The Long-Promised Light (Isaiah 9:1-7)

©November 29th, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: The Light of Christmas

People make predictions all the time. Some turn out to be correct, but most are not. When Joseph Ives explored the Grand Canyon for the government in 1858, his report indicated that while it was beautiful, it was useless and would likely sit undisturbed and unvisited. Economist Irving Fisher famously declared in 1929 that the stock market had reached a permanently high plateau—and two weeks later, the stock market crashed. The captain of the Titanic told reporters before it sailed that there was no danger that the ship could sink. But on its first voyage, it sank after striking an iceberg.

Every election that rolls around, pundits make their assessments and attempt to predict the outcome. Famously, there have been some major miscalculations. Indelibly etched in our memories is the photo of President-Elect Harry Truman holding a copy of the Chicago Tribune with a front page headline saying “Dewey Defeats Truman!” People try to predict the outcomes of sporting events, what the markets will do, and how others will respond in a given situation. Sometimes the predictions are right, but often they are not.

We see this even with Christianity. Many so-called Bible scholars pretend they have insight into the future. Many claim to know when Jesus is coming back. They get a large audience and sell lots of books…only to be proven frauds when their predictions turn out to be wrong. I often wonder what happens to those books after their predictions are proven false…Do they burn them? Revise them to make another inaccurate prediction (and sell the updated version!)? I don’t know, but the point is that most predictions of the future don’t come true.

Longer-term predictions are even more unreliable. I enjoy watching old movies that predicted what life would be like in our time, because it is often humorous how wrong their predictions are (I think we are still a few years away from flying cars!) Most of the long-term predictions that people claim came true (like those from Nostradamus) are so vague that it was almost certain that something would happen that would fulfill the prediction. They are not much different than horoscopes in that regard—if you make a vague enough prediction, people will see its fulfillment with ease.

The Bible, however, is different. The Bible predicted many things well in advance and did so with precision. These weren’t vague predictions, they were very specific. The Bible’s predictions are different because they were fulfilled perfectly! This isn’t surprising, of course, since God is in control of the future! So unlike most predictions, we can trust those made in the Bible.

During our advent series this year, we are going to look at the metaphors of light and darkness the Bible uses to describe Jesus’ entry into the world. Each week we will examine one of these passages and unpack the lessons we can learn from it. This morning we turn our attention to a prophecy about the light coming into the world, written hundreds of years before Jesus. As we unpack it, we will be reminded of God’s trustworthiness, and how we should seek Him as we wait for His promises to be fulfilled.

The Prophecy

In the book of Isaiah, we see a very specific prophecy made about the coming Messiah,

1 Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory. 2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. 3 You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice. They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder. 4 For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders. You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian. 5 The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire. 6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen! (Isaiah 9:1-7, NLT)

Much of Isaiah is a prophecy about God’s judgment on the people of Israel. The people had turned from God, and God planned to punish them in hopes that they would turn back to Him. In chapter 8 Isaiah told the people of Israel that they would be thrown out into darkness. That prophecy was fulfilled when the Israelites were conquered, first by the Assyrians and then later again by the Babylonians. The people felt abandoned by God. Many were taken into exile in a foreign land. Later, they returned to their homeland, but God no longer sent prophets to the people. Many people call this time period between when the Old Testament ended and the New Testament begins the silent years. For nearly 400 years the people were left to walk in darkness with no new word from the Lord.

Israel had the message of the Old Testament, but they had, in many ways, abandoned it. Even those who claimed to be faithful to the scriptures seemed to get further and further from God. There were no prophets to correct the people. The longer the silence went on, the more people twisted God’s Word.

Look at the way Jesus spoke to the religious leaders of his day. These people were supposedly wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord, yet they misunderstood God’s law and its purpose. They had begun making up their own rules and interpretations and had created a list of rules people needed to follow to be right with God. But they were wrong—they were continuing to walk in the darkness.

Without light, it is difficult to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. This is why God promised (through Isaiah) that a great light was coming. Isaiah’s prophetic statement was not vague at all—it was very specific.

