Dawn

And I say used to, most people who
know me know that I’m not thrilled about it. I tell people that
everybody ought to go out and sleep in the dirt once a year
just to remind them of the preciousness of their beds. I guess the way
that I look at it with regards to camping is my few experiences,
those that I’ve had, were so full that I felt like I gained
all the experience that I needed in those few opportunities and
I don’t need to go back. One of those particular instances
I was camping, it was actually at Lake Powell. I’ve told some
people this story. It was with some friends, we
were camping out and it was cold. It was summertime, and so I had
come, for the most part, unprepared. Tucked into my sleeping bag,
in my clothes, probably with everything that I owned with
me. And as the night wore on, our
fire began to die out, and I had stoked it a couple of times,
but I knew that we were out of logs, and so I got out of my
sleeping bag, and went with a flashlight to hunt for wood. And there was
nothing near the shore worth burning and so I ventured up
above our campsite onto a ridge and was in the process of gathering
wood when I noticed that the fire had stoked itself and that
now almost a flashlight was unneeded because there was this significant
glow from the fire illuminating the ground all around me. And
I gathered enough wood. I knew that whatever had stoked
the fire wouldn’t last long, and so I had a couple of armloads
of wood and headed down to the fire, dropped the firewood, only
to discover the outline of my sleeping bag was all that was
left, which Even for a godless young man, I looked at that as
a special provision of the Lord that I was out of my sleeping
bag when whatever spark flew. I did stoke the fire and all
I had at that point to surround me was wet towels from the boat. And I remember sitting there
all night long longing for the dawn, longing for sunrise to
begin to warm my freezing cold body. Well, spiritually speaking,
the nation of Israel was in a very similar predicament. They were
in utter darkness, spiritually speaking. They were supposed
to be the people of God, but have long since proven otherwise. And they found themselves longing
for the dawn. They found themselves longing
for God. For God to do something. If God’s
people would take their Bibles, I want to take you on a rather
difficult journey all the way back to 2 Chronicles chapter
28. 2 Chronicles chapter 28. We’ll land in Isaiah this morning,
eventually, but for now I want to start all the way back in
this Old Testament book, 2 Chronicles. And I want to introduce you to
a man named Ahaz, a king. Most of you know, years ago we
did a study of the kings. Every single one of the kings
of Israel was by God’s account evil. In Judah’s case, the smaller
kingdom of Judah had a mixture of good kings and evil kings. Ahaz was one of the latter. 2 Chronicles 28 says Ahaz was 20
years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem
and he did not do right in the sight of the Lord as his father
David had done. But he walked in the ways of
the kings of Israel. He also made molten images of
the Baals. He instituted idolatry as a practice
in the land. Moreover, he burned incense in
the valley of Ben-Hinnom and burned his sons in fire according
to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out
before the sons of Israel.” Do you get the picture? Here’s Ahaz
re-adopting some of the practices that had led God to root out
these heathen people and now Ahaz is re-instituting some of
these same practices. Look at verse 4. He sacrificed
and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under
every green tree.” So, if you back up and you just look at
the overall assessment of this particular king of Judah that
he did not do right in the sight of the Lord, it’s not good. Not
good at all. This is an incredibly sad day
for Judah. By and large, their kings were
better than those of Israel. Israel, as I said, never did
enjoy a good king. Judah enjoyed many. So Ahaz had
that. He had a strong heritage. Both his grandfather Uzziah,
his father Jotham, were among Judah’s good kings. They had
a good thing going in this line. They were good men. They ruled
well. They did right in the eyes of
the Lord. But Ahaz, Suddenly Ahaz goes
south and he engaged in the worst kind of idolatry, idolatry so
heinous it moved him to sacrifice even his own sons in the fires
of a false god. It’s just sickening, unbelievable. And he is going to pay for it.
God is going to chasten him and the nation. Ultimately, that ends with defeat
and exile, which is recorded, if you will,
in verse 5. Wherefore, the Lord his God delivered
him into the hand of the king of Aram. They defeated him and
carried him away from a great number of captives and brought
them to Damascus. And he was delivered into the
hand of the king of Israel, who had inflicted him with many casualties,
heavy casualties rather, And for Pekah, the son of Ramaliah,
slew in Judah 120,000 in one day, all valiant men, because
they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. Now, that’s
the conclusion. But I want to take us into the
moment, if you will, in between. And it’s a very brief moment. People had clamored for an earthly
king, and God gave them exactly what they wanted. Even though
God was their king, God gave them a king, and they had some
good ones and they had some very bad ones. There were glorious
days in Israel’s kingdom, King David, King Solomon, and then
the kingdom divides. For Israel, as I said, never
even one decent king, never one good king. For Judah, good days
and bad days would come. But onto the scene burst this
new prophet, Isaiah. And Isaiah comes for the very
specific purpose to confront one of the evil kings of Judah,
King Ahaz. If you would, turn in your Bibles
now to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6, you know the
chapter. It is Isaiah’s commissioning,
and it is a profound scene. Isaiah, in the year of King Uzziah’s
death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted,
with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above
Him, each having six wings, with two He covered His face, With
two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called
out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of
the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while
the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I
am ruined. says Isaiah, because I am a man
of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the
seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had
taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and
said, behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is
taken away and your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then
I said, Here I am. Send me. And thus is Isaiah’s
commissioning. And immediately after, Isaiah
goes out to confront Judah’s king, King Ahaz. See, at that very moment, Judah
was facing attack by the godless nation Syria and her own sister
country Israel. It was an unprecedented situation,
an abomination in God’s eyes and essentially Isaiah’s mission
is to go to Ahaz and to call him to repentance. It’s an amazing
scene because of Judah’s sinfulness God seems to be giving them over
to their enemies even to the nation of Israel who itself was
so utterly sinful. Isaiah goes to them. Perhaps
you recall this particular passage which we’ve also looked at in
the context of Christmas season. Isaiah chapter 7, flip over one
chapter. Isaiah goes to Ahaz. And he begins
this process, this lengthy process, this dialogue, if you will, of
reasoning and calling Ahaz to repentance. And he tells Ahaz
that God is moving, and he basically challenges Ahaz to ask God for
a sign. Perhaps you’ve heard in people’s
testimony from time to time, you know, that they ask God.
They ask God to show Himself, reveal Himself, prove Himself. This is Isaiah challenging Ahaz
to ask God to prove himself. Look at verse 10. Then the Lord
spoke to Ahaz again saying, ask a sign for yourself from the
Lord your God. Make it as deep as Sheol or as
high as heaven. This is an amazing scene. He
tells Ahaz, look, you want proof? Just ask God. ask God whatever
you want and I take this to mean that this was Isaiah’s prerogative
to give to King Ahaz he’s challenging him to ask God to prove himself
but Ahaz watch this hypocrisy but Ahaz said I will not ask
nor will I test the Lord as if he had not already tested the
Lord extremely already in his sacrifice to the idols. And then Isaiah replies, and
this rebuke is strong, then he said, Listen now, O house of
David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of
men? And what he’s talking about there
are these two kings, the king of Syria and the king of Israel
itself. It was one thing for Ahaz to
stand up to them, But is he going to stand before Almighty God
and put forth this hypocrisy? Oh, no, I’m not going to challenge
God. Listen now, O house of David,
is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men
that you will try the patience of my God as well? And then he
says, look, you don’t want a sign? I’m going to give you a sign
anyway. here’s the sign look at verse 14 therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign behold a virgin will be with
child and bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel and
that meant to Ahaz absolutely nothing he couldn’t make heads
or tails of that and for hundreds of years no
one could chapter 8 is a rebuke essentially
to all three nations Syria, Israel, and Judah. Judah standing up
to Syria and Israel but certainly a rebuke to Syria in their heathen
willingness to attack one of God’s kingdoms. But the greatest
rebuke is for Israel and their willingness to attack their sister
nation. Jump all the way down to chapter
8 verse 21. Here’s the rebuke They will pass
through the land hard pressed and famished. And it will turn
out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse
their king and their God as they face upward. Do you get the imagery
there? They’re dead. They’re laying
flat on their back. They’ve been slain. They will
be enraged and curse the king and their God as they face upward.
Then they will look to the earth And behold, distress and darkness,
the gloom of anguish, and they will be driven away into darkness.”
This is the darkness that I alluded to. That God’s people were plunged
into a spiritual darkness. And it would last for centuries. And there would be no repentance.
No turning. And in a sense, no hope. As one pastor said, Judah shall
not, cannot perish because Emmanuel, the virgin son, the long-promised
Messiah was to come forth from that lineage. They wouldn’t perish,
but it would be a lengthy season of darkness. Turn, if you would,
to Isaiah 9. In Isaiah 9, the light of dawn
begins to crest the horizon. We pick it up in verse 1. But there will be no more gloom
for her who is in anguish. In earlier times He treated the
land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt. But
later on He shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the
other side of the Jordan. Galilee of the Gentiles, the
people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who
live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation.
You shall increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence
as with the gladness of harvest. As men rejoice when they divide
the spoil, for you shall break the yoke of their burden and
the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor as
at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted
warrior in the tumult and cloak rolled in blood will be for burning
fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us,
a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His
shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father. prince of peace. There will be no end to the increase
of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over
his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and
righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the
Lord will accomplish this. What Isaiah declares here is
that dawn is coming. The light of dawn would begin
to break, spiritually speaking, and it would become full day.
And that day would never again be darkened. What he presents
to us is these glorious truths about the Messiah. It was God’s
gift. It was God’s gift not just to
Judah, not just to Israel, but God’s gift to the world. in the
sending of His Son. It was a prophecy given originally
to Ahaz and Judah and the nations that God had elected. But now, now that news broadens. The news here is that the light
will shine on a darkened world. Look first of all at the appearance
of the Messiah. light in the darkness. Look at
verse 1. There will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. Chapter 9 opens with this stark
contrast, but there is hope for the first time. For the first
time in His ministry, if you will, Isaiah begins to proclaim
hope. He had proclaimed judgment. He
had proclaimed doom. He had already levied darkness
upon the land, but now there’s hope. The prophet had declared
in the closing verses of chapter eight. The low point of these
nations, their misery and all of that begins to fade as the
light of dawn breaks. Those nations that were afflicted,
those nations that were in the dark of their own sin. Their
affliction would begin to fade. And what lies in the future will
be a dramatic contrast with what has been. The land of Galilee
that he points to included the very cities that were alluded
to in his initial rebuke, Naphtali and Zebulun. It was the northern
portion. And that northern portion was always inhabited by this
mixed race of Jews and Gentiles. And because of that, there was
this hatred for this land. Look at their condition. Their
first condition was one of gloom, contempt, darkness. They were
in a dark land. Those that are mentioned in chapter
8 who, because of their disobedience and constant idolatry, were near
to experiencing God’s wrath, His judgment. This region, this region that
had been steeped in darkness because of their sin would be
the first to experience the Messiah in the light of his new kingdom. This despised Galilee, this hated
place would be the very dawn of the
Messiah. Darkness is one of those words
in scripture that functions not just as a word, not only pointing
to literal darkness, but it functions as a term, a particular kind
of word that has a very deep meaning behind it. Darkness in
scripture is often presented as emblematic or symbolic of
a greater curse. It’s spoken of as pointing to
death. Job 10.21, before I go, I shall
not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow. It’s used of
misery and despair. Matthew 22, the king said to
the servants, bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer
darkness. John tells us that it’s a realm
that men typically love. John 3.19, which first we just
considered. last Lord’s Day. It’s a realm
where God is entirely absent. It’s the realm where sin reigns
supreme. It’s the realm where all the
forces of evil reign. It’s a realm from which we are
called as believers. It is identified as the dominion
of Satan. It is a realm of ignorance and
spiritual blindness, darkness. That’s where Israel was. That’s
where these nations were. And the honest truth is, that’s
where every person ever born is. John Gill, Charles Spurgeon’s
predecessor said it this way, the true character of all people
before conversion, who are in a state of darkness under the
power of sin, shut up in unbelief, are in gross ignorance of themselves
and their condition. Did you hear what he said? There’s
so much in the dark, they don’t even know that they have a problem.
