The King’s English

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Isaiah 61

In the Bible, hearts can be failed, faint, glad, hard, willing, stirred, sorrowful, obstinate, lifted up, circumcised, wicked, grieved, hot, astonished, trembling, melted, inclined, merry, rejoicing, naughty, offended, dead, desirous, despising, lion-like, bowed, upright, understanding, large, turned away, turned back, sore troubled, tender, double, perfect, tried, prepared, free, united, proud, soft, walking, deceived, enticed, hypocritical, trembling, firm, proved, wax-like, pure, enlarged, strengthened, disquieted, panting, meditating, clean, contrite, sore pained, fixed, overwhelmed, poured out, set, froward, smitten, brought down, wounded, inclined, fat, sound, desolate, subtil, perverse, heavy, sick, haughty, fretting, despairing, hasty, ravished, awake, moved, stout, fearful, revived, evil, washed, rebellious, uncircumcised, deceitful, turned, affected, whorish, stony, idolatrous, weak, new, bitter, of flesh, divided, exalted, rent, lowly, waxed gross, far from God, good, slow, burning, troubled, pricked, single, not right, opened, impenitent, anguished, veiled, blind, true, established.

Today, heavy, hard, pure and stout-hearted, have survived as common sayings.  But perhaps the most popular variation on this theme is “broken-hearted.”  We have all felt “broken-hearted” at times.  But wonderfully, the LORD Jesus has healing for us.  The very reason He was sent into the world was to bind up our broken hearts:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.  (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Throughout Isaiah, the prophet lifts up the King before us.  The true King is the LORD of the temple vision, He will become the miraculous Child Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, the Spirit-filled Branch and our Sacrificial Lamb.  And here in chapter 61 we read about the just and gentle rule of this Spirit-filled King.  This Ruler does not use His power to dominate but to heal and bless.

What king cares about the hearts of his subjects?  This King does.  He binds up the broken-hearted.

And part of the reason He can bind up the broken-hearted is because He has experienced the ultimate heart-break Himself.

We know Psalm 69 to be the words of Christ (cf John 2 and Romans 11) and here He lays bare His soul:

“Hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink”.  (Psalm 69:17-21)

Christ died of a broken heart in every sense.  Read the whole Psalm to get a sense of the pain of unrequited love which He experienced.  Yet His own heart was also bound up – healed – in resurrection.  And by His Spirit He offers the sympathy of One who knows, and the power of One who has conquered.

The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)

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Isaiah 60

When morning comes, the phrase trips off our tongues.  Yet we rarely notice its strangeness.  To say “Rise and shine” is odd.  We’re not simply exhorting the sleeper to notice or respond to the sun.  We’re telling them to be the sun – or at least, to be like the sun.

The sun rises.  We rise.  The sun shines.  We shine.  Or we’re supposed to if we take this saying seriously.

People are meant to be miniature suns.

To understand how and why, let’s go back to the source – Isaiah chapter 60.  Listen to the interaction of “rising” and “shining” here:

1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.  2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  3And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3)

In verse 1 the people rise and shine.  But in verse 2 we learn that their rising and shining springs from no power of their own.  They live in “gross darkness”.  It is “the LORD” who rises and shines (note that in verse 1 He is called “the Glory of LORD”).  But then in verse 3 we see that the people do have a “light” and a “rising” they can call their own.  And who do they rise and shine upon?  The nations.

So we have a picture – we rise and shine because the LORD rises and shines.  And just as He rises and shines on us, so we rise and shine on the world.  Appropriately enough the shining of the LORD is an outgoing brilliance that doesn’t terminate on His people but, once  received, it then radiates out to the nations.

We should note that in Isaiah, neither rising nor shining comes naturally to God’s people.  In fact, the book is an extended wake up call to Jerusalem (i.e. Zion):

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust:  (Isaiah 26:19)

Awake, awake, put on strength, (Isaiah 51:9)

Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, (Isaiah 51:17)

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion… Shake thyself from the dust; arise,  (Isaiah 52:1-2)

And darkness seems to be their natural habitat.

We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.  (Isaiah 59:9)

Yet, famously,

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2)

The people are naturally in the dark, yet there shines an other-worldly Light.  He is the Miraculous Child – the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  In Isaiah 42 He is described as the Servant who will be a Light for the Gentiles, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” (Isaiah 42:6-7).

