Luke 2:25

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order and establish it with judgment and justice, from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Out of Israel's long night of conquest and silence, God promised a light—and held a newborn in the arms of an old man named Simeon.

Entering the Promised Land

In about 1405 BC, a little over 3,400 years ago, a people called Israel prepared to enter a land God had promised to their father Abraham. They stood at the border, and their newly ordained leader Joshua told the priests bearing the ark—the representation of God's very presence—to stand at the edge of the Jordan River. The river stood between them and their inheritance, and at that time of year it overflowed its banks with floodwaters.

As soon as the priests stepped into the water, the Bible says the waters parted, and the children of Israel crossed over on dry ground for the second time in their history. They knew the land would not simply fall into their hands; they would have to take possession of it. God promised, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, it is yours. I've given it to you."

God the Deliverer

The first city they came to was Jericho, and God gave strange orders: walk around the city silently for seven days, and on the last day march around it many times, then shout at the sound of the trumpet. They took the city miraculously and witnessed the might of God. From Jericho to the last city, Hazor, they watched God go before them and dispossess their enemies.

It took only seven years, from about 1405 to 1398 BC, to take possession of the land we still call Israel today. Then for nearly 700 years they held their inheritance. At times enemies occupied certain regions, but they were never fully removed. And every time an enemy took a piece of their inheritance, God raised up a deliverer, a judge—always it was God who delivered His people.

A Divided Kingdom and a Coming Darkness

By the 8th century BC—around 730 BC, the time Isaiah 9 falls—Israel had held the land for seven centuries. But under King Ahaz of Judah, they stood at the edge of a dark period when that land would begin to slip from their grasp. The roots of this darkness reached back about 200 years.

Around 1000 BC, Israel demanded a king like the other nations, though God had been their king. He gave them Saul, then David, the man after His own heart, who united the twelve tribes. Solomon established the nation as a power. But Solomon's son Rehoboam was a fool. When his older advisors counseled him to lighten his father's heavy-handed rule, his younger friends urged him to be harsher still. He listened to his buddies, the people revolted, and around 930 BC the kingdom split in two.

Ten tribes gathered in the north, taking the name Ephraim, sometimes called Samaria after their capital. In the south, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, where Jerusalem and the temple stood, formed Judah. For 200 years the division increased tension between the people.

Ahaz and the Assyrian Alliance

When Ahaz became king around 730 BC, the northern ten tribes made an alliance with Syria specifically to march down, remove Ahaz, and reclaim Jerusalem. There is hardly anything darker than a family feud. So God sent Isaiah to give Ahaz a message at the very start of his rule.

Isaiah said, "If you will trust the Lord, God will establish you." He reminded Ahaz that God had delivered the people so many times and had given them the land. But Ahaz was torn between trusting a God he could not see and trusting resources he could tangibly touch—anyone ever identify with that? Deciding it was too difficult to trust God, Ahaz made his own alliance with Assyria, the rising power of the day.

Between 730 and 720 BC, the Assyrians destroyed most of Syria, then came down and removed the northern ten tribes from their land. For the first time in their history, Israel lost a huge portion of the inheritance God had given them. These became the lost tribes of Israel, dispersed through what I call the Assyrian relocation program—a deliberate scattering of a conquered people among the empire to dissolve their language, culture, and religion, while other peoples were moved in to mix with them. This is why, by the first century AD, that region was called Samaria, and the Samaritans were part Jewish and part pagan.

Reduced to One City

Sargon II, king of Assyria, realized that the land he had been hired to defend was a fine prize and a gateway to Egypt and northern Africa. So, like any king of the day, he broke his alliance with Judah. By 700 BC, under Sargon and his successor Sennacherib, not only were the northern ten tribes displaced, but almost every city of Israel was destroyed except one stronghold: Jerusalem.

The people God said would be more numerous than the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky were reduced to a single city. Everything they had held for 700 years according to God's promise was now removed from their hands.

A Glimmer of Hope Before the Storm

This prophecy in Isaiah 9 comes just before all of that—just before those decades of darkness. In His mercy, God speaks to His people before the storm rises and gives them a glimmer of hope. The New Living Translation renders verse 1:

Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.

Zebulun and Naphtali were two northern tribes around the modern Sea of Galilee, and they would be overtaken in the first Assyrian wave. God says this darkness will not last forever, because someday He will shine His glory in this land.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in the land of deep darkness, a light will shine. (Isaiah 9:2)

Notice the future tense: they will see. This is going to come.

The Promise of Light Is a Promoter of Hope

No matter how old you are, darkness can be a fearful thing. Authors of thrillers know this—you never read a book that begins, "It was a bright and sunny day." It is always "a dark and stormy night." Movie directors know it too. In M. Night Shyamalan's 2002 film Signs, the family hides in the basement, the lights go out, and the intensity rises precisely because of the darkness.

A 2012 study by Ryerson University in Canada found a solid connection between insomnia and nyctophobia—the fear of the dark. People lie down in the dark, their minds race, their anxiety climbs, and they cannot sleep. Often, simply putting a nightlight in the room let them rest. Those of us with little kids understand this. Two of our children, Addison and Ethan, share a room—Ethan wants pitch black, Addison wants light. A little nightlight that shoots a rainbow on the ceiling solved the standoff.

Darkness increases anxiety, but the promise of light brings hope. Point one: the promise of light is a promoter of hope. Just knowing the sun will rise increases people's hope—even Little Orphan Annie knew it: "The sun'll come out tomorrow." That is exactly what God, a good and loving Father, does in Isaiah 9. Just as His people enter an intense darkness that will not be brief but will be long, He promises that it will end and a great light will shine.

Where Will the Light Come From?

