The Devastating Darkness

Have you ever visited one of those wonderful limestone caverns with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites? Then the guide switches off the lights and it is pitch black. It is only for a minute but it is very frightening. “Darkness that can be felt” (21) is a good description; in that kind of dark you lose all sense of direction and even of reality. To be in the dark like that for three days would be torture indeed. Egypt was in the dark in more ways than one. That the Israelites “had light” (23) is not only a sign to them and the Egyptians that God cared for his own oppressed people but is also symbolic of the fact that knowledge of God is necessary to really live in the light. Thinking in this context of Jesus as “the light of the world” (John 8:12) can be very helpful.
Even after all that happened, Pharaoh is not willing to give up control, still seeing himself as in charge. He insists that he must and will set the terms of any Israelite departure. In Egypt, as in several Ancient Near Eastern cultures, kings were often seen not only as representing the gods but as gods themselves. Pharaoh appears to have bought into the myth. The God of Israel may indeed be powerful, but this is Pharaoh’s own territory and he will not concede it! Hanging on to his own power was more important than any harm that might come to his people. If there was to be any hope for him and his people, as well as for Israel, there needed to be recognition of God as the present and active One who is sovereign over the whole world. That recognition had not come and Pharaoh himself closed the door on any further negotiations.

How do you understand Jesus as the light of the world: as a searchlight to expose, a flashlight to show the way, a lamp to warm? Which one appeals to you the most? Why?