Isaiah 9:1-4 | Göttinger Predigten im Internet

The Third Sunday after Epiphany | 01/22/2023 | Isaiah 9:1-4 | Samuel D. Zumwalt |

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. ²The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. ³You 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. ⁴For 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.

HOLY COMMUNION: HOLY BREAKER

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Darkness as Judgment

The overwhelming theme of the first 39 chapters of Isaiah is God’s judgment against idolatry, whether against the Gentile nations or His own divided people. While there are many hopeful words of grace interspersed in these chapters and the promise of the Messiah, the anointed King descended from David, the prophet clearly speaks God’s No to those who fear, love, and trust in someone or something other than the only God. This is the Word of the LORD (YHWH) that came to Isaiah, the well-known 8^th century prophet in Judah, the southern kingdom.

The vicious Assyrian Empire, whose capital was Nineveh in present-day northern Iraq, was on the minds and in the heads of all the various kingdoms in the ancient near East. Mighty with advanced weapons and sophisticated battle techniques, Assyria had been expanding its rule and collecting tribute from the various kings in the region for years. Both the king of Syria and the king of Israel wanted Ahaz, the newly crowned 20-year-old king of Judah, to join them in rebelling against Assyria. In chapter 7, the prophet Isaiah spoke the promise of Immanuel (God with us) to Ahaz, counseling him to trust God rather than in any foreign alliances. When Ahaz refused to join the Syro-Ephraim alliance against Assyria, they attacked Jerusalem. Then, instead of trusting God, Ahaz trusted the Assyrians and became their vassal. By 721 B.C., Assyria had crushed both Syria and Israel,

After the king of Assyria had conquered Israel, he organized the region into administrative districts: the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, and Galilee of the nations. The Word of the LORD that came to Isaiah is a word of grace beyond the judgment God’s people in the north had experienced at the hands of Assyria. God always has two words, No and Yes, judgment on idolatry and grace for those who turn to Him for help. Darkness has come upon Israel, because they feared, loved, and trusted other gods rather than the LORD. Darkness is His judgment.

In our day, the temptation to impose other stories on Scripture as if it were malleable to our touch is great. Deafness to the Word of the LORD comes from listening to other stories. Certainly, the Assyrians trusted in their might, doubtless attributing their success to their own gods. Likewise, God’s ancient people had been divided in the 900s as a result of David having produced warring offspring from different wives. His eventual successor Solomon, lauded for his wisdom, had sown the seeds of the destruction of his father’s kingdom when he heavily taxed and enslaved the northern tribes while making foreign alliances through 700 wives and 300 concubines. Hubris and resistance to the Word of the LORD always brings judgment and destruction. This is what Isaiah tried to warn Ahaz. He warns us likewise today. When we fear, love, and trust in something or someone other than the LORD, He sadly will let us have our way.

We do well to remember that justice is Law and not Gospel. Justice is God’s verdict on idolatry. Again, justice is God’s No to fearing, loving, and trusting someone or something other than the one true God. To imply, as Christians in our day often do, that we can bring God’s justice by our own efforts and accomplish God’s will by our own plans and programs is ironically the height of folly. To attribute our vain efforts to God’s Spirit is blasphemy. God will be God. We won’t be.

A new book Bonhoeffer’s America: A Land without Reformation includes this quote from the visiting pastor who was eventually martyred by the Nazi regime: “In New York they preach about everything: only one thing is not addressed, or is addressed so rarely that I have as yet been unable to hear it, namely, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life” (quoted by Jake Meador in a book review, First Things, January 23 issue, 55).

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Darkness as judgment falls on our idolatry.

Light for our Darkness

On Christmass Eve, we heard the longer, more familiar version of this text which includes the birth of a Child, who will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. The Word of the LORD that came to Isaiah was far beyond his imagining. Doubtless, the prophet trusted that the ideal King from David’s family would be the Holy Breaker, who would shatter the darkness in which God’s people had walked. Assyria’s yoke would be thrown off. The oppressor’s rod would be broken just as the LORD had done when Gideon and 300 warriors triumphed over thousands of Midianites (Judges 6-8). But Isaiah’s vision was greater than he knew. The LORD God is mightier than we can imagine. His ways are not ours.

Darkness in our day appears often like false dawn. American politicians toot their own horns over every new bill they pass, every new program they create, every worthless dollar they print and pass out like drugs that mask the pain from a deep wound or rapacious malignancy. Those who have to live with their lies, and the future generations that will pay for them, will know that what was pictured as hope was “…a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5). Darkness cannot overcome the Light.

The only Light for our Darkness is God’s Son, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, who suffered, died, was buried, rose from the dead, ascended to the seat of power at His Father’s right hand, who will return in glory to judge the living and the dead; and through Whom the Holy Spirit was poured out to create one holy catholic and apostolic Church, the communion of saints born in Holy Baptism, preaching and enacting the forgiveness of sins, declaring as promise the resurrection of the body, and proclaiming the hope of life everlasting in Jesus Christ that will not be disappointed.

Is the light you are looking for actually a freight train of disappointment that will crush you? Is the light you are stretching for the stub of a candle that will melt away and leave you despairing? Do you keep straining forward towards a fading light whose source is finally no help? Do you keep looking for light in others chasing after and then abandoning those who can’t be God?

There is only one Light who breaks the darkness. His name is Jesus, Savior. He will save you.

What Is and What Will Be

When, today, the baptized receive the Lord Jesus in the place He has promised to be, in the bread and the wine of the Host and the Cup, we come empty-handed. If we come self-satisfied in life or seeking affirmation because we are not, our hearts are yet turned inwards. Jesus doesn’t want to be our Therapist, our Giver of Unconditional Positive Regard. Jesus doesn’t want to be our Validator who tells us what we want to hear and puts our picture on His refrigerator. Jesus doesn’t want to be our Chairman of the Board extending our contract as CEO and COO of My Life, Incorporated. He doesn’t want to be our President, whom we have chosen to be our national deity and, like Superman, stands for our truth, our justice, and our version of the American way.

When we come to the altar certain that we are poor, miserable sinners, whose hearts have been turned inwards and brought us such pain, He gives us His True Body and most Precious Blood for the forgiveness of sins, for eternal life, and for the healing we all need, which is salvation. When we receive Jesus with contrite hearts and yearning, we receive these great gifts because He is the Giver. Indeed, receiving Jesus, the Light of the world, we see clearly from where we have come, having stumbled along that tortuous and often torturous darkened path. As He said to young fishermen by the Galilean lake, the Lord Jesus says as He comes to us here: “Follow me.”

My favorite secular poem comes from my childhood. Many can likely say the words with me: “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before our sleep” (Robert Frost, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening”). We have promises to keep as we follow Jesus all the way home. Others depend on us. Our talents are needed. Those yet in darkness need to know the Holy Breaker, whose Light the darkness cannot overcome. You are children of the Light. Your lives are no longer your own. Do not settle for less or offer people what can never save or deliver anyone from darkness. Jesus is the great Light. Follow Him!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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szumwalt@bellsouth.net

St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wilmington, North Carolina USA