Spent much time listening to people telling you about the inadequacies of the church & of the Lord? Sometimes the fear of tragedy & tragedy separates people from God, sometimes it is superstition or new age and sometimes it is being busy.Isaiah named his two sons & the Lord told him to name one son Mercy and the other “In making speed to the spoil he hasteneth the prey”. The Lord says Israel was offered God as her husband and Israel is letting fear rule her; afraid of tragedy, following spiritual voodoo and offering this to all the people as direction.
This passage acknowledges Israel is fallen and imperfect, but offers the Light of God. God will give His light to the Gentiles. Jesus’ ministry occurs in the land told about at the end of Isaiah 8.
Isaiah 8:16-9:1
16
6 The record is to be folded and the sealed instruction kept among my disciples.
17
For I will trust in the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; yes, I will wait for him.
18
Look at me and the children whom the Lord has given me: we are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.
19
And when they say to you, "Inquire of mediums and fortune-tellers (who chirp and mutter!); should not a people inquire of their gods, apply to the dead on behalf of the living?"--
20
then this document will furnish its instruction. That kind of thing they will surely say.
21
First he degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; 10 but in the end he has glorified the seaward road, the land West of the Jordan, the District of the Gentiles. Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness; for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.
Chapter 9
1
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.
Footnotes
[6] This people: Judah. Waters of Shiloah: the stream that flows into the pool of Shiloah in Jerusalem, its slow current symbolizing the silent, divine protection which Judah has rejected. God will therefore summon the mighty Assyrian army, symbolized by the River with it’s swift current (Euphrates), to devastate Judah, which, however, will not be entirely destroyed, because it is the land of Immanuel.
10)Zebulun . . . Naphtali: Judea, which was first to be attacked by the Assyrians; God, however, redeems it, as he redeems all his people. Seaward road: from Damascus, across southern Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea. District of the Gentiles: northern Galilee, inhabited by pagans; cf Joshua 20:7; Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:15-16 refers to this, since Jesus began his public mission in Galilee.
Great encouragement given to the people of God in the midst of those distractions; they are assured, 1. That the enemies shall not gain their point against them (v. 9, 10). 2. That if they kept up the fear of God, and kept down the fear of man, they should find God their refuge (v. 11-14), and while others stumbled, and fell into despair, they should be enabled to wait on God, and should see themselves reserved for better times (v. 15-18).
<><
Posts
