After Darkness, Light
Notes
Transcript
We celebrate Christmas with lights. Lights on the tree, lights on the house. Candlelight services at church. Even Rudolph’s nose lights up.
I love Christmas lights and I’m always a little sad when the lights come down. I think our house, when it returns to its pre-Christmas state, is kind of boring.
I’m the odd man out, I know, but I love when it gets dark super early, when the automatic lights are on at 5:00 p.m. Love it.
For us, the long darkness is only temporary. For others, the darkness is extensive.
There are parts of the world where, for part of the year, darkness covers most of the day. There’s an island in Norway that experiences a very long polar night, from November to January, when the sun doesn’t rise. At. All. I did some reading, and in certain places, people have to be reminded to take Vitamin D pills to replace what they normally get from the sun. They’ll buy light machines, medical devices you sit in front of so your body gets the light it needs to function properly. Trying to survive in the dark is tricky business.
To live in darkness is to live in a barren land with no food and no life. Farmers control as much of the growing cycle as they can, but there’s one enormous variable they have no control over: the weather, or anything involving light, temperature, warmth.
The sun shining on our face is a gift. We can’t will it or manipulate any way for it to happen.
Light is quite literally out of our control.
You see, light is essential. Without light, all there would be is darkness. Literal darkness. Light and darkness are not simply opposites; darkness is nothing other than the absence of light.
We talk a lot about light at this time of year. Christmas is all light. This sermon is concerned with light. And the reason is this:
As Gretchen Ronnevik writes, “When God does a new thing, He always calls forth the light.”
At the moment of creation, when the Triune God spoke everything into existence, the first words spoken were “Let there be light.” And there was light.
“When God does a new thing, He always calls forth the light.” This is exactly what we read in our text for today.
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
This verse—Isaiah 9:2—is going to be the main focus of our time this morning. It’s the key verse in the verses we’re looking at.
We’re going to spend this morning, and the next two Sunday mornings, looking at Isaiah 9 and what it has to say about Christmas, the birth of Jesus, the coming of our King.
As we prepare to read our text, I want you to pay attention to two themes: darkness and light.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Isaiah 8-9. As you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:
19 When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 21 Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. 22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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Darkness and despair seem to rule the day at the time Isaiah is writing this (700ish years before the birth of Jesus).
“The prevailing motif [in this passage] is darkness, for which Isaiah uses here three different words. The people had loved darkness, the darkened rooms in which they consulted the shrouded dead. And divine justice has given them what they loved: darkness all around and a dark future ahead, the nemesis of abandoning their God and of refusing His testimony and law.”- J. Alec Motyer
Throughout the Bible, darkness is used symbolically. Now, there are instances of actual, physical darkness. But far more often we read of a spiritual darkness, a metaphorical darkness.
Like Simon and Garfunkel, singing, “Hello, Darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again,” they’re not welcoming physical darkness. They’re speaking about metaphorical darkness.
"Darkness” is used in the Bible as a metaphor for misery (Job 18:18; 23:17 [par. “thick darkness”]; Eccl. 5:17), fright (Job 15:22–23), physical oppression (Ps. 107:10), death (Eccl. 11:8), and spiritual insensitivity (e.g., Isa. 42:7; 60:2). As the antithesis (or opposite) of understanding and righteousness, darkness is the path of fools (Prov. 2:13) and of the wicked (1 Sam. 2:9; Ps. 35:6), both of whom eagerly embrace darkness (Job 24:14–17; Ezek. 8:12–13).
Read the Bible and examine our own culture and times, and you’ll be struck with:
The Reality of Darkness
The Reality of Darkness
Since the fall, mankind has been running to darkness for cover: dark alleys, sketchy corners of the room, booths in the back of the restaurant. Adam and Eve ran to the shade of the bushes, out of sight, attempting to hide from God. We may be able to hide for a time in the darkness, but not forever. You can’t live there, try as you might.
The people Isaiah is writing to initially (his immediate, historical audience), well…they are running to darkness. Looking to mediums and spiritists, consulting the dead. Dark, dark stuff.
They’re seeking guidance from sources other than God. They’ve got Isaiah right there with them, a prophet of the LORD in their midst (standing right there), speaking to them the words of God.
Isaiah’s sons, and Isaiah himself, are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty (Isaiah 8:18). They have all that, and still they’re running to darkness, where there is no light.
They’ve rejected God’s guidance in favor of other sources.
I couldn’t begin to list all the places in which people, even professing Christians today, look for guidance apart from God’s Word. The options are myriad.
People seek out news and commentary, politicians and pundits, fallible people all. Some actually consult horoscopes and psychics, Ouija boards and tea leaves.
It’s sheer lunacy. And make no mistake, one is as bad as the other. It’s all darkness, whether it’s Fox News, CNN, or the psychic hotline. The Ouija board and the book from your favorite talking-head are the same thing. It’s all something other than God’s Word.
The people in Isaiah’s time are facing crisis, and instead of turning to God for wisdom, the people consulted demons. This only increased their moral and spiritual darkness.
The growing presence of the occult in our day, the number of options open to people, is evidence that our world is deliberately rejecting God’s Word and turning instead to Satan’s lies.
Isaiah warns them (and us):
20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
Judah’s leaders anxiously looked for the dawning of a new day, but they only seek it within a deepening darkness.
God’s Word is our only dependable light in the darkness. This, the Bible in its 66 books, is true. Every word of it. The psalms even teach us to praise God saying:
105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.
It’s completely reliable. It is, as Peter puts it, a light shining in a dark place (1 Peter 1:19).
Seeking guidance from sources other than God and His Word leads only to deeper darkness.
