Hope In The Midst Of Darkness

I have heard it said time and time again over the years by Christian and non-Christian alike, that we are living in dark times. When we speak of darkness it could refer to the evils of untold suffering, catastrophes, cruelty, corruption, and malevolence. We have seen evil taking place on a global level, on a national level, and many of us have experienced it personally. What is the solution or answer to the problem of evil? Since life can be quite complex, the answer may not be straightforward. People place their hope in the sciences, technology, and governments as they look for answers. But as important as these things are, we know that the sciences, technologies, and governments unguided by moral principles have led to some of history’s greatest human atrocities. Some place their hope in various types of spiritism, occult or faith in God. Others believe that answers come from within themselves. But if your ultimate hope is in anything but God Himself you will be greatly disappointed. Václav Havel, philosopher and the first president of the Czech Republic said, “the Pursuit of the good life will not help humanity save itself, nor is democracy alone enough,’...A turning to and seeking of . . . God is needed. He said that the human race constantly forgets that they are not God.

The question for all of us here today is what do we put our hope in, in times of darkness?

Please turn with me Isaiah 8:19 - 9:2, 6-7

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. (SLIDE) 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.(SLIDE) 9:1 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.

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Just like the Israelites back in 700 BC, You can place your hope:

In human strength and wisdom

In the occult

In God

Human strength and wisdom

In Isaiah 8:19-22 he described what was happening to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali (present day Galilee) in 722 BC. Isaiah said that God’s own people made no place for Him in their hearts (8:6). They rebelled against God’s word and instructions and instead sought the answers to life’s problems through human explanations and means, making God and what He had to say unimportant and insignificant. They put more stock in the power of Kings and the opinions of people than in an Almighty God.

It is no different in today’s culture. People say, “Religion is only for the weak, we do not need a God, we can save ourselves.” Atheists claim that the cosmos came into being all on its own, out of nothing, that you and I are accidents of nature. If there is no God as Bertrand Russell held, man is the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system.

How comforting is that? During the time Isaiah wrote this account, the northern Kingdom had consistently rejected God, His Word and His wisdom while Assyrian invaders were approaching their land. This only increased their gloom and anguish. They knew that the Assyrain army would bring devastation, yet they turned away from God when they actually needed Him most.