The People Who Walked In Darkness - Isaiah 9:19-9:7
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When I was growing up, I attended a church that had a multi-purpose building where the youth room, gym, classrooms, and a variety of other room for a variety of purposes was. One year we had a youth event where we covered all the windows and made the entire building pitch black, including the exits signs, because who needs safety when you’re having a youth lock-in.
We played some game, I don’t fully recall what that game was, but it involved chasing others through the building and achieving some objective.
Several rooms you had to enter were literally pitch black. There was no light whatsoever, you had to feel your way through the building and hope you don’t run into anything.
What began as a fun evening turned sour. Not only was the building large and creepy in the dark, there were strange noises, and of course you were running from someone else. It was a bit terrifying.
To make matters worse, the nature of game causing frenzied flight from other students and in the process, some students got hurt. One twisted their ankle going down the stairs, another got hurt on something else.
What began as fun ended in misery, and we eventually had to turn the lights back on and end the game prematurely before we finished all the objectives.
In the end, the injuries weren’t severe, but they did end the game.
Imagine for a moment, that we sought to turn the lights on, but discovered that we could not. Oh no, there’s a blackout. No lights. No PA system to let the whole building know the game is over.
No big deal, lets turn on our flashlights, right? But they mysteriously don’t work either. Ah. but there are flashlights on all our phones these days, right? but all our phones seem to be dead as well.
This has quickly moved away from a game to a horror movie kind of scenario, hasn’t it? It dark, people are getting hurt, others are just miserable, and there seems to be no hope of getting any lights on any time soon.
Whether it is recognized as such or not, this is the spiritual condition of the world apart from Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Our text today seeks to show us the weight of spiritual darkness and drive us to the point of despair....but then the ray of the light of hope shines through and pierces the darkness like a spotlight at midnight.
Turn if you would to Isaiah chapter 8.
Background
Background
Going all the way back to Genesis, God made a promise to Abraham that he would make of him a great nation, and through him all the families of the earth would be blessed.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Over time this nation begins to grow. Isaac, Jacob, and then the twelve tribes of Israel all eventually flow from this promise.
Because of a famine they find themselves in Egypt. There the people grew to the point that the Egyptians began to fear them, so they enslaved them, and so they served the Egyptians for hundreds of years before God raised up Moses to lead them out of Egypt and into the promised land.
On the way out, they spent much time at mount Sinai where God gave the people the law and in a sense constituted them as a nation.
There were promises of blessing for following the law, and promises of hardship for rebelling against the Lord.
After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years due to their rebellion, they finally enter the land and conquer it through the leadership of Joshua and the blessing of the Lord.
As they finish the conquest and Joshua nears the end of his life, he charges the people. Choose this day whom you will serve. The Lord, or the false idols. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
The people say “The Lord!” and he says “yeah I doubt it. you won’t follow through.”
The people double down, no no. We WILL serve the Lord.
So Joshua charges them again. God is a witness that you have chosen the Lord. Therefore, put away the false idols and serve him and him alone. And the people agree to do so.
But then there is the period of the judges. We went through the Judges this year, so you know what that was like. Despite their promise and resolve to serve the Lord, the people failed to pass that same zeal down to their children. The people rebelled against the Lord and the Lord was faithful to his promise. The people cycled around from security, to sin, to suffering, to supplication, to salvation, to security, back around to sin and suffering once again.
They would eventually ask for a king to lead them. God would give them kings. Some of the kings were good and godly. Most were wicked and rebelled against the Lord.
It was during one such period of wickedness that the Lord was bringing the foreign nation of Assyria against the people because of their sin. It was through the prophet Isaiah that God told King Ahaz about this coming judgment.
That’s what is going on In Isaiah chapter 8 where we will be in our study today.
Isaiah is to have a son who will be a sign that the clock is ticking for Israel
Let’s look at the text.
3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
The response to such a prophecy is understandably fear. But Isaiah is going to go on to say that the people are fearing the wrong thing. The people are afraid of Assyria. Isaiah says in Is 8:13 “13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”
You fear the judgment, but you are not fearing the one who sends it.
As the text goes on there is an interesting sequence. Its as if the people said “okay…Isaiah says that the Assyrians are coming....but how do we know that for sure? Maybe we should seek out other sources for information...”
But who are those sources?
Let’s pick things up in verse 8:19, where we begin to see that Forsaking God’s word Brings Darkness.
Forsaking God’s Word Brings Darkness
Forsaking God’s Word Brings Darkness
19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
Rather than relying upon the Lord and what God has said, they sought out mediums and necromancers. These individuals supposedly communicated with the dead and would ask them questions. It was believed that because the dead had already entered the spirit realm, they had more knowledge about things than we do, so by asking them they could tell an inquirer the desired information.