The Messiah is the Divine Glory of the LORD.  He not only shines upon those in darkness:  He has the power to make them radiate this glory to others.  He is a Sun who rises to transform gloomy sleepers into shining stars.

So in the morning, just as you let the sun rise and shine upon you to brighten your face and give you warmth, let Christ rise and shine upon you to give you hope and peace.  Know His glory chasing away every shadow and His love as free as the sunshine.  Then see if you don’t shine yourself.  And the world will be drawn to your brightness.

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Isaiah 52:13-53:12

When someone is “led like a lamb to the slaughter” it’s ugly.  Perhaps a partner in the firm is about to be ousted for the sake of the company.  As he blithely enters the boardroom he’s like a lamb to the slaughter.

This is a brutal verbal picture.  An innocent lamb will follow a leader no matter where they’re taken.  No protests, no questions asked.  At the slaughterhouse they train a “Judas sheep” to lead the others to their doom.  “Judas” escapes through a hatch, whilst the others get it in the neck.

But Isaiah says that the true Lamb to the slaughter is the LORD Almighty!

Pause there and meditate on the LORD… led like a Lamb… to the slaughter.

We’ve considered Isaiah’s vision of the LORD Jesus in the temple.  Isaiah described Him as “high and lifted up.”  But in our reading today, Isaiah sees Him again.  Still He’s “high and lifted up” but in a very different way.

“Behold, my Servant… he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high”.  (Isaiah 52:13)

The King of Isaiah 6 is now seen as the Servant of Isaiah 52-53.  In both visions He is “exalted”, “lifted up”, “very high” etc.  But think of these two liftings: in one, He sits on a throne; in the other, He is slain on an altar.  But both are glorious exaltations!

Listen to the upside-down glory of the LORD Jesus who is lifted up in sacrifice:

² For he shall grow up before [God] as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. ³ He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. ⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.  (Isaiah 53:2-7)

Notice the wonderful exchange.

We are the ones with transgressions, He is the One bruised for them.

We are the ones who gain peace, He is the One who takes the chastisement.

He takes the stripes (the wounds), we are healed.

We are like wilful sheep.  He is the lamb to the slaughter.

In this gracious exchange we see the true glory of the LORD.  A King may remain on his throne “high and lifted up.”  Yet there is a far greater majesty.  It’s the majesty of Christ.  He is the King of the temple, the LORD Almighty to Whom angels cry “Holy, Holy, Holy!”  This same King becomes the Servant who descends even lower to be slain as a Lamb.  He is “crushed” under the weight of a world’s sin (Isaiah 53:10).  And He “pours out His soul unto death (Isaiah 53:12).  This is true glory.

When John wrote the final book of the bible – Revelation – he returned to this truth.  In his vision of heaven he saw to the heart of divine majesty, and what did he see?

Lo, in the midst of the throne… stood a Lamb as it had been slain  (Revelation 5:6)

He calls Jesus,

the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne.  (Revelation 7:17)

The throne is the manifestation of divine power and glory.  And at its centre is the Lamb.  If we push through to the deepest depths of divinity what do we find?  A Lamb led to the slaughter.

How do you picture God?  How do you picture divine glory?  Look again to that willing Sacrifice and you will see.  And with the rest of heaven you will sing:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.  (Revelation 5:12)

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Isaiah 52:1-12

When we use this phrase it’s usually in the negative: “I’m sorry to say we don’t see eye to eye on this issue.”

Not seeing eye to eye means disagreement.  The very nature of the phrase communicates an inequality of stature, perhaps also of power.

What would it take for  antagonists to start seeing “eye to eye”? One would have to shift their position.  We might imagine one of them raising themselves up to the height of the other.

But the Bible has another idea.  Isaiah shows us two parties who do see eye to eye, and they are as unequal as they come.  It’s the LORD and His people.  Yet when they see eye to eye it’s great news:

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!  Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.  Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.  (Isaiah 52:7-9)

Here are “good tidings of good”.  This is, perhaps, not the greatest King James translation, but what it speaks of is priceless.  The reigning God of heaven will see “eye to eye” with His people.

Is this because His people have raised themselves up?  Not at all.  God has stooped.  This eye to eye agreement and fellowship is all because “the LORD hath comforted his people.”

The word “comfort” is very important in Isaiah.  The prophet uses it to describe the LORD’s attitude to His people.  Listen to the LORD’s comfort:

O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.  (Isaiah 12:1)

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.  (Isaiah 40:1-2)

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.  But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.  Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.   (Isaiah 49:13-16)

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.  (Isaiah 51:3)

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound… to comfort all that mourn;  (Isaiah 61:1-2)

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.  (Isaiah 66:13)

Just think of all that the LORD’s comfort involves:

It’s His resolute turning from anger, His pardon for all our sins, His mercy upon the afflicted, His renewal of the whole earth, His reversal of death and curse and His tender, motherly compassion. And because of His steadfast compassion, He comes down to our level.

Seeing eye to eye with the LORD is not about us raising ourselves up.  Nor does it mean giving broad consent to His moral philosophy.  It’s about face to face fellowship.  And how is it possible?  Because He has stooped.

Isaiah 52 continues by telling us of this LORD who became a Servant; a Servant who became a Lamb; a Lamb who was then led to the slaughter.  Who can doubt that the LORD wants to comfort us when we see Him join us in our depths?

We do not naturally see eye to eye with God.  Our lives are not in agreement.  We fall far short.  Yet look to the cross and there you see a divine condescension motivated by astounding love.  To see Christ and Him crucified is to see “eye to eye” with God.  In that encounter we know almighty compassion and we “break forth into joy!”

Isaiah 40:21-31

²⁸ Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. ²⁹ He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ³¹ But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  (Isaiah 40:28-31)

The film, “Chariots of Fire” shows us two ways in which “young men” can run.  First, Harold Abrahams is every inch the driven man.  Explaining why he must win gold at the 100 metres, he says: “I have 10 seconds to justify my existence.”

On the other hand, we have Eric Liddell: a man who knows how to wait on the LORD.  Liddell even forgoes Olympic glory to rest on a Sunday.  Does this mean he has forgotten about running?  No.  It’s just that he runs for a very different reason: “When I run I feel His pleasure.”

One man runs to prove himself.  The other abandons himself to the LORD and simply enjoys it.  Two ways to run – two ways to live.  We can do it in our own strength, to justify our own existence.  Or, in dependence on the LORD’s strength, we can entrust our justification and life to Him.  When we do this we receive it back as renewed strength.

When verse 31 says that the LORD shall “renew” their strength, it’s a word that most often means to “change” or “exchange”.  Like a divine swap.

The LORD receives our weakness to Himself.  In that ultimate sense, He takes on our frailty, becoming flesh and running our race all the way to its bitter end at the cross (Hebrews 12:1-3).  But He rises again by the power of the Spirit and offers us a cross-shaped strength – a strength-in-weakness.

Sometimes this strength will be “eagle’s wings”.  Sometimes it will be running with endurance.  And sometimes it will be just enough to walk “and not faint”.  But at all points it’s the LORD Jesus who upholds us.

We can run in our own strength and run ourselves into the ground.  Or we can stop self-justifying.  We can swap human strength for Christ’s, and simply run in His good pleasure.

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Isaiah 40:1-20

A sense of proportion is priceless.  But it can be elusive too.  When things go wrong we speak of life getting “on top” of us.  We are “weighed down with worry, drowning in troubles, outnumbered”.  It’s “us against the world”.  And the world is winning.

Isaiah understands.  Foreign armies have surrounded God’s city, threatening God’s house – the temple.  (Read Isaiah 36-39).  Having devoured other nations like locusts, the super-powers are bearing down on Jerusalem.  It is God’s people who must feel like a drop in the bucket.  But in chapter 40, Isaiah brings   a true sense of perspective:

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.  (Isaiah 40:15)

It might feel as though God’s people are a drop in the bucket of these mighty nations.  In fact, it’s these mighty nations that are a drop in the LORD’s bucket!  That’s the proportion Isaiah instils.

God’s people are not to look within to find strength.  Nor outward to find a chink in the enemy’s armour.  They must look up to see a LORD who dwarfs their troubles.

He dwarfs them in might and in mercy.  Verse 12 tells us about His might:

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

The LORD holds His world the way you or I would hold a contact lens on the tip of our finger.  Whatever problems we face, we are one speck on the contact lens bothered by another speck.  Does this help us have a sense of proportion?

But it’s not simply the might of the LORD that shapes our perspective.  Isaiah also urges us to think of His mercy.  Verse 11 says:

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Divine power will not help us in our troubles unless we are assured of divine love.  And Isaiah tells us that the Mighty LORD is the Merciful Shepherd.  He feeds, He gathers, He carries, He gently leads.  He is the LORD who rages at His enemies and comforts His children.  He clears out the temple and binds up the broken-hearted.  He calls forth Lazarus yet first He weeps.  He bursts through death yet first bows His head to it.

We can trust this LORD.  And when we look to Him our problems are seen in their true context.  Viewed by themselves they seem an overwhelming ocean.  Set against the backdrop of the Might and Mercy of Christ, they are a drop in the bucket:

“Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely… Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love. And repose in his almighty arms”.  (Robert Murray M’Cheyne)

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Isaiah 37

In common parlance, ideas “take root” or cultural movements “take root”.  But in the bible it’s people who “take root.”  In fact there is a whole theme of “uprooting” and “taking root” that bears examination.

In Deuteronomy, Moses warned the people, even before they entered the promised land, that they faced exile for disobedience.  And this is how he described it – the people would be

“rooted… out of their land… and cast… into another land.”  (Deuteronomy 29:28)

Both Israel and Judah are warned of this fate:

“For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river.  (1 Kings 14:15)

“But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;  Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.”  (2 Chronicles 7:19-20)

Picture the scene.  The people are like a plant, wrenched from the land, roots dangling in the air, and then tossed to the wind.

Perhaps you have felt a similar upheaval when you have had to move home.  Many times I have switched hemispheres and it can feel like being plucked and scattered.

But that experience is just a shadow of the spiritual upheaval experienced already by the human race.  Back in January we saw how Adam is presented in Scripture as a plant – a plant who reproduces after his kind.  Through disobedience, he and Eve were uprooted from God’s place and cast off.  This is the decisive uprooting that has shaped the whole crop.  And it’s an uprooting that was re-enacted by Israel thousands of years later.

Therefore, there is a deep sense in all the race of Adam that we are ‘rootless’, ‘plucked up’, ‘not at home’ spiritually speaking.  Yet Isaiah gives hope.  In chapter 37:31 he speaks of a re-planting that will occur after the horrors of exile.  The people…

shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

Here is what we need.  We need to be planted again in God’s presence – that’s our true habitat.  But how will it happen?

Well Isaiah has already spoken of Christ as “the holy Seed” and as “the Branch“.  And in chapter 53 Isaiah will call Him a “Root out of dry ground.” Jesus comes as the true Adam, the true Israel, the true Seed, the true Vine.

He is planted into the ground on Good Friday and sprouts up again on Easter Sunday to immortal, resurrection life.  And He says to us scattered, rootless drifters: “Come, get grafted into Me.”

We long to “take root” spiritually speaking – to be secure and fruitful in God’s presence.  Well Jesus is rooted in the very life of God, filled with the nourishing sap of the Spirit.  And in Him we take root, now and eternally:

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.  (Colossians 2:6-7).

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Isaiah 11

This phrase has evolved from its biblical origins.  Isaiah wrote about “the wolf dwelling with the lamb while the leopard lies down with the kid… and the young lion” (Isaiah 11:6).  Yet, as with a phrase like “Pride goeth before a fall”, it’s the abbreviation that has survived the test of time: the lion shall lie down with the lamb.

But, however it’s phrased, what could sound more unnatural than a wolf or lion lying down with a lamb?

It’s a vision that has drawn mockery from many quarters:

–  “Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn” (Martin Amis)

–  “No absolute is going to make the lion lie down with the lamb unless the lamb is inside.” (D.H. Lawrence)

–  “The lion will lay down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep.” (Woody Allen)

Isaiah paints a deliberately provocative scene.  Nature, as Tennyson reminded us, is red in tooth and claw.  How absurd to think that it could be tamed!  What could possibly bring about such a cosmic reversal?

As ever, Isaiah answers by pointing us to the Messiah.  In the face of warring nations and warring nature, Isaiah continues to set our hope on a miraculous birth.  The child will be called Immanuel or the Prince of Peace. Here in chapter 11 He’s called “the Branch.”

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.  5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them… 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.  (Isaiah 11:1-9)

When the true King reigns in righteousness, the world is set to rights.  This is not a spiritual truth divorced from historical and physical reality.  There will be a day when actual wolves and actual lambs graze together contentedly.  When seals will swim happily with great white sharks.   When children will play with crocodiles.

An impossible fairytale?  No.  You see Isaiah refuses to divorce “spiritual truths” from their earthly foundations.  How can he, when the Messiah will be God with us. Christ is the God who becomes a Child.  A God who really enters into our world – to be born as a human king.   The power of heaven enters this world from the inside.  Not just to grant spiritual benefits to spiritual people, but to remake His own creation.

