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Daily Scripture Passage: Exodus 10:21-11:8

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hard toward heaven so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.” — Exodus 10:21

I struggle with images of lightness and darkness in scripture. They are based in the natural world, the ecological realities of night and day. Yet these images have gone on to infect our language with a truly unhelpful dichotomy of lightness and whiteness as good, and darkness and blackness as bad. A hero “puts on the white hat.” a villain might have a “black heart.” In the broader fight for racial justice, this can sound minor. Yet while it is a subtle problem, it can be a profound one.

At the same time, I was so struck by the language in this text, “a darkness that can be felt.” It is purposeful hyperbole, translator Robert Alter says, meant to evoke “the claustrophobic palpability of absolute darkness.” We cannot quite fathom night in the ancient world, a time when candles and lanterns were precious and few. Nighttime could be treacherous…on a cloudy night, you simply could not see.

Yet beautiful things also happen in darkness. Seeds germinate in soil, animals hibernate, we see the stars. Our bodies are knit together in the womb. Resurrection begins in the mysterious darkness of a tomb.

Above all, this is God trying to send a message. Know me. Acknowledge me. Grasp my power. Do it at once. Pharaoh was not listening, could not listen—ultimately, not only to Moses, but to the sorrow of all his subjects, who had withstood much more than just thick darkness.

I invite you to spend some time today considering God’s messages to you, through darkness as well as light. The twinkling of a twilight sky, the harsh brightness of a waiting room, the muddy sky of a rainy day…where have you encountered God’s presence?