Sermon Tone Analysis

*MIDNIGHT *

* *

*            (mid'-nit) (chatsoth laylah, "middle of the night" <*

*As we look back on the times of biblical history we can see many events that happen at midnight.

Some were tragedy others were not so trudged.*

*As one look back on the days of the Israelite’s he or she will find that it was at midnight when after so many plagues had been carried out on Pharaoh he still refused to allow the Children of Israel to leave the land of Egypt as God had directed Moses to tell him.*

*As scripture tells us it was at midnight when it final made since to Pharaoh that God was not playing games with him.*

* *

*If you will listen to what Exodus 11:1-8 tells us;*

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*1          *Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.

After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.

2          Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold."

3          (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)

*4          So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: `About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.

*

5          Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

6          There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt-- worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.

7          But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.'

Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

8          All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, `Go, you and all the people who follow you!'

After that I will leave."

Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

*(NIV)*

* *

*We find in Exodus chapter twelve, verse twenty-nine these words;*

*Exo** 12:29*

*29        At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.

*

*(NIV)*

* *

*/But none of the Children of Israel (/*/God’s chosen people*) were harm not even a dog was struck down.

Was it the midnight that kept all harm and danger away from the*/* /Children of Israel/? *No midnight was only a time frame.

But it was the blood of the Passover Lamb that had been slain and its blood was spread on the door post of all the Israelites as God had instructed the Israelites to do.

They were saved because of the blood of the lamb not the strike of 12 mid-night on the clock.

* *

*Judg** 16:1-3*

*1          One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute.

He went in to spend the night with her.

*

*2          The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!"

So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate.

They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."

*

*3          But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night.

Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all.

He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

*

*(NIV)*

It was in the middle of the night when Boaz found Ruth at his feet.

Ruth 3:8 tells us;

*8          In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet.

*

*(**NIV)*

*>, tokh ha-laylah, "the division of the night" and hence, the middle point *

*1 Kin 3:20*

*>; meses nuktos <*

*Jesus tells the parable of the ten bridesmaids.

They are waited for the bride to show up.

It was at midnight when the cry rang out that the bridegroom was here.*

*Five of them had oil for there lamps, but the other five did not have oil that they maybe able to trim their lamps.

When they ask the wise bridesmaids for oil, there reply was go and get oil from the man that sell oil.

They did so, but upon there return they found that the door to the wedding actives had been closed shut and they could not get in.*

* *

*Mt 25:6*

*6          "*At midnight the cry rang out: `Here's the bridegroom!

Come out to meet him!'

* *

*Mt 25:13*

*13                **"*Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour*.

*

*(NIV)*

Has watch night become just a tradition to set in Church on the night leading up to mid-night the start of a new year?

Or is it those who assemble themselves together on this night to give thanks to Almighty God for bring me through many dangers toils and snares.

What does all of this mean to you?

We ought to be joyous and give Him praise even in the midst of trails and tribulations that we are yet alive not because we deserve it, but because God is so merciful and good.

* *

*It All Happen At Midnight*

 

When Paul and Silas was on their way to the house of prayer and a slave girl who was working for her master.

Her job was to predict the future.

She followed Paul and Silas around shouting that these were men from the Most High God.

She kept this up for such a great length of time that Paul and Silas became tired and they rebuked the Demons that processed her, and after this her Master could not receive any more money from her work.

So they had Paul and Silas arrested and thrown in jail.

* *

*/But, before they were put in jail they were stripped of their clothing, flogged and then put in jail.

The Jailer had them put in the inner most cell of the jail and had their feet fastened in stocks./*

* *

*But in spite of the conditions in which they were in, neither one of them did not set around and cry that they were being mistreated.*

* *

*My bible tells me that;*

*Acts 16:25-28 *

*25        About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.*

*a.     **I do not know what song they sang;*

*b.     **It may have been: Savior More Than Life To Me*

*c.      **It may have been: Near My God To Thee*

*d.     **It may have been: Father I Straight My Hands To Thee No Other Help I Know*

*e.      **It might have been; There Is A Bright Side Somewhere.*

*f.      **They may have prayer; Lord Oh, Lord give me the strength to bear these burdens that are set before me.*

*g.     **They might have prayed; Lord you know what we are up against, but we are going to leave it in your hands.

*

* *

*26        Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.

*

*27        The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

*

*28        But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself!

We are all here!"

*

*(NIV)*

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* *

*>, or meson tes nuktos, "the middle of the night" <Acts 27:27>, mesonuktios, "midnight"; Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, mesonuktion (<Acts 16:25>, etc.)):

In the period before the exile midnight does not seem to have been very accurately determined.

The division of the night was into three watches, the middle one of which included midnight.

In New Testament times the four-watch division was used where midnight must have been more or less accurately determined.

See TIME; WATCH.*

*            H.

PORTER*