In Isaiah’s day there were dangers all around. The Middle East, like today, was a place of ever-threatening war.
The year is 734 BC. Syria and Israel had joined forces to attack and divide up Judah.
The Reason? For some time Syria and the breakaway ten northern tribes of Israel had seen the growing threat from Assyria in the North and they have been pushing Judah to join them.
But Judah’s King Ahaz would not agree and instead looked to Assyria to protect Judah from Syria and Israel. Ahaz was not like his father David.
Both Israel and Judah had forsaken God and fallen into idolatry. Therefore, Isaiah prophesies that both would be plunged in to deep darkness, and despair. God was going to demolish the nation and send them into captivity for their faithlessness (Isaiah 8:9, 22).
Then comes the wonderful word that begins Isaiah chapter 9, “Never-the-less!”
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. (Isaiah 9:1)
Isaiah 9 marks a turning point in the devastating judgement that God was going to bring upon His people.
Isaiah 9 promises a time of restoration. Where sin is overcome by righteousness and where gloom and sadness are overcome with joy.
Just as it is God who hands the world over to the darkness that it loves, so it is God, in His mercy, who will raise up a deliverer who will put an end to the darkness.
In His promise to restore the fortunes of Judah, God mentions a number of people groups.
First, Zebulun and Naphtali (Isaiah 9:1-2). These are among the Northern most tribes and about as far away from Jerusalem as you can get.
Wicked in their idolatry, they suffered severely when Israel’s enemies descended upon her. God plunged them into darkness and they were the first taken in to captivity.
But, God would again visit them in glory, this time, not in judgement not just as Lord, but in unimaginable mercy as a faithful husband.
What is the significance of these tribes?
Matthew says that Jesus’ taking up residence in Capernaum fulfils this prophecy in Isaiah 9.
In Matthew 4:15-16, Jesus takes up residence and begins His ministry in the same place where God’s judgement had begun – the Northern most tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.
There are several aspects to this. In Isaiah 7:18; 8:5-8, the darkness that comes upon Judah and Israel descends from the north (Assyria).
It is going to come over them, Isaiah says like a flood and like a swarm of flies from Egypt.
Assyria is a New Egypt (Isaiah 9:4; 10:5), sent to oppress the people of God with yoke, staff and rod.
But Judah is promised that there will also be deliverance, and it too will come from the North: From Zebulun and Naphtali. (Zebulun, “Now my Husband will dwell with me”, Genesis 30:20).
This Pattern fits into what is going on in Matthew 4:12-16. There, John is taken captive by the ungodly oppressor, Herod.
This is Jesus’ cue to move North and from there He begins to Herald the Gospel. To bring light, to heal, to deliver and to restore the fortunes of His people.
He is heading for Judah, but the light, the blessing, breaks in through Galilee in the North.
In scripture, the north, is symbolically the seat of God’s Throne (Psalm 48:1-2: Job 37:21-23). Isaiah 8:18 also tells us that, The Lord of Hosts (and not Santa, cf. Isaiah 14:13) dwells in Mount Zion, in the north.
Out of that throne room in the north comes power, light and splendour.
And so Jesus, in fulfilment of this prophecy, would come and dwell in a run down, barely-Jewish back water in the North – Galilee of the Gentiles, in order to bring the light of salvation to those who sit in darkness.
The nation that had dwindled away to nothing and had melted in despair and darkness would be re-made and multiplied through a new Son of David. A husband who dwells with His wife in faithfulness.
Through the Coming of a true Son of God, Israel would rejoice. Its joy would be increased and it would feast as at harvest time on the spoils of war.
Isaiah gives us a clue as to what that victory would look like in Isaiah 9:4,
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. (Isaiah 9:4)
This is a Reference to Gideon in Judges 6-7 and his victory against the Midianites.
There, Gideon and his 300 foot soldiers come against the Midianites – who (Judges 7:1 and 7:12 tell us), are in the north and are like a swarm of locusts, devouring the land of Israel.
Picture it. Its dark, its night. These 300 men surround the valley in the north where the Midianites are sound asleep. These Hebrews have no weapons. Only a torch and trumpet.
They uncover their torches to the sound of 300 clay pots being smashed upon the rocks, the valley is suddenly filled with light, followed by the sound of 300 trumpets heralding war.
The result? The darkness scatters and the Midianites flee in terror.
Again, Matthews account fits neatly in to this prophecy and confirms its fulfilment.
John eats locusts for breakfast. But here, John is taken out of the way and it is Jesus who walks into the darkness and shatters it. How?
Matthew 4:17-25 tells us what Jesus did once He settled in the North. He gathers four disciples from Galilee, He puts a trumpet to His mouth and by the power of the Word of His Gospel, shatters darkness.
Christmas anticipates and celebrates that deliverance. It celebrates His victory over the unseen enemy behind the enemy – sin and death. Jesus resurrects the harvest – and multiplies it.
He comes commanding repentance so that a multitude may be healed and find peace with God (Matthew 4:17).
Like Ahaz and all of Israel, Herod is troubled at the birth of Christ. The people who lived in darkness are shaken. But God is going to do the unimaginable for the undeserving.
God is going to do the Gideon thing. Only this time with someone greater than Gideon.
Do you believe, that no matter how dark it gets, God is able to break in to your circumstances and transform them? Do you see, by faith, the light that His promises give?
Do you believe, no matter how undeserving you may be – or may feel – that Jesus Christ came to deliver, forgive and heal such a one as you?
For your joy, He takes the spoils of war, He reaps the harvest, and divides it with you.
It’s not a victory we secured, but, by the grace of God and the forgiving this of all our sins, it is a victory we share in.
And so, we feast at Christmas, because that is what victors do. We celebrate with worship at the coming of Jesus Christ, because that’s what victors do.
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