When we lived in Napier, I took up bike riding and I used to
cycle from our house at Westshore, around through Ahuriri and out along the
Marine parade cycle track to Clyde and back. Except for the height of
summer I would start in the dark and at
some stage along the journey the dawn would break over the pacific ocean and
the sun would rise out of the sea. On clear days it would be a wondrous golden
glow over the blue of the ocean, on overcast and Rainey days it would turn the
clouds and the dark ocean silver, either way the panorama and beauty of
countryside and coastline and city around me would become visible.
The idea of light dawning in the darkness is a very
evocative picture. It is one of hope and new possibilities. It can seem as if
all the difficulty suffering and strife or the broken relationships and the
brokenness and evil of the world and within us are like the pitch black of
night. Maybe you’ve had nights where things you’ve done wrong, or decisions you
have to make, or the stress and strain of life have left you tossing and
turning, or even as Geoff New spoke about a couple of weeks ago you find
yourself wrestling with God. The night feels endless, then the dawn comes, the
possibility of hope. Psalm 30:5 sums
that up well for our experience and for the context of the passage we are
looking at today when it says.
For his (God’s)
anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the
night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.
The context of Isaiah
9, this passage which we so rightly associate with the coming of Christ, and
use in advent, is that for Jerusalem and Judea it was a time of doom and gloom,
they had sinned and rebelled against God and were facing judgment.
Ahaz was the king, 2 kings 16 tells us he was
a king who did evil in the eyes of the LORD. Even stooping to sacrifice his son
in the fire, worshiping the Gods of the nations that had been driven out of
Israel. Judah was in a difficult position politically, the northern kingdom Israel
and Syria had formed an alliance and were getting ready to come against Judah.
Ahaz had some decisions to make, he could form an alliance with either Assyria
or Egypt, the super powers of his time, or he could simply trust in god to save
his people. This is where Isaiah’s prophecies from chapter 7:1- to chapter 9
come. Through the birth of three children Isaiah speaks to the king and tells
him that he should trust in God to deal with Israel and Syria, not to look to
other gods nor to alliances with other kingdoms, but the God of Israel.
In chapter 7 Isaiah’s son Shear-Jeshub is to remind the
king that a remnant shall remain. Then we have Immanuel, a child born to a
virgin or a maiden, reminding Ahaz that “God is with us” that he and Judah can
trust in God to save them, name and a prophecy which Matthew tells us is
fulfilled in Christ, and then finally in
chapter 8 Isaiah’s other son
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz which means quickly to the plunder, was a sign to Ahaz
that before the boy could say mother or father, that Syria and Israel would
fall, that Ahaz should trust in God.
Ahaz of course
ignores Isaiah, and make an alliance with the Assyrians, giving them all the
gold and silver in the temple and setting up an altar in Damascus to honour
the Assyrian king. Judah finds itself
condemned and under God’s judgment, in the gloom and dark of the situation and
their own rebellion against God, Isaiah now turns to give them hope. Hope which
again is wrapped up in the birth of a child.
Lets look at the
passage.
Verse one tells
us that the land that is humbled will again be lifted up and honoured. God’s
judgment is not his final word. The areas mentioned here, the land of Zebulun
and Naphtali and galilee of the nations, the area where Israel usually first
met the rest of the world, a place of mixed settlement, and the way of the sea
beyond the Jordon would be honoured. These areas has been the first to fall to
Assyrian domination and they would be the first to see the light of God’s
salvation. Maybe jumping the gun here but Matthew quotes this verse at the
beginning of Jesus preaching ministry in this very area. Here is the light
dawning amidst the gloom in the very places Isaiah had prophesied.
This is the
message that Isaiah now brings in verse 2. A light dawning in the darkness.
Light of course in scripture is used to describe God. God would bring light
where there was only darkness. Inv3 instead of the shrinking and defeat, sorrow
and pain of the Assyrian oppression, there would be a prospering of the nation and an increase of
Joy. The metaphors that are used to describe this joy are that of the joy of
harvest. Maybe the gardeners amongst you can relate to that. After all the
tilling of the soil, the weeding, watering, cold snaps, wild winds and pests,
there is the harvest. The second metaphor is the picture of soldiers dividing
up the plunder. War is over the battle has been won. Maybe after unsurmountable
odds, many of what Winston Churchill called ‘our darkest hours’ through pain
and sorrow, final it is over victory has been won. Maybe those famous photos of
crowds in London and New York’s time square in 1945 on VE and VJ day give us a
glimpse of that joy.
Verse 4 gives us
a historical example of how God would bring this reversal, this light in the
dark. Isaiah points to the time of Midian where God used, Gideon and three
hundred men, with trumpets and torches, light in the dark, to wrought an army
of 10,000 Midians. This light this salvation would be as unexpected and so
obviously God’s doing as that. The yoke of oppression would be lifted. Assyrian
kings often gloated about the heavy yoke they placed on their conquered
kingdoms. Again looking through the lens of Jesus we see that the new ruler
would also have a yoke but his was easy and light.
Verse 5 then
gives us an image of an end to war. This light would not use the conventional
tools of this world to bring about salvation, and restoration rather the image
here of war itself ceasing.