We know that the false king, Adam, brought spiritual and physical death.  But now, is Christ less powerful than Adam?  Is His victory less decisive than Adam’s fall?  No!  Therefore Christ, when He comes again, will bring spiritual and physical redemption to the ends of the earth.

The believer in Christ has a physical hope – death defeated, wars vanquished, disease abolished, nature itself brought to peace and prosperity:

6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.  8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. 9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.  (Isaiah 25:6-9)

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Isaiah 9

I grew up with Summer Christmasses.  Mangoes for breakfast.  Cold meats for lunch.  Backyard cricket.  Swims and BBQs.  I loved them: but biblically speaking, a summer Christmas is a contradiction in terms.  Christmas is not a celebration of our sunny circumstances.  Christmas dawns in the darkness.

That’s what Isaiah prophesied in chapter 9.  It’s a famous Christmas reading, written 700 years before the Christ-child was born:

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.  (Isaiah 9:2)

Isaiah was facing a terrifying army sweeping down from the north.  The people were “in the land of the shadow of death.”  It seems that he had been meditating on Psalm 23, which uses the same language.  What possible “light” could dawn on this devastating darkness?

Again, Isaiah reminds the people of Immanuel.  He will bring peace when war threatens to swallow them whole (v3-5).  It’s the Messiah who will shine upon this hopeless situation: a rising sun, an other-worldly Light.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.  (Isaiah 9:6-7)

It might seem odd, but the one hope for a people “in the land of the shadow” is a baby.  Of course not any baby – this boy will be called “Mighty God.”  That’s a tough name to live up to!  Unless of course He is the Mighty God.  And then the name fits.

In fact “Mighty God” is a title unpacked by the other three names:  Wonderful Counsellor, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.  This son is Himself the Prince, but in Him dwells the Father and the Counsellor, such that the fullness of deity dwells in this child.

He comes to sit on David’s throne, just as promised.  The Prince of Heaven comes to establish His reign on earth.  The Mighty God comes for man and as man.  And like a Good Shepherd hoisting a wayward sheep onto His shoulders (Luke 15:3-7) so Christ comes to take the government on His shoulders.  He will march us through that darkened valley and out into the sunshine of His resurrection.

And what part do we play?  We don’t.  “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”  We would only get in the way.  No, the whole character of the Messiah’s work is such that we can only be grateful beneficiaries:

The Light shines.  How can we remain in darkness?  The Prince carries the world on His shoulders, how can we take it on ourselves?  The Son is given to us.  How can we not receive Him?

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Isaiah 7

A man begs for change.  Some throw him coins.  Most pass on by.  Now imagine a true philanthropist (meaning “lover of man”).

This man doesn’t just reach into his pocket for some change.  He stoops down and sits in the gutter with the beggar.  He reaches an arm around the man and says “Friend, I’m going to be with you.  From now on my kind of life will be your kind of life.  And I’m going to lift you out so that your kind of life will be my kind of life.”

That’s the meaning of Immanuel.

It’s a Hebrew word that means “God with us.”  And it’s been the hope of the Hebrew people from the very beginning.  Back in Genesis 3 the human race were promised the Messiah, born as the seed of a woman.  Among other things, this meant that

1) divine help would come in human form

and

2) His entrance into our world would involve a miraculous birth.

Men have seed, not women.  Yet the help of a man is not mentioned in this promise of a Deliverer.  The serpent-crusher would be the offspring of a woman – a miraculous gift.

And so, as Isaiah faces the troubles of his own day, he reminds himself and his people of their true hope:

The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.  (Isaiah 7:14)

The Messiah will come, says Isaiah.  And when He comes He won’t be against us, He won’t be over us or above us, He will be with us.  In fact He’ll be so with us He will become one of us.  This is incredible philanthropy!  This is God getting down on our level.

Think again of the homeless man.  Every other religion has the gods walking past and maybe handing out some change.  Other faiths might have helpful deities bestowing benefits from on high.  We have Immanuel.  We have Jesus – God with us, entering the mess, entering the darkness, drawing very near.

And He has not changed.  Though He is seated at God’s right hand, He remains one of us – bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.  He still yearns to stoop, to come close and to be with us in our situation, whatever it is.

Anyone can tell you God is big.  Immanuel tells us He is also small.  May we know Him drawing near us today.