Isaiah 9: 1 – 21
Let There Be – LIGHT!
As we begin our study of chapter 9 we need to back up to chapter 8 verses 21 and 22. For the first verse of chapter 9 goes with this train of thought. Remember, when the bible was first written it did not contain chapters and verses. These were later included to help us find our way around the Bible.
21 They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.
1 Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first He lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. 3 You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; They rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For You have 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 warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, and garments rolled in blood, will be used for burning and fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace there will beno end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. 8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob, and it has fallen on Israel. 9 All the people will know— Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria— Who say in pride and arrogance of heart: 10 “ The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.” 11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and spur his enemies on, 12 The Syrians before and the Philistines behind; And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 13 For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them, nor do they seek the LORD of hosts. 14 Therefore the LORD will cut off head and tail from Israel, palm branch and bulrush in one day. 15 The elder and honorable, he is the head; The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. 16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed. 17 Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men, nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows; For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 18 For wickedness burns as the fire; It shall devour the briers and thorns, and kindle in the thickets of the forest; They shall mount up like rising smoke. 19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire; No man shall spare his brother. 20 And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry; He shall devour on the left hand and not be satisfied; Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm. 21 Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; Together they shall be against Judah. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.
Our Holy God had offered the Jews the choice between darkness and light, which one do you think they chose? Sadly, they, like us, choose darkness. They ‘will pass through it, that is, the darkness that they desired. There is great stress with continual darkness. The picture drawn for us by our Great Holy Ghost is one of total hopelessness and despair.
21 They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.
Have you ever been to both a ‘believers’ and a ‘non-believers’ funeral? It is truly a difference between light and darkness. For a believer’s service is akin to Psalm 23’s famous line, “ 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Please notice that for a believer the darkness is just a shadow. In order to have a shadow, you have to have light reflecting on an object. Therefore, death’s valley is having a light shine on it for us, so we do not experience total darkness. Thank You Lord Jesus.
In conducting a funeral memorial service I usually always start out by mentioning chapter 14 of the book of Revelation which reads, “13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”
At such a sad time we hear a voice from Heaven saying, ‘Oh, Happy Day’ for all the saints that die.’ Seems kind of cruel or out of place, don’t you think? No, not really for the words come from our Precious Holy Spirit. He lists for us two reasons why a saint and all his/her relatives should be happy. Well, for one thing there is no more sorrow and pain to endure anymore. This includes both physical and emotional heartache. The other point is that everything we do affects others.
In our gloom and despair we fear that our services and troubles will never end. However, in truth, He will lead us safely through them.
1 Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first He lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles.
Most people miss out great insight by merely reading without knowing what they have read. Verse one can be a good example of this situation. First of all let us look at the word ‘Nevertheless’. You might be saying, ‘Oh, come on now.’ No, this word is very important to understand. What have we mentioned so far? ‘Oh, you forgot.’ Well, we have been talking about darkness. The word ‘Nevertheless’ is now pointing us to a change in this condition. Our Holy Father Is going to encourage us of His Amazing Mercy and Grace and He makes things right.
The reason for the distress was that the Assyrian army was brutally destroying all the people, that included women and children. The king of Assyria was picking off the perimeter of Judah’s towns. The tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were on the border. For our benefit for not being history experts our Wonderful Holy Spirit mentions the three campaigns against the people of Judah. How Is He doing this, by the three lists of attacks;
1. By way of the sea
2. Beyond the Jordan
3. In Galilee of the Gentiles.
Now aren’t you glad you looked at this verse more thoroughly. You didn’t know all that good information was there before, did you?
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. 3 You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; They rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For You have 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 warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, and garments rolled in blood, will be used for burning and fuel of fire.
Although these border areas were cut off from the rest of Judah and experienced the pain of the infliction caused by the Assyrians, they could take hope that there was a King coming Who would bring them Great Light.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
This prophecy was fulfilled by the arrival of the Messiah hundreds of years later. This One Anointed by The Father Is none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The apostle Matthew points out how He fulfilled this prophecy in chapter 4,”12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 15 “ The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: 16 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.” 17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The apostle John, who wrote of our Lord’s Deity, tells us, as a first hand witness this in chapter 8, “12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
To give us the context of how great the ‘Joy’ will be The Holy Ghost explains through the examples of; the joy of the creation and through the people’s experience of past conquests over their enemies.
3 You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; They rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Stop and ask yourselves this question, ‘What makes you joyful in this day and age?’ There are the biggies; you know - marriage and children are at the top.’ But what might happen to you in the normal day to day life experiences?’ How about pay day? If you get paid by-weekly then once a year based on the monthly layout you receive an extra pay. You become joyful because your mind rejoices in the potential of paying off some bills, perhaps take a vacation, or dare I say it, give to a charitable group. How about when you get your IRS check in the mail? Does this produce even greater joy? If you are a farmer, this is the type of experience you go through during harvest. All the hard labor that you have done throughout the year now leaves you with a reward. This is one reason our Magnificent Holy God made some of the mandatory feasts to occur during the harvest season.
If you were a soldier in the past you would also rejoice when you had won a war. You would divide the spoil of those you conquered.
In maintaining His encouragement toward those people who had remained faithful to Him, our Holy Ruler connected this thought with two past victories – The Exodus and the deliverance of the Israelites over the Midianites with Gideon
4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, and garments rolled in blood, will be used for burning and fuel of fire.
In the book of Leviticus chapter 26 we read of our Lord’s declaration of how He freed the Israelites from the yoke of slavery and bondage of the Egyptians, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.”
In the book of Judges chapter 7 we have learned that the Lord had miraculously freed His people from a whole group of nations led by the Midianites, “1 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.2 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. 4 But the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. 7 Then the LORD said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.” 8 So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. 9 It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, 11 and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. 13 And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.” 14 Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.” 15 And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.” 16 Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!’” 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!” 21 And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. 22 When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites. 24 Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites, and seize from them the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan.” Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan. 25 And they captured two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
Look at what our Precious Holy King said regarding the burden and yoke He would place on us as recorded in the book of Matthew chapter 11, “28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
I am willing to exchange my heavy burdens for His. How about you?
