A Light in the Darkness

“The people who walk in darkness
    will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness,

    a light will shine.
³ You will enlarge the nation of Israel,
    and its people will rejoice.
They will rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest
    and like warriors dividing the plunder.
⁴ For you will break the yoke of their slavery
    and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.
You will break the oppressor’s rod,
    just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.
⁵ The boots of the warrior
    and the uniforms bloodstained by war
will all be burned.
    They will be fuel for the fire.

⁶ For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,^[c] Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ His government and its peace
    will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
    for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    will make this happen!

Isaiah 9:2-7, NLT

            This summer my family and I took a trip to Mammoth Cave. Over the years, we’ve visited several times and we always try and take a different tour of the caves. This year, our tour had us stop deep beneath the ground and take a seat on a bench while our guide gave a brief talk about the cave we were in. As part of this talk, he asked us to silence all electronic devices, making sure they couldn’t light up, to not make any noise, and to keep any children with light up shoes from moving their feet. He warned us that he would be turning off the light, but he would be right by the switch and would turn it back on in a few moments.

            He flipped the switch, and suddenly, we were surrounded in complete darkness. Not the kind where your eyes finally adjust to the tiniest amount of light in your bedroom at night and you can make out shapes, no, in this cave, there was no sound and no matter how many times you blinked, the world was completely black.

            It was unnerving to be in such a place. It was as if that darkness had a tangible weight, like a heavy blanket pressing down on me. My eyes kept blinking as my ears actively searched for any scrap of sound. Every part of me was struggling to try and find some tiny bit of visibility that it could latch onto, anything to help me escape this deep, sinister void.

            As I celebrate the Christmas season, I like to contemplate where the world was back when that tiny baby was born in a manger. About 400 years had passed since the last prophet of the Old Testament. The temple of Jerusalem has been rebuilt, but it had never reached the glory and splendor of its original days. Rome was the controlling political power, and even the Jewish people were divided into groups like the Pharisees and Sadducees.

In the opening verses of this passage, scripture reads, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.” (v.2) Maybe, just like I felt that day sitting in that cave, Israel felt like they were sitting in a dark and dreary world that was suffocating them. Here were the promised children of God bruised and weary, but no matter how hard they looked, no matter how much their souls longed to see it, their hope still had not come. Not until the day, the very moment when Christ was born.

God had foretold of a coming Savior; he would be called, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (v.6) Oh, how the people must have longed for His arrival! Their history was colored with being captured and exiled, placed under one ruler after another, surrounded by idol worship in foreign lands. How many mouths in prayer were whispering, “Please Lord, send the promised one”?

Maybe today, in a modern world where we are governed by worldly rulers and where we may feel like the Church is divided by differing opinions, maybe we feel like we too are living in a land of deep darkness. At times, it feels like all the chaos of this world, all the despair and anger and brokenness can overwhelm me, and I too cry out, “When will this struggle cease? When will we find peace?”

I was talking with my daughter just the other day about her Sunday School lesson. She was explaining their bible story was about a prophet, and how what he said would happen came true. We talked about how, when God tells His people He will do something, we can trust that it will come to pass. So, maybe this Christmas I can remember that God was faithful to send a “child born to us, a son is given to us.”(v.6) Many years have passed since that night in Bethlehem, but God is still faithful to keep His promises. As weary as I may get from the troubles of this life, I know that this is indeed temporary and that God is still in control. May Christmas be a time when my faith grows stronger, and I rest in the trust that the remaining verses in this Isaiah passage will, in time, come to be as well:

“His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” (v.7)