Those who walk in darkness, will see a Great Light

Intro

Hello everyone, I first would like to thank all of you for coming despite the weather.

Secondly I would like to thank all the people involved in putting this together, all the hours of labor spent painting and building and hanging up the lights. Thank you all so much.

Many people who are Christians today will point to all the decorations and Christmas things and say something along the lines of,

“This is all a pagan holiday!” “We shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas because it actually isn’t pointing at Christ” “This holiday has pagan origins” “Didn’t you read what was written in Jeremiah 10? Christmas trees are expressly forbidden by scripture!”

If this is the first time you guys are hearing of this, then count yourself blessed because all of these arguments are silly and easily disproved by scripture itself, if you are curious as to this please come find me afterwards.

I personally don’t find any of these argument compelling for that reason. But, I do think you can make a biblical case that supports us adorning everything with lights, as the celebration of Christmas, is the celebration of light coming into the world, and crushing the darkness. Freeing us from our bondage to sin.

Now even though most people put up the lights and decorate their houses for the reasons of tradition, or pride, not realizing the significance of what those lights symbolize, we can admire the fact that God has put it even in the hearts of unbelievers to declare that light has come into the world.

Main passage

For our main passage for today it will be Isaiah 9:1-7:

Isaiah 9:1–7 LSB

1 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, The light will shine on them. 3 You shall multiply the nation, You shall make great their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For You shall shatter the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their taskmaster, as at the battle of Midian. 5 For every boot of the booted warrior in the rumbling of battle, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. 6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

This passage form the Old Testament, is one of the most astounding passages in the entirety of the scriptures. For one, its apologetic purposes, clearly stating that Mighty God, El Gibore, in the original Hebrew, will be born of flesh and blood.

But when you take into account who wrote this, from whom this prophecy came from, a levitical Israelite priest named Isaiah who lived sometime during the 8th century B.C. stating the fact that God would be born as a human is simply huge. It is just amazing to think about.

Moreover all the other prophecies that are included here, where God masterfully lays out His plan of action for when the Messiah does come into the world. That will be what we will be discussing today. We will be looking at the first part of the battle plan that has been laid out in this passage, we will go verse by verse and see how all these prophecies came true in the light of Jesus’ coming.

The Battle Plan

First and foremost in the first verse, stating where the invasion of the King of Kings would start, right at the end there, “Galilee of the Gentiles” this came true in the fact that a large bulk of Jesus’ ministry was done in Galilee, with some biblical scholars saying that 85% of His public ministry was here when taking into account the the entire gospel account.

Moreover, the fact that Galilee was in the north also held some significance.

Due to the geography of the middle east, and the fact that the two biggest invaders were from the north, Babylon and Assyria, many passages in the Old Testament associate the north with the coming judgement. This is also held true in this case as well because we see in John 3:19:

John 3:19 LSB

19 “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

Just by the very coming of Christ, judgement also came with Him. Keeping with the Old Testament theme that judgement comes from the north.

In v2, we see that those who walk in the darkness, will see a great light, and those who live in the land of the shadow of death, that light will shine on them. This was fulfilled in the fact that all of us, since the fall of Adam in the garden all those millennia ago walk in the darkness, we live in the land of the shadow of death. This great darkness that envelops us is sin. A desire to be our own “gods” controlling our destiny how we see fit. The desire first offered by the serpent in the garden to, “be like God” This desire, this sin rules over our lives, influencing everything that we do, and causing us to hate the true light, that of God, because we wish to remain in our own “light” which is really no light at all and is simply darkness.

Jesus came to free us from this darkness, again going back to that passage from John: “…light has come into our world...” God did not leave us in our sins, in our darkness. But has sent a light to cast out darkness. A light that opens our eyes to true light, and causes us to hate the darkness, to hate our sin. A light that comes to make all things new. This light is Jesus Christ Himself.

Continuing on to v3, that with this light that makes all things new, comes the introduction of the new covenant, which was prophesied later in Jeremiah 31, where God would make a new nation of the people of this new covenant, and all will be filled with gladness and joy, as with the gladness of the harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoils. This gladness and joy comes as God Himself will write His law upon our hearts, and will Himself teach us and correct us, so that all those who are a part of this covenant will have, not just analytical, informational knowledge of God, but an intimate knowledge that comes from relationship with our heavenly creator.

In v4 we see what we spoke of earlier, that God Himself will shatter the yoke of our burden, the staff on our shoulders and the rod of the taskmaster. He will free us from our slavery and burden to sin, to darkness. For we in and of ourselves can do nothing to free ourselves from this darkness. As our Lord Jesus says: (John 8:34)

John 8:34 LSB

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

He shall free us from this spiritual slavery and give us a place at the table, not as slaves, but as sons and daughters of the most High God.

V5 is pretty clear as to what it is talking about, as the boots of the warriors and their cloaks will simply be burnt, fuel for the fire. Nothing will be able to stand in the way of this coming savior. No amount of armies or men can hope to stop this coming invasion. When God, as the next verse says, is born as a human.

V6:

Isaiah 9:6 LSB

6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Already said this but it is astounding that an 8th century Israelite priest, someone who knew God's word, would state that God would take on flesh. Someone who at this time in the Old Testament, was revealed only as the eternal Father, would take on flesh. Prince of peace, Mighty God, Wonderful counselor. All of these titles perfectly describe who God is, not just by His attributes, but the persons of the Trinity as well, Prince of peace, being Jesus Christ, Wonderful Counselor being the Holy Spirit, and Eternal Father being God the Father. All of these titles can be attributed to all three persons and are here in this passage. Amazing, that God Himself will take on this mission, this battle plan, and nothing can stop Him.

V7 speaks of the future past His coming, it is speaking of our days here, there will be no end to His government of peace, through Jesus the throne of David is established, He upholds justice and righteousness, forever and ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this, and the very fact that here, almost two thousand years later, the name if Christ is still proclaimed is evidence that this prophecy has also come true, it has been accomplished.

Gospel

It is important to realize and remember, the reason for the season, why we continue to decorate and shine light into the darkness. Christ has come, He has accomplished His mission. He came and was born as a man, lived a sinless and perfect life like we never could, then took up the cross, suffered a cruel death on the cross, suffering the judgement of God meant for us, drinking that cup of wrath, then three days later rising victorious over the grave, and later ascending into heaven. He has conquered sin and death and has made us heirs with Him. We get to share in His victory, we share the spoils of war. And all by grace, all by the grace of God. For we did not deserve even a shred of mercy. But God, being rich in mercy, decided to die for us. Brothers and sisters, armed with this knowledge, how can we not rejoice when we celebrate Christ’s birth? How can we not continue to proclaim His name to the ends of the earth? This passage in Isaiah prophesied the beginning of the end. The very coming of Christ marked His victory over everything. And I pray that if you are hearing this, and are not saved, then please, do not ignore His call, do not ignore this great light that has come into the world, God has freed us from sin. Pray that God will open your eyes to see this great light that has shone into the darkness.

Amen.