Introduction
How many of you here have stubbed your toe while walking to the bathroom late at night? How many of you use night-lights since that happened?
We have night-lights in our house—these lights prevent me from tripping and stubbing my toes on Ella’s toys when going to the bathroom late at night! These little lights help dispel the darkness enough for me to see where I’m going.
So today, as we look at Isaiah 9, we’re going to talk about darkness and light. I want to spend most of my time talking about the light, but we have to understand both to understand either.
Have you ever had someone say to you, “I’ve got good news and bad news; which do you want first?” Well today we’ll look at the bad news first! Let’s see what the darkness is.
Walking in the Darkness
There’s an entire people walking in the darkness in our passage—“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” This is the people of Israel—now what sort of darkness are they walking in?
The context of this passage in Isaiah is the Assyrian invasion of northern Israel during the 7th century BC. The tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, in the land of Galilee, suffered greatly under these invasions. God promises relief and redemption for His people through the birth of a descendant of David who will initiate a time of peace. The darkness for Israel is the darkness of an invading and occupying force.
The darkness here for Israel is also, I would suggest, the darkness of sin and oppression—basically, their oppression is the result of a failure to love God and love their neighbour. They have had their worship rejected by God because they do not practice mercy and justice. Isaiah, describing Israel’s sin, says they “turn aside the needy from justice.” This has led to judgment in the form of an invasion from Assyria.
Isn’t this what the darkness means for us also? 1 John 2: 9 says, “Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while still hating a brother or a sister, is still in the darkness.” 1 John 1: 5 says “God is light.” 1 John 1: 20, 21 says, “Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers and sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”
Darkness is sin, particularly in the form of the failure to love God and our brothers and sisters. Have you ever been left in the dark about something? Well, thankfully, God doesn’t leave us in the dark in this case! Thankfully there is good news greater than this bad news.
As we continue looking at Isaiah 9, I want to look at how Scripture answers three questions for us about the light: Who is the Light? What does the Light accomplish? And what is our response to the Light?
Who is the Light?
This light is the hope God gives—hope of salvation, of restoration, of victory, of deliverance. This hope would come in the form of a person. It is the promised Messiah, God’s anointed one. Isaiah speaks of this promise elsewhere too:
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11: 1): This speaks of a Messiah that would come who would be in the line of David.
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me” (Isaiah 61: 1; cf. Luke 4: 18, 19): And here we see the Messiah as one upon whom the Spirit has rested, as whom the Lord has anointed—Messiah means “anointed one.” Christ means “anointed one.”
The Light is the promised Messiah.
Isaiah’s prophecy for the coming Messiah was for a ruler who would be more than human. We can see this in verse 6: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.” This speaks of the fulfillment of what Isaiah 7: 14 says: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman [virgin] is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel [which means “God is with us]” (cf. Matthew 1: 22, 23, where this prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus).
We also see this in verse 6 because of all the titles given to this child. As one scholar says, “The titles underscore the ultimate deity of this child-deliverer.” This is especially true of the titles Everlasting Father and Mighty God.
The Light is a Messiah who has both divine and human characteristics.
Many of these passages in Isaiah are used in the gospels to describe the coming of Jesus—Isaiah is pointing toward Jesus.
We also know this because his kingdom shall not end according to verse 7—“there shall be endless peace . . . from this time onward and forevermore.” This is not only a king, but the final king, the king.
We know this, too, because Matthew 4: 12 – 17, the passage we began our service with, interprets Isaiah’s prophecy in our passage about the great light in reference to Jesus—Jesus “left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.” Here it is in Jesus that “light has dawned.”
Of course, Jesus refers to himself as “the light of the world” in John 8: 12. And in 1 John 1: 5 it says “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”
The Light is Jesus, who is the fulfilled of all the promises of God for a Messiah, and Jesus is also “God with us,” God in the flesh.
What does the Light accomplish?
The Assyrians bragged about the yoke they put on their slaves. They bragged about how burdensome they were. In verse 4 Isaiah tells of a time when this yoke will be broken and shattered. The Assyrian invasion will not last forever.
Isaiah’s prophecy did not come to complete fulfillment until the coming of Jesus—but what yoke did he break? What yoke did he shatter? I want to suggest that he broke the yoke of sin and darkness and oppression. By walking in the light we no longer have to be subject to sin any more. It no longer has to be our master—Jesus frees us from sin, and not only from its eternal consequences but its present power over us. He shatters the yoke.
