Separating Light from Darkness – Bo – Feb. 4

The spiritual concepts of darkness and light pervade every religion and all walks of life. How each person defines darkness and light will be different and is dependent on one’s point of reference and on an individual’s foundation of belief. In the end there can be only one standard of spiritual darkness and spiritual light. This week’s Torah Portion illustrates the reality of spiritual darkness and spiritual light in a very tangible manner.

God’s Power Displayed in Egypt

God sent Moses to Pharaoh in Egypt to demand the release of His people so that they could worship Him. God had told Moses ahead of time that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart and that Pharaoh would refuse to let them go. As a result of Pharaoh’s hard heart, God would unleash His power on Pharaoh, on the land of Egypt, and on the people of Egypt to force Pharaoh to come to his knees and voluntarily let the people go:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” – Exodus 10:1-2

God had promised Moses that He would show His power on earth, make a mockery of the Egyptians, and be exalted in the eyes of the Israelites for the generations to come.

God began to unleash one plague after another through His servant Moses because of Pharaoh’s hardened heart. For each of the ten plagues except one, there was a warning followed by a consequence for disobedience. The ninth plague, the plague of darkness, was the only plague that was given without warning. Why was there no warning given for the plague of darkness? What was God’s purpose in executing the plague of darkness on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt?

The Element of Surprise

There is no specific reason given for why the plague of darkness was given without warning, therefore, I can only theorize as to God’s intentions in this matter. One idea is that God chose to implement “the element of surprise.” This principle of “the element of surprise” in warfare is quite common throughout the Bible, especially in the life of King David as he led his troops into battle. I wonder if God was teaching Pharaoh a lesson by ordering this surprise assault on him and the people of Egypt by showing Pharaoh that God was orchestrating all of these events and that Pharaoh was powerless to resist Him?

Applying this same principle, if Pharaoh and the Egyptians had known ahead of time that God was going to strike them with darkness they would have done their best to prepare themselves with torches, candles, oil lamps, and whatever else they may have needed to keep light in their midst. By not giving them any warning, God was keeping them from this prepared state and they were left helpless. The Creator God who created light removed all light without warning from the captor of His people.

The Plague of Darkness

God instructed Moses to usher in the plague of darkness upon the Egyptians immediately after the plague of locusts. The locusts had swarmed over the land of Egypt and had eaten every green leaf and every plant in the field. The land of Egypt was completely devastated by the locusts and then, without warning, God ordered the darkness upon Egypt and the Egyptians:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. – Exodus 10:21-23

For three days there was thick darkness in the land of Egypt, however, there was light in all of the dwellings of the Israelites.

The plague of darkness seems to be the least significant of all of the plagues. Every other plague which descended upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians had some sort of direct effect on the people regarding their water, their food, their animals, or their own physical bodies. The plague of darkness, however, seems to be insignificant regarding how it effected the land and people of Egypt. What was the reality of the plague of darkness in Egypt?

We may naturally think of the plague of darkness as a sort of power outage or a nighttime darkness, however, this darkness was different. The darkness that the Egyptians experienced was completely debilitating. The plague of darkness came without warning and utterly immobilized Pharaoh and his people for three full days.

A Tangible Darkness

The description of the darkness in the above verses (Ex. 10:21-23) is extremely brief, however, these verses are filled with powerful imagery. The reality of the plague of darkness is initially described in the following Hebrew phrase: “וימש חושך” – “ve’yamesh cho’shek,” which is literally translated, “and a felt darkness” but is better understood as “even darkness which may be felt.” Darkness is something that is intangible, it has no substance and cannot be felt, however, it is described in Exodus 10 as something which takes on a tangible form.

Just like every other plague, God revealed His power over nature through the darkness in a supernatural manner. The extreme magnitude of the plague of darkness is expressed through the sense of touch, a sense which normally is not associated with an intangible object. Darkness was unleashed upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians in a manner which could be felt and as a result, it would touch their lives in such a way that they would never forget it. They had been touched by darkness.

A Thick Darkness

This darkness is also described as “thick darkness” by using the Hebrew phrase “חושך אפלה” – “cho’shek afelah.” The word “חושך” – “cho’shek” means “darkness” and the word “אפלה” – “afelah” also means “darkness.” When these two words are used together they bring out the intended meaning of a “dark darkness.” It was a darkness that could only be identified as total darkness, a “thick darkness.” It was the ultimate definition of darkness, the absence of all light.

