Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt." – Exodus 10:21

Today's Scripture Reading (September 27, 2021): Exodus 10

He was a god, but in a culture that seemed to have many gods, he was one of the more important ones. He was identified by the image of the noon-day sun. Noon, historically, is not necessarily tied to 12:00 p.m. on our clocks, as it is in our contemporary cultures. Noon was when the sun was at its zenith; its highest point. It is a moment when, often, the presence of the sun can be felt; it is hot, beating down on us from above. It is also the point where light is at its maximum level. This god's name was Ra, and he was believed to be god at the maximum. Ra was the god of the sun, but he was also the god of stability, kings, and everything that lives in the sky. He was often portrayed as a falcon, a bird that also tended to rule the sky.

For the ninth plague, God chose to drive Egypt into deep darkness. But this was not just any kind of darkness, and it was not just darkness at its nadir or lowest point. It was complete darkness; God was going to extinguish the lights. For three days, the people would suffer under darkness. But this darkness was not just an absence of light which is the darkness that we experience; it was a darkness that could be felt just as the sun at its zenith could be felt.

This was a plague that tore at the very nature of Ra, one of the most powerful gods reigning over the Egyptians. Instead of the sun at its zenith, it was emptiness at something worse than its nadir. Instead of stability, this dense darkness ushered in a time of chaos. It was a time that weakened the strength of kings, and it was a moment when the darkness was so complete that the sky could not be found.

The darkness was also the plagues at its highest point. The God of Israel had picked off a number of the lesser gods with the earlier plagues, but now he intruded on the realm of one of the premier gods of Egypt. Not even Ra could stand in the presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ra might have been identified with the sun at its most vital point, but the God of Israel had created the sun and the moon and all other light sources. Any light that Ra might have shed onto the earth was given to him by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And when God took the light away, not even Ra could penetrate the darkness of that resulted. Egypt might be the realm of Ra, but the God of Israel ruled over the entire world.    

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 11