This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

One of the most intriguing mysteries in the entire Bible is the famous phrase concerning a plague on the land of Egypt when God told Moses, "there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt" (Exodus 10:21 CSB).

The story also notes "there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days" (Exodus 10:22 CSB).

But what do these cryptic events connote?

The author of a brand-new book illuminating the hidden content of Holy Scripture is now shining the light of clarity on these mysteries on the popular Bible TV show, "Shabbat Night Live."  (WATCH THE EPISODES BELOW.)

"The Bible brings up darkness many times, many different examples from the Old Testament to the New," says Joe Kovacs, author of "Reaching God Speed: Unlocking the Secret Broadcast Revealing the Mystery of Everything."

"God is light as we know, the Bible makes no secret about that: 'God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all' (1 John 1:5 NLT). But what is darkness?"

Kovacs explained that Jesus spoke exclusively in allegories called parables (Matthew 13:34), and the term "darkness" itself is packing a metaphorical meaning on the Spirit level, since people themselves are made up of darkness, specifically the dust of the earth as is mentioned in Genesis 2:7.

"The earth, as you know, is dark. Soil is dark. It's not a bright light like the sun is. So WE, on the spirit level of God speed, are considered the darkness, and the Bible uses the term darkness many times to refer to people."

"Here's one Scripture that may seem a little obscure to people: 'See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples' (Isaiah 60:2 NIV).

"That's saying the same thing twice. Darkness covers the earth. Again, at God speed, we are the earth (Genesis 2:7). This is our darkness. It doesn't matter what kind of complexion you have. We, as physical beings, are darkness. And thick darkness is over what? The peoples! 'Cause we are the peoples. The earth is the peoples. If you know how to read the poetry of the Bible, darkness is us. It's our flesh. We are the peoples. So darkness is the human condition in our fleshly state.

"Again we're not Spirit beings yet. We have the Spirit of God within us, and we're meant to get out of the flesh, but right now we have darkness of the earth [covering us]."

"Here's another kind of obscure verse: 'I am dark like the tents of Kedar' (Song of Songs 1:5 CSB).

"'Kedar' is a word that means darkness! So the woman in the story – the bride, by the way – is telling people that she's in the flesh – like we in the flesh now are dark like the tents, 'cause we're all in a tent. We all realize this is an earthen tent, the earthen vessels that we're in – we're in the tents of darkness. We're covered with a tent. Our skin and flesh is a tent of darkness. So when you look up the word sometimes, it helps you get to that spirit level, that parable level. We're all dark like the tents of darkness. That's all it's saying.

"When we take this concept, we can go all over the Bible to find all kinds of fun stories dealing with darkness. For instance, three days of darkness in Egypt. It's one of the plagues on Egypt in the Old Testament. We know that darkness represents the flesh. But why is it three days of darkness?

Kovacs then connected the dots of the Bible by joining the verse to one in the New Testament illuminating its meaning.

"It goes back to the point of Hebrews 13:8, yesterday, today and forever. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Those are the three days. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and those three days represent the past, present and future. If you are in the fleshly mindset, and literally of the flesh, you are in darkness for [those] three days."

Kovacs noted the opposite of the plague of darkness was the presence of light in Goshen where the Israelites dwelled: "The opposite of that story, incidentally, is that there was light in Goshen. (Exodues 10:23)

"Why was there light in Goshen, but darkness for three days in Egypt? Well, Goshen actually means something … it means 'drawing near.' So the message at God speed, the parable level, the metaphor level, the Spirit level, is that if we're drawing near to God, we have light in our dwellings.

"This is our dwelling place," he said, motioning to his entire physical body, "and if you're drawing near to God, you have light in your dwelling place. But if you're not drawing near to God, you are in darkness. Simple as that."

But what about the enduring mystery of the darkness that can be felt, as Scripture states outright?

"The Bible says it was a darkness that could be felt," Kovacs began. "It's literally a darkness that can be felt because when you feel your skin, your flesh, you are feeling the darkness that can be felt. That's why that phrase is in the Bible.

"God is using every tool in the box, every possible way of phrasing something so that you know what he's talking about if you're paying attention. Jesus even in the New Testament mentions … somebody who's disobedient – [saying] take him away from the king and bind him in outer darkness. (Matthew 22:13, 25:30)

"Outer darkness is this," Kovacs explained as he touched his own hand to demonstrate. "Bind him in the flesh because he's gonna stay in the flesh in the body of the beast."

"This is the darkness that can be felt. These are not scary terms. God is just saying the same thing over and over using different words."

Scott Laird, the host of "Shabbat Night Live" filling in for Michael Rood, interjected: "So when we come out darkness, or to come out of Babylon … come out of Egypt …"

Kovacs responded: "It's all saying the same thing. We are meant to come out of the darkness, the dark place of misery which is Egypt; come out of Sodom, which is the burning place, the flaming place; come out of her my people [referring to the Babylon of confusion]. You see all these phrases in the Bible because the Bible is basically a book about Spirit versus flesh. God is a Spirit, the Bible tells us in the Gospel of John.

"He's a Spirit being. We are not a Spirit being – yet. We are [eventually] meant to be, but we are currently in the body of a beast, the body of flesh, and we see examples of that in the Bible."

Kovacs appeared on four episodes of "Shabbat Night Live," with the discussion of the meaning of darkness in the fourth and final episode here:

The other three episodes are here:

Watch Episode 1:

Watch Episode 2:

Watch Episode 3: