Isaiah 9:2-7 English Standard Version
2 [a] 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.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
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.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon[b] his shoulder,
and his name shall be called[c]
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 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.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
From Alpha to Omega, the Bible never ever disguises just how dark life can get.
The Scriptures are clear that when sins multiply, when evil is celebrated, when God is left out, darkness ensues, darkness spreads to every corner it can reach.
And yet, over and over in the Bible’s storyline, we are abundantly reminded that God is not afraid of, not shy about His thoughts of or defeated by such darkness.
In fact, He makes an everlasting habit of drawing near and turning it into light.
We see Him drawing near in the third chapter of Genesis.
Sin had entered the world; the only two people alive had rebelled against their Maker, and when God came near to them they ran, they were hiding in shame.
Thinking about it, it would have been completely understandable for God to have shown up in Eden, dropped a hammer of His hardcore judgment on Adam and Eve, picked up more dust, and started over with another man and woman.
But that’s not what He did.
That is not what we read and learn in the Word of God for His Children.
He arrived in the garden, came near and asked, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).
And when He found them naked and ashamed, He stayed on the scene, and He put enmity, open hostility, between the serpent and all mankind in mercy, He provided animal skin covering for them, and expelled them from the Garden.
So, too, with His people Israel.
By the time Isaiah began his ministry, there was again an established history of the people forgetting God and ignoring His prophets – all would lead to exile.
As a result, they labored long and hard under the wicked kings they deserved and found themselves “greatly distressed and hungry,” leading them to “speak contemptuously against their king and their God” (Isaiah 8:21).
Again, it would have been reasonable for the Lord to have done away with His people at this point, start over – leaving them to experience the “distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish and defeat” (v 22), without a hope or a future.
After all, by their words and their actions, they were communicating that they didn’t want Him around in their garden of the knowledge of both good and evil.
Imagine God’s thought process here – Why would He, should He, stick around?
But the next chapter of Isaiah begins with a glorious, even miraculous reversal:
“There will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish” (Isaiah 9:1).
The Lord would not leave His people, and He would not allow them to remain in misery – No, for these people in darkness, “on them has a great light shone.”
The light of the grace of God was breaking into their self-inflicted gloom of sin.
Centuries after the words of Isaiah were written, spoken, preached and taught, that endless cycle of sin – the people of God again found themselves in anguish.
There were again foreign rulers over them, and now came something different from God – there had been no prophetic word heard for too many, many years.
Imagine the thought of the people – “Perhaps He’s really finally done it this time, the people may have thought – the Lord has finally had enough of us, turned His back.
In these contemporary of days, we know better.
We believe that into this darkness a child was born.
We believe a glorious once in a lifetime has light shone in the sky, leading to the discovery of a baby who would prove to all to be the light of the entire world.
The question for us this Advent season, in any season, is whether the light has dawned in our own hearts or whether we have let the darkness of sin creep in.
The good news of this season of Advent and Christmas is that the God of the Bible is the God of grace, the God of Light who comes into the darkness and emptiness of our hearts to bring His light, His love, His joy, and His peace.
It is a great certainty we are each walking in darkness today, whether that is the darkness of our own sin, our fear or the darkness caused by the sin of others.
God’s promise is this: God is neither afraid of nor defeated by, these things.
In Immanuel, God with us, God is within us – in Jesus, He has drawn near.
By His Spirit, He can bring light to the dark.
Look to Him and look for Him for He wants to be found – and walk in His light.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Psalm 8 Names of God Bible
Psalm 8
For the choir director; on the gittith;[a] a psalm by David.
1 O Yahweh, our Adonay, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!
Your glory is sung above the heavens.[b]
2 From the mouths of little children and infants,
you have built a fortress against your opponents
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens,
the creation of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have set in place—
4 what is a mortal that you remember him
or the Son of Man that you take care of him?
5 You have made him a little lower than yourself.
You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him rule what your hands created.
You have put everything under his control:
7 all the sheep and cattle, the wild animals,
8 the birds, the fish,
whatever swims in the currents of the seas.
9 O Yahweh, our Adonay, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 