Victory In The Darkness

 Judges 10:12-14

An amazing thing! Not happened before and not happened since! That's how the writer of Joshua describes the events of Joshua 10:12-14. 

What was it that so amazed him? It wasn't so much that the sun and moon stopped, but that the LORD heeded the voice of a man and fought for Israel.

Now, the sun stopped at Gibeon and the moon in the Valley of Aijalon, and the commentators make it clear that this must mean that these events took place at early morning. Traditionally, it has been thought that what stopped was the motion of sun and moon - and this led to thinking that what happened was then a period of extended day. This doesn't really fit though - for it was probably still pre-dawn when Joshua uttered this famous prophetic-prayer. Probably what stopped was not the motion but the shining of the sun and moon, and this means that what occurred was a prolonged darkness. The darkness gave Israel the upper hand in the battle - they were ready to go, but the armies they came to defeat were unprepared.

Now, this was prophetic prayer - Joshua spoke to the LORD (v. 12) and yet the prayer really gives commands to sun and moon, commands which they obey! The word of God does what it says, and that is what gives this prayer a prophetic ring. But more, all true prophecy has at its heart the person and work of Jesus Christ - 'the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus...' ... 'the Spirit of Christ in the prophets was indicating...the sufferings of Christ and subsequent glories...'

There was a subsequent day to this writing where a similar, though more significant, event took place and where the sun was darkened while a battle took place. The midday darkness that shrouded Jesus as he hung on the cross was darkness in which a decisive battle took place. He came, our great warrior-King, to rescue us from assailing enemies - sin, death, evil. And this battle was engaged in the strangest of places - his own body. He bore in his body our sins on the cross. He bore in his body the judgment of God on our sins. He bore in his body the battle against sin, death and evil. And at the end of the battle, the end of the darkness, he called out with a loud, triumphant cry, 'It is accomplished!' His Father had heard his prayer, and answered him - salvation had been won.

It is done. Never more can sin rise to triumph over the people of God, those who place their faith in Jesus Christ. This victory will never need to be won again. All prophecy has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Prayer makes things worse...

Revelation 8 opens with a vision of the seven angels of God being given trumpets.

But before more is said about this, there is a change of scene. Another angel arrives and this one is given a golden censer in which he is to burn a great quantity of incense, offered with the prayers of the saints. This he does, and the smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of the saints, rises up before God. When this has happened, the angel then filled the censer with fire from the altar where he has stood offering up the prayers of the saints, and he throws the censer down onto the earth. And as it crashes there, all kinds of disaster takes place: thunder, lightning, rumbling, earthquake.

It is after this that the seven angels then start to blow their trumpets, and as they do all kinds of disaster takes place. Ecological disaster in earth and sea, the collapse of trade systems, the loss of water security, the bringing of darkness all flow from the blowing of the first four trumpets. A loud, persistent, wailing comes from an eagle messenger: Woe, woe, woe! And things are going to get worse...

At the blowing of the fifth trumpet, demonic and hellish forces of destruction and war are released in the earth, causing terrible agony for those refuse the truth of God. At the blowing of the sixth trumpet, even larger armies of destruction and war are released. At the blowing of the seventh trumpet, all comes to a conclusion and the rule of God is seen throughout the creation.

The blowing of the trumpets is described only after the vision of the angel who brings the prayers of the saints to God. Certainly the language of the first trumpet, where things are hurled and cast, matches that of the censer, which, after the prayers have ascended to God, is then hurled to the earth causing havoc. I think that what the Seer is telling us is that the hellish chaos of destruction that is evoked by the blowing of the trumpets comes as the result of the prayer of the saints, the people of God.

All of us who pray undoubtedly pray for things to get better. We seek God's intervention and help. This would be true of the saints throughout the ages. It may be shocking to us to read hear how prayer results in things becoming worse, in all the powers of hell breaking out in terrible action.

What we must see is that the censer and the trumpets are given to the angels from the hand of God. These events that issue from the blowing of the trumpets and the casting of the censer are actually not the attacks of hell, but the judgments of God. The praying of God's people is closely linked to the outworking of the judgments of God in His world. The saints do not necessarily pray for judgment, but rather for salvation and vindication. But God's saving work in this age is always linked to the action of his judgments.

In a world in which it may seem that the hellish forces of destruction portrayed in this scene of the revelation have burst out of those pages into the reality of our lives today, we will undoubtedly be moved to pray for those so devastatingly