Year 2, Day 359: Isaiah 9

The Bounty of the Lord

Isaiah 9 gives us another oft-quoted passage, and one especially appropriate for Christmas Day.  No, I didn’t plan this.  God just does this stuff on His own and I realize it only when it happens.  I totally confess that this reading happening today is by God’s design – nothing I set into motion!

When In Darkness

There is something comforting about the familiar verse 2.  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.  Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone.”  In fact, there are two things that I find extremely comforting about this passage.  The first comfort comes from the message.  Just because we find ourselves in darkness – even deep darkness – doesn’t mean that God cannot find us.  There is no darkness that is so deep that God cannot find us!  No matter how dark our culture becomes God can find us.  No matter how deeply our culture slinks away from God, God can find His remnant.  Amen, hallelujah!

But there is another source of comfort.  Do you know how many people throughout history have found comfort in this passage?  Do you know how many people have found themselves in a deep personal darkness or a deep cultural darkness and they have found solace in these words?  We are not alone.  We are not the first people to come across societal rebellion against God.  Others encountered it, found solace in passages like this, and passed through it into God’s glory.  Through the grace of God, we can do it too!  As the author of Hebrews proclaims, what a great cloud of witnesses surrounds us!  (Hebrews 12:1)

The Peace He Actually Brings

And what of the comfort found in the familiarity of verses 6-7?  Have any of us not heard that passage quoted several times in the past 24 hours?  How great is it to know that the government will be upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ?  How great is it that there will be no end to the peace that He brings?  Pause here for a second.  There will be no end to the peace He brings.  What peace does He bring?  He brings peace with God.  The peace that Jesus Christ brings with Him will never end.  Our peace with God is eternal!  Again, amen and hallelujah!

But before we move off of this familiar verse, let’s ponder the last words of verse 7 – words that we often overlook.  “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”  I’m not going to beat around the bush.  What does this verse tell us?  God will bring about His salvation and grace and peace on His own.  It will happen according to His timing.  He doesn’t need the people of Israel to do it for Him.  In fact, He doesn’t need us, either.  What does Jesus say?  God can raise up for Himself children of Abraham out of the stones if He desired it.  (Matthew 3:9)  God will bring about His plan and His salvation.  It depends on God, not us.

The cool thing about that is since it depends on God, we can’t ultimately screw it up.  God invites us to help Him, but it depends on Him.  We are invited into the process not because we are necessary but because we are desired.  How cool is it that although we don’t deserve to be included and we probably make it harder for God in the long run … He invites us anyway because He desires us to be with Him!

Warnings

Next, the chapter turns dark.  What an incredible contrast between the hope in the future Messiah in the first half of this chapter and the dark foretelling of the captivity of the northern kingdom in the second half of the chapter.  Some have criticized Isaiah for placing such a dark passage after such an incredible passage of hope.  But I believe it was an intentional choice.  The contrast Isaiah makes is clear.

What are the people accused of in these verses?  They are accused of having bad leadership.  They are accused of not turning to God and instead relying upon themselves.  They are accused of trusting the power and forces of this world.  They refused to deal with their sin.  So God will bring a yoke of bondage upon them.

Look at the contrast.  The people who refuse to deal with sin and their relationship with God are in bondage.  They are in peril.  But we know from the first half of this chapter that those who put their trust in God and God’s Messiah shall know peace with God.  When we do it our way; we make things tough on ourselves.  But when we do things God’s way; He makes things so blessedly simple. 

I don’t mean to say that everything goes our way.  Blessedly simply doesn’t mean we won’t have tears.  I mean to say that dealing with the pitfalls of life is far easier with God than without Him.  I mean to say that salvation at the hand of God is always in the hand of God and we can do nothing to either earn it or screw it up.

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