They don’t even know that they are the problem. He goes on,
they are shut up in unbelief, in gross ignorance of themselves
and their condition, of sin and the danger that they are exposed
to by it, of divine and spiritual things, of the grace of God,
of the way of peace, life and salvation by Christ. and the
work of the blessed spirit, and of the truths of the gospel.
All of that is dark to them. A moment ago, my brother prayed
that we have a difficult task in a very dark world we do. And
it is dark, and they are in the dark. They are literally shut
up in that dark spiritual world. Gil concludes with this. when
He says they’re not only shut up in unbelief in their sin and
the truths of the gospel, they are in the dark, they can see
no objects in a spiritual sense, not to read the Word so as to
understand it, or to work that which is good, and they walk
in darkness not knowing where they are and where they are going.
That’s the truth. They’re in this absolute darkness
longing for the dawn, longing for the dawn of a Redeemer, the
arrival of the Messiah. For you and I, that darkness,
we knew it. We knew it well. And it’s only
by God’s grace that we know it only in relief now of the light
of the gospel. Paul, in the book of Ephesians,
alludes to this when he says, Our struggle is not against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the
world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces
of wickedness in the heavenly places. We see it now. It says the same thing in Colossians
1.13 that He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred
us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. We see the darkness now
for what it is. We see that we were in desperate
darkness, in desperate need of a savior, and God provided it.
God provided the Lord Jesus Christ for that. But for those who do not know
Christ, for those who have not heard
the gospel, they are literally plunged in the midst of darkness. And their foolishness makes perfect
sense. They don’t know what direction they’re heading. They don’t know
what they believe. They don’t even know their pain,
their misery. They don’t know their wretched
condition. Until the gospel, by God’s grace,
begins to break forth in their hearts and their lives. And they
see their condition for what it is. It’s the same with these
nations, these heathen nations. Matthew Henry says of. Judah
and Israel, they were in the region of the shadow of death.
The grave as the grave is the land of darkness, but great danger. Sitting in darkness and death’s
shadow indicates that condition of danger, they were plunged
into despair. And so this region of Judah is
pictured as mired in darkness, hopeless, bound in sin, threatened
by oppressors. And as I said, their condition
is our condition without Christ. But there is hope. There’s hope
on the horizon. And if you’re familiar with the prophets,
There’s nothing more familiar in reading through the prophets
than no sooner do you see the absolute bottom. The prophet,
by God’s influence, offers a hint of hope. And Isaiah begins to
hint at that hope here in chapter 9, doesn’t he? Almost immediately,
from the gloom and the anguish that they were facing, In the
midst of that gloom and despair, there is hope. But initially, if you glance
at it, it’s incredibly undefined. Look at verse 1. There will be
no more gloom. He doesn’t say how. He doesn’t
even really say why. He doesn’t attribute that to
the mercy of God. He doesn’t point here specifically
to the Messiah. He just points to the fact that
there is hope, that it’s almost as the sun, just prior to the
crest of the horizon, where the sky begins to lighten just a
bit. Later on in that same verse,
it says that, He shall make it glorious. He’s referring back
to the land of Zubulan and the land of Naphtali, the land that
was already in contempt and plunged in darkness, God himself would
make it glorious. And perhaps they even wondered,
is God just going to put us out of our misery? But again, there is promise.
There’s hope. And this help is implied, but
what exactly? And what Isaiah begins to do
is pile clue on top of clue. And yet the clues don’t seem
to add up to anything. Isaiah says cryptically that
help is going to come. Look at the end of verse one,
by way of the sea. Is he talking about a great fleet?