First, he said Galilee of the Gentiles would be filled with glory. Galilee of the Gentiles was just another term people used to refer to the area of Galilee in Israel. Jesus was from Galilee and did much of His ministry in Galilee. So 700-800 years before Jesus came, the prophet Isaiah predicted the Messiah would be from and bring glory to Galilee!

Second, Isaiah said a great light would come. Jesus was certainly a light to people. He served to correct the faulty thinking of the religious leaders, and to shine light into our lives so we might see ourselves clearly and see the scriptures clearly. Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of a great light dawning on the people. Though Jesus was clearly the fulfillment of this prophecy, not everyone was willing to recognize it. If you’ve gotten comfortable in the darkness sometimes you choose to hide from the light. That’s what happened to many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.

Third, Isaiah said a son would be born to fulfill the promise. This prophecy alone wouldn’t be that impressive if it wasn’t accompanied by the other prophecies in these verses. Half of the people of the world are sons (the other half are daughters…) So just predicting that there would be a son who would be born to bring the light is not a super impressive prophecy, since you would have a 50/50 shot at guessing right. But it’s much more significant given what we know about how Jesus came into the world.

Jesus was not merely some child that was born. He was different than every other son in history. He was not just the son of a man and woman; He was the Son of God. Jesus’ conception and birth were special. Isaiah prophesied about a son being born because his birth would be significant. Jesus was conceived by God in a virgin woman and born into humble circumstances far from home (all of which fulfilled prophecy!) Saying a son would be born to fulfill the promise doesn’t seem like an important prediction, until you realize that this son’s birth was anything but ordinary. This is what the Christmas celebration is all about, the fulfillment of a prophecy made long ago—the birth of the promised Messiah!

Fourth, Isaiah said what the Messiah would do. Isaiah tells us that this child, the light, would be the greatest and most powerful ruler the world had ever seen. Everyone would be subject to Him, and those who were on His side would be part of the most powerful kingdom in the world. His kingdom would never end.

The Jews understood this prophecy incorrectly. They assumed this meant the Messiah would overthrow the nations who ruled over them and make the nation of Israel a powerful empire. Their assumptions were wrong. Jesus was indeed the greatest king ever, He does rule over all nations, and He expanded Israel, but not in the way they expected. His vision was far bigger than what the religious leaders could imagine.

Fulfilled Prophecy

When Jesus began his earthly ministry, Matthew’s gospel referred back to this prophecy to confirm Jesus’ identity as the Messiah.

12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 13 He went first to Nazareth, then left there and moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah: 15 “In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.” (Matthew 4:12-16, NLT)

Matthew saw in Jesus the fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah—and with good reason! Matthew and the other disciples came to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah because they saw how he repeatedly fulfilled the prophecies made about Him.

The Jews were well-acquainted with these prophecies. For example, the prophet Micah had prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. When the wise men came to King Herod and asked where the Messiah would be born, Herod’s advisers answered without hesitation that the child would be born in Bethlehem.

There are 191 prophecies in the Bible about the Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled every one of them. The fact of fulfilled prophecy is one of the greatest confirmations that Jesus was the promised Messiah. These prophecies were made over the course of hundreds of years by numerous different people, and every one of them was made hundreds of years before Jesus. And all these prophecies proved 100% accurate.

This is staggering if you think about it. Sometimes when people make sweeping predictions, they get some of it right. Sometimes they even get a lot of it right. But very rarely does anyone get it 100% right. And these are just predictions of things happening in the immediate future. Can you imagine if half a dozen people who lived 500-1000 years ago all made 191 predictions about a person who would live in our time? What do you think is the likelihood they would get all those predictions right? I can’t imagine them being able to do that with any degree of accuracy. I don’t really understand how they get these numbers, but one person has calculated the odds of just 48 of those predictions being fulfilled as 1 in 10157. That number is so large we can’t even fathom it.

Yet the Bible’s 191 prophecies are all perfectly fulfilled in the life of Jesus. God promised the Messiah would come, that He would bring light, and that He would set up an everlasting kingdom. When you take all the other prophecies about his birth, his ministry, his death, and his resurrection into consideration, we are left with one incontrovertible fact—Jesus was the promised Messiah, because He alone fulfills every single prophecy.

