Scripture Introduction
Charles Wesley’s hymn, Hark! The Herald-Angels Sing is a favorite Christmas song, though it required some tinkering to get there. Over Wesley’s objections, his friend, George Whitefield, changed some of the words, most noticeably the first line, which Wesley wrote as, “Hark, how the welkin rings, Glory to the King of kings.” “Welkin” means “sky” or “heavens.” But what really elevated this carol was when organist William Cummings adapted Mendelssohn’s music to fit the words, giving it the joyful tune that so well matches its lofty description of the Messiah.
We have used each of the past four weeks of Advent to study the birth of Christ as explained in the Prophets and carols. We conclude this mini-series with the extravagant language Wesley attributes to Jesus: veiled in flesh the God-head see, hail the incarnate Deity, Jesus, our Emmanuel. Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Hark! the herald-angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King.”
Wesley found titles like these in the Bible; Isaiah 9 being one place in particular that describes a Messiah deserving of such gaudy praise. I will read for us Isaiah 9.1-7, then we will allow God to encourage our souls as he show us his zeal for bringing glory to the Son born in Bethlehem.
[Read Isaiah 9.1-7. Pray.]
Introduction
If you have sought the Lord for long, you know that God’s ways are not always our ways. The Lord has a plan, and his will cannot be thwarted, but there are certainly times when we scratch our heads and wonder why things happen the way they do. Yes, God does all things for his glory and our good, but those things sometimes (in the words of John Newton), “cross all the fair designs we scheme.” And for us, like Israel of old, the God’s correcting hand of discipline can especially sap our courage and cause us to question his wisdom.
Isaiah preached when God’s hand swung down hard on the people of Israel. The power of the Assyrian Empire increased as the year 700 B.C. approached, but Isaiah spoke to a people “deaf and blind” to the things of God, a people who would soon be crushed under judgment and national disaster.
This did not mean that everyone in Israel uniformly turned from God. But unlike the system we have created for much of modern life in America, God usually deals with people in groups rather than individually. The nation of Israel was punished for the sins of some, and all suffered alike. That may not seem fair to us, since we think more in terms of individual accountability, but God governs through representatives. So what do godly people do during times of national discipline and disaster? How does God want us to behave when things are going badly?
Such is the background of Isaiah 9. The people are in trouble; a world of hurt soon will rain down on them. The Assyrians will come and see and conquer, and drive people from their homes like animals. Hunger, misery, loneliness, loss — these will be their lot for the next hundreds of years. Faithful believers will die in exile; families will be torn apart; God’s frowning providence will threaten them with despair. How will the godly respond? Isaiah preaches for them to remain faithful while they focus on the future.
God tells us the same. Each one here has different struggles, fears, pressures – but God’s power and goodness universally directs every life. And the promise of Jeremiah 29.11 applies to us all: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” In the days of Isaiah, God’s people were to comfort themselves with the hope of a perfect future; we are to do the same. For them, the promise of Christ’s birth was distant; for us, his second coming may seem to tarry a long time. But God’s mercy remains sure and steadfast, and just as it sustained Israel of old, we are to have a God-centered hope in whatever calamities we face. A hope that comes from the Messiah, the one the herald-angels sang about, Jesus promised in Isaiah 9, and born in Bethlehem 700 years later. Let’s look at God’s word to Israel as dark days approach and see how he calls us to an indomitable hope regardless of what trials come our way. To do so, please notice first that believers…
1. We Hold to Hope Because of the Promise of a Glorious Light (Isaiah 9.1-2)
These opening words refer to the trouble befalling Israel even as Isaiah preached: gloom, anguish, and contempt for the land and nation. The invasion and decimation began in the north, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, when the Assyrian King, Tiglath-Pileser overran the Northern Kingdom. Under the rule of the pagan kings, that area was called Galilee of the Gentiles. This would be a time of terrible darkness – spiritual and physical. Christian’s writers often call seasons of struggle and anxiety and despair, a “dark night of the soul.” Dark years of the soul were falling on the chosen people.
“But,” Isaiah insists, “but” it will not always be so. In fact, light will dawn in the very place where the gloom was first and greatest. The east coast grows dark long before California, as the sun moves across our sky. But New York sees the new day dawning while the western states still sleep in darkness. The same will be true in Israel, though much more significantly. The lands darkened by ignorance of the Word of God and problems in every way will be especially the place where Messiah will minister.
This prophecy was fulfilled with our Lord Jesus appeared as a prophet and began to preach the gospel in the land of Galilee. Jesus came to his people first where they suffered most, and from there began the salvation of the world!
Matthew 4.12-16: Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”
In a way similar to Israel, we experience darkness and trouble. We have times when the Word is not loved and obeyed, the church and nation are not godly as we should be, and the people of God grope in the dark. When that happens, we remember that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1John 1.5). And just as Christ brought the light of the Gospel to Israel, so he will return to establish his kingdom of light. As Revelation 21 and 22 remind us, the city of God has no sun or moon, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
You may have dark nights of the soul. We may, as a church, have seasons of difficulty and darkness. Just as the Roman and Assyrian Empires and the Ming Dynasty once ruled with unprecedented power but now are gone, we may see the end of America as the super-power on the world stage and a time of unprecedented darkness in the land. Europe once cradled Christianity, but now most churches sit empty or have been sold to other interests.
But even when things are darkest, God’s people are not forsaken. We hold to hope because we know that he who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus (2Corinthians 4.6). Christ is the light of the World and the source of hope in times of darkness.
