Vanessa Katzenberger
Isaiah 9:2-4 NLT
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. 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. 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.
Reflection
I love lights during this time of year – all the strings of white lights draped on trees and decorating homes. We don’t have such long winter nights here in Southern California, but up in Seattle, for instance, the holiday lights start twinkling pretty early in the evening when darkness begins settling over the land. Even further north, they really understand what it is like to live in physical darkness during the winter months. Before modern electricity, some Inuit people in the farthest northern reaches of the Canadian Arctic endured months of darkness!
Similarly, this passage of scripture talks about people living in “deep darkness,” spiritual in nature, and a great light, God’s own presence, dawning on them. Lighting a candle in the midst of darkness is an especially potent reminder of God’s presence with us in a world lost in darkness. In this hopeful passage, God’s presence comes in such a powerful way that, not only do the people rejoice and celebrate (verse 3), but suffering (represented by slavery and oppression) is obliterated (verse 4)! The mention of Midian’s defeat is a reference to the story of Gideon (Judges 7), in which God rescued the Israelites by His might alone. By God’s grace and mercy alone, through His sovereign hand, not through human effort, all suffering will be vanquished!
Through Jesus’ advent – his life among us and His coming again – we can look forward to the day when humankind will no longer walk in darkness and suffering, but we will all walk in the light of God’s presence free of the burdens of this broken world.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son, the light of the world, into our darkness. May we welcome Your Living Presence into our lives in a way that changes the world around us. Thank you for becoming Emmanuel, the God with us!
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