Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Do you find it fascinating to watch what some people do when they face desperate circumstances? Sadly, many people are determined to find solutions to their pain and problems regardless of the future results. Some will borrow more money than they could ever repay. Some will leave their family pursuing an immoral relationship. Some people will even go into the darkness of the occult seeking Satan’s help. History is filled with stories which should warn us, but they don’t, do they?
These days we’re looking at the earliest indications in history that what we call ‘Christmas’ was being planned by God as HIS answer for our world’s biggest problems. 725 years before Jesus was born, a man living in Jerusalem named Isaiah was receiving powerful visions from God which he was expected to bring to the King and people during frightening times. The world dominating power at that time was the Assyrian kingdom with Nineveh as its capital. Their army was ruthless, conquering cities and towns across what we today call the middle east and central Asia. A vast swath of the world map was under Assyrian domination, but they wanted more, and little nations like Syria and Israel were in their sites as next targets. Then Isaiah received a message from God for the people. As we saw yesterday, it was both a message for that generation and for generations far in the future.
The message began with a warning, for some of God’s people had actually been consulting mediums seeking answers in their desperation, but God wanted them to know this would only lead them into deep darkness, despair and death. Listen to Isaiah 8:19 “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists…should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Rather go to God’s law… If they do not speak according to this word they have no light… Distressed and hungry they will roam through the land…they will become enraged and looking upward will curse their king and their God. Then they will see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom…” (Isaiah 8:19-22) Now, look around your world my friends. Is this a modern day picture of the despair you see in people who have pushed God away and are desperately seeking relief in all the wrong places? This dark prediction did in fact happen to Syria and the northern kingdom Israel only a few short years after Isaiah spoke his message. In 722bc that vicious Assyrian army invaded and devastated both nations, burning villages to the ground, slaughtering thousands of people, and taking thousands more back to the Assyrian kingdom as captives.
The “promised land” of the 10 northern tribes of Israel with its capital city Samaria had been in rebellion against God for centuries and finally God’s judgement descended upon it. Furthermore the Assyrians had a diabolical strategy by which they forever changed the future of the lands they conquered. Into newly conquered Israel, the Assyrians marched thousands of captives they’d taken from other countries they had invaded. They were given the houses and lands of the Hebrews who’d been killed or taken away as prisoners of war. Within a few short months the northern kingdom of Israel had both been decimated by the invading Assyrian army, and repopulated by people who spoke other languages, worshipped other gods, and had no understanding or appreciation for the Hebrews or their history with God! As they intermarried with those few Hebrews left behind the long protected tribal identity of the Hebrews was lost forever and mixed racial peoples like the Samaritans became the new population. From the darkness of rebellion against God Israel now went into centuries of lostness and despair.
But Isaiah wasn’t finished with this prophecy. The next portion of his message looked further down the timeline more than 700 years: “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, but in the future He will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by way of the sea, along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:1,2) In the days of Isaiah, people still referred to sections of Israel by the tribal names of the sons of Jacob. The “Promised Land” had been divided up in the days of Joshua, allotting certain land to each of the tribes of Israel. So ‘the land of Zebulun and Naphtali’ was the far northern regions, bordering on what is today Lebanon.
However over the centuries new names were given to some areas and in the days of Jesus that same region was known as the Galilee. The phrase “Galilee of the Gentiles” reminds us this was an area of Israel occupied, for hundreds of years, by foreign Gentiles the Assyrians brought in as refugees and settled there. Do you remember Jesus spent most of His earthly lifetime in ‘the Galilee’? Joseph & Mary settled in Nazareth of Galilee. Capernaum of Galilee became the town Jesus spent much of His ministry time in and of course the Sea of Galilee was very significant in Jesus’ life and ministry. Can you see how Galilee was “honored” by God, bringing Jesus Christ, the Son of God to live in Galilee of the Gentiles?
But Isaiah had also said a great light would dawn in the Galilee one day in the distant future. A light bringing hope to people in distress. Do you remember Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12) Usually when the Bible writers speak of “light” they are speaking of God’s Truth which penetrates the darkness of the mind, heart and even the cultures of our world. Jesus repeatedly said “I tell you the truth…”.
Years later John the beloved disciple, Jesus’ closest friend, wrote this: “This is the message we have heard from Him (Jesus) and declare to you: God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet we walk in the darkness we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:5-7) With His miracles which amazed & healed people, and His truth teaching which brought hope to so many people, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy which God had made through Isaiah in the desperate times of 725bc. As Jesus brought hope to the people of the Galilee, He also very often reminded His disciples, and all who would hear Him, that He had come for everyone, of the entire world, and all generations. Can you celebrate how Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 8 & 9 reaches all the way to you and me today, wherever you are living your life!? Have you experienced Jesus’ rescue from the doom and gloom of our world? Take a moment right now and thank Jesus for being the LIGHT of your life, and here’s a song to help us celebrate Jesus.
Today’s Scripture is Isaiah 8:19-9:2.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email
WhatsApp