21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.”
Have you ever been in a place where there is NO light? I remember going to visit a cave. There were lights inside the cave to help tourists safely navigate through the cave’s tunnels. When we entered one of the large caverns the guide had us stop. At that point he turned off the lights for several minutes, giving our eyes a chance to adjust to the darkness. But even after our eyes had adjusted, we could see nothing. There was not light source. There were not even any light emitting plants or algae. We could see nothing. Then he had us shield our eyes and he turned the lights back on. I have rarely been so happy to have light. Without the light we would not have been able to find our way out of that place. Could you imagine being in your own home and having darkness come that you could feel? No candles to light, no electricity, no flashlights, just darkness. About all you could do is sit together and wait for the light to return. If you did move around you had to use your hands so that you didn’t bump into things. I don’t know what caused this darkness is Egypt, but it was very unusual. When the sun goes down, we usually have the moon and stars to illuminate. With our obsession for streetlights, we rarely even see many stars these days. One of the beauties of Baghdad in 2003 was that there were few if any lights at night. I saw the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time in over 35 years. It was as clear as that shown in a planetarium. At first, I didn’t know what it was. It was so bright as it banded across the sky, the illumined cloud of millions of stars. But whatever the darkness was that came over Egypt, they did not have the benefit of the comforting light of the stars. And it lasted three days. The people knew this was not some natural darkness. The Lord was again trying to get Pharaoh’s attention and the people knew it.
The Arnold Journey 