Today, the sermon topic is “Peace on Earth?” The biblical meaning of peace or “shalom” means far more than the absence of war or conflict. Shalom speaks of wholeness, completeness, of well-being, tranquility, prosperity, and security. Rabbinical texts speak of achieving peace on a social level, the overcoming of strife, quarrelling, and social tensions.
My question is: Is peace on earth something we can say we are experiencing in our world today? What about in our social interactions - in our homes especially around the Christmas season? While we were in the States, we were in the midst of the Christmas shopping frenzy, sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, bombarded with the news and talk shows about the ongoing congressional elections and all the strife that went with it, and don’t forget the impending economic recession. We know this is not just what’s happening in America but all over the world. The editors of the Collins English Dictionary have declared “permacrisis” to be the word of the year for 2022. They define permacrisis as “an extended period of instability and insecurity.” So the question is: “Peace on earth?”
We are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the incarnation of God, Creator of the universe. He came to bring “peace on earth to those with whom He is pleased.” When you look at a Christmas nativity scene, the stable under the stars with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, the three kings, and shepherds, it does look very peaceful. However, it doesn’t mean it was a peaceful time on earth. We know that when Jesus actually arrived it was during an era and environment of corruption, oppression, and injustice. We listened to the Advent Scripture reading from Isaiah chapters 9 and 11 tonight. Isaiah the prophet was recording God’s words during a time when there was little or no peace on the earth in relation to God nor with the surrounding kingdoms.
In just two chapters before (Isa 7), the Syro-Ephraimite forces - that is the king of Israel (Pekka), and the king of Syria (Rezin) were coming to kill Ahaz, king of Judah because he wouldn’t join them in their rebellion against the Assyrians. These aggressive moves had a profound effect on Ahaz and the people's hearts “shook like trees in the wind” (Isa 7:2). In other words, they were filled with fear because of the instability and insecurity of the times.
These were “people walking in darkness” and Isaiah was talking to a people living “without hope and without God in a complex world” (Eph 2:12). History has shown us that the once glorious kingdom of Israel would be cut down to its base like a tree stump (Isa 11) and by all appearances all hope of the promised King who would sit on the throne of David and rule the world was gone. No eternal king, no conqueror, no hope, and, therefore, no peace.
However, their fear, insecurity, and unbelief did not stop God’s plans or purpose. The Lord sent Isaiah to give the people a word of encouragement, a promise for the future to the remnant who were waiting for the Messiah. He was speaking of the promise of a just and righteous King, who would be born to bring counsel and comfort and eternal peace. He would make peace possible with God and with man. In Isa 9:1-7 we can see three main topics described in Isaiah’s prophecy:
? The Promise
? Deliverance from Darkness
? The Person of Peace
Let’s look at:
The Promise
In vv. 1-2 it says,
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 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.
When Isaiah declared this prophecy to Israel, we see that there was anything but peace on earth. There were actual wars going on all around them. Kings and kingdoms were making alliances and fighting for survival and so it was a time of political uncertainty, anxiety, distress, and spiritual darkness. The question for King Ahaz was: Who would be able to deliver the nation from the hand of Kings Pekka and Rezin? God had a message for Ahaz: Don’t fear these kings but trust in Me for deliverance (2 Kings 16:7-9).
But as we read further in chapter 7, Ahaz refused to listen to God’s message and instead of putting his trust in God Almighty, he looked to the Assyrian King for immediate relief and rescue. The people were in need of someone who could give sound counsel, comfort and rescue them but instead of seeking the Lord, they entered into the occult - worshiping idols, listening to mediums, witches, and were looking for words of insight, wisdom, and counsel from necromancers. OT scholars put it this way,
The dependence upon their own resources and worldly perspectives for guidance didn’t deliver them but only led them further into the darkness.
Putting their trust in their own ingenuity and the wisdom of the world left them hungry, angry and in despair.
It wasn't as if divine viewpoint wasn’t available to these people because God sent them prophets but in their times of trouble, they chose not to come to God. All of us, in times of stress, uncertainty, instability - when facing our battles, when we feel we are overwhelmed, will naturally look for good counsel and comfort and strength from somewhere or someone so that we can have peace. We may look to our family and trusted friends. Others may look to science for the answer or to social engineering - the attempt to manage social change and to control the future development and behavior of a society to bring peace. But human constructs are unable to bring healing to our hearts, alleviate our guilt, remove the pain and regrets from our past. Receiving people’s counsel, wisdom, and comfort may bring momentary relief but can these things guarantee our peace?
