Where is God in this darkness?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1.1-5

And the question is: Where is God? Where is God in the darkness?

The darkness brings us to Yeshua. When Yeshua was on the cross, one of the things that happened was that there came over Jerusalem (over Israel, perhaps over the whole world), a supernatural darkness as God put the lights out when Jesus was suffering for the sin of the world.

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. ⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

⁴⁷ Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.

⁴⁹ The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”

⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

⁵¹ Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, ⁵² and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; ⁵³ and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

⁵⁴ So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

⁵⁵ And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, ⁵⁶ among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Matthew 27.45-56

When Jesus comes back, one of the things that will happen before He returns to this earth is that there will be a supernatural darkness engulfing the world. God is going to put the lights out, there will be no more sun shining in the sky, and there will be a sudden darkness until the light of Yeshua comes to save the world from destruction.

The light out of the darkness is Jesus the Messiah Himself. He is the One who is coming, He is the answer to the situation which we are talking about.

We have talked about suffering, and Yeshua has suffered unspeakable suffering in order to redeem us. And this passage gives you some ideas about the sufferings of the of the Messiah in the answers which it gives. It provides an answer to what is what He is going to do. It is a prophecy of the Messiah. The end of this verse says here:

“The Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.

Isaiah 50.4

It is an interesting verse. Once you get on to that verse, we are now talking about who the person is, who the Messiah is.

It says, The Lord has given Me. Who is the ‘Me’ talking here? It is not the prophet, it is Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah telling us something here. He is going to be awakened morning by morning to hear from God. Look in Mark chapter 1 verse 35. It says:

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.

Mark 1.35

Jesus went out and prayed. Why did Jesus need to pray? He was God!

He came to the earth as the Son of God, the Messiah, and all the time He was on the earth, He was in communication with the Father. He got His order for the ministry, if you like, from God.

One of the images I sometimes use is that if you think about an astronaut going out into space, he has to keep contact with the base who is going to give him the orders, because the base knows the whole situation and can see it and can give him the orders about where to go and what to do.

When Yeshua came to the earth, He confined Himself to One Body, in one place, so He had to be in contact with the Father in Heaven all the time, who would guide Him and who knew the whole story.

And you have this interesting little verse here about Him being awakened morning by morning. You can imagine that every morning Yeshua would go out and commune with the Father and God would tell Him what to do that day. And there would be that constant communication with the Father right through His ministry.

⁵ The Lord God has opened My ear;
And I was not rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
⁶ I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

Isaiah 50.5-6

All the time He was here on earth, He was communicating with the Father and His ear was opened. He was not rebellious it says here, and he heard the instructions which were given to Him in prayer.

The little detail about the ear is also interesting. I sometimes look at a commentary by David Guzik, and the commentary on this passage says concerning the ear:

⁵ But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ ⁶ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

Exodus 21.5-6

It is a process whereby a servant became a willing bondslave to his master. The sign of this willing servant was to have his ear opened by the piercing of an awl, done against the entry doorway of the master.

This speaks of the total submission of the Messiah to the Lord God. Guzik’s commentary on this says:

⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2.5-8

Guzik also says,

Psalm 40 verse 6 also speaks of the ceremony taking place between the father and the son where the psalmist speaks prophetically about the Messiah.

⁴ Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust,
And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
⁵ Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.

⁶ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

Psalm 40.4-6

In this passage the psalmist is saying that Jesus is the perfect bondservant, who is eternally committed to doing the will of the Father and that, this ‘opening of the ear’ is a symbol of His commitment of the Lord, to do the will of the Father right through His life. An interesting little detail there (all details in the Bible are interesting by the way).

And this points to Yeshua as the Messiah and the fact that God has had all these things written in both the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and also in the New Testament, and they all point us to Jesus being led to the Cross which is described in this passage as well.

Being the servant of the Lord, being obedient to God, doing His will is going to lead Jesus directly to the suffering of the cross. And we have in this passage a word which says:

⁶ I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

Isaiah 50.6-9

In the New Testament, you find that that’s what happened to Jesus. Luke chapter 22 says,

⁶³ Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. ⁶⁴ And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?” ⁶⁵ And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.

Luke 22.63-65

Mark says:

¹⁹ Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. ²⁰ And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.

Mark 15.19-20

So, here, in this scripture, you have a prophetic word speaking about what was going to happen to Jesus on the cross. It was written hundreds of years before it happened, there is no actual message mention in the Gospels of those who plucked out the beard of Jesus as part of his pre-crucifixion suffering, but from this passage in Isaiah says that that’s what happened. And all these things tell you about the agony which Jesus went through in order to redeem us.

If we are thinking about people suffering, think about Jesus’ suffering, and Jesus’ suffering as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world. The One who is going to bring us into a relationship with God.

Notice also it says here, I gave My back to those who struck Me. That means He did it voluntarily, He was not forced to do it. He could have got out of it, but He knew that this was the only way He could redeem the world. I gave my back.

He goes on to say that God will help him but the Lord God will help me therefore I will not be disgraced he knows that God will help Him in the midst of all this suffering, humiliation and pain.

⁷ “For the Lord God will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
⁸ He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
⁹ Surely the Lord God will help Me;

Isaiah 50.6-9

The Messiah has an unshakable confidence in the help of the Lord God. He knows that God is going to be with Him no matter what happens. He may have said for a moment My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22.1, Matthew 27.46, Mark 15.34), but that was the moment in which the sin of the world was placed upon Him and the only time in all of eternity the fellowship between the Father and the Son was broken, just for a moment. But once that had been paid for, He then said, It is finished (John 19:30) meaning that the job had been done and He had paid the price, and the fellowship was restored.

In the midst of sufferings, Jesus knows that God is going to be with Him, to help Him.

Now, the implication is that, if we go through sufferings, God is going to be there to help us if we call upon Him.

We have sufferings sometimes which are in the will of God and sometimes we go through suffering caused by our own mistakes. When we suffer because we are doing the will of God, we can know that God is going to help us. If it is due to our own mistake, then we need to repent and put it right, and then God may help us. But we too can trust that God will help us if we put our trust in Him.

Hebrews says,

be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ⁶ So we may boldly say:

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13.5-6

A statement there which applies to every one of us, that if we ask God to help us, He is going to help us, and we don’t need to fear what men can do to us.