By way of the sea on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of
the Gentiles. And if this is all there is,
The hope is just a faint glimmer. There’s nothing concrete. They
can’t make sense of any of this. It’s hope, we admit. It’s a light
that God is doing something and He’s there to relieve the misery
of sinners. But it’s completely undefined
in verse 1. Look at verse 2. The sky lightens
a bit more. The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light. the greatest hope they’ve had
yet. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on
them. We’ve looked at the meaning of darkness and what then could
light represent, but a spiritual light. To this darkness is promised
the blessing of light. The problem is that for Judah,
especially for Israel, The light never came. All they experienced for the
next 700 years was oppression, and war, and bondage, and death,
and destruction, and captivity, and slavery. In the book of 2 Kings, as the end
of those books wind down, It’s recorded in chapter 15, verse
29, in the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser, king
of Assyria, came and captured Ijon. And in the land of Naphtali,
he carried them off captive into Assyria. That’s what they experienced.
The days of Shamanzer, second king, 17, in the ninth year of
King Hosea, king of Assyria, captured Samaria and carried
away Israel into exile. That’s what they experienced.
So how does scripture use this prophecy to speak of a day of dawning?
A day of light? A day where God’s promises would
be fulfilled? Keep your finger, if you would,
in Isaiah chapter 9 and turn to Matthew chapter 4. The honest truth is the Jews
had no idea what to do with this passage. It was as if it was a mockery
by Isaiah, taunting them with the message of hope, the message
of light, the message of some kind of redemption that never
seemed to come. And then in the course of the
coming of Christ and John the Baptist’s ministry, Matthew records
that John the Baptist is taken into custody and we pick it up
in verse 12 of chapter 4. Now, when Jesus heard that John
had been taken into custody, he withdrew into Galilee. And
leaving Nazareth, he came and settled in Capernaum, which is
by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. was to fulfill what was spoken
through Isaiah the prophet. The land of Zebulun and the land
of Naphtali, by way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of
the Gentiles, the people who were sitting in darkness saw
a great light. And upon those who were sitting
in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned. They
were speaking of Christ. All of these prophecies. 700 years before Christ was born,
These words of Isaiah ultimately pointed to Christ. It was hope.
It was the hope of a new day. But it’s not until Matthew chapter
4, where Christ is already born and grown, and in the midst of
His earthly ministry, that declares that Jesus Christ was that light. And this darkness, this darkness
begins to fade. begins to dispel the darkness.
As one said, here was the very scene of which Isaiah had spoken.
The border country of Zebulun and Naphtali to those who had
been in darkness of spiritual ignorance, neglected and uncared
for as sheep having gone astray in the dark valley of death,
there had sprung up a marvelous light. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Christ himself. living among
these people and now he is in the very region that Isaiah prophesied. The light had dawned. And we
have already seen from John’s gospel, Jesus Christ is the light. Jesus said it himself, John 8,
12, I am the light of the world. Jesus Christ is the promised
light, but it wasn’t just for them. It was for us. You see, our darkness, our despair,
our gloom because of our sin is no less significant than it
was for those nations that had effectively turned their back
on God. Christ is no less a light to us than was promised to Judah.
He is the hope. He is the only hope. We never
fear from saying that. In this day in which we live
where it’s almost, it’s politically incorrect to say that Jesus Christ
is the only way. The Bible doesn’t hold back from
that. Jesus Christ is not a light, he’s the light. This is precisely where we left
off in John’s gospel, last Lord’s day. The light has come into
the world. He who practices truth comes
to the light. Think back to the account of
Jesus and John the Baptist’s birth in Luke’s gospel. Zacharias noticed. Zacharias
noticed that the light of God had come, that the light had
shone on the land. It was good enough for him that
he said, it’s good enough for me that I die. Paul said it this way. We do
not preach Christ ourselves. Pardon me. We do not preach ourselves,
but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bond servants
for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, light shall
shine out of darkness, is the one who is shown in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of the face of Christ. Christ is to us a great light.
