Isaiah – Light Prophet of the Darkest Hour

On behalf of God, he points to the birth of an unpre­ce­den­ted, powerful ruler. Isai­ah descri­bes him with four win­so­me names. A Mes­siah who also fits 1:1 into our pre­sent darkness. 

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Christ­mas is a uni­que fes­ti­val of lights! The lights that shi­ne in gar­dens and on bal­co­nies are impres­si­ve; but with sleighs, reinde­er and Sami lice, they have very litt­le to do with Beth­le­hem. In Bett­wil, we always dri­ve past a house with a gar­den that has been trans­for­med into a world of lights. You auto­ma­ti­cal­ly put on the bra­kes to be able to mar­vel as long as pos­si­ble as you dri­ve past. When our son visi­ted Cham, we noti­ced a block of flats whe­re the resi­dents had agreed with each other how to illu­mi­na­te and deco­ra­te their bal­co­nies uni­form­ly. It looks fan­ta­sti­cal­ly beau­tiful… I think peo­p­le love this becau­se the time over the turn of the year is the dar­kest sea­son of the calen­dar – along with the dark­ness on the world stage, in poli­tics, eco­no­mics and in bro­ken inter­per­so­nal rela­ti­onships.

Isaiah, a prophet of the darkest hour

We are lis­tening today to a Mes­siah pro­mi­se of the pro­phet Isai­ah. At that time, the histo­ry of God’s peo­p­le was also very dark. This is expres­sed, for exam­p­le, in ver­se 1 of the 9th chap­ter: «For the peo­p­le who live in dark­ness see a bright light. And over the peo­p­le in a land overs­ha­dowed by death shi­nes a bright light»(Isai­ah 9:1, NL). What was the cau­se of the dark­ness then?

Historical insertion

Isai­ah was a pro­phet in the sou­thern king­dom of Judah during the reign of the two kings Ahaz and Heze­ki­ah. The­se two kings from the same fami­ly beha­ved as dif­fer­ent­ly as light and dark­ness. No king of God’s peo­p­le could be more god­less than Ahaz. In his 16-year reign, he mana­ged to put God com­ple­te­ly on the side­lines in the lives of his peo­p­le. He had idols cast and set up num­e­rous idol altars in all the cities and on the hills. He sacri­fi­ced to the god Moloch, with child sacri­fices that he bur­ned; and made his sons walk through the fire. He inci­ted the peo­p­le to live a ruthl­ess, vicious life. He des­troy­ed all the uten­sils in the house of God and clo­sed the door of the temp­le. Finis­hed, finis­hed, finis­hed – with this god and all wor­ship! That Ahaz clo­sed the temp­le and put God out­side the door is like our dark­ness today. How many peo­p­le have clo­sed their hearts to ever­y­thing divi­ne and put God out­side the door! Ahaz did it so bad­ly that even the god­less king Pekah of the nor­t­hern king­dom of Isra­el had enough. He went against Judah in a fra­tri­ci­dal war and in a sin­gle day 120,000 Judeans fell, kil­led by their brot­her peo­p­le! (to be read in 2 Chro­nic­les 28). Now we under­stand bet­ter the words of Isai­ah: «…over the peo­p­le in a land overs­ha­dowed by death shi­nes a bright light!» Isn’t it ama­zing that Isai­ah recei­ved this pro­phe­cy from God >700 years befo­re the main event in Beth­le­hem! And it remain­ed unf­or­got­ten and expec­tant­ly remem­be­red for all the­se cen­tu­ries. As with most long-term pro­mi­ses of the pro­phe­ts, the­re were also pre-ful­fill­ments with rulers on the thro­ne of David. Start­ing alre­a­dy with a son of the ter­ri­ble King Ahaz, Heze­ki­ah. Heze­ki­ah was the extre­me oppo­si­te of his father Ahaz. The Bible says of him: «He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David» (2 Chro­nic­les 29:2). First, he reopens the temp­le and calls the priests and Levi­tes to wor­ship again. The Temp­le is rede­di­ca­ted to God. Heze­ki­ah invi­tes all Isra­el and Judah to Jeru­sa­lem to cele­bra­te the Pas­so­ver tog­e­ther again (what a ges­tu­re of recon­ci­lia­ti­on!). Heze­ki­ah calls all the peo­p­le to rep­en­tance and con­ver­si­on. This feast of con­ver­si­on is pro­per­ly cele­bra­ted with lots of songs and music of prai­se. Sin­ce one week is too short for them, they imme­dia­te­ly add ano­ther week of cele­bra­ti­on. Heze­ki­ah rigo­rous­ly cle­ared up the idol altars and idol sta­tu­es. We read about him: «He cla­ve to the Lord, and depar­ted not from him, and kept his com­mandments. […] And the Lord was with him, and all that he under­took he suc­cee­ded in doing.» (2 Kings 18:6–7; LU). That was Christ­mas back then! Today, for the 4th of Advent, I read an Isai­ah pro­mi­se from the 9th chap­ter.

On the sermon text

Isai­ah 9:5: «For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. On his should­ers rests the reign. He is cal­led: Won­derful Coun­sell­or, Strong God, Ever­las­ting Father, Prin­ce of Peace.» A birth is actual­ly not­hing spe­cial. On that night in Beth­le­hem, many more child­ren were born all over the world. But here we are not tal­king about an ordi­na­ry child, but about the Son of God. This child was not con­cei­ved by man and woman, but by God hims­elf through the Holy Spi­rit. God sends his Son to this earth to save us!

On his shoulders rests the dominion.

Nor­mal­ly one car­ri­es hea­vy bur­dens on one’s should­ers. Jesus car­ri­ed the hea­vy bur­den of death on the cross and yet was Lord of lords! When it says here that the lord­ship rests on his should­ers, I think rather of a distinc­tion. Jesus says of hims­elf: «All aut­ho­ri­ty in hea­ven and on earth has been given to me»(Matthew 28:18). Sure­ly this means: The­re has never been a grea­ter or more powerful ruler and the­re will never be a grea­ter one until all time to come! Every year, Christ­mas time is a remin­der for us of the grea­test Christ­mas gift a human being can ever recei­ve. For Chris­ti­ans, it is the remin­der: as a child of God, I belong to the most powerful ruler in this world. Do you have many things on your mind right now that are kee­ping you up and depri­ving you of sleep? Are you anxious and worried about the 2019 ahead of you? Remem­ber: you are not alo­ne; the grea­test of this world, Jesus, is and remains clo­se to you; and in the hand of the grea­test you are well, no mat­ter what else will hap­pen and what else will come! David sings in a song of prai­se: «Your king­dom is an ever­las­ting king­dom, your reign endu­res now and in all gene­ra­ti­ons to come»(Psalm 145:13; NGÜ). We may hold this as plain text and bold­ly pro­cla­im it in this world! All Domi­ni­on rests on the should­ers of Jesus…!

A ruler with many names

Now the Mes­siah is still descri­bed with meaningful names: «Won­derful Coun­sell­or, strong God, eter­nal Father, Prin­ce of Peace.»

It is called: Wonderful Counsellor

This does not mean that Jesus is a mira­cle bag, but a tru­ly won­derful coun­sell­or! His wis­dom is extra­or­di­na­ry, it cau­ses ama­ze­ment. His thoughts and his will can inspi­re us! Coun­sell­or was a job in tho­se days. Every king had his advi­sors. They were cal­led in when dif­fi­cult decis­i­ons had to be made or some­thing had to be plan­ned! What if, for exam­p­le, French Pre­si­dent Macron and his cabi­net had this won­derful coun­sell­or Jesus at their side! Or Kim Jong Un in North Korea, Pre­si­dent Erdo­gan and Pre­si­dent Trump. Actual­ly, I wish this bril­li­ant coun­sell­or on ever­yo­ne, inclu­ding our Fede­ral Coun­cil­lors, inde­ed the who­le Fede­ral Assem­bly! And you have this won­derful advi­sor in Jesus at your side! How do you expe­ri­ence him – or do you pre­fer to be your own advi­sor? It is not so easy to under­stand HIM! If you ask Jesus for advice, you have to take time to lis­ten to him! His ans­wers are not to be cal­led up by mobi­le pho­ne! Ask Jesus to speak into your ever­y­day life, into your world of thoughts, into your reflec­tions. Tell him you want to lis­ten to him. Or ask for God’s ans­wer tog­e­ther with a belie­ving fri­end!

It is called: strong God.

In other trans­la­ti­ons it means «God-hero», or «migh­ty God»! El is a gene­ral term for God. And it ama­zes me that God uses a term for this mes­sa­ge that is misu­s­ed by many for other gods. I get the impres­si­on God is deli­bera­te­ly intro­du­cing hims­elf here, as a stark con­trast to humans or gods, with God smi­ling. «What litt­le ger­ne­gross they all are!» All you can say to that is: «Yes, you alo­ne are God and I am your crea­tu­re». After the pro­phet Dani­el was res­cued from the lion’s den, King Dari­us had the fol­lo­wing mes­sa­ge pro­clai­med throug­hout the land: «This is my com­mand, that ever­y­whe­re in all my king­dom the God of Dani­el is to be feared and rever­ed. For he is a living God who abides fore­ver, and his king­dom is ever­las­ting, and his domi­ni­on has no end. He is a Saviour and a Hel­per in trou­ble, and he does signs and won­ders in hea­ven and on earth»(Dani­el 6:27–28, LU). If a king of that time could under­stand our gre­at God, then this should also be pos­si­ble today with the rulers of this world! Let us pray for this!

His name is: Eternal Father.

The term father is beco­ming more and more of a pro­ble­ma­tic term in our world! A voice from the inter­net: «I have been in two rela­ti­onships (8 years and 5 years). My daugh­ter cal­led both part­ners dad­dy and they trea­ted her like their own child. My daugh­ter does not know her bio­lo­gi­cal father. When they sepa­ra­ted from me, both part­ners also bro­ke off cont­act with the child.«Poor child, does­n’t know the real Papa; was allo­wed to say Papa to two men, but now they are gone! Our hea­ven­ly Father is etern­al­ly my hea­ven­ly Father! You can rely on this father. He pro­vi­des for us sus­tain­ab­ly, emo­tio­nal­ly, spi­ri­tual­ly and prac­ti­cal­ly! Matthew 7:11 says: «So if you, who are evil after all, have the under­stan­ding neces­sa­ry to give good things to your child­ren, how much more will your Father in hea­ven give good things to tho­se who ask him?» Let us ask him – trus­tingly, as Jesus taught us this year. «You shall pray like this: Our Father in hea­ven!»(Matthew 6:9; NGÜ). In the year that is coming to an end, we have been inten­si­ve­ly occu­p­ied with the Our Father pray­er and it is not by chan­ce that alre­a­dy in the ear­ly 2nd cen­tu­ry the ear­ly church added to this pray­er of Jesus the ending that is fami­li­ar to us: «For thi­ne is the king­dom and the power and the glo­ry for ever and ever!»

His name is: Prince of Peace.

Prin­ce – that is a ruler, a supre­me, a lea­der. Peace is a mat­ter for the boss! Jesus makes peace bet­ween peo­p­le and God and among peo­p­le. It is about peace = shalom, which means sal­va­ti­on, well-being and «having enough». We do not have this shalom in our­sel­ves and we can­not pass on shalom from our­sel­ves. From child­hood we are peo­p­le who never have enough; we are always con­cer­ned first with our own well-being and not that of others. If you are rest­less and dis­con­ten­ted; if you are con­stant­ly sni­ping and resen­ting others, God’s peace has not fil­led you. I think of the powerful sce­nes from the Christ­mas play last Sun­day! First Jesus wants to show you what is wrong, then for­gi­ve you and then give you new hope for a life of peace. In Beth­le­hem, the angels sang: «Glo­ry and honour to God in the hig­hest, and peace on earth to tho­se on whom his good plea­su­re rests.»(Luke 2:14; NGÜ). God is the pea­ce­ma­ker and wants to give us peace! Only then can we be pea­ce­ma­kers! Do not enter the New Year in con­flict! You still have more than a who­le week to make peace and a who­le year to grow in peace. God gave Moses a pray­er for the priests to bless the peo­p­le with, say­ing, «So let them put my name on the Israe­li­tes, that I may bless them.» I will pray for you now and put the names of Isai­ah pro­mi­se on you: (Won­derful Coun­sell­or, Strong God, Ever­las­ting Father, Prin­ce of Peace) «The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shi­ne upon you and be gra­cious to you; the LORD lift up his coun­ten­an­ce upon you and give you peace.» (Deu­te­ro­no­my 6:24–26 ).  

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Questions for the small group or for personal reflection

• Which of the 4 names is clo­sest to you from your expe­ri­ence with Jesus?
• Which one is the fur­thest away?
• How are you doing with lis­tening to Jesus» advice? What trou­bles you the most? Do you want to rai­se this inse­cu­ri­ty among your friends?
• Are the­re any in your per­so­nal «impos­si­bi­li­ties» that you have never ent­rus­ted to Jesus, to whom all aut­ho­ri­ty has been given in hea­ven and on earth?
• How did Jesus descri­be the fat­her­ly natu­re of God? Does our hea­ven­ly Father also have a mother­ly side? (For ques­ti­on 2, read Isai­ah 42:14; Isai­ah 46:3–4; Isai­ah 49:15; Isai­ah 66,(9-)13; Job 38:8).
• What is the grea­test ene­my of peace in the inter­per­so­nal sphere?
• Try to explain the jux­ta­po­si­ti­on of Matthew 10:34 and John 14:27.