In the movie “Get Out”, the main character named Chris realizes that everything and everyone around his girlfriend’s family (including his girlfriend) are not who they appear to be. Ultimately, he finds out that he has been lured into trap by way of hypnosis and has somewhat of an outer body experience where his stream of consciousness falls into what is called “the sunken place” where he cannot physically use his body. This “sunken place” exists in almost complete and total darkness except for a small window of visibility where light can pass through.
I use this motion picture description as a relevant introduction to what Exodus chapter 10 speaks of. The 9th plague of Egypt was that of total and complete darkness that God placed on the land except for where the Israelites were residing. This darkness lasted for three days and Scripture says that the darkness was so intense that it could actually be felt. It was not only dark, it was not that you were practically blinded, but from your outer to your inner being, you could FEEL it!
That which the Egyptians saw (which was nothing) was literally and spiritually who they were! They were dark in their spirit. They were dark in their character. They were dark because they would not acknowledge the God of Israel who was showing grace and mercy toward them by not destroying them and giving them a chance to find redemption from their indiscretions. Those who have accepted a relationship with Jesus Christ were once in the dark. We were dark because we kept driving ourselves toward dead-end streets while lying to ourselves and others calling them straight and narrow paths. We were dark and in the dark because dabbling in sin was often our first option rather than discarding it as the negative alternative. We were dark because when Jesus was calling us we refused to listen and thought that our righteousness was worthy of his glory. And this is the demise, the facade, and mirage of the sunken place. As a matter of fact, this is where much of the world continues to hang its hat and attempts to keep signing off and vouching for lesser alternatives and calling them truth and light. It takes a sincere heart that is willing to be cleaned and renewed to open up and allow truth and light to invade their sunken place.
The lie that Satan wants you to believe is that the darkness you may reside in FEELS good. Many people have been hypnotized in the illusions of perceived freedom within the sunken place and the longer that lie is believed the deeper that person will fall. If you find yourself “graduating” from pornography to soliciting for prostitution then you are falling deeper into the sunken place. If your alcohol consumption has “graduated” from one or two during “happy hour” to the point that the only thing you thirst for is alcohol then you are falling deeper into the sunken place. Why am I talking so much about the sunken place? Frankly, Jesus Christ defeated everything in the sunken place with his resurrection from the dead so there should be no reason why we should be seeking sin and darkness and thusly feeling it. That’s how we escape the sunken place.
Jesus is that light that gives you guidance out of the sunken place. God always provides a way of escape.
~ Rev. E. Shon Hagwood, M.Div.
