Dark Days

"He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it by nailing it to the cross." - Colossians 2:14 If the crucifixion was on Friday, Saturday was a unique day in the story of the universe. Speaking of his life, Jesus had said: “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18). The Saturday after “Good Friday” was the day between those two history-making events. Much of his work was done. If we study the Bible carefully, we find that his death did several things. First, it showed that God so loved the world he would put himself at the mercy of man, and not fight back. At the same time, it also destroyed Satan. This may be sound surprising, but we are told in Hebrews that “through death he destroyed him who had the power of death: that is the Devil.” We might have expected that it would be through the resurrection that the one who had the power of death would be destroyed, but it was on the cross. A clue was given at the time Adam fell. The fact that Satan would bruise the heel of the Seed of the woman is in the same breath with the prophesy that the serpent's head would be crushed by that promised Seed, and that Seed was Christ. None of this was clear to the disciples on that Saturday. They were perplexed and dejected. The two who talked to Jesus on the road to Emmaus the next day expressed their feelings. He asked why they were sad, and they said “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.” You may have had dark days, but none darker than that day for the disciples. Their depression on that Saturday, a mood which carried over until the risen Lord dispelled it on Sunday, can be a source of great cheer for us. Furthermore, we see how unnecessary their depression was. The old proverb tells us that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But it also ENDS with a single step, and a long wait ends with a single day. On that day before the resurrection, they were not sure it would EVER happen. We are in a better position as we contemplate our own resurrection. At least we know that it WILL happen. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the trumpet. And the moment before the sound? The day before the change? This very day could be that day! As it was in the days of Noah, the Bible tells us, it will be on that day. So remember, when we are tempted to give in to dejection: our darkest days could be just a single day before the brightest day in the history of this sad planet, just as that unique Saturday was just a single day before the triumph of Easter. Cheer up, then, and think how you would be feeling, and behaving, if you knew it would be tomorrow that the great trumpet call would summon us up to meet the Lord in the air! Meditate: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 email from Don Barnhouse, Jr.