34. Rise of the Great Light (1)

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Isaiah 9:1-7

1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. 2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. 5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. 

Rise of the Great Light (1)

OUTLINE

(1) Light in Midst of Darkness (v1-2)

(2) Deliverance and Peace (v3-5)

(3) Coming of God’s Son (v6-7)

INTRODUCTION

At the close of the last chapter, we saw the darkness hovering the rebellious house of Israel. They are the people of God yet they have imbibed the world. They have sought the ways of the gentiles, delving into the occult – familiar spirits and wizardry[1].

Israel will be dry and desolate. Spiritual life at his ebb, departing from the LORD, they indulged themselves in the “securities” that this world has to offer – Romans 12:2 (KJV) And be not conformed to this world: … is the admonition from God’s Word and yet Israel has not taken heed to God’s counsel. 

Isaiah 8:19-22 19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? 20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 

21 And they shall pass through it, hardly[2] bestead[3] and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness. 

As we survey the miserable scene plight of men estranged from God, we see a sadder picture of departure from God by His people. The LORD sent His prophet to beseech and persuade and encourage His people to find the way back, in the midst of the darkness, there remains a remnant of God’s people faithful to Him. In the midst of the gloom and darkness, is given the hope that God has not forsaken His people but has reached out to them albeit in the midst of gross darkness. The prediction of the coming of Christ is being prophesied. In the midst of gross darkness, God has not forsaken His people, but in their midst. They are still living in Immanuel’s land.

1 O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe, 
that in thine ocean depths its flow 
may richer, fuller be.

2 O Light that follows all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee.
My heart restores its borrowed ray, 
that in thy sunshine’s blaze its day 
may brighter, fairer be. 

3 O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee. 
I trace the rainbow through the rain, 
and feel the promise is not vain, 
that morn shall tearless be.

4 O Cross that liftest up my head, 
I dare not ask to fly from thee.
I lay in dust, life’s glory dead, 
and from the ground there blossoms red, 
life that shall endless be.

The sin of Israel brought upon her as a nation the darkness of punishment. Nevertheless, inasmuch as the God of Israel is a God of light, and faithful to the words of His promise, the darkness which came upon the nation would one day be dispelled. We receive at the Lord’s hand punishment and affliction but also honour and glory. The glory which we receive is the result of His own presence in our midst.

Darkness and gloom all about! This darkness will not last forever. For sinners of the people there is to be perpetual darkness, but for the people of God, for the nation itself, the all-encircling gloom will pass away. Now she is in distress, but she will not always have darkness. We may paraphrase Isaiah’s meaning: “For to the land to which there is now distress there will not always be darkness.”

A blessed contrast explains why the darkness is not to be permanent. A time of distress will give way to a latter time of glory. [Edward J. Young]

(1) Light in the Midst of Darkness (v1-2)

1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. 2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

The prediction of Christ and His redemption work is that light that shines in the gross darkness. This light is magnified and amplified the darker the scene. This is the power of light in dispelling darkness. This is the redemptive power of God described to encourage the hearts of the faithful remnant as they see the dismal scene of gloom and the departure of their brethren.

Zebulun and Naphtali are the two northeastern tribes of the land west of the Jordan (later known as Upper and Lower Galilee). This land was first devastated and depopulated by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser.

2 Kings 15:29 (KJV) In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.  

The two tribes are identified by their relation to the Sea of Galilee and to the Jordan River. Being remote from Judah it was nearest to the foreign countries and so subject to heathen influence.

At the onset before Israel entered the Promised Land, the LORD has time and again warned Israel of the grave consequences of imbibing the idolatrous values and ways of the people of Canaan. Despite repeated warnings, chastisement after chastisement, 

Deuteronomy 6:4-15 (KJV) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

Israel has still fallen to this dismal plight. It helped us to see how weak we are as a people of God. We may be called “God’s people”, and yet not a people after His heart and after His Word. 

With unrenewed minds and unwilling hearts, it is no wonder that Israel was deported from the very land that God promised to prosper them. The very purpose for their coming into the land as God’s instrument of righteousness, they became like the people of the land, now as instruments of sin unto death.

Romans 6:12-13 (KJV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 

Romans 6:16 (KJV) Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 

It is the will of God, having freed them from the bondage of sin that they would like in righteousness for His glory – Romans 6:17-19 (KJV) But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 

There is a remnant that remained steadfast in the faith, trusting the LORD. For these, the LORD sent the promise of the coming Messiah or Christ, who will save Israel from their sins and establish righteousness upon the earth.

2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

The inhabitants of Galilee, those to whom reference has just been made, are walking in darkness. Their manner and course of life, their very existence, is one that is in the darkness. Darkness without and darkness within, ignorance, distress, misery and sin. By the Assyrian invasion, the darkness may have been brought on, or possibly was simply intensified by that invasion. Far deeper than any darkness brought on by an invasion, however, was the inward condition of the nation, the plight of sin and misery in which it carried on its life.

To these people, walking in darkness, a great light appeared. When the prophet wrote, they had not yet seen this light, but its occurrence was so certain and vivid to Isaiah’s mind that he described it as though it had already dawned. 

