Series: Advent
Isaiah 9:2 ESV
Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV
Matthew 4:13-16 ESV
2 Kings 15:27-29 ESV
2 Kings 25:1 ESV
2 Kings 25:8-10 ESV
Ezra 1:1-2 ESV
Luke 2:4-7 ESV
John 1:4-5 ESV
I was very young when I saw the light. I don’t remember being afraid. I thought it was pretty and I wanted it. As I grew older I found that I thought about the light more and more and I wanted it more and more.
Isaiah 9:2 tells us, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”
When I was very young I didn’t know about the darkness.
I thought everyone saw the great light. As I grew older I learned more about the light (and the darkness) in Sunday School.
I remember hearing lessons every year from Isaiah 9:6-7,
“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.
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.”
I loved those words even when I was a child, but as I grew older they became much more than ‘nice’ words. They carried weight in my heart.
Ever so gradually the history of the people of God gave depth and breadth to the words. Israel had been oppressed by the Assyrians. The Northern Tribes suffered as the Assyrian army invaded the Promised Land. The Sea of Galilee was in the land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali. They were hit hard by the Assyrians and so, in God’s great mercy the one who brought light was from that place.
Matthew 4:13-14 tells us, “And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light,and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”
Before that time, during the time of the Kings of Israel we know what occurred in Galilee and the land of the tribe of Naphtali.
We know from 2 Kings 15:27-29, “In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twenty years. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria.”
The people of Israel were carried off to Assyria and they were in captivity for seventy years, from 607 B.C. to 537 B.C. In 2 Kings 25:1 we are told, “And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it.”
Then in 2 Kings 25:8-10, “In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.”
And the brightest and the best of Israel were taken into captivity in Babylon. Only the elderly, the women, and the poor remained in Israel.
Then in 559 B.C. Cyrus the Great became King and he ruled until he died in 530 B.C.
Cyrus conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C. and he liberated the people of Israel who had been taken into captivity.
The we learn from Ezra 1:1-2, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”
And Israel was free to return, rebuild, and worship in the temple Cyrus the Great built in Jerusalem.
Some time later when Caesar Augustus was emperor he required every person to register and “Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:4-7)
And the child was named Jesus. We are told in John 1:4-5, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
And Jesus was the light…the great light of the world.
I was the plan.
Spiritual Practice: Sit in the Light
Let the light of the world shine in you.
In God, Deborah