Hope Out Of Darkness

You know, I recently had the chance to take a trip to Acadia National Park in Maine. And there's this place there, Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park - where you can be the first person in America to see the sunrise. Imagine that. Wouldn’t that be cool to be able to say that you were one of the very first people in the country to see the sunrise? While the rest of the country is still in darkness, light first makes it appearance on that mountaintop. That's where the sun, where light starts its journey across our nation.

I brought a couple of photos to share with you that I took from the top: (I SHOWED PHOTOS FROM MY TRIP).

So this is looking out over Bar Harbor, that’s the town down there, and then the second is looking out toward the east. And I wish I could tell you I was there to see the sunrise. But I didn't. Why? I was asleep. But isn't that just like us with hope sometimes? We know where to find it, we might even be close to it, but we don't always make the journey. We don't always position ourselves to see the light break through. And yet, even though I missed that sunrise, here's what strikes me about it: whether anyone shows up to watch or not, the sunrise still happens. Every single morning, without fail, darkness gives way to dawn. First on that mountaintop, then spreading across our entire nation.

And you know, that's exactly what hope does. That's what light does in darkness. And I don't think it's any accident that God chose the darkest time of the year for us to celebrate Advent. Think about it - we're heading into the shortest days, the longest nights, the coldest season... and right here, in this darkness, we prepare to celebrate the Light of the World.

And when light breaks in, everything changes.

And that's exactly where we find God's people in Isaiah 9. They're walking in darkness - not just the kind that comes before dawn, but the kind that settles into your soul. The kind that makes you wonder if hope is even possible anymore. And right there, in their darkest moment, God speaks a promise that would change everything.

So, grab your Bibles and turn to Isaiah 9. If you don't have a Bible with you, no worries - the words will be up on the screen. But I want us to camp out here this morning because what God says to His people then has everything to do with where we are right now.

Walking in Darkness

Let's start in verse 2:

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. ”

— Isaiah 9:2 (ESV)

When Isaiah writes this, he's not just being poetic. He's talking about real people facing real darkness. The northern regions of Israel - Zebulun and Naphtali - they're about to experience devastation like they've never seen before. These regions are here on the map.

But these are than just names on a map. These were communities on the edge, the first to face the incoming storms of invasion, the last to receive help from Jerusalem. Let me give you some context about these regions, because it matters to understanding just how dark their darkness was. Zebulun and Naphtali were part of the northern kingdom of Israel, sitting right along what we would call the Sea of Galilee. Beautiful country, actually. Fertile land. Trade routes running through it. But here's the thing - their very location made them vulnerable. They were like the front porch of Israel. Any army wanting to invade from the north had to come through their territory first.

And it wasn't just their geographical location that left them vulnerable. These tribes had a history of struggling with faithfulness to God. Back in the book of Judges, when God's people were fighting for the Promised Land, Zebulun and Naphtali didn't fully drive out the Canaanites as God had commanded. They compromised. Instead of following God's clear command, they decided partial obedience was good enough. They let the Canaanites stay, probably thinking it was the practical thing to do. Maybe they rationalized it - these people could work the land, they could trade with them, they could benefit from their knowledge of the territory. But here's what happens with compromise - it never stays small. Those Canaanites brought their gods with them, their practices, their ways of life. What started as just letting them stay in the land led to intermarriage, which led to adopting their customs, which led to worshiping their gods. One small compromise grew into generation after generation of spiritual confusion. Until finally, they couldn't even recognize the darkness they were walking in anymore.