2. We Hold to Hope Because of the Promise of a Glorious Increase and Joy (Isaiah 9.3)
Because the people of God know the true and living God, and because they know that God’s word and ways are more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb, and because we know that in his presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore, we want to see his rule grow and his righteousness increase.
Everyone is an evangelist for what they truly love. We wear the jerseys of our favorite teams; we talk about the movies that we like; we “share” experiences that we want others to share. So naturally, God’s people long to see God’s kingdom come and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven; and we rejoice exceedingly with great joy when he multiplies the nation! Just as this was true for Israel, so it is for us in the time of the gospel.
Those who receive the gospel certainly rejoice. Psalm 95.1: “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” Habakkuk 3.18: “I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”
But there is more – those who are truly converted rejoice when others come to faith. Remember the great celebration at the victory party in heaven: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7.9-10).
Yes, there may be a night of weeping now, but the certainty of the triumph and increase of God’s kingdom sustains us with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory!
3. We Hold to Hope Because of the Promise of a Glorious Freedom and Peace (Isaiah 9.4-5)
Like a plow horse or team of oxen, Israel was weighed down by yoke of burden. Of course, this was not a literal yoke, but a more grievous burden: the oppression of the Assyrian enemy who beats the people with rod and staff, as a work animal is struck in order to keep it moving.
As terrible as the Assyrians were, however, the greatest load and grief came from the burden of sin and corruption, the departure from God and the evil consequences of that rebellion.
But God tells us, through Isaiah, of one who will break the rod and staff, and burn the boots of the invading army. Like the freedom fighter Gideon, this warrior will crush the power of all oppressors and give freedom and peace as the spoils of victory. The tools of oppression will be broken and the weapons of war burned. Who will win such a great and glorious victory for God’s people?
4. We Hold to Hope Because of the Promise of a Once and Future Redeemer (Isaiah 9.6-7)
God’s answer to all that frightens us is… a child born, a son given. The ancient of days becomes an infant of a few years; the everlasting Father is a baby boy. Unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. A newborn is our hope, especially in times of greatest grief and fear.
Not what I expect to resist the Assyrians of the world. When I know that a bully threatens, I picture a bigger warrior on my side. When Goliath bellows, I want an F-16. God gives us Jesus. God’s weakness will win over the world’s strength; God’s foolishness will triumph over the world’s wisdom. Everything man tries, fails. However impossible, the gospel must be true. God has made foolish the wisdom of the world by saving those who believe through the folly of what we preach – Christ crucified, the power and wisdom of God. To us a child is born, a son is given.
Who is he?
He is the Wonderful Counselor, the one with the best and brightest ideas for living faithfully in a fallen world. He knows what needs to be done to repair relationships, to build the church, to provide peace in our homes. He knows the words which will heal the brokenhearted; he knows how to help the hurting and restore the penitent. He is bread of life for all who hunger for righteousness and the living water for all who thirst for God. He is the way, the truth, the life.
He is also Mighty God, the one who defeats all his and our enemies. He is the shield we can hide behind, the strongman who can bind all our foes, the one powerful enough to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through his name and on his authority.
He is the everlasting Father, or the Father of eternity, the author of everlasting life and happiness to all who come to God through him. He is the Father of the world to come because all things are made subject to him, and he rules all things with love and mercy and kindness.
He is the prince of peace. As the omnipotent ruler, he both creates and preserves peace in his kingdom. When we were his enemies, he made peace between us and his father by his death on the cross, so that now he is our peace; he also, by the working of his Spirit, keeps the peace by working in the hearts and lives of God’s people to rule us and bring us to delight in all that is good and godly. And in the future kingdom, there will only be peace, because all that makes for enmity: sin, suffering, and Satan, he will forever banish from his glorious heaven!
Never was a kingdom ruled by a government so gentle and gracious. Rather than control us by harsh demands and a strong arm, he sweetly influences our hearts by his grace, not against our wills, but showing us the goodness of his ways and the pleading with us to love his will. He rules by love, so that there is peace on earth wherever his government reigns supreme. The more we are subject to Christ the more easy and enjoyable our lives are.
We just survived another election season. It seems that politics in our country has degenerated into a cycle where those who feel disenfranchised and mistreated turn out to vote and change the leaders, which puts others in the place where they feel they are not treated fairly. So the next season, they turn out to vote and change the leaders again. What seems to be common in every election is the complaint that it is not fair, or just, or right.
But Christ’s kingdom will be well managed, perfectly ordered, both established and upheld with justice and righteousness. None of his subjects will ever have cause to complain. We must have human governments in the interim, but when the Kingdom of Christ is inaugurated in fullness, he will save us from all our failures. His kingdom of peace and justice will hold sway forever and ever.
Those who live by faith in him now, accepting his weakness as our strength and his folly as our wisdom, will enjoy his triumph, forever ascending, forever enlarging, forever accelerating, forever intensifying. There will never come one moment when we will say, “This is the limit. He can’t think of anything new or better. We’ve seen it all.” No. C. S. Lewis correctly describes the new world which Christ brings with him in his return: it grows bigger and more glorious the further in and further up we go!
Too good to be true? Yes, it seems that way. Thus the last line: “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
You know that such glory will find opposition. Satan hates God, and certainly hates the thought of our having such a delightful life and future. He fights against the reign and rule of righteousness. But like the wrath of Herod striking the children of Bethlehem, the evil of the enemy may lash out and even hit and hurt, but it cannot win. Something was set in motion on Christmas day those many years ago, and the zeal of God will see it through to the end of all things: the glory of God in the happiness of his people.
Let God’s perfect promise renew your hope this holiday season. Amen.