The consequence of the people rejecting God’s guidance is that they’re now wandering in darkness and distress. Here (at the end of Isaiah 8) we find the bleak reality of Israel’s impending judgment. They will be judged because of their disobedience and reliance on darkness for guidance.
Try doing anything in the dark and you’re taking a risk. Danger lurks in the dark. You’re going to stub your toe, run into a wall, find trouble.
If you seek out darkness, there’s no way you’ll be led into the light. Darkness doesn’t know the way.
In this world, darkness is simply the reality. You don’t have to look far to see it. There are people all over the world living in and walking in darkness at this very moment. Apart from the knowledge of God and relationship with Him, it’s all darkness.
Missionaries (like Julie), brave and bold Christians, travel to the dark places in order to bring the light of God’s Word, the good news about Jesus. Without it, people live and die in utter darkness.
There is so much darkness in our world. There’s so much darkness right here in our country. There’s darkness in our lives. In our hearts. Darkness is the issue. It’s the problem facing each one of us.
Darkness is very real. It’s simply the reality.
But, the LORD, through Isaiah announces:
The Promise of Light
The Promise of Light
Isaiah 9 begins with the word nevertheless. That’s a great word; I love that word here. Nevertheless means that what has been will not always be. There’s darkness, says Isaiah, but here’s a nevertheless. Darkness will not be all there is.
This isn’t a prediction or some fanciful wish; it’s a fact.
The verbs in the second half of verse 1 and verse 2 are in the past tense. He has honored Galilee, have seen a great light, a light has dawned.
This is speaking of something in the future, and some of our Bible translations have translated them as future tense verbs.
But the past tense does something for us, and for the people living in Isaiah’s day.
Here’s Isaiah, speaking of something a long, long way off; it’s hundreds of years away. And yet he’s speaking about what’s going to come as something that has already been done.
What’s coming is so sure, so absolutely iron-clad certain, that it can be described as having already occured. It’s done. Before it happens, it’s completed.
No more gloom for those who are in distress.
[MAP]
Zebulun and Naphtali are two of the very northern-most tribes. The land of Naphtali lay along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and extends northward. The land of Zebulun is west and southwest of Naphtali, midway between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean.
These were the first two areas in Israel to face any foreign intruder. These were the first to fall to the Assyrians, the big bad enemy country surrounding them.
Whenever foreign armies marched to invade Israel, the first area to come under attack was “Galilee of the nations” in the north. The Galileans knew all about slavery and despair.
However, amid this despair, the prophet Isaiah offers a transformative vision of hope. Isaiah points to a future light that will shine upon those living in gloom.
The promise of God to them is this: that God will say, once more, “Let there be light,” and He will come to His people, first, where they had suffered the most.
From this place—Zebulun and Naphtali—He will launch salvation for the world!
We know this prophecy in verse 2 refers to Jesus because of the way it’s quoted in Matthew 4.
After Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, we read this prophecy from Isaiah:
12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”
17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
The geographical areas named in Isaiah 9:1 were especially devastated when the Assyrian army moved in, but these areas would be especially honored by the ministry of the Messiah.
Jesus was identified with Galilee. It’s where He lived. Jesus, the Nazarene, based His earthly ministry in and around this area. Jesus’ life and ministry there brought light to the darkness, just as Isaiah had said.
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
Isaiah made a past-tense, future promise of light to brighten the darkness.
Jesus is the light that would come to that very region. A light to lighten all darkness.
About Jesus’ incarnation, His taking on flesh and being born among us, we read:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And Jesus said of Himself:
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, born of a virgin, condescended to us, stooped down to our level. And He came as Light. All the light we need.
Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah. He is the Light of the World (John 8:12).
Jesus is “the Light,” not merely a light or another light among many lights.
He is the only Light, “the true Light” - Edwin Blum
This light not only illuminates our paths but also conquers darkness, fulfilling the promise of hope proclaimed by Isaiah.
Remember: “When God does a new thing, He always calls forth the light.”
In the birth of Jesus, God was ushering a new era of grace. It’s nothing anyone made any contribution toward. No one deserved this.
It’s simply the goodness and graciousness of God, who called forth light, the Light of the World. The ones walking in darkness, those living in the land of deep darkness see a great light. On them, a light has dawned.
Jesus, the Messiah, has come to us, to illuminate our paths and secure for us deliverance.
Jesus is the One prophesied by Isaiah. He is the hope of redemption. He came to us, not merely to lighten our burdens a little.
No! He’s the One who completely transforms lives. He brings His people out of darkness into His marvelous light.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The Sovereign God of the Universe sent His only Son, to redeem us, to buy us back from sin and death.
Paul writes that God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).
To see Christ is to see a great light.
Upon all God’s people, upon all who belong to Him, a light has dawned.
We’re no longer in darkness if we are His.
No sin, no darkness can overcome the Light.
No struggle, no challenge, no sin is able to extinguish the Light.
Jesus is the light that pierces the darkness. As we sang this morning, “Light and life to all He brings.” He is “the life and light of men.”
Our task, our commission, in this dark world is to point people to the Light and to reflect His light.
Embrace Jesus. Cling to Him. He is the Light of the world, the life and light of men.
Jesus offers guidance, salvation, and peace. Jesus transforms hopelessness, banishes the darkness.
Friends, darkness doesn’t have to be your reality. You don’t have to live in or walk in darkness any longer. Because Jesus is the Light of the World.
Listen to Jesus who says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Believe in Him. Follow Him. You’ll never walk in darkness. In Him is light and life eternal.
“Lighten our darkness, we pray, O Lord.”