In vv. 1-2, it was the absence of God, His counsel, His strength, His care and peace that left them in darkness, despair and distress. They looked to other kingdoms and gods for counsel and wisdom which eventually led to their exile by the Assyrian King. For the land of Zebulun and Naphtali it was a humbling time, to them this darkness seemed absolute, there was no way out. Yet this darkness, this humbling would only be temporary. Isaiah prophesied that God would send Someone into the helplessness of that darkness who would be a Light and bring hope. God, through the coming King, the Deliverer, would shine the light of his power and bring:
Deliverance from Darkness
Vv. 3-4 say,
You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
God would send a deliverer under whom the nation would grow and prosper, they would live securely under His care, it will be a time of great joy. This deliverer was being compared to Gideon who was raised up to defeat the overwhelmingly oppressive Midianites without a sword in his hand (Judg 6–7). Just like in the days of the judges’ centuries earlier, God’s people in Isaiah’s time were again worshiping gods from other nations and took on their pagan practices. So, what happened? They became enslaved to the very nations they emulated and these nations ended up attacking and oppressing them, stripping them bare of everything they had.
But when they realized the dire situation that they had gotten themselves into and how powerless they were to deliver themselves, they humbled themselves and cried out to the Lord. How did God respond? He promised to raise up a deliverer like He did with Gideon. Gideon was a no- name, the youngest from his family from the weakest tribe of Israel. He was called to come against an army described as numerous as a swarm of locusts. But God accomplished what He promised to do through the most unlikely person who rallied the people, overthrew the invaders, and brought peace to the nation.
This same God who delivered His people again and again throughout history, a people who were too powerless to save themselves, was going to send a mighty deliverer into their darkness. He promised to send the ultimate deliverer who will not only defeat all forces of evil, he would deliver them from their own personal darkness and put an end to all this world’s conflict and right every wrong. The question is who is this Person through whom God intends to end all wars and establish true freedom upon the earth? Who is this….
3. Person of Peace
Vv. 6 - 7 tell us,
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
The almighty deliverer would come as a child, Emmanuel - God with us. This is what we refer to as the incarnation, when the eternal Son of God, without ceasing to be God, took on a fully human nature and was born in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. As C.S. Lewis put it in The Last Battle, "Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world."
This is why Christmas is celebrated all over the world. It is the day when the God of the universe became like one of us and lived among us. Why did He do it? Because He saw our condition, we had gone our own way, away from God and got ourselves into a mess we couldn’t get ourselves out of. We created an ever-increasing distance we could not gap and a debt we could never in a million years pay for. We were in utter darkness and could not find our way back to God, so He came to us, into our darkness, to deliver us by defeating the power of sin and death. Hebr 2:17 says:
Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.
Only the God-man could fulfill the mission of bearing the sins of the world and giving His life as a ransom for many (John 1:29; Mark 10:45). The incarnation shows us the depth of God’s love and the lengths He is willing to go to in order to save us. This is why He is described as our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace because this is who He is and this is what He revealed about the Trinity when He stepped into our dark world. This is who He is now in our lives.
The main reason we have been going to the States twice a year is to spend time with our aging parents. Pearl’s parents and my parents have transitioned several times in the past few years because of their need for increased care. My parents had to transition (for the sixth time in three years) into a new room, with new caregivers. This new transition has been hard for my mom who had recently suffered from a stroke. She was very confused, frustrated, and angry. At first, she didn’t want anyone to help her. The only thing that had calmed her down was our physical presence in the room. She had peace knowing that her family was right there. I believe this is what God the Father wanted to communicate to this lost world when He sent His son. It is not the absence of war or strife that brings peace but the presence of God. Peace comes through personally knowing the person, that person is the Lord Jesus Christ.
When He is in our lives, when His wonderful counsel and comfort fills our hearts, when we are strengthened by His might, when we experience His care – this gives us peace. He is our peace. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My [perfect] peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. [Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and give you courage and strength for every challenge.]”
For now, while we live in this world, He is our peace, and we know that one day He will come and rule the world with unending peace. How do we know? Because The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah is saying that this God is passionately committed to fulfilling all of His promises, to bringing salvation to all who would believe in Him and, one day, to restoring all things back to their original, beautiful design. His passion to save the lost is driving history toward the final triumph of grace in the Messianic kingdom. The Hebrew word for zeal is used for a husband’s jealousy for the love of his wife (Proverbs 6:34), for the envy that drives human effort (Ecclesiastes 4:4), for the love that burns in the hearts of a bride and groom (Song of Songs 8:6). But this very human virtue says something about God’s heart. It describes His heart and His determination to bring these incredible promises to pass. The fulfillment of these promises does not depend on us, on Him alone.
What I see throughout this passage in Isaiah 9:1-7 and over and over again throughout the Scriptures is God’s amazing grace. We fail, we mess up, we dig our own holes and then can’t get out. It’s so dark that we don’t even know where we are or how to get out. We can’t save ourselves. God had a plan from the very beginning and executed it at the right time to save us. He came to us as a child to live and to die for the sin of the world. Only Jesus is able to do this and will do it by His grace for all who believe in Him. I pray this Christmas that you get to know more intimately the heart of the One who has saved you. To get to know the One who is very present, get to know His wonderful counsel, experience His strength, His continual care for you. May the Prince of Peace rule in your hearts. This is the significance of Christmas.