In place of the darkness of calamity, the people saw the light of peace and blessedness; in place of the darkness of death, the light of life; in place of the darkness of sin, the light of salvation. Salvation in its widest sense had shined upon these people; a complete reversal of their condition had occurred.

The Apostle John described well this scene of Christ coming in the fullness of time in John 1:3-5 (KJV) All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 

John 1:9-13 (KJV) That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

The prediction of Isaiah was fulfilled 700 years later in Israel when Messiah came in the fullness of time.

1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

John 1:14 (KJV) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

As God, Jesus Christ represented God to reach out to men, as Man, He represented men to show them the way to God.

The darkness was a shadow of death, for it was deep and of death, such as could be removed by light of life. Only a Light which was able to bring life and immortality to light could dispel this deep darkness, and such a Light appeared when Christ, departing from Nazareth, went down to Capernaum and dwelt there. [EJ Young]

Matthew 4:12-17 (KJV) Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The darkness of sin can only be dispelled by something that is its very opposite, namely, light. Light is a gift of God; it cannot be produced from a human heart which itself is in darkness. The whole work of Christ and all the blessings which He brings may be characterized by the one word “light”.

(2) Deliverance and Peace (v3-5)

3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 

The blessed thought is that light has shined upon the darkened Galileans causes Isaiah to address the One who is the source of the light, and in whose light alone we may see light. When the Light came, God brought the Gentiles into the true Israel, the household of faith, in fulfilment of the promise which He had made to Abraham, “I will make of thee a great nation [goi].” Thus, with the addition of the Gentiles, the people were made greater in number. 

Isaiah 54:1 (KJV) Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

With the enlarging of the nation, joy itself is increased. The result of the mighty act of God in multiplying the nation is a true joy before God in the hearts of those who receive and who have received His blessings. It is a marvellous joy; one such as is found when men have harvested the grain and when as victors they divide the spoils of war.

The salvation of sinners produces exultation in the hearts of God’s people, and such jubilation is a gift of God Himself. Israel’s blessings were truly from God. To rejoice in God is the highest form of rejoicing, indeed, it is the only true rejoicing.

Man’s chief ed is not only to glorify God, but also to enjoy Him forever. Only by means of a God-induced response to His own work of salvation do men truly joy before Him as they should.

The last sheep, the lost coin and the lost son that our Lord described as lost and now found, saw the angels of heaven rejoicing and the Father in heaven rejoicing.

Luke 15:4-7 (KJV) What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Luke 15:8-10 (KJV) Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

Luke 15:11-24 (KJV) And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

There is reason for the rejoicing, for God has wrought a mighty deliverance. Israel was like an animal of toil over whose neck a heavy wooden bar lay. This was a burden; it was not, however, a literal bar that bore down upon Israel’s neck. It was a more grievous burden. It was the heavy burden of sin and corruption, of departure from God, and of the evil consequences of such departure. At one time the people had been under the burdens of Egypt when cruel taskmasters oppressed them; now they are still in bondage for the yoke of their sin rests upon them. 

As every beast of burden and toil is beaten with a rod so Israel also had a rod with which it was beaten on the neck or shoulder. There was also, as in Egypt, an oppressor who used a staff to strike the beast. This oppressor was the Assyrian enemy, but in a far deeper sense, it was the bondage which sin itself had brought on.

Mighty is the victory, so great that it may be compared with that over Midian wrought by the Lord through Gideon. Human strength in that day had been unavailing, and Gideon had to recognize that the battle was the Lord’s, to be won only against a foe over whom human hands could have no power, and it was won by God alone. It was a spiritual battle, won because a Child would be born and the victory consisted in the deliverance of God’s people from all that had oppressed them. Sin is a burdensome yoke, for it subjects man to slavery in which, like the beasts of toil, he is under a taskmaster that beats him. There is only One who can set man free from the yoke in which he has been bound, and that One is God. The act of delivering man from sin is a mighty victory, so mighty in fact that man could never have won it any more than Gideon, unaided, could have conquered the Midianites. [EJ Young]

 5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

Again the word “for”, and with this word we are given a second reason for the great rejoicing. Following the victory which has just been mentioned, there is to be complete peace. This thought is expressed in a negative manner, in that the accoutrements of warfare are said to be utterly consumed. All these will be burned because they will no longer be needed. The footgear of the soldier appears in the thick of batter, for in the noise and tumult of war the soldier comes ready shod.

If even the shoes are destroyed, the actual weapons of war will also perish. Along with the shoes the upper garments, stained in the blood of battle and rolled in the blood of the slain, will be burned. It will become the good which fire devours.

There is no need to mention the destruction of the implements and weapons themselves, for if the shoes and garments of the soldier are burned, the weapons will be also. 

They are no longer needed, for a Child will be born, and His birth will bring peace to His people, for He will Himself be the Prince of Peace. [EJ Young]

Luke 2:14 (KJV) Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

To be continued…

[1] Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (KJV) When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.

[2] Rare with difficulty or effort; harshly, severely

[3] Ill-treated, hard-pressed