Darkness at Noon
Darkness at Noon
Wednesday
“The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: ‘Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?’ ‘And on that day,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.’”
— Amos 8:7-10 (ESV)
“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”
— Matthew 27:45-46 (ESV)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
— John 3:16 (ESV)
— Amos 8:7-10 (ESV)
“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”
— Matthew 27:45-46 (ESV)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
— John 3:16 (ESV)
Two images from this chapter—the sun going dark at midday, and grief for an only son—meet on a single afternoon at Calvary. What the prophet announced as the doom of the guilty, Jesus Christ endured in the place of the guilty. The darkness fell on Him. The only Son was the one mourned. This is why a chapter about wrath can be read by a Christian without despair. The bitter day came. Jesus drank it. And three days later the tomb was empty, and it still is.
The cross reveals that God neither ignores sin nor abandons sinners to save themselves. His justice required that sin be judged; His love provided the sacrifice. Jesus was not merely another victim of human cruelty. He willingly stood in the place of His people and bore the judgment their sins deserved. At Calvary, righteousness and mercy met without either one being diminished.
This means the Christian does not look inward to determine whether enough goodness can be found there to deserve forgiveness. We look outward to the finished work of Christ. Our assurance rests not in how strongly we feel forgiven, but in the sufficiency of the One who declared, “It is finished.” The empty tomb is God’s declaration that Christ’s sacrifice was accepted and that death could not hold the only Son.
The cross reveals that God neither ignores sin nor abandons sinners to save themselves. His justice required that sin be judged; His love provided the sacrifice. Jesus was not merely another victim of human cruelty. He willingly stood in the place of His people and bore the judgment their sins deserved. At Calvary, righteousness and mercy met without either one being diminished.
This means the Christian does not look inward to determine whether enough goodness can be found there to deserve forgiveness. We look outward to the finished work of Christ. Our assurance rests not in how strongly we feel forgiven, but in the sufficiency of the One who declared, “It is finished.” The empty tomb is God’s declaration that Christ’s sacrifice was accepted and that death could not hold the only Son.
Pray:
Lord Jesus, You took my noonday darkness. Thank You. Teach me not to treat that lightly.
Lord Jesus, You took my noonday darkness. Thank You. Teach me not to treat that lightly.
Reflect:
What in your life still feels unforgiven? Take it back to the cross where it was already paid for.
What in your life still feels unforgiven? Take it back to the cross where it was already paid for.
Posted in Ripe Baskets Rotten Hearts - Amos 8
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