Verses 3 through 5 speak of increase, rejoicing, redemption, and liberty when this light comes upon those in darkness. The nation reduced to one city, brought down from being as numerous as the stars, will be increased again with joy and hope. God builds and builds the expectation—and then, in verses 6 and 7, He gives the source.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

The light will come in the form of a little child, a son given to the people, and the government will rest on His shoulder. Ahaz and his successor Hezekiah would see the loss of the nation, but God promises one who would see its increase. Point two: the source of hope is a Son—s-o-n—who will rise. His kingdom would have no end, seated on the throne of David, fulfilling God's promise to David in 2 Samuel 7 that a king from his line would reign forever. This is the Messiah, who will establish His kingdom with judgment and justice forever.

One Child, Three Prophecies

This same one was promised just two chapters earlier:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel—which is translated, God with us. (Isaiah 7:14)

That word was spoken to Ahaz as he prepared Jerusalem for invasion, torn between trusting the Lord and crying out to Assyria. The child born in Isaiah 9:6 is the same one born of the virgin in chapter 7. He is also the one in chapter 11:

There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him... with righteousness he shall judge the poor... and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. (Isaiah 11:1-5)

Jesse was David's father, so this one is a descendant of David, with the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord resting upon Him. He will judge with righteousness and destroy wickedness.

Seven Centuries of Darkness

All these great prophecies were spoken on the eve of intense darkness, around 730 BC. Within ten years most of the nation would be taken; within thirty, reduced to one city; within 150 years, even Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, and the people removed from their land entirely for seventy years.

You might think the common conclusion would be, "We're done." Yet there was this promise of a light. After seventy years in Babylon, when Cyrus conquered the Babylonians, prophets showed him that Isaiah had written his name 200 years before he was born, naming him as a deliverer of God's people (Isaiah 40). Cyrus said, in effect, "If God wrote it, I'd better let you go." But only a small remnant of about 50,000 returned to rebuild Jerusalem.

Then came deeper darkness still. About 300 years after Isaiah, God stopped speaking. The last old covenant prophet, Malachi, wrote around 430 BC, and after that God did not speak another word to His people for 400 years. More than half of those 700-plus years of darkness passed in utter silence.

God Always Makes Good on His Promises

Point three: God always makes good on His promises. After 400 years of silence, the angel Gabriel appeared to a priest named Zacharias as he offered incense in the temple.

Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you will call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. (Luke 1:13-14)

Joy, gladness, and rejoicing were words Israel had scarcely known for 700 years. Six months later Gabriel flew north to Galilee—the land of Zebulun and Naphtali—to Nazareth, to a young girl named Mary:

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David... and of His kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:31-33)

Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given.

Simeon in the Temple

About ten months later, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for the census, and Jesus was born. Angels announced His birth to shepherds. Eight days later, according to the law, they brought Him seven or eight miles to the temple in Jerusalem to circumcise Him, name Him as Gabriel had said, and present the offering Leviticus 12 required. It took me a while to get here, but this is the focus:

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. (Luke 2:25)

It had been revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Led by the Spirit, he came into the temple, took the child Jesus in his arms, and blessed God:

Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32)

Note those words—all peoples. Joseph and Mary marveled. Imagine it, ladies: you bring your newborn into the temple, and a stranger takes Him from your arms. But God by the Spirit had said, "That's the one." Simeon then blessed Mary, warning her, "Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul," preparing her for the day she would watch her Son crucified.

Anna's Witness

Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess... and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. (Luke 2:36-37)

Commentators are split on whether she was 84 years old or had been a widow 84 years, but she was very old. At that very moment she came in, gave thanks to God, and began to speak of Jesus to all who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Two people who waited, longed, and looked with great anticipation finally saw the One the good and gift-giving God had promised, even though it took hundreds of years.

What Are You Waiting For?

Thinking about Simeon and Anna this week, I asked: what are you waiting for? What are you looking for? Day after day, perhaps for 84 years, Anna fasted and prayed, longing for the Redeemer. Simeon waited until he could say, "Now I am ready to die." What are you waiting for—joy, peace, redemption, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge?

Point four: Jesus is the longed-for hope of all humanity. Whether people recognize it or not, He is the answer to whatever they are searching for—the thing they think they might find in a Christmas present, a job, a degree, a relationship. Everything they long and hope for that might bring satisfaction and joy, Jesus answers at the deepest level.

Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government there will be no end.

The Light the World Still Needs

That is what Christmas declares—whether He was born on December 25th or not, He is the longed-for hope of all humanity. Many of you have come to realize this, but many more outside these walls, and perhaps some here, have not. We who believe have the opportunity in this season to make sure all people know it. We live in a nation with so much, yet so many are still searching—they still haven't found what they're looking for, to quote a great philosopher named Bono.

My prayer is that we would be stirred to remember and to remind others that Jesus is the source. Colossians says He is the fullness of God in bodily form, and we are complete in Him—which means we are incomplete apart from Him, all in desperate need of Him. If you have been in intense darkness, He is the light. If you lack joy, peace, counsel, or wisdom, He is the one in whom it is found. Lock into Him, connect with Him, and find that all you need is in Him.

Closing Prayer

God, we come before You and ask that You would remind us of these things and compel us, stirring our hearts to declare them to those we will interact with over the next several weeks—friends, family members, co-workers, neighbors—who during this time of year are open to hearing the good news of who You are. I pray we would take the opportunities You give us. And I pray for those here today who have not yet fully realized or taken possession of the reality that You, Jesus, are the one in whom all fullness dwells, the longed-for hope of all humanity, including they themselves. Lord, help us to find in You what is needed, and help us to declare it to a needy world. In Jesus' name, amen.