Sometimes we can see things in the darkest times that may be easily overlooked in the light.
Northwest of Cairo’s center and 60 feet below the surface lie the ruins of biblical On, later called Heliopolis (Sun City) by the Greeks. Here Joseph’s father-in-law, Poti-Pherah, served as a priest. This was the center of the worship of Amon-Ra, the sun god, considered supreme lord of the gods and said to be creator of the universe through the other spirit beings he spawned. Humans were said to have formed from his tears. It is not without significance that the Israelites coming out of Egypt were the first ones to discover from Genesis 1 that light in the universe predated the sun! God is light, the sun merely the work of His fingers (Ps 8:3). So the next plague, unannounced, brought three days of palpable darkness, “darkness which may even be felt,” said the Lord (Ex 10:21). As Moses stretched out his hand a final time in Egypt, the sun, the most worshiped false deity in Egypt other than Pharaoh, seemed to be extinguished. And then? The Egyptians “did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days” (v 23). Oh, the mercy of God! It was Time Out for the whole nation! Nothing to see. Nothing to do—except think. And why? Because the Lord is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Did they hear the heartcry of God, spoken years later by Isaiah: “Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord” (50:10). One day the true Sun of Righteousness, of whom it was written, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn 1:4), would go into darkness for three hours, giving His life to provide God’s light to illuminate every seeking soul.