Then we see that
just like Immanuel was a sign of God’s abiding presence God’s light and
salvation being through the birth of a child, a son. A new ruler in the line of
David. The words and titles that are given to this son, show us that this is
not simply another king in the dynasty but there is something special and
important about this son, this child to be born.
He is called the
wonderful councilor, as opposed to the bad council of the Kings who had gone
before and lead Judah down a disastrous path into the judgment of God … Mighty
God, while the kings of the nations around Judea were starting to be considered
god like, for jews there was one God and the passage points very much to this
son being the embodiment of Immanuel God with us. Everlasting father, again
while kings were considered as being fathers to their people this goes beyong
hyperbally to focus again on the messianic hope of the people. Prince of peace: The hope of shalom, not just
the end to conflict and strife but the restoration of relationships, with God
and with one another. A kingdom of peace and prosperity based on God’s righteousness
and justice. This son and his kingdom would be an everlasting one.
The passage
finishes with an affirmation that this salvation this light this new kingdom,
would not be achieved by earthly powers or means, but rather it would the
Lord’s doing the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. We may think
of God as detached and dispassionate, but here we get the picture of a God who is jealous and
zealous for his people, wanting to bring them back to himself, full of passion
and compassion, that while they had rebelled against him and sinned, and were
going to be rightly judged, God was not finished with them, his purposes and
plans his salvation would be achieved.
On one level this
passage can be seen to be fulfilled in Ahaz’s son Hezekiah, which 2 kings 18
tells us was a good king, there was no king in Judea like him, he returned
Judea to following the Lord. Isaiah’s
prophecy was a birth announcement for this new king, full of hyperbole and
hope. While Hezekiah’s faithfulness and trust in God is an example of the way
the Davidic kings should act he does not fit the bill, despite seeing God’s
miraculous intervention, Judea and Jerusalem face turmoil and strife throughout
his reign. After a meeting with envoys from Babylon Isaiah tells him of the
impending fall of Jerusalem to Babylon to which Hezekiah replies with what are
his last recorded words “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?”
we must look beyond Hezekiah.
The book of
Isaiah as a whole covers the period of the reign of king ahaz right through to
the destruction of Jerusalem and finishes after chapter 40 with words that look
forward to the return from exile and the reestablishment of Jerusalem. The
passage in Isaiah 9 was seen as part of the hope of what God would do in that
restoration time. The hope for Jerusalem being the capital of a restored and
purified Israel. Yet we know from history that the hopes and aspirations for
that restoration were different and difficult. So this passage became part of
the messianic hope of Israel, that God would indeed send a son of David to
establish the kingdom of God.
Matthew quotes
this passage as Jesus starts his ministry, in the area which Isaiah had said
salvation would first dawn. Pointing us to the fact that the ultimate
fulfilment of this passage is in Jesus. Jesus is the long awaited son given for
our salvation, the light that has come into the world. One of the principles of
biblical interpretation is that a passage in the Old Testament can’t mean
something different to what it meant in its context when it is quoted in the
new. This passage does exactly that as it is fulfilled in Jesus. We like Judea
like Ahaz are lost and in the dark because of our sin and rebellion from God.
Like Judea because we have not listened to God and gone our own way we stand in
a place of judgment. But underserved, unlooked for, not by human means, God has
shone the light of his salvation into our darkness. As john says in the prelude
to his gospel… his introduction of Jesus on the vast canvas of eternity…the
light of the world has come. It came not by military might or by powerful
persuasion but in a child, in Jesus a son sacrificially given. A son who is the wonderful councilor.
. In our staff meetings at the moment we are reading through john’s gospel and
this week we heard John 5:19 where Jesus says he only does what he sees the
father do, and then later in John 12 it says “ I only say what the father has commanded me to say.” What wonderful faithful
council. God almighty, the embodiment of God with us Immanuel. The everlasting
father, God himself in human form, dwelling amongst us, the prince of peace,
the one who by his life, death and resurrection has reconciled us to himself,
to God as our father and to one another in him. One who is raised to life again
and is now seated at the right hand, whose kingdom is eternal. It was not done
by human hands but by the grace and love of God, the zeal and passion, of God
for all his people, all of us. Passion of course is the word we use to describe
that last Easter week in Jerusalem… The great light has dawned in the darkness
of our sin and inhumanity, both individually and as a society and world, it is
the source of the greatest joy, of the harvest, and of the battle won.
But like with the
extended time of Isaiah we live in the tension between the already and not yet.
Yes, the light has come in shines and brings life to all who will recognize
their need for god’s forgiveness, turn to Jesus and are saved, we experience
the peace and prosperity and righteousness and justice of the reign of God. God
has done it, as Jesus said on the cross it is finished. But not yet we still
live in a world that loves the darkness, a broken, sinful, and hurting and
hurtful world that needs to know the light that has been sent in Jesus. So
Christ sends us out as light bearers, as lamps to show people the true light
that has come into the world, to be ambassadors of this son’s kingdom and
government. Who is Immanuel present and reign in us by the Holy Spirit. Who is
passion filled for the people of this world. In Jesus Christ the light of the world has
dawned, and in our present darkness we are called to all that light to shine
through us on the coastlines and country and people around us.
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