Alternate sources of truth.
And Isaiah ask them....what are you do? Why are you inquiring the dead on behalf of the living?
We sit here today and perhaps feel the same incredulity that Isaiah felt. Silly Israelites. Why are you doing that? That doesn’t make any sense.
And yet here in the year 2022, we do the same thing.
Tarot Cards, palm readers, astrology, etc. All of it claiming to be a source of truth, but does not have the blessing of God.
We forsake the clear Word of the Lord in favor of horoscopes. This makes no sense.
But lest we be tempted to think that is just those people out there, we all do the same thing don’t we. Maybe it isn’t superstitions, divination, or witchcraft, we when we seek out alternate sources of truth we are doing the same thing. Consulting the spiritually dead on behalf of the living.
We can elevate political leaders in our minds to places they ought not to be. Too many viewed President Trump as the savior of America, as though he had all the answers for what we need politically. Before that people treated President Obama in the same way. Whatever we think of political leaders, they are not all-knowing saviors.
We can do the same with our spiritual leaders. It is good to trust your pastors, but when that trust goes so far that the leader becomes unquestionable, we are placing them in positions of truth they don’t belong.
Then there are things like the Enneagram, which is steeped in paganism and purports to reveal information about yourself that is available no where else… I’m not inherently against personality texts, but the Enneagram claims to be more than that, and it is based in pagan ideas about mankind.
I remember reading the “Dear Abby” columns in the newspaper back in the day. People would write in with questions asking for advice, and Abby would answer. Even as young man who was young in my faith, I remember reading some of the answer Abby was providing…it was no biblical counsel. Are we really going to give ourselves for counsel to those individuals who are actively hostile to the things of the Lord?
And so it goes. Of course there are more ways that this plays out. But the bottom line is this: When you rely upon those who are themselves in darkness, you will get what the darkness can give. And darkness can only give more darkness.
And thus we have the words of Isaiah:
20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
If the people you are seeking for truth do not speak according to the Word of the Lord, it is because they have no dawn. There is no light coming. They exist in perpetual darkness.
The word for dawn speaks of exactly what it sounds like. Every night we know that though it is dark, the sun will rise and there will be light once again.
Isaiah says that such is not the case for those who do not have the Word of the Lord. For them, they have no dawn. there is no light, and none is coming.
What is their end?
21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
They are distressed and hungry, yet they blame God for their condition. Turning their faces upward speaks of looking up in anger. It’s like their shaking their fists at the sky, shaking their fists at God for their condition. Never mind the fact that God has spoken. God has revealed himself. Never mind the fact that these individuals have knowingly forsaken that which God has spoken and are in darkness by their own choice. They have hatred for God.
And so they look down to the earth and find only more of what the earth has to offer.
One commentator put it this way: “Those who depend upon the earth for solutions to earth’s problems only compound their darkness”
This is the condition Israel in Isaiah’s time. They have utterly forsaken the word of the Lord in favor of any other source of truth than God. And then they shake their fists at him for the darkness and pain they choose to walk in.
In many ways, this is the natural state of man outside of Christ. Rebellion. Hostility.
And we see the effects of this. Our society is the fruit of this. At times even our own homes can show the fruit of this. We forsake God’s Word, and pain is the result.
Psalm 32:10 (ESV)
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked
15 Good understanding produces favor, But the way of the treacherous is hard.
God has designed us to live a certain way, and when we ignore that it only beings hardship upon us. This is not just arbitrary commands, this is a loving God giving us instruction based on our very nature and design.
The way of the trecherous…some translations render this as the way of the transgressor.
When we walk in darkness, we are going to stub our toes.
And if left to our own devices, this is where we would remain. For us, there is no dawn.
This is great Christmas Sermon isn’t?
Are you feel the warm fuzzys today? Is the nostalgia flowing this morning?
Not so much, huh.
We need to marinate in this for a moment. This is the state of the world. Scripture often uses the concepts of light and darkness to refer to having truth or forsaking truth. To neglect God’s word is to choose spiritual darkness.
John writes that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Its what we naturally prefer.
But praise be to God who does not leave us in the dark. Praise God Isaiah does not stop at chapter eight but goes on to chapter 9. Praise God that we can celebrate Christmas because in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God gave us light.
There are times when reading Scripture that chapter breaks come an locations that are less than helpful. Of course, when the bible was written, there weren’t any chapter and verse divisions. Those were added later by men who desired to make it easier to reference and study what we have here, and the divisions are certainly not inspired.
So let’s turn the page and see what more Isaiah says here.
