I believe there are two ways we can look at “this hour” and “the power of darkness.” As we shall see, the first view involved MAN and their hatred of Christ leading them to arrest Him and deliver Him to the Romans to be crucified. The second view involves GOD and His plan of redemption for mankind, which had an “exact hour” to be fulfilled and it included allowing Satan and his fallen angels to work in the hearts of men to bring about His arrest and crucifixion. I believe both views are true.

View #1: We know that the religious leaders “hated Christ and conspired to kill Him” but they also “feared the people” and this prevented them from laying hold of Christ during the daytime hours. This is borne out in Luke 20:19 and 22:2: “And the chief priests and the scribes that VERY HOUR sought to lay hands on Him BUT THEY FEARED THE PEOPLE…. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him, for THEY FEARED THE PEOPLE.” These two instances prove that they weren’t able to seize Christ in front of the people during the day; it was NOT THEIR HOUR. So, they waited to take Him at NIGHT, under the cover of DARKNESS when men lay in their beds. We saw in Luke 22:2 that they “sought how they might kill Him” and when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane in the wee hours of the night “THEIR HOUR had come.” Jesus tells them plainly, “This is YOUR HOUR, and the POWER OF DARKNESS.”

View #2: Before God had even created man, He knew that Adam would plunge mankind into sin by eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. He had told Adam, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it YOU SHALL SURELY DIE” (Genesis 2:16-17). Yet Adam “did eat of that tree” (Genesis 3:1-6) and DEATH then entered the world. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and DEATH THROUGH SIN, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Knowing that “The wages of sin is DEATH” (Romans 6:23) and “After death the JUDGMENT” (Hebrews 9:27), God devised a plan to save sinners by sending His Son into the world to “die in man’s place” (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10). In love for mankind His Son was willing to become a Man to accomplish this (John 1:1, 14; Philippians 2:5-8). Yet God had appointed an “exact HOUR” when this would be accomplished. There were times when men tried to take Jesus and we read, “Therefore they sought to take Him; but no man laid a hand on Him, because HIS HOUR HAD NOT YET COME” (John 7:30). Shortly before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane we read that Jesus knew “HIS HOUR had come” (John 13:1). Earlier Jesus had said, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from THIS HOUR?’ But for this purpose I came to THIS HOUR.” (John 12:27). In the garden He allowed wicked men to take Him for it was “their hour” but it was also “His hour” to die, which had been planned before the foundation of the world. We see both truths in Acts 2:23, “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.”

Yet behind the “hatred of men” which led to His arrest and crucifixion, were the “rulers of DARKNESS” (Satan and his fallen angels…see Ephesians 6:12). Satan had put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus in the garden (John 13:2) and all the “rulers of darkness” incited the mob to have Him crucified (John 19:12-16). One commentator said this, “The forces of DARKNESS of the unseen world of DARKNESS had been mustered to array themselves with all their fearful power against the Lord of Light.” Jesus had told his disciples in the Upper Room, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the RULER OF THIS WORLD IS COMING, and he has nothing in Me.”  (DO)  (669.5)