Monday, February 8, 2010
Isaiah 9:1 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.
EARTHLY THREATS -- HEAVENLY HOPE
A noted Lutheran theologian begins his discussion of Isaiah 9 with a reminder of the background under which this passage was held forth to the people of Israel. "The dreadful judgment that was about to fall on the hardened nation of Judah as well as on Assyria, the heathen superpower ... The messianic passages in chapters 7-12 form a brilliant contrast to the undercurrent of doom" (August Pieper).
Whatever we may think on a quiet evening in the comfort of our living room, we stand always on the brink of just such disaster ourselves. The last century has shown that over and over again one threat seems to pass and another looms like a dark thunder cloud upon the not so distant horizon. The great wars, the cold war, the power of the atom, chemical warfare, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong-il, Osama, and many more including even President Reagan brought to many the fear that we would not make it through the current crisis. Currently that fear is being brought into sharp relief by the continuing economic depression and for some the rather radical shift in government policy brought on by a new and unknown administration. I can hardly count the number of spam emails I have received documenting just how President Obama is surely going to sweep us down into certain ruin. Just like Israel we continue to live on the verge of destruction. And not even America, no matter who the president is, can ever bring us peace and security for the future.
So yes, we can certainly all relate very well to a land growing darker as the word of Light recedes from it and the future impending threats build on the horizon.
To such a land Isaiah spoke and still speaks this promise of God, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2).
