Isaiah 9:1-7 (CSB): “Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness. You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils. For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian. For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.”
Some movies are absolutely timeless, and a prime example is found in the much-loved Christmas classic, A Christmas Story. Many of us can likely remember watching this movie during the run up to Christmas over the years, as well as TBS and TNT’s 24-hour marathons of the movie on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that often ran in the background of many homes during those wonderful and festive times.
A particularly humorous yet formative scene from the film takes place when the narrating main character, Ralphie, is sitting in class daydreaming about his deepest childhood desire. Preaching Today summarized the scene:
“In A Christmas Story, young Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun, but his parents’ only response is, ‘You’ll shoot your eye out!’ All the adults in Ralphie’s life seem united in keeping him from this dream.
At school, Ralphie’s teacher asks the class to write a theme paper titled, ‘What I want for Christmas.’ Ralphie’s face beams with joy as he sets about to write the greatest theme paper ever submitted in an elementary school. When he turns his paper in, we hear his thoughts: ‘I was handing Miss Shields a masterpiece. Maybe Miss Shields in her ecstasy would excuse me from theme writing for the rest of my natural life.’
Ralphie is convinced he has submitted his magnum opus. He imagines the teacher reviewing one bad theme paper after another in dramatic disgust, until she finally comes across Ralphie’s paper. The teacher is swept away by Ralphie’s submission.
‘Poetry! Sheer poetry!’ she exclaims, writing A++++++ across the blackboard, as Ralphie is hoisted into the air by his classmates.
Later, his teacher lays his graded theme paper on his desk. The grade on his paper is a C+ . Ralphie is devastated. Worse yet are the words written underneath in red pen, ‘You’ll shoot your eye out.’”[1]
Like Ralphie, we are not strangers to the theme of disappointment, including around Christmas time. When we’re kids, we sometimes feel the letdown of not getting a particular gift we hoped to receive. When we’re adults, we sometimes feel the disappointment of not getting to see or spend time with someone we had hoped to see during the holidays. Tragically, at any age, we may feel the grief of an empty place that was once filled by a loved one who has passed into eternity. And, as we journey through the collective experience of life, sometimes we begin to feel the disappointment brought on by the general array of missing things or experiences that we thought or hoped there would one day be in the broader contours of our lives.
Disappointment, brokenness, and disillusionment, in all their various forms and from all their various causes, are common and tragic themes of living in a sin-sick, fallen world.
But friends, in Christ, they are not the end of our story or the sum of all that there is in the course of God’s good plan for us.
The immediate context of Isaiah 9 is an Old Testament prophet speaking to a nation that had suffered devastating attacks and would ultimately be taken captive as a consequence of their terrible, obstinate, and rebellious sin. Zebulun and Naphtali, referred to in Isaiah 9:1, were two tribes of the Northern Kingdom that were hit particularly hard by the invasion of the Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III in 733 BC.[2] During that invasion, Tiglath-Pileser drastically reduced the territory held by the northern tribes and integrated three new provinces into his own empire.[3] These three provinces were Magiddu (“Galilee”, 9:1), Du’ru (“the way of the sea”, 9:1), and Gal’aza (“the land east of the Jordan”, 9:1).[4]
These beleaguered tribes had known immense suffering during this brutal period of attack and loss. Yet, the Lord, through His prophet, reminded them that this era of judgment and discipline for their sin and rebellion would not be their end. As Gary Smith helpfully summarized, “this verse surprisingly predicts that the least likely area of Israel, the far northern section that was the most militarily oppressed and most influenced by pagans, will in some way be honored by God when he sends a new light in the future.”[5]
However, that isn’t the only surprise of this passage. When Isaiah proclaims that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” he wasn’t just talking about the northern tribes or even greater Israel. He was also prophetically speaking about you and me!
Indeed, “a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness,” and that light is Christ our Savior. As Smith also concluded in his commentary, “This positive oracle comes to a climactic end by announcing the birth of a son who would reign forever as a righteous, Davidic ruler…This message of hope functions as a reassurance that God’s previous promises to the Davidic dynasty will be fulfilled in spite of all the terrible, dark circumstances the nation faced in the time of Ahaz. Light, joy, the end of war, and a new, righteous, Davidic ruler empowered by God himself will replace the gloom that surrounded the nation in the middle of the Syro-Ephraimite War.”[6] Smith continued, “This hope was an encouragement to Isaiah and his faithful followers to continue speaking about the things of God, even if most people would not listen or understand (6:10-11).”[7]
This Davidic Ruler in the form of Christ our Savior was, Himself, no stranger to disappointment, pain, abuse, and even the terror of death. But He is also the Savior who brings hope and victory beyond those hard and agonizing seasons. He who is the suffering Savior of Isaiah 53 and the agonized Savior praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-56; Mark 14:32-50; Luke 22:39-53) is also the victorious Prince of Peace of Isaiah 9:6–7 “For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.”
It was from the agony of His suffering, despair, and death that Christ would bring everlasting joy and eternal salvation for those who trust in Him. The comfort Jesus brings to us in our deepest griefs and disappointments isn’t the shallow and superficial (or condescending and dismissive) “pat on the head” offered by so many in the world who are far too busy with their own interests and priorities to give attention to our disappointments and difficulties. Rather, found in Christ is the comfort extended by One who knows the deepest extent of suffering and despair, and yet who conquered that suffering and despair at Calvary in love for each of us.
As Ray Ortlund encapsulated it so well, “God came to his people first where they had suffered the most, and from that place he launched salvation for the world. Isaiah uses the metaphors of darkness and light for oppression and liberation. Whenever foreign armies marched over the Fertile Crescent to invade Israel, the first area to come under attack was “Galilee of the nations” in the north. The Galileans knew slavery and despair. But God turned invasion into mission by making the people of Galilee the first ones to see the light of Jesus (Matthew 4:12–17). That is how God ushered in the new era of triumphant grace. We made no contribution to it. The ones walking in darkness suddenly found themselves blinking under a new light they had never seen before. They deserved what had happened to them [because of their sin]. But God was not satisfied with that. His zeal brought a Savior.[8]
In the midst of our darkness, despair, and disappointment, there is indeed hope. While sin brought death and suffering to this world (Gen. 3), our Savior brought redemption and eternal salvation. Our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace shines as a great and radiant light in the midst of our darkness.
Far too often, that darkness seems to envelop and overwhelm us. Yet, there is hope in Christ that reigns over our greatest despair. Spurgeon put it this way: “…we find the Lord Jesus as the morning light after a night of darkness…You look up, but the heavens are as brass above your head; your prayers appear to be shut out from God’s ear; you look around you upon the earth, and behold “trouble and darkness, and dimness of anguish”; your every hope is slain, and your heart is torn asunder with remorse and dread. Every hour you seem to be hurried by an irresistible power into greater darkness, yea, even into the eternal midnight. In such a case none can give you comfort save Immanuel, God with us. Only God, espousing your cause, and bearing your sin, can possibly save you. See, he comes for your salvation! Behold, he has come to seek and to save that which was lost. God has come down from heaven, and veiled himself in our flesh, that he might be able to save to the uttermost. He can save the chief of sinners: he can save you. Come to Jesus, you that have gone furthest into transgression, you that sit down in despondency, you that shut yourselves up in the iron cage of despair. For such as you there shines this star of the first magnitude. Jesus has appeared to save, and he is God and man in one person: man that he may feel our woes, God that he may help us out of them.”[9]
The fact that in this dark, fallen, and sin-sick world we are merely living through the prelude to the fullness of the glorious coming Kingdom of Christ is a reminder that there is joy, hope, and peace for us, both now and in the age yet to come.
Or, as we sing so rightly:
“Joy to the world; the Lord is come;
Let Earth receive her King;
Let ev’ry heart prepare him room,
And heav’n and nature sing.
Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns;
Our mortal songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.”[10]
Whether it is the frustrated childhood longing for a Red Ryder BB gun or the darkest night of the soul, there is eternal joy and everlasting hope in the loving and victorious reign of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Joy to the world, indeed. Merry Christmas, friends!
[1] A Christmas Story (MGM, 1983), directed by Bob Clark, https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2003/december/14718.html
[2] Gary Smith, Isaiah 1-39, Christian Standard Commentary (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2021), 269.
[3] Tremper Longman III, “Isaiah,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1055;
[4] Tremper Longman III, “Isaiah,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1055.
[5] Gary Smith, Isaiah 1-39, Christian Standard Commentary (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2021), 269.
[6] Gary Smith, Isaiah 1-39, Christian Standard Commentary (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2021), 270, 274.
[7] Gary Smith, Isaiah 1-39, Christian Standard Commentary (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2021), 274.
[8] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. and R. Kent Hughes, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 97.
[9] C. H. Spurgeon, “Immanuel—The Light of Life,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. “Immanuel—The Light of Life,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 36 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1890), 498–499.
[10] Isaac Watts, “Joy to the World!” (1719, public domain), hymnary.org, https://hymnary.org/text/joy_to_the_world_the_lord_is_come
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