And Jesus doesn’t just break the yoke of sin and oppression; he gives us a new yoke. In Matthew 11: 28 – 30 Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
In place of the burdensome, heavy yoke of sin and oppression, Jesus gives us his yoke, which is easy and light. This is the yoke of discipleship. Jesus is telling us here that he know we cannot with our own power break the yoke of sin in our lives—we have to on his yoke to do so. It is through Jesus, the light of the world, that we are able to be free of the yoke of sin. And the great thing is that this is something that the light—that Jesus—accomplishes in us as we submit to his yoke and walk in the light. What does the light accomplish? As someone has said, “When Jesus comes, the shadows depart.”
This is the first thing that the Light accomplishes: he breaks the yoke of sin and replaces it with his own.
Many of the images, not surprisingly, are military and warfare images. But in particular, this passage imagines that the war is finally over. We come onto the seen when the battle is already done. Verse 3 talks about dividing the plunder and spoils of war. You wouldn’t do that if you were still fighting. Verse 5 of our Isaiah passage describes the victors of a battle burning the tools of war. You would only do this if victory was complete and the battle was over. Verse 6 and 7 talk about the Prince of Peace and tells us that there is “endless peace.”
This is the second thing that the Light accomplishes: complete victory and lasting peace.
This Light is the “Prince of Peace”—and how did Jesus, this prince, ultimately establish this peace that would be endless? Colossians 1: 20 says, “And through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” That’s how Christ makes peace—not by perpetuating violence, but by allowing himself to become a victim of violence. There is nothing more vulnerable than a child who enters the world to become a man nailed to a cross.
It is on this cross that our victory was won—it is because Jesus went to the cross that we are free from the yoke of sin. We have a hymn called “Victory in Jesus,” and here are some of its words: “I heard and old, old story/ How a Savior came from glory/ How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me/ I heard about His groaning/ Of His precious blood’s atoning/ Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.”
The Light accomplishes this victory through the suffering and death of a cross.
What is our response to the Light?
So what is our response to the light? I think there are two aspects to our response. The first we see in Matthew 4: 17. After the quote from Isaiah, it says, “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.””
Jesus tells the people to repent—to repent of all the ways we have given into the darkness of sin in our lives, of all the ways we have failed to love God and love our neighbour. Even as Christians we can still fail and sin. Repentance, just as sing in “Victory in Jesus,” is how we win the victory.
Our first response to the Light is repentance.
In verse 3 of our passage Isaiah gives a vivid description of the people’s response to God’s deliverance: “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.” Rejoicing is our next response, because the Lord has delivered us. After we repent, God restores to us, as it says in Psalm 51, “the joy of your salvation.”
Our second response to the Light is rejoicing.
Now, despite all that we’ve said about Jesus as the Light of the world, Jesus himself says something curious. In Matthew 5: 14 he tells his disciples: “You are the light of the world.” When we go to bed, Alisha and I have two small oil lamps that we use to read. We put them on the top shelf of our headboard, and not under the bed. The light wouldn’t do much good otherwise, would it?
Well, Jesus also says, “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Jesus is the Light of the world; we are also the light of the world insofar as we reflect Jesus’ character and message in our words and deeds. 1 Peter 2: 9 tells us to “proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.”
Our third response to the Light is to share it with others.
Conclusion
But even if we share this Light, we have to know that not everyone prefers or loves light—especially when the light uncovers things they don’t others to see. In John 3: 19, 20 it says: “The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.”
Let us pray, though, that as we proclaim this Light—as we proclaim the victory possible in Jesus—that people would turn to the Light. And may we as those of whom Jesus speaks when he says “those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
Jesus is the light that John the Baptist testified about. With Jesus, it says in John’s Gospel, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” John also says, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” Isaiah tells us that the kingdom that the Messiah brings will be upheld “from this time onward and forevermore.”
So nothing can extinguish this light—because it’s not a light that we create ourselves. Notice how light is the very first thing that God made. In Genesis 1: 3 it says: “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Here Genesis is talking about the light of the stars and the sun and the moon—but it’s not hard to move from this to talk about Jesus as the light of the world. God is responsible for the light; God is the light—and through Jesus He has come into the world to, as Genesis also says, to separate the light from the darkness. He has done this for us; may we continue walking in the light so that those around us may know he has done it for them too.
