Live in the Light
Isaiah 8:19-9:2

January 27, 2008
Third Sunday After the Epiphany

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In the name of Jesus, the Light of our life, dear people of God.

Someone once said, "I used to love the darkness, but the sun is my new best friend. As soon as I embraced him, he put my misery to an end." The sun in the sky certainly can as we say, "Brighten our day." I think that quote sums up nicely the thoughts of these verses from Isaiah today. Doesn't life feel very dark when we have misery? When everything is going bad it seems like the sun never shines. It seems like it has been shut off and that only adds to the feeling of despair that overtakes us. But when things are going well, then life seems to be full of sunshine and light. Isaiah shows us how Jesus brings light that we can live in each and every day, whether things in life are going good or bad. He tells us where to find that light and the blessings that it brings us.

In our own country there is talk that our economy is going into a recession. There is fear that some day we will again have nuclear weapons aimed against us. Terrorism continues to be a threat. Gas prices are chewing into incomes that don't rise much. I am sure you could add many more things to the list. The situation in Judah in the days of Isaiah was even more dire. Judah was at war with aggressor nations Israel and Syria. The outcome of this war did not look good for Judah. However things were going to get even worse than they could possibly imagine. They needed some light to shine on them in their misery. King Ahaz and the people of Judah were about to learn the hard way that light can only be found in the Word of God.

Don't think that there hadn't been any good news from God. When Ahaz feared that Judah would be defeated when Israel and Syria attacked, the Sovereign Lord sent a message to Ahaz which said, "It will not take place, it will not happen." All there was to do was trust in the Lord, that the attacks of Israel and Syria would come to nothing.

This was not good enough for Ahaz and others in Judah. They wanted something more tangible, more powerful to help them in their struggle, and so they abandoned the Word of the Lord and looked elsewhere. They turned to mediums and spiritists, people who could supposedly talk to the dead. They sought answers about what to do or what would happen in the future from them. Isaiah responds to this course of action, "When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn." Isaiah was right. Why ask the dead about what is going on with the living? Why not go to the all-powerful and all-knowing God to find answers. And the only way to find answers from him is to do as Isaiah said, run to the law and to the testimony. In other words, he is saying run to the Bible!

What was the result of abandoning the Word of the Lord and looking for answers elsewhere? Well, Ahaz thought that they needed an ally to fight their enemies, and who better than the most powerful nation in the world: Assyria. But by seeking Assyria as an ally, Judah abandoned their God. God's sure Word of promise to Ahaz was going to come true, "If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." They did not stand firm in their faith and the result was they got lost in darkness.

Isaiah describes their situation this way,"Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom." It may sound like the result was dark days of misery that come to all in the cycles of life. But this is the darkness of life lived apart from God. The person doesn't repent of their sin, but instead curses God as the cause of all of his problems.

It gets even worse. The real problem was that they were now living in the darkness of sin and unbelief and it was only going to get darker. For Isaiah says, "They will be thrust into utter darkness." Here Isaiah is speaking of the darkness of hell. God gave good news to Ahaz and Judah and asked them simply to stand firm in their faith and everything would be fine, but instead they abandoned God and he abandoned them.

Where do we go to find answers to our problems? I don't think we have a major temptation to run to astrologers or palm readers or some other type of soothsayer to find answers. It was a bigger fad in the late 90's, but not so much anymore. Yet we are still tempted to look for answers to the questions of our life in places that we feel are more tangible than consulting the Bible. Maybe we can find some answers online or in a chat room. Maybe we can get some advice from a professional. Or worse yet, we know what God will say in his Word, so to avoid the only true answer, we look to someone or something that will give us the answer that we prefer. If these are places that we go to avoid asking God, then we may be in danger of jumping back into the darkness. For believers God has all the answers. So we follow the words of Isaiah, "To the law and to the testimony!" The only reliable source of truth and light is in God's Word. We are people of the Word. We have to be. Outside of the Word only darkness reigns.

God promised that light would come to the world. The darkness of sin reigns, but God promised, "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress." As surely as the sun rises in the morning, so would the Light of the World come. Isaiah promised in chapter 7 that the virgin would be with child and would give birth to a son and he would be called Immanuel. Now Isaiah speaks as if the Light has come into the world.

God in his mercy would allow Israel's doormat to be the first place to get to know the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Light of the world. Remember I told you about the nations that invaded Israel and Judah, such as the Assyrians. These nations always invaded from the North and the first lands that they would come to would be Zebulun and Naphtali, the northernmost tribes of Israel. They always got trampled and took the worst casualties of any invasion. Isaiah says, "In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—"

God is a gracious God and just as these nations took the worst of judgment for their sin as God humbled them, so also he would bring them the Savior. Matthew tells us, "When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah." Those two northern tribes were known as Galilee in Jesus' day. And he carried out much of his ministry there.

As Jesus preached in that area, he brought joy to many who lived there. Jesus went throughout Galilee preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. He showed them what God's law demanded and how they have not measured up to that law. He told them that he was the Savior promised in the Old Testament who would rescue them from their sins. He came to bring them peace, not national peace, for now instead of being a vassal state of the Assyrians they were a vassal state of the Romans. He came to bring them peace with their God, which can only come through the forgiveness of sins.

He came to bring them joy as they saw the church grow. Now when I say church, I mean the Holy Christian Church. We get a glimpse of that happening in the gospel lesson. Peter and Andrew, James and John follow after Jesus, drawn by his message, the Word of God that brings light. Many more hear the good news and believe. All this fulfills what Isaiah said would happen, "You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder."

Count the many blessings that you have which came through Jesus Christ, the Light of the world. You learned about him from the Word of God and now you enjoy so much. Your life certainly isn't perfect, mine isn't either. But no matter what comes in life, we live in the light. It is the light that forgiveness brings. It is the light that peace with God brings. We also rejoice as we see God's church continue to grow today. The nation of the church is enlarging. Every new believer is something to celebrate as the angels in heaven do. In a few weeks we will have the opportunity to rejoice as adults are confirmed here at St. John. But outside of our little corner of the world, the gospel is spreading through our home and world missions. Races and peoples that Isaiah couldn't have even imagined are being brought into membership in the Holy Christian Church. Wherever the shadow of death is in this world, it is being pushed back by the Light of Christ. It was pushed out of our hearts and it is being pushed out of the world.

I want to go back to that quote that I told you about at the beginning of the sermon. "I used to love the darkness, but the sun is my new best friend. As soon as I embraced him, he put my misery to an end." When it refers to the sun it says "s-u-n". But if we change that to "s-o-n" I think it leaves us with a great thought to end on which summarizes what Isaiah said today. "I used to love the darkness, but the Son is my new best friend. As soon as I embraced him, he put my misery to an end." Amen.