Prophecies of the Future

The Bible’s prophecies about the Messiah not only give us confidence in Jesus, but they also give us confidence that God will keep all His promises! Some of the prophecies in the Bible have not yet been fulfilled, but we can have confidence that they will be fulfilled completely, just as the prophecies of the Messiah was fulfilled perfectly.

What kinds of prophecies are still yet to be fulfilled? The Bible tells us that one day Jesus will return to earth a second time. There are many prophecies surrounding this event. Many of the details of how those prophecies will be fulfilled are still a mystery (just like the prophecies about the Messiah were a mystery until Jesus arrived). Yet, many people speak authoritatively on how these prophecies are going to be fulfilled. I believe this is a fool’s errand, and these people are in danger of making the same mistakes as the religious scholars of Jesus’ day. While we don’t know the details of exactly how everything is going to work out, there are some things we know to be true.

We know Jesus will come back and ultimately destroy sin, evil, and death. When Jesus comes again, He will judge sin and restore the world to a place that is holy once more. He will ensure justice is served.

We also know Jesus has gone to prepare a place for His followers in Heaven. When Jesus returns, His followers will finally receive the blessing for which they have been waiting. Jesus promises believers that they will be forgiven and spend eternity in heaven with Him.

And we know that our eternal home with Him will be greater than we can imagine. We will have a perfect fellowship with God and with one another. There will be no more death or pain. Instead, we will enjoy and worship God together for all eternity.

Many disbelieve these prophecies. They think they are just stories meant to scare people into behaving a certain way. But God has proven himself over and over. He fulfills every prophecy and promise made. If you doubt this, just look at the prophecies about the Messiah. It seems like there is no way all those predictions could possibly be fulfilled in one person. But they were. Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise in every single way the Bible had predicted. So we can continue to hold fast to the promises that have not yet been fulfilled, knowing that in due time God will do exactly what He said He would.

Conclusion

As we look at this prophecy of the light coming into the world that was walking in darkness, the question is what can we learn? I’ve got a few suggestions.

First, God is trustworthy. Fulfilled prophecy shows us that God will do what He has said He will. The Bible is proved trustworthy over and over again. As you read the promises God has made to us about heaven, His presence in our lives, or what He is doing now or going to do in the future, know that He will deliver on exactly what He said in His timing. God hasn’t fulfilled every prophecy in scripture yet, but He will. So we should live with assurance that these promises are true—and live differently because we know what the future holds.

Second, we can choose to stay in the darkness or go toward the light. The people of Jesus’ day had been waiting for the Messiah for hundreds of years. They looked forward to the day when they would no longer walk in darkness. But over time, they became more comfortable in the dark than the light, so when Jesus came, they chose to keep doing things their way rather than submit to Him.

We sometimes do the same thing. We like our routines, we like to keep things the same. We don’t like change. But sometimes God calls us to change how we think or act. Sometimes He calls us into something new. He may even call you to go somewhere new. How we respond to God’s calls for change shows whether we love the darkness or the light.

Sometimes going into the light is scary and hard. Change is rarely easy. But doing things God’s way, going to the light, is always a better option. If we trust Him, we will seek the light even when it challenges our assumptions.

Finally, remember that God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus alone. All these promises in the Bible hinge on Jesus. He alone is the One who fulfills God’s promise of a redeemer, a king, and the one who can save us and forgive us. As we go through the Christmas season, we must remember to keep our eyes on Jesus, because He alone is the reason we celebrate.

Similarly, as we recognize this, we need to trust in Him fully. Cling to Him for forgiveness, follow Him with your life, and trust Him in your decisions. If we do that, we will move more and more into the light He alone provides.

The next time you see a horoscope, a weather forecast, someone predicting the outcome of some sporting event, or anyone making predictions about the future, stop and take note. Realize how often people get predictions wrong. And then marvel at how every single prediction about Jesus was fulfilled perfectly. That truth should help to bolster your faith and give you the confidence you need to follow Him wherever He leads.

©November 29th, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: The Light of Christmas