Luke 22:53 But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
Jesus words, spoken at the very moment of Judas betraying Him, are very powerful and revealing.
With the value of hindsight, we understand the entirety of the events of Christ’s passion and resurrection to be in the purview of God’s sovereign will and pre-determined plan (Acts 2:23). Even Judas betrayal of the Christ, was prophesied in writing hundreds of years prior to the act (Psalm 49:9; 69:25, 109:8).
Although Judas actions were part of the sovereign will of God, in bringing Christ to fulfill God’s plan, it was an evil and malicious act of Satan’s machination. Yet even Satan’s evil is worked for the benevolent goodness of God. This truth can be fuel for our praise of God.
Despite this truth, when Lord Jesus declares “But this is your hour, and the power of darkness”, He is declaring a real and treacherous period of human history. This was Judas hour to fulfill God’s will, as the son of perdition’s (John 17:12), as well as the darkness hour to have its way with With our Lord Jesus. The darkness did its best to make it excruciating and perverse.
When referencing the darkness, it is important to understand who it is referencing. In Paul’s testimony before Agrippa, we see the whom of the darkness.
Acts 26:17-18 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
We also read this characterization in Paul contrasting two real kingdoms in this world.
Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
As Christians we are commanded to shine as lights in the midst of the darkness, that men may have the opportunity to know Christ. Let us consider the darkness of the hour our Lord Jesus passion, from the day of His crucifixion, until He rose from the dead.
Had there ever been a time darker than those 3 and ½ days? Not even close. In that time frame, the brutality of men against other men is clearly seen, as they execute the perfect innocent, from a basis of false charges.
Pilate knew Jesus did no wrong, yet flogged the Him, which left His body an open raw bleeding form. Worse yet, Pilate then had Jesus crucified to appease men the procurator himself hated; men who were blackmailing him.
Consider that when a man is executed for a crime, in our time, those watching are not allowed to comment or speak, as to not honor the solemn and terrible responsibility of executing a criminal. Yet, when Christ was crucified, He was mocked, insulted, spat upon and taunted, despicably.
Consider that even morally religious Jews, called for His death. Ho terrible this “hour and the power of darkness”.
So cruel was the death of God’s only begotten Son, the earth shook, the weather howled in fury, when He breathed His last. And what of the three days where He laid in the grave, when it seemed that the darkness had won?
The world has seen other times of the “hour and the power of darkness”. Consider the time of Noah.
Genesis 6:5-6 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
The world had become so dark that every human being was continually self-focused and opposed to God’s righteousness, but Noah and his family. God ended the darkness with the flood.
Remember that Noah’s time was one of murder, violence, debauched sexuality, and angel/men hybrids called Nephelium. It was a time where millions were given in marriage, outside of God’s created order and blessing of procreation. Perversion, “do what you want” and “my truth”, reigned in the heart of men, in opposition to the truth of God was wholly pervasive.
There will also be a final time of “the hour and the power of darkness”, just like the time preceding Noah’s flood (Matthew 24:37-39). We are either approaching these times, or already in them. Concerning the very end of days and “the hour and the power of darkness”, consider Paul’s prophecy.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron
2 Timothy 3:1-7 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Revelation 18 displays a government, society, and civic religion, which pumps “the hour and the power of darkness” around the world and resulting in the persecution of the saints.
What is written can be seen I the apostacy of the western powers from its moorings in a societal Christian moral code, to its current state as founder of the antichrist’s final rebellion against our God and His Christ.
Revelation 18:1-3 After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.
How does a society and culture, like America, with such potential for Biblical knowledge of God, and supposed history in the faith, become the foundation point for the last time of the “hour and the power of darkness”?
Rather than receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved (and trusting God’s word through obedience), they rather believed the lie of Satan, to falling away (II Thessalonians 2:9-12). This is done in those who are convinced they are still following Christ. This with lead to such darkness, as the world has never seen.
The reason is that those following their self-preservation instinct, will sear their conscience, to the point where they will believe a sent delusion, having not loved God with all their heart. Therefore, God will stop speaking to them.
Romans 1:28-29 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; …”
Make no mistake, this debased state of mind will lead to a blood lust for anyone who stand for and speak the truth. The oppressive darkness of the last days will grow, as Satan attempts to snuff out the remaining light of the world in God’s church, the fellowship of the saints (John 15:18-6:4; Revelation 7:17-17; 12:17; 13:6-10).
Remember, it is not God’s plan to remove us from such times, for if He would, there would be no light left. It is through suffering on Christ’s behalf that we reveal the light of Christ. This is God’s plan.
Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This passage reminds us that we do not escape tribulation or persecution and that which is associated with it, but that He leads us through the trials, as we are in union with Christ. It is the very circumstances of the “hour and the power of darkness” which make us shine as lights in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation. To seek to ignore this truth or avoid it, can lead to apostacy.
Yet there is a hope, that eviscerates the darkness with light and fuels our endurance and faith in the very last time of the “hour and the power of darkness”. It is very similar to what occurred at another time of great darkness, right before Christ’s first incarnation.
Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
Next time we will stare in the Light which brings us hope and victory over the “hour and the power of darkness”.