The darkness lasted for three days in Egypt and it was furthered described as having the following effect upon the people, “They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days,”… There is no further explanation beyond this but the ramifications of being in utter darkness for three full days can only be imagined.

No one could see the another and they couldn’t even get up from the place where they where sitting. There must not have been any fires lit during that time and they must have been unable to even start a fire. They lived in utter darkness for three days and were unable to do anything. How did they eat? How did they go to the bathroom? How did they bath? It must have been complete chaos as everyone around them was in the same lost state of utter darkness.

The Reality of Darkness

This plague of darkness was completely and totally debilitating. The darkness in itself was nothing, however, the absence of light completely took away their ability to live. When all light was taken from Egypt, Pharaoh and the Egyptians were reminded that someone greater exists above Pharaoh and that this Supreme Being controls all things. Light is life and darkness only leads to death. The final and immediate plague after the plague of darkness was the plague of death, the death of the firstborn.

Pharaoh and the Egyptians should have understood the lesson of the plague of darkness; there is darkness and there is light, there is death and there is life, there is falsehood and there is truth. The LORD, through His servant Moses, was continually exposing the lie and falsehood of Pharaoh’s attempt to be a god to his people. Pharaoh had originally refused to acknowledge the LORD, the God of heaven and earth, when Moses first spoke to him (Ex. 5:2) and now Pharaoh and the Egyptians had tasted of the reality of rejecting the true God through the plague of darkness. The falsehood of Pharaoh’s deity had been exposed when the light of God had been taken from their midst.

God is Light

In contrast to darkness there is light. When God created the heavens and the earth there was darkness and then God created the light:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. – Gen. 1:1-5

God called the light “good” and He separated the light from the darkness. Light and darkness are a daily physical reality on the earth as a result of the solar system which God created.

The spiritual analogy of light and darkness is a continual thread which is woven throughout the Bible. We read in the New Testament that God Himself is equated with light: “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) The reality that God is Light and the essence of spiritual truth, separates the God of the Bible from every other power and man-made deity. God alone is our spiritual Light and by His truth we can discern the spiritual darkness of this world.

Believe in the Light 

When Yeshua walked this earth He spoke of the light of God that was available to every man, woman, and child. Yeshua invited all who heard His voice to chase after the light:

So Yeshua said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” – John 12:35-36

Yeshua taught the reality of spiritual light and spiritual darkness which confronts each one of us. Yeshua continually tried to persuade the people of His day to believe in the Light and to become sons of the Light.

The “Light” that Yeshua spoke of was the Light of God. Yeshua spoke candidly with the people of His day and declared to them that He and the Father in heaven are One and that the Light of which He was speaking was indeed His very being:

And Yeshua cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” – John 12:44-50

Yeshua declared that He is the Light of the world and that He came into this world in order to provide a way out of the darkness for all of those who will believe in Him.

Yeshua is the Light

The concepts of spiritual light and spiritual darkness have been with us since the beginning and are becoming more and more pronounced in our day. Yeshua warned His followers that it was only through faith in Him that a person could save him or herself from the eternal darkness which is a result of rejecting God’s Light (Matt. 8:12. 22:13. 25:30).

The plague of darkness illustrates for us that there is only one Supreme Being and two distinct peoples in this world. The LORD God alone is Light and the people who know Him are blessed to be called sons of the Light, just as the Israelites were set apart from the Egyptians and had light in their camp while the Egyptians suffered in thick darkness (Ex. 10:23). There is only one escape from the darkness which surrounds us and that is to believe in the Light of God. Let us pursue the Light of God, walk in the Light of God, and be called sons and daughters of the Light.

Shabbat Shalom

If you enjoyed reading this article, share it today with friends!  We also invite you to sign up for our weekly Torah Portion commentary on the sidebar to the right.  

Help keep our weekly commentaries free and available to all. Click here to donate today: 

Torah Portion: Ex. 10:1 – Ex. 13:16

Haftara:  Jeremiah 46:13-28  

Return to Torah Portion Homepage

Copyright Jewels of Judaism.  All rights reserved 2017