaven, and a supernatural darkness fell on Egypt. It is described as "a darkness to be felt." Because of this, some think it was like the hot south-west winds that bring great dust storms over Egypt and darken the land. The wind carries tiny particles of sand, so you can feel it. But the expression may also be figurative. It credits the darkness itself with the feeling about and groping that go on in thick darkness. How it came about need not concern us. It was something supernatural. Of all the plagues this must have been the most terrifying, because it was the strangest and nothing like it had happened before.
However it came, it struck with no warning and froze the country.
At the command of the LORD, and without a word of warning, Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven. At once a darkness that could be felt chained every Egyptian to his place. None moved; all were bound, as it were, in a prison of outer gloom. For three days and nights the sun shone on high, and the moon and the stars gave their light. Yet no ray pierced the shroud wrapped about Egypt. The darkness was the prelude to the coming death.
Egypt's religion was tied to the sky. This plague struck there.
So far the plagues on the land had not touched the heavenly bodies, which people all over Egypt worshipped. The ninth plague was to blot out the host of heaven from the sight of their worshippers. It was also to stop the main religious ceremonies of the country. The Egyptians aligned their temples to the sun, the moon, or a special star, and they linked their gods to different heavenly bodies.
The man on the throne was no help either.
The supernatural darkness of the ninth plague speaks still more solemnly (Ex. 10:21-29). The king who took his name from the sun was of no use at all for the whole land of Egypt.
Three days of darkness came before the last and worst judgment. God used that pause.
Suddenly darkness, which could be felt, came upon Egypt. Pharaoh and all Egypt now learned that their idols were helpless. Darkness is the withdrawal of light. It stands for the solemn truth of being forsaken by God. God was about to abandon Egypt, and the darkness announced it. All Egypt was about to face the severest of all judgments: the death of the firstborn. This darkness was God's final appeal to repentance. For three days they were shut in and all business stopped. Rich and poor, king and beggar, the learned and the ignorant — that awful darkness wrapped them all. God waited, and in that silence and darkness He appealed to their conscience. How slow God is to judge.
Kelly sets this darkness beside the darkness at the cross. The difference is who it fell on.
Throughout the land of Egypt the LORD had sent darkness as a plague, while Israel had light in their homes. It lasted three days, so that no one could see anyone else, and no one rose from his place. At the cross of Christ it told a far deeper story to the ear of faith. It was not something inflicted on wicked men. This darkness surrounded the Holy One of God made sin, with God forsaking Him because of sin, our sins laid on Him.
The plague also pictures a darkness people choose.
The ninth plague is symbolic of the spiritual darkness that unbelief prefers (John 3:19). But men find it not so pleasant when no ray of light ever breaks it. They deliberately choose darkness rather than light, and later find it is not what they thought it was.
- Felt — The darkness was supernatural. It was so thick that every Egyptian stayed frozen where he was. Commentators differ on how it came: a sandstorm, or a picture of groping in total blackness.
- Dethroned — It hid the sun and the stars. Egypt's temples pointed to them, and Egypt's king was named after the sun. None of it helped.
- Withheld — Darkness is light taken away. That pictures being forsaken by God, with the death of the firstborn waiting behind it.
- Patient — Three days of silence were God's last appeal to conscience. He is slow to judge, and that slowness is a warning.
- Chosen — What Egypt suffered, unbelief prefers. People walk into that darkness by choice. At the cross it fell instead on the Holy One, made sin for us.
they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place, for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
For three days a darkness settled on Egypt so heavy that all life stopped. In the homes of Israel it stayed light. Two questions follow. What kind of darkness could do that? And why did it stop at a border no wall marked?
Why could no one see anyone else? Commentators explain this darkness in two ways.
It is called "a darkness to be felt." Because of these words, some think it was like the hot south-west winds that bring great dust storms over Egypt and darken the land. The wind carries tiny particles of sand, so it can be felt. On the other hand, the words may be a picture. The feeling about and groping in dense darkness is then credited to the darkness itself.
Egypt's religion made this plague personal. The nation adored the sun, and for three days its god could do nothing.
Egypt worshipped the sun as the source of light... Suddenly darkness that could be felt came over Egypt. Pharaoh and all Egypt learned now that their idols were helpless. Darkness is the withdrawal of light. It stands for the solemn truth of being forsaken by God... God was about to abandon Egypt; the darkness was the herald of it... This darkness was God's final appeal for repentance. For three days they were shut in and all business stopped. Rich and poor, king and beggar, the learned and the ignorant — that awful darkness wrapped every class.
The light in Israel's homes was itself part of the message. It showed where the darkness had come from.
The ruler who took his name from the sun could do nothing for all the land of Egypt, while the darkness that might be felt was made visible in its source by the light which all the children of Israel had in their homes.
Sitting still, unable to see the person beside you, is more than an inconvenience. One writer reads those three days as a picture of what it means to be cut off from God.
Being abandoned by God! Men would indeed like to get away from God here... But even the far-off country is not the hell where men will find the answer to their wish to escape God. In Egypt, for three dreadful days they sat overwhelmed; no one looked at another, or rose from his seat. In that darkness which is the "shadow of death," it says, "they sit." But what will it be when it is not the shadow but death itself, and the eternal flame still gives no light?
The plague stopped at the border of God's people. Nothing blurred the edge.
This sign of divine displeasure stopped where the Egyptians lived. There God's almighty hand drew the dividing line; the Hebrews had light in their homes... On one side there was darkness about to end in death; on the other there was light, the opening of life and liberty... There was no shading off between the darkness and the light in the plague. As it was then, so it is now. There is no twilight, so everyone is shut up to one or the other — living in the light, or living in the darkness.
The light had nothing to do with the quality of the buildings.
For three days no one could stir. The children of Israel had light in their plain homes, while a blackout deeper than a London night fog covered the ornate temples of Egypt. That points to the spiritual darkness that surrounds man's philosophy. Divine light fills the hearts of the people of God, because God is there.
One writer reads the same contrast as a picture of the believer's place in a dark world.
It is a symbol of the spiritual darkness that unbelief prefers (John 3:19). But men do not find that darkness so pleasant when not the smallest ray of light ever breaks it. They deliberately choose darkness rather than light, and later find it is not what they thought... Of course this was miraculous. But Christians today have spiritual light, while all around them the world is in pitiful darkness.
In Goshen, the part of Egypt where Israel lived, their homes carried two marks — light first, then the blood of the lamb. In a Christian home, one writer notes, the order runs the other way.
A true Christian household has two essential and distinctive qualities. The house of every Israelite in Goshen had them too, during those terrible days of God's increasing judgments on Egypt. First, it is under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb. Second, it is filled with heavenly light. Only the order is the reverse of what it was for the Israelites, where the light in their homes came before the sprinkling of the blood.
- Cause — God sent this darkness as a sign of His displeasure. Commentators differ over whether "felt" points to a sandstorm or pictures men groping in the dark.
- Target — a nation that worshipped the sun found its idols helpless. Taking the light away announced that God was about to abandon Egypt.
- Warning — three days of forced stillness were God's last appeal for repentance before the final blow. They also shadow what it is to be shut out from God forever.
- Line — the darkness stopped at the border of God's people. There was no twilight then, and there is none now.
- Light — Israel's plain houses shone while Egypt's grand temples went dark. Light depends on God being present, not on the building.