Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The great mystery of the darkness around the Cross.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
The darkness around the cross – from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, darkness was over all the land,
verse 45.
First, it was the darkness of sympathy.
They were to have dominion over all the earth, GEN 1:26, and they did, but under the doctrine of suffering because of association, even creation itself suffered because of Adam’s sin.
GEN 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.”
GEN 3:16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”
It is awaiting the coming of the Creator who will set creation free.
Man took thorns and made a crown and put that crown upon His head as they mocked Him.
Thorns are associated with the curse of mankind and nature at the time of the Fall, GEN 3:18; Rom 8.
Thorns are used to designate divine punishment, NUM 33:55; JUD 2:3.
NUM 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land in which you live.
2CO 12:7 – Paul’s thorn in the flesh was the fact that God permitted a fallen angel of great ability to penetrate the wall of fire around Paul and to bother him.
PRO 22:5 The reward of humility and reverence for the Lord are riches [escrow blessing] and honor [spiritual self-esteem] and life [logistical grace support]; thorns and snares are in the way for evil ones, but he who guards his soul stays far from them.
Thorns are used to describe distractions to positive volition toward Bible doctrine, MAT 13:7,22.
MAT 13:7,22 – “thorns” refer to the man who “hears the Word, but the worries of this life (peer pressure) and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the Word.”
Thorns are used for cosmic involvement and negative volition toward the PPOG, HEB 6:8.
Jesus Christ wore a crown of thorns on the cross, which signified the fact that He was made a curse for us, MAT 27:29, MAR 15:17; JOH 19:2 cf, GAL 3:13; 1PE 2:24.
One day the King shall reign, and there will be no more thorns and thistles or death and disease.
It was the darkness of sympathy, creation, as it were, wrapped darkness around the Creator when He died for our sins.
Second, this darkness at the cross was the darkness of gloom – the just was dying for the unjust, 1PE 3:18.
In the ninth plague there was a great darkness and in the tenth plague, there was the death of all the first-born males in Egypt.
We behold the darkness that our Lord Jesus Christ went through during those three hours of darkness before the death of God’s only Son.
On the cross, He entered into outer darkness for us.
PRO 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who is wise wins souls.
DAN 12:3 And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
All of you have the power to save others, snatching them out of a place described as a place of torment, LUK 16:28.
All of you have the power to save others, snatching them out of a place where desire is never met, LUK 16:24.
A place of unspeakable misery indicated by the term, “everlasting fire,” MAT 25:41.
A place where the worm [conscience] never dies and the fire is never quenched, MAR 9:44.
EPH 5:4 – filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
All of you have the power to save others, snatching them out of the Lake (which many believe to be a liquid form of lava) which burns with fire and brimstone, REV 21:8.
A bottomless pit, REV 9:2. Outer darkness, MAT 8:12. Fire unquenchable, LUK 3:17. Furnace of fire, MAT 13:42. Blackness of darkness, Jud 13.
MAR 9:49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.”
REV 14:11 “the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever and they have no rest day or night.”
2CO 6:2 “Now is the time of acceptance; now is the day of salvation.”
Third, it was the darkness of secrecy – in those three hours Jesus Christ was accomplishing a great
work that He alone could accomplish.
On the Day of Atonement, when the high priest went into the tabernacle or the temple, he went in alone.
JOH 17:4 I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.
He went with His 12 apostles into the upper room. Then He took the 11 to the Garden of Gethsemane; three entered into the garden with Him, and they went to sleep.
Then Peter and John went into the courtyard, where Peter denied Him. Then they all forsook Him and fled.
That is what sin does, sin isolates. Sin separates man from God. Sin separates man from man. Sin even separates a man from himself.
The Prodigal Son “came to himself or his senses,” LUK 15:17.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they ran and hid themselves because of the loneliness of sin, GEN 3:10.
If God forsook you for one second, you would die, because “in him we live, and move, and have our being,” ACT 17:28.
He was forsaken of the Father that we might never be forsaken of the Father. He went through darkness that we might have light.
That is what hell is: eternal loneliness, eternal isolation.