The Sun Darkened - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
Luke 23:44–45 NKJV

The Sun Darkened
God created the sun—the “greater light”—on day four (Gen. 1:14–19), along with the moon and the stars. For many millennia, humans have strangely worshiped the sun as though it has some awareness or volition of its own. The sun, moon, and stars are formidable works of our Creator, but making them into gods is silly as they are purely results of a creative process. God is light (1 Jn. 1:5) and without Him nothing subsists, and all is darkness.

God’s supremacy over the sun is demonstrated most plainly when Christ hung between heaven and earth, at which time there was darkness over all the earth for a period of three hours. It was a most solemn event, when the sinless Son of God was taking on Himself the judgment you and I deserved!

This was no mere eclipse, and for several reasons: this was during Passover which occurs at a full moon (eclipses happen at a new moon); eclipses do not last three hours; and Luke tells us it affected “all the earth.” No, this was God purposefully obscuring the scene as a holy transaction took place when my sin was laid on the Lord Jesus. How could anyone look on when Christ the Savior was being forsaken by His God? Shortly afterwards, our blessed Lord would breathe His last as He committed His spirit to the Father.

Darkness was fitting then, but oh, let us not withhold our gaze from Him now! This very same One who bowed His holy head for us is the Bright and Morning Star who is risen indeed and is now seated at God’s right hand.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

-- Eric Clermont