Light Comes to the Darkness

But there will be no gloom for those who were 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 will make 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 lived in a land of deep darkness—
    on them light has shined.

You have multiplied exultation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as people exult when dividing plunder. 

For the yoke of their burden
    and the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Isaiah 9:1–4

Israel, after the reign of David’s Dynasty, was indeed a dark place as Isaiah writes these words. In the eighth century BCE, the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser, conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in three successive invasions. Assyrian rule meant devastation for the populations of a defeated territory. What the Assyrians considered the top echelons of that territory’s population would have been exiled to various places in the empire and would have been replaced by Assyrians or other foreigners subservient to the Assyrians. 

What came next for Israel was a blending of cultures through inter-marriage and simple submission which watered down strict cultural practices of the Jews. This is the same fate that created what would become the Samaria of Jesus’ day. It also accounts for the hatred the Jews of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) had toward the Samaritans since the Judean Jews believe the Samaritan’s was an illegitimate version of Judaism, corrupt and polluted. 

The Jews of the regions that were “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” suffered at a higher level because of the wealth of natural resources and fertility of those lands. These were the territories assigned to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali when Joshua and the Israelites conquered the Promise Land. And now Assyrians applied their policies with more vigor than in other areas of Israel because of the wealth that was to be found there. They were also the lands that would eventually come to be known as Galilee. Thus Isaiah sees a time in which the contemptible Zebulun and Naphtali of his day would be redeemed to become a place from which a great light would shine for both Galilee and the world.

In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

For the Jews, Light was an integral part of their identity as the People of God. They were called, through Abraham, to be a “Light to the Nations” or a “Light on a Hill” that others would see and be drawn to for salvation. Over time that imagery of being the source of the salvation of the world became to be personified in one man with the coming of the Messiah. It would be the Messiah who would become that powerful Light …a beacon that would redeem both Israel and the entire world.

This hope for Israel and the Messiah lived on through the ages, surviving the onslaught of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the armies of Alexander the Great, and then might of the Roman Empire. One conquering power after another subjugated the Jews in Israel and demeaned them in the places to which they had been scattered in their long history of defeat and dispersion.

This Hope and confidence that the Messiah, which means the “Anointed One” would come one day, gave birth to our own belief as Christians that this prophecy was fulfilled through Jesus Christ and His announcement that the Kingdom of God had arrived. To this day, we live in Christ with the core knowledge and faith that Christ conquers all. That the Kingdom of God lives in each one of us…and not only lives, but thrives. Human history is a story of ups and downs, of triumph and defeat, of glory and shame. And the same can be said of each of our own lives.

My prayer for each of you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we continue to live with this Light in our hearts. That we do more than be a “light on a hill” showing others the Truth that is Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.  God demands that we carry that Light everywhere we are led by the Holy Spirit as we go in the name of Jesus. We live it for our own salvation. But we also live it for one another. We live it for all the world to see. We “go tell it” everywhere the Spirit leads. We live it for Christ and His Kingdom, the Church.

Amen and Amen!

Rev Dr Jim McGrath