FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
November 15
THE SANCTUARY DOCTRINE EXPLAINS THE WAY OF SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL (Part 46)
The Mysterious Darkness of the Ninth Hour at the Antitypical Altar of Sacrifice.
“With amazement ANGELS witnesses the Savior’s despairing agony. The hosts of heaven veiled their faces from the fearful sight. Inanimate NATURE expressed sympathy with its insulted and dying Author. The SUN refused to look upon the awful scene. In full, bright rays were illuminating the earth at MIDDAY [the ‘ninth hour’] when SUDDENLY it seemed to be blotted out. COMPLETE DARKNESS, LIKE A FUNERAL PALL ENVELOPED THE CROSS. ‘There was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.’ There was NO ECLIPSE or other natural cause for this darkness, which was AS DEEP AS MIDNIGHT WiTHOUT MOON OR STARS.
What was its cause then? “IT WAS A MIRACULOUS TESTIMONY GIVEN BY GOD THAT THE FAITH OF AFTER GENERATIONS MIGHT BE CONFIRMED. In that thick darkness God’s [actual] presence was HIDDEN. ‘He makes darkness His pavilion’ and CONCEALS His glory from human eyes. GOD AND HIS HOLY ANGELS WERE BESIDE THE CROSS. THE FATHER WAS WITH HIS SON. YET HIS PRESENCE WAS NOT REVEALED. [Why? Answer for the following reasons]:
- “Had His glory flashed forth from the cloud [of darkness], every human beholder would have been destroyed!
- “And in that DREADFUL HOUR [‘the ninth hour’] Christ was NOT to be comforted with the Father’s [visible] presence. [Prophecy had to be fulfilled that] He ‘trod the wine press alone, and of the people [His fellow Jewish people] there was none with Him.’ [Isa. 63: 2, 3].
- “In the thick darkness God veiled the last HUMAN AGONY of His Son.
“All who had seen Christ IN HIS SUFFERING had been convicted of His DIVINITY. That FACE, once beheld by humanity, was NEVER FORGOTTEN. [Here’s why]:
“When the FACE OF CAIN expressed his guilt as a murderer [‘fallen countenance,’ de de Gen. 4: 6] so the FACE OF CHRIST revealed innocence, serenity, benevolence—THE IMAGE OF GOD! But His accusers [The religious leaders of the chosen nation and people!] WOULD NOT GIVE HEED to the signet of heaven. Through long hours of agony [six hours, nailed at 9 AM, expired at 3 PM, Friday, 31 A.D./C.E.], Christ had been GAZED UPON by the jeering multitude. NOW HE WAS MERCIFULLY HiDDEN BY THE MANTLE OF GOD.” -E. G. White, Desire of Ages, p.p. 753. 754.
The deep as midnight without moon or stars, mysterious darkness that suddenly enshrouded the dying Lamb of God at “the ninth hour” suddenly reveals deeper Christ-centric saving truths than most Calvary-centric Christians realize!
Moreover, God’s promise that He “will NEVER leave or forsake” His faithful followers “even unto the uttermost parts of the earth” was eternally proven by no less than the Lamb of God as His sinless life was ebbing away, dying in unutterable agony with absolutely no one to comfort Him. Indeed He “trod the winepress ALONE.”
That is, as far as human mortal eyes can see; for it was in that VERY DARKNESS, the very least expected place, situation, and appearance that God stands watching as the loving, ever faithful “Father of lights.” This is how every child of God who is “suffering for righteousness sake” and has been totally forsaken by all earthly support and protection: Hidden from sinful mortal eyes, the great I AM—whose glory is veiled (as in the first veil of the temple), and further veiled (as in the second veil separating the holy from the most holy) by a darkness mysterious ans deep as midnight without moon or stars—has never left or blinked a divine eye!
He IS there as in the transcendent the great “I AM that I AM”—-not subject to time, space, or circumstance, nor “anything made that was made” “by Him or for Him.”
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF.