The Glorious Savior of the Gentiles - Isaiah 8 & 9
Isaiah 8 & 9
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They say Spring is just around the corner. From where I’m standing, it seems like a very long block and the corner Spring is around is way down yonder. But Christmas was nearly two months ago, so we’re getting close to hearing the birds singing and seeing the flowers blooming. And we may even see the ground again before too long.
If during the month of December you heard Handel’s Messiah, you have already heard excerpts from our text for today, Isaiah 9. Specifically, you heard verses 2 & 6. Repeatedly.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
9 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
We considered these verses during Christmas, but let’s look at them again. I want to point out a few things today before we move on to chapter 10 next week. In order to understand chapter 9, look with me at chapter 8, beginning in verse 11 in order to understand some of the context. Isaiah is speaking:
11 For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”
We already know of God’s call to Isaiah to go to the people of Judah and preach to them the bad news. Notice Isaiah says here that the God who is a sanctuary to him is the God who will be a stumbling block and a snare and a trap for the people of Israel. That, brethren, is the way it always is and always has been. God is a sanctuary to one, a snare and a trap to another. A Savior to one, and a Judge to another. He is the Deliverer of the righteous, and the Destroyer of the ungodly. Many shall stumble over Him, and in the New Testament, we read of Jesus declaring Himself to be this stone of stumbling and this rock of offense. To everyone, Jesus is either their beloved Lord or their dreaded Prosecutor. And both Israel and Judah will be ensnared, and taken away by their enemies.
16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.
What worse condition could a nation suffer than to have God hide His face from them? This is the opposite of what we read in the book of Numbers. There God is instructing Aaron in his role as High Priest over the nation of Israel.
22Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
23"Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
24The LORD bless you, and keep you;
25The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you;
26The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.' (Numbers 6:22-26, ESV)
To have God’s face towards His people is to have His blessing and grace and peace. But when God hides His face, when He withdraws His presence, when He withholds blessing and refuses to hear the prayers of His people, when God, as it were, looks the other way and pays no attention to the people of Judah, . . . How can they survive? If God is not for you, . . .
18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
Isaiah and his sons are living messages to the people of Judah. Shear-Jashub means “A remnant shall return”, and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means “The spoil speeds, the prey hastens.“ Only a remnant will survive the onslaught of their enemies. They will be the prey, and the Assyrians will be unstoppable. Isaiah and his children are perpetual, living reminders of God’s call to repentance. But rather than talk to the prophet of God, the people prefer to talk to the dead for guidance about the future and about their enemies. They prefer the modern equivalent of crystal balls and Ouija boards and tarot cards and seances over the word of God, and they do so because they have no dawn. There is no spiritual light in them. They do not know God or His word or the truth. Consequently, . . .
21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
There is no spiritual light in them because they neglect the light they have been given. Therefore, the future holds distress, darkness, gloom, anguish, and thick darkness. When God turns the light of His face away from His people there is thick spiritual darkness. One translation says pervasive darkness.
That brings us to chapter 9 and once again, just as Jim pointed out last week, there are times when the little word “but” brings great hope, and this is just such an occasion. As thick and pervasive as the spiritual darkness is in Judah, even so, there is reason to be hopeful:
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was 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 has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
In the former time: gloom, darkness, anguish. In the latter time: glory!
Take a look at the map in your bulletin. The region Isaiah refers to here is the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, “the way of the sea”. It is that portion of land between the Sea of Galilee (on your map it is called the Sea of Chinnereth) and the Mediterranean Sea (or the Great Sea). Isaiah calls it “Galilee of the nations” or “Galilee of the Gentiles.” That is where the Jewish world and the Gentile world meet. It is where the Jews and the Gentiles clash. This is where Assyria (and later, Babylon) will come and carry away the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Jews will intermarry with them. Thus the great spiritual darkness and gloom. The people have forsaken God, and God has turned His face away from them.
But in the latter time God will make glorious the way of the sea. What is this “latter time” and how will He make Galilee of the Gentiles glorious? There are two times referred to in Scripture as the former times and the latter times or last days.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Hebrews 1:1-2, ESV)
The former days and the latter days or last days coincide with the times of the Old Covenant (Old Testament) and the New Covenant (New Testament). What separates these two eras is the coming of the Messiah. The arrival of Jesus Christ, and more specifically, His sacrificial death and His resurrection from the dead, mark the end of the former era and usher in the new day. Old things have indeed passed away. The old system has become obsolete, and the world is turned upside down by the events of Christ’s life and death, and by the message of the Gospel to the world.
That is exactly what Isaiah is talking about in chapter 9. Even though the darkness in Israel and Judah is very, very dark, in the latter days those who walked in darkness in the past will, see a great light. This region of Zebulun and Naphtali that will be overrun by the godless Assyrians and serves as the gateway for the nations to invade and conquer Israel, Galilee of the nations, will in the latter days become glorious with spiritual light. The light that comes from Galilee will be the Lord Jesus Christ, and the light will be so bright that even the Gentiles, the nations will see it and rejoice!
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
This is talking about the expansion of the kingdom of the coming Messiah over all the earth, not by means of conquest, but by means of salvation to all the nations. The Gentiles and the Jews who have both walked in darkness in the former days, will both see the great light of Christ! He will put an end to the enmity between the Jews and the nations. He will multiply the nation and cause them all to rejoice. He will bring war and oppression to cease because to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given. He is given to Jews and Gentiles alike.
This King of the Jews will sit upon David’s throne and there will be no boundaries for His kingdom. No geographical boundaries, no temporal boundaries. He will rule over all, He will rule everywhere, and He will rule forever with peace, justice, and righteousness! When this Light comes into the world, He will be a light for all, not just for Israel. That is exactly what the Apostle John says of the Lord Jesus. Turn to John 1 with me please:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:1-13, ESV).
John and Isaiah are talking about the same thing! The same spiritual darkness, the same spiritual light, and the effect that this same Child who is born has on the same people, both Jews and Gentiles. Unto us ALL, a Child is born! Once again, Jim and I are preaching the same message: Jesus was sent into the world for the sake of the nations, not just for the sake of the Jews. Isaiah said it, John said it, the apostle Paul said it, the entire Bible says it. That is why we call Him the Savior of the world.
When Jesus said to His disciples in John 4 when He was going from Jerusalem to Galilee, “I need to go through Samaria,” no doubt these guys wondered why He would ever want to go there. The Jews NEVER went through Samaria. Those were the people who intermarried with Gentiles. But Jesus goes there, meets the woman at the well, tells her about her sinful life, tells her He is the promised Messiah, and she runs off and tells everybody else. Do you remember what the people of Samaria said after they listened to Jesus:
42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
They say He’s the Savior of the world because He EVEN saves Samaritans! In John, chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that God loves the world by sending His only Son to save any who believe! That is the fulfillment of our text in Isaiah 9.
1 John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever [in the world] confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only [not only for Jews] but also for the sins of the whole world.
You may say to me, “Well, isn’t that common knowledge that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world?” Not when John said it! Not among the Jews! This was still new information that had to be repeated over and over again and again. Jesus came into the spiritual darkness of the Gentile world and not even their darkness could overcome this great Light, the Light of the entire world.
This is the mystery which the Jews didn’t understand, and don’t understand even to this day. I want to close our time today by looking at one more text, so please turn with me to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. We’re going to read this entire chapter, but I think if you read carefully with me, you’ll see where this is going. This is at least the second letter Paul has written to the church at Corinth, and there are many who have tried to discredit him as an apostle, namely the Judaizers who insist upon clinging to Old Testament Judaism for salvation. We’re breaking right into the middle of Paul’s conversation with the Corinthian believers:
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
In other words, the changed hearts and lives of the Corinthians (as a result of the gospel) validates Paul’s ministry and his message. He doesn’t need anyone’s endorsement. These Gentile believers are his endorsement to the Jews. Some of the Corinthian believers had been sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. But Paul says, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, ESV). Their changed lives was proof that what he preached was real and he was legitimate. Then he continues:
7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?
What is Paul talking about here? He is talking about the Old Covenant, the Law of Moses which was summed up by the Ten Commandments written on stone. When Moses received the Ten Commandments from God at Mt. Sinai, his face shone so brightly from being in the presence of God that he had to cover his face. If a covenant carved in stone had that kind of glory, what kind of glory does the covenant administered by the Holy Spirit have? Would it not have even more glory?
9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation [i.e. the Law], the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory [the old covenant] has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
If the temporary covenant made with Moses which required perpetual sacrifices that never actually took away sin was glorious, how glorious will the permanent covenant in the blood of Christ be that really does remove sin and guilt?
12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Isaiah said that those who walked in darkness would one day see a great light, and God would make the land of the Gentiles glorious! That has happened through the Lord Jesus Christ by taking not only the Jews, but all the nations, from a lesser level of glory in the old covenant to a greater level of glory in the new covenant. It is a great light indeed! It is glorious! The Lord Jesus Christ is not only the Savior of Israel, but of the Samaritans, and of the nations, and of whoever hears and believes the gospel message.
In Isaiah, chapter 49, verse 6, God is speaking to His Servant, the Lord Jesus:
6 he says:"It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
For the Lord Jesus to give His life for the sins of Israel alone is too small a thing to God. Rather, the sacrifice of the Son of God will be for the purpose of saving people from every tongue and tribe and people and nation all over the face of the earth. That is how great this Light is among the Gentiles. This is how glorious our Redeemer is, that He can even save Gentiles from their sins. Us.
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