Christ is to us the only light. Christ is the only way of salvation. He is the only means of dispelling
spiritual darkness. But I told you I wanted to look
at three of these glorious aspects of God’s gift of this Messiah. Not only the appearance of the
Messiah, but secondly, the blessings of this Messiah. Look at verse
3, all the way back in Isaiah chapter 9. In Isaiah chapter 9, look at verse
3, where we begin to see the blessings of this Messiah. We
know that He’s light. We know that that means generally
good things. We didn’t know exactly what that
means, and not until Matthew chapter 4 did anyone know what
this prophecy meant. But in verse three, it begins
to unfold. You shall multiply the nation.
There will be blessing. You shall increase their gladness.
They will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest,
as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. This multiplying the nation,
its Jewish imagery is just blessing. It’s unmingled blessing. It’s the pure grace of God being
poured out upon the land. And it’s a very common image,
Isaiah 26, You’ve increased the nation, O Lord, You’ve increased
the nation, You are glorified. Jeremiah 31, Behold, days are
coming when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah
with the seed of man, with the seed of beast. In other words,
there’s just going to be a flourishing kingdom. You shall increase their
gladness, the joyful happiness of the people. That is not what
you picture in chapter 8. What you picture in chapter 8
is the end of a nation. But now what’s pictured is joy,
gladness. And it’s the scene of a harvest
party. And we have the privilege having
shepherded in rural areas to know what these harvest parties
are. They happen in the fall. And many of the farmers in the
community are in the process of harvesting and rejoicing. And it is your hands and your
mind is very close to the earth in that regard. And you begin
to realize this process where God supplies in His good providence. And almost always there are these
parties, harvest parties. And that’s the picture, these
blessings. Blessings as with the gladness
of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. There’s
much rejoicing in the provision of Christ. And he says in verse
3, they will be glad in your presence. The second image presented
is that of a conqueror’s plunder, where they divide up the loot
from what they’ve conquered. One pastor said, a full and perfect
joy, joy of which we cannot in any way be robbed or deprived
through various storms and tempests, and though we should be weighed
down with every kind of affliction, however weak and feeble we may
be, still we ought to be glad and joyful, for the ground of
our joy does not lie in numbers, or in wealth, or in outward splendor,
but in spiritual happiness. which we obtain through the Word
of Christ. He says that when Christ comes,
there’s going to be this blessing. There’s going to be joy. What makes them so happy? Look
at verse 4. You shall break the yoke of their
burden and the staff on their shoulders. The staff is literally
a pole to which they were tied, which would make it very difficult
to run away. And a lot of times they were
tied one to another so that it was even more difficult to run
away. And if one fell, several fell. God’s going to completely liberate
from sin the rod of their oppressor. There will be no oppressor. And
then he says this. You shall break the yoke of their
burden, the staff of their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as
at the battle of Midian.” You know the sad thing is, we read
the Bible so often and we just, we don’t even take the time to
look at what that means. What happened in Midian? It was
one of the greatest victories that Israel ever experienced. It was Gideon. You remember Gideon. God takes Gideon and he first
whittles his troops down from 22,000 to 10,000. And now Gideon’s
got to be really nervous. Except that God calls him again
and says, still way too many. And he devises this plan on whittling
it down even further. He whittles it down to 300. Because he wanted them to know
that if they gained the victory, the victory came not from their
military might. It came from God Almighty. And God commissions Gideon to
go down. And Gideon went down and he had assurance after assurance
that God was giving them into his hand. And he divided the
men, the book of Judges said, into three companies. He put
trumpets and empty pitchers in the hands of all of them. No
weapons. torches inside the pitchers and he said to them look at me
and do likewise and behold when I come to the outskirts of camp
do as I do then blow the trumpets and all around the camp and say
for the Lord and for Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men
who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the
beginning of the middle watch when they just had posted the
watch they blew the trumpets smashed the pitchers that were
in their hands. Now this isn’t exactly a model for military
victory, but it was God who was at work. When the three companies
blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches
in their hands and the trumpets in their right hands and cried,
a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Each stood in his place
around the camp and all the army ran crying out as they fled. They were utterly horrified.
And Isaiah says, that this victory, this victory of providing Christ is going to be just like that.
