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Being the time when we particularly remember the birth of Jesus I was prayerfully wondering about writing a seasonal blog post and these words in Isaiah 9:2 came to mind:
'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'.
What is this light? What is this verse referring to? If you go to the New Testament we can find it quoted in reference to Jesus's ministry (Matthew 4:16) and Jesus's birth (Luke 1:79). Let's take a look at the quotation referring to Jesus's birth in Luke...
Luke 1
About six months before Jesus was born another miracle baby called John the Baptist was born. Jesus's mother Mary had an elderly cousin called Elizabeth who was married to a priest called Zacharias. Zacharias was told by an angel that he and Elizabeth would conceive and have a son but because of their age Zacharias struggled to believe it could happen. Because of his unbelief he was struck dumb for nine months.
But at the time of John's birth Zacharias obeyed the angel's instructions that the baby boy rather than being called after his father as was the custom, was to be called John. When Zacharias intimated this in writing to his relatives and friends, God gave him back his ability to speak again.
Full of God's Spirit, Zacharias poured out praise to God and prophesized that his son would be a messenger from God to the people of Israel, preparing the way for the Messiah, who would 'give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace' (Luke 1:79).
So, Jesus is being referred to as giving light, shining a light and guiding into peace, but what does this really mean?
Strong's concordance tells us that the word 'light' here means to illuminate our understanding or to give a spiritual capacity to understand. Isaiah (42:6,7 ) said Jesus' light would be 'a light of 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'.
Jesus' light would not only give spiritual understanding but it would free people from a prison and darkness. It would be a light, not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles (that's you and me unless you are a Jew).
Matthew Henry put it, 'the gospel brings light with it, leaves us not to wander in the darkness of Pagan ignorance, or in the moonlight of the Old Testament types or figures'.
Do you feel like you are walking in darkness or in prison? Do you feel like you are blind or walking in the shadow of death? Perhaps you feel quite happy with your life, free to do what you want, when you want, and comfortable with all the good things that life has brought you.
But are you going to die one day? Is that not a shadow looming over your life, perhaps something that you push to the back of your mind and don't like to think about, but you know is there? I remember how when I was a student nurse I became so conscious of the fragility of life. I was seeing life taken so quickly, accidents happening so suddenly, illnesses so unexpected. As I heard a minister* pray recently, it felt like there was 'but a breath' between life and death. Perhaps you have experienced serious illness, accidents or death of a friend/loved one and felt the coldness and darkness of that shadow stretching over you.
Listen to Jesus's words to the church of Laodicea in Revelations 3:17. ...'Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked'.
Jesus' light gives us the understanding to see that spiritually we are dead, poor and miserable. It shows us that without him we only have eternal death before us, for as he himself said, 'I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life' (John 8: 12).
'And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent' (John 17:3).
Living in darkness is being without God. It has no hope of eternal life. There is no foundation in your life that gives you support and comfort. It is living in the prison of sin with a sentence of eternal death from which you cannot get free.
Why do we live in this prison of sin and under this sentence of death? Why must we live in this shadow of death and darkness, where naturally we are without God?
We all have to die, because from the beginning of time man rejected God and chose to believe Satan. We naturally want to do our own thing and go our own way, but God is holy and pure and has shown us by what is known as the 10 commandments how we should be living, and told us that we should love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But we cannot do this! Even if we appear to live very morally, treat others well and say we believe in God, every single one of us still has thoughts that break God's laws. And even if we really want to keep God's laws we will be continually fighting a battle against Satan, who will do all he can to keep you from following God and keeping his ways.
To help us understand why our sin has to be punished we could describe it like the laws of nature which we know about - the law of gravity for example. Solid things when dropped will fall to the ground. So, because God is holy, sin has to be punished.
God taught his ancient people, the Jews, how the death of sacrificed animals could be used to satisfy this law and obtain God's forgiveness for sin, but it was never totally complete. The animal sacrifices could not put away our sins once and forever.
With Jesus' birth came the fulfilment of promises God had made and which Zacharais refers to in his Spirit inspired praise, that he would redeem his people from their sin. Jesus came as the Saviour, as the Deliverer. He came as God had promised showing God's 'tender mercy' (verse 78) to us and his faithfulness to his word. He came that we might serve him 'without fear' (verse 74) covered by Jesus's 'holiness and righteousness'.(verse 75).
Jesus came a light to open our spiritual eyes and understanding to our need of being saved from our sin. His light enables us to believe in him and to be given the spiritual life which his perfect life has procured for his people. He came a light to give hope to us in this world of sin which can be referred to as darkness, he came a light and a Saviour to overcome the powers of sin and evil - because we cannot do it - he came a light to shine in us and show us the ways that we should live and serve him - he came as a light 'to guide our feet into the way of peace' - a peace which passes all understanding - a peace of complete trust, faith, and resting in the Lord for salvation and control of our lives in all their detail - and he left us the light of his word, the Bible, that we might have a 'guidebook' to constantly refer to.
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