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Darkness Precedes the Dawn
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to the Savior. The chief enemy of the human race has portrayed
God as one who delights in destroying people. God designed the
sacrifices to reveal His love. But Satan has perverted them into a
means by which sinners have hoped—in vain—to appease the wrath
of an offended God. At the same time, he has worked to strengthen
evil passions so that, through repeated transgression, he can lead
multitudes far from God and keep them hopelessly bound with the
chains of sin.
In the parchment rolls of the Old Testament Scriptures Satan
read the words that outlined Christ’s work among us as a suffering
sacrifice and as a conquering king. He read that the One who was
to appear was to be “led as a lamb to the slaughter,” “His visage
... marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons
of men.” The promised Savior was to be “despised and rejected by
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ..., smitten by God,
and afflicted.”
Isaiah 53:7
;
52:14
;
53:3, 4
. These prophecies caused
Satan to tremble, yet he determined to blind the people to what they
really meant in order to prepare the way for them to reject Christ at
His coming.
Before the Flood, success had crowned Satan’s efforts to bring
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about a worldwide rebellion against God. After the Flood, with sly
insinuations he again led humanity into bold rebellion. He seemed
about to triumph, but through the descendants of faithful Abraham,
God intended to raise up messengers to call attention to the meaning
of the sacrificial ceremonies, and especially to the promise of the
One toward whom all the services pointed.
God carried out His plan, but not without determined opposition.
In every way possible the enemy worked to cause Abraham’s descen-
dants to forget their holy calling. For centuries before Christ’s first
advent, darkness covered the earth, and deep darkness the people.
Multitudes were sitting in the shadow of death.
The True Character of the Messiah Revealed
With prophetic vision David had foreseen that the coming of
Christ would be “like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a
morning without clouds.”
2 Samuel 23:4
. And Hosea testified, “His
going forth is established as the morning.”
Hosea 6:3
. Quietly and