It’s going to be a work of the Lord. Your salvation has nothing
to do with your effort. Your salvation has nothing to
do with your goodness. Your salvation has nothing to
do with your obedience. Your salvation has nothing to
do with your church attendance or your goodness. Just like with the Battle of
Midian, it’s God and it’s God alone. God has provided the Messiah. God has provided in his marvelous
display of power the Lord Jesus Christ. What are the blessings of the
Messiah? We saw them. Abundance, an abundant blessing,
blessing for all. an ever-growing kingdom, friends
and neighbors and co-workers and family. And there’s gladness,
joy, real joy, happiness. Every person’s pursued. Everybody
wants to be happy. God says, I’ll give that abundance
and gladness and peace. Peace with God. The war is over. The Bible tells us that every
man that’s ever born is born literally at war with God. And in Christ, the war is over. Jesus Christ is the peace treaty.
Jesus Christ is the provision of peace between God and man.
And only then, only then as we look at this prophecy, do we
begin to see in somewhat clarifying terms, as the light of dawn becomes
even brighter on the horizon, we begin to see Things that were
shadows, now we begin to see in full. We begin to recognize
the identity of what he’s provided in the Messiah. Look at verse
6. Not only the appearance of the
Messiah and the blessings of the Messiah, but the identity
of the Messiah, the Son of God. Verse 6 says, for a child will
be born to us, a son will be given to us. We begin to see
him as he is, and the picture that is presented, and certainly
for the Jews of that day, they would have looked at this and
mocked. It didn’t make sense to the Jews. They didn’t know
what to do with this prophecy. But it was a prophecy of a coming
king. And we can begin to understand why Jews took this and molded
this into be this you know, super messiah that was going to come
and take over the world, the earth. John Calvin recognized the Jews’
practice with regards to this passage. He said, the Jews impudently
torture this passage, for they interpret it as relating to Hezekiah. That’s what they did with it.
They said, here’s our hope. It’s about Hezekiah. though he had been born before
this prediction was even uttered. But Isaiah speaks of it as something
new and unexpected, and it is even a promise intended to arouse
believers to the expectation of a future event, a child that
was afterwards to be born. You see the picture that he has
here, a child that is born to us, a son that was given to us,
could never be complete in an earthly king. The description
of the king that he gives, the description of this little child
as a king that would be the Messiah. In the same region, there were
some shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over
their flocks by night, and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood
around them. The glory of the Lord shone around
them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said
to them, Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good
news of great joy, which shall be for all the people. For today
in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who
is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you.
You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with
the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men
with whom he is pleased. Joy indeed to the world. The Lord is come. Let’s pray. Our merciful God, We humble ourselves
in your presence. And Lord, for those of us who
are in Christ, and if we are in Christ, it is only by your
doing. Lord, for those of us who are in Christ, we remember
those dark days. We remember those hopeless days
before Christ, without him, where we were utterly in despair. We
did not know. We didn’t even know how sinful
we were. We certainly had no solution
for it. And so we lived fast enough,
quick enough to keep from even thinking upon those things. And
attending to our guilty conscience. We wanted nothing more than to
rid ourselves of thoughts of God. But we couldn’t. We knew that
God existed. And in our darkness we sat. Until purely by your grace and
out of your abundant mercy. Our eyes began to lighten. We began to see Christ for who
he is. We saw our sin. And we utterly
began to hate it. And Lord. You continued the process of
drawing us to repentance in Christ. And the light grew greater day
by day until we found ourselves standing in the full light of
day. Lord God, we thank you for the
Savior that you have provided. We acknowledge that you provided
it not just for sinful nations, but for the world, the whole
world. We thank you that that included us. Lord God, we do
ask your blessing. As we celebrate this season that
we find ourselves in, where people have such a tendency to forget
and even to plunge themselves back into the darkness, recoil. Lord, we pray, help us to bask
in the light of your presence. provided by your Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. We thank you and we praise you
in Jesus’ name. Amen. If you would take your
hymnals as we close and turn to 203, Ark the Herald Angels
Sing. We’ll stand together and sing
as we close.