In Mercy, God Promises Light
In Mercy, God Promises Light
Look at Is 9:1-2
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Rejecting God’s word brings darkness, and darkness brings trouble. But God in his mercy is not willing to leave all of humanity in darkness.
He gives Israel revelation in the OT, there are Moses, the prophets, the Psalms, Wisdom Literature, etc. But all that light is rejected. But in that light he promises to send an unmistakable light. In the past God has revealed himself through the prophets. There would be a day when God would reveal Himself by sending Jesus Christ into the world, God the Son taking on human flesh.
The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. This is no mere twinkle in a sea of darkness. This isn’t a small flashlight that barely gives light for a room. This is not just a candle on a stormy night.
No. This is a spotlight that drowns out the darkness. This is those LED headlights on high beam. This is brighter than the sun shining at noon with a fresh blanket of snow on the ground.
Light has shone.
And this light isn’t just for Israel. The end of verse one says He has made glorious the way of Galilee of the nations. There is a hint here that the Messiah is not just for the Jews. He is the Jew’s Messiah, but he is also more than that. This light doesn’t exist inside a bubble that only surrounds the people of Israel and doesn’t extend further. No, this light penetrates even to the whole world.
Look at what the light brings:
First, a new Freedom:
A New Joy
A New Joy
3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
We are not a agricultural community, so we don’t get to see the joy that a bountiful harvest produces. There is feasting and celebrating for what God has done. When the victors won a war and divided the spoils, there was great feasting and celebration! We were victorious. The light brings joy!
Think of teams winning the super bowl. All year long they train and battle on the gridiron. Its a long hard battle. Players will spend their entire career to reach that moment, and the celebration extends to all the fans as there is a parade through the city. Jubilation.
Why? Why all the joy? Four reasons:
The light brings freedom
A New Freedom
A New Freedom
4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
No more oppression. No more bonds. No more slavery. Socio-economic struggles become a thing of the past. Racial tensions, they’re done. There is a new freedom for all who come to the light.
A New Peace
A New Peace
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
You won’t need Kevlar any more. No need for body armor, helmets, army boots. When the light comes it will all be done. Because the light isn’t just an idea. He;’s a person
A New King
A New King
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
A child. A Son. One who who shall govern all.
He is the Wonderful Counselor. In his counsel are wonders. He is wisdom is vast. He rules with perfect insight.
He is the Mighty God. The son that would be born is not a mere human, but would be a divine ruler. The mystery of the incarnation is here revealed. This is Immanuel, God with us.
He is the Everlasting Father. This phrase has confused some. We think of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, yet there is one God. We affirm that this person spoken of here is not God the Father, but God the Son. Why is he then called the Everlasting Father here?
It is common to speak of initial rulers of a nation to be called the “fathers” of those nations. We use this phrase to speak of individuals like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, or Alexander Hamilton. These were founding fathers in the sense that they were some of the first rulers, the first crafters of the documents that govern our land.
Well, here we have a new King who is establishing his rule, and is thus the Father of the new Kingdom. But unlike Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, or Hamilton, this King isn’t going anywhere. He is the Everlasting Father, and his reign brings peace
He is the prince of peace. No more war. only peace.
As a new King he establishes a new kingdom
A New Kingdom
A New Kingdom
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
We live in a world that is full of injustice. Its everywhere. From our justice system, our government, our schools, our workplaces, and even within our own homes.
The New King is going to establish a New Kingdom where all injustice is done away with. All unrighteousness is gone.
What a glorious sight.
We believe that Jesus Christ is the one who is prophesied here.
That may lead us to ask the question....If Jesus is the Messiah, this New King, and this is what he was supposed to establish, then why do we still see injustice? Why do we still see war, oppression, and darkness?
There are many prophesies in Scripture that are often called mountain top prophecies.
When you’re looking at a mountain range you see a series of mountains that appear to be side by side on the landscape.
By once you get closer or just change your perspective you see that they aren’t as close together as you initially thought.
there is a valley in between the mountain peaks.
Often the OT prophets were given information about things that were to come, But God didn’t reveal everything to them. The existence of the church for example, was not something that God revealed in the OT.
But as we get closer, and as we are given more revelation by God in the New Testament, things get clearer.
From the Isaiah’s perspective, the coming light of the Messiah would also bring the kingdom at the same time.
However, later in the book he also notes how the Messiah must suffer and die.
What wasn’t clear to him is now clear to us. There is a gap between the coming of the Messiah to redeem, and the coming of the Messiah to reign on the earth.
Jesus
There are many places in Scripture where this kind of idea is played out.
The People Who Walked In Darkness Have Seen a Great Light
The People Who Walked In Darkness Have Seen a Great Light