Advent Day 9: Isaiah 9:1-7

Read Isaiah 9:1-7.

Ponder Isaiah 9:1-7

• How do you see the ideas of light and darkness at work in this passage? 

• How does the metaphor of light symbolize hope in these verses? 

• The opening verses of this passage predict that the northernmost section of Israel, the most oppressed and the most influenced by pagan religion, would be honored by God when he sends new light in the future. Think about the original audience, oppressed by foreign governments and looking for God’s promised Messiah who they thought would be a military leader who would set everything to rights. How might these verses have affected them? 

• When has God shown great light in your darkness? What did you learn about God or his character through that experience?

• These words were meant to bring hope to an oppressed people. How do they bring hope to you today? 

Meditate on Isaiah 9:1-7

Consider carefully the second half of Isaiah 9:2. Various versions render it differently—”those living in the land of darkness” (CSB), “those who live in a dark land” (NASB), “those who live in a land of deep darkness” (NLT)—but the message is still the same. 

Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 9 were first spoken to people who knew oppression and sorrow. The northern tribes of Napthali and Zebulun had been annexed by the Assyrians in 732 BCE. Through his prophets, God had warned that punishment would come from foreign invaders if the people of Israel did not turn back to him, and these northern tribes now lived in those consequences. 

Isaiah 9 wasn’t aimed toward people who were just having a bad day or a recent run of bad luck. They knew oppression, hardship, suffering and sorrow well, and, at times, it probably felt like it was never going to end. And while they likely remembered those promises about a Rescuer who would one day come to end oppression, those promises must have seemed so far away in those dark days. 

Yet Isaiah, whose prophecies were usually aimed at the Southern Kingdom of Israel, turned his eyes northward in Isaiah 9. Hope was rising, he seemed to say, like the sun rising in the east bringing a new day and fresh hope. Those whose lives seem characterized only by darkness and oppression have a reason to hope. Those who walk in great darkness, those who live in the land of darkness day in and day out, can rest in peace. Your Messiah will come, and he will break the yoke of slavery. He will bring freedom and joy. 

He will bring light where there has only been darkness. 

While the Israelites misunderstood a lot about the Messiah, they were very clear on one thing: their hope was in a person. The great light that was dawning into the daily darkness of their lives wasn’t just figurative or a positive attitude. It was a Rescuer. An Overcomer. The Messiah. Jesus. 

Today, you may feel like someone who is living in the land of darkness. This burden, this season, this heartache, this wretched cycle of sin and its consequences that you’ve found yourself cycling through yet again—it all seems insurmountable. Sometimes, it’s easier to think that the darkness will never end than to believe there is hope. 

But the hope Isaiah promised the Israelites in the land of darkness is the same hope we have today: Jesus. Lift your eyes from the darkness that surrounds you because hope is dawning. “For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine” (Isa. 9: 2, NLT). His name is Jesus.