00:00: Well, good morning.
00:00: As Pastor Dylan was mentioning, he and I, we go back a little bit, and actually I even remember a time when, for those who were here, where Pastor Dan, who was here before, he was a mentor of mine through the ordination process, and I used to come here monthly and sit in the, I don't know what room you call that, and we'd have our pastoral meetings and talk and get to know each other in fellowship, and so I do miss those times, but God has me in a different place right now, and being faithful where he has me, so it's a privilege to be here with you this morning, and when Dylan reached out to me, we were going back and forth talking about what to preach about and things like that, and he reminded me that this is the beginning of Advent, which for some of you might feel a little, I can't believe we're here already, and for some of you who start listening to Chris's music in July, you're like, we're finally here.
00:53: For me, I'm one of those after Christmas, is when we start thinking, after Thanksgiving, we start thinking about Christmas, so today we're going to kick off kind of the road to the cross in a sense of Jesus came.
01:02: Why did he come?
01:09: He came to die.
01:09: Why did he come?
01:09: Why is he here?
01:09: And so earlier this month was a day that I really, really don't like, and you wouldn't know what I'm talking about, but it's my second least favorite day of the year, and that is when Daylight Savings comes to an end.
01:22: It's my absolute second least favorite, because for me, it's when all of a sudden it becomes four o'clock, and all of a sudden it's dark outside.
01:33: Can anybody relate to that?
01:33: It's not, especially in Wisconsin, it is not a very fun day.
01:38: End of Daylight Savings, yeah, you might get extra sleep, but the darkness comes early.
01:43: You start driving home, and I have a long commute, and all of a sudden it's dark when I get home, and I just don't like that.
01:50: But it's not my least favorite day.
01:54: My least favorite day is coming soon, and actually that would be the winter solstice of December 21st.
01:58: You might be thinking, why do I disdain winter, sort of official winter, although if you look outside, it might look like winter has started.
02:10: And that's because that is the longest day of the year.
02:10: And for my good friend Chad, who is a pastor here in Green Bay Area as well, I remember he used to tell me that that was his absolute favorite day.
02:18: It was December 21st, and I'm like, you're such a weirdo.
02:18: Why in the world would you want December 21st to be your favorite day of the year?
02:24: Especially when like four days later, it's Christmas, right?
02:28: But for him, he said, well, that just means that this is the darkest day of the year, and from here on out, it gets lighter and lighter every day.
02:34: I used to think he was so crazy for that, and I still text him.
02:39: I'm like, hey, happy winter solstice, you little weirdo.
02:43: But for me, like, he's clearly a half-cut full guy, and I'm clearly a half-cut empty guy, because I'm focusing on the doom and the gloom and the, you know, the bad stuff that comes with winter, the snow and the cold and the arctic vortexes you hear about, and just, it's dark.
03:00: And for me, I've dealt with this a little bit of seasonal effectiveness disorder, which I think a lot of us deal with in some form or fashion in Wisconsin, especially where it's dark, and winters become long, and they become lonely and hopeless, and you just want to go on a vacation to Florida, and some of you are lucky to do that.
03:16: Good for you.
03:16: But for most of us, it's a long season.
03:22: So now I made you a little depressed that winter.
03:22: It's not even started yet.
03:22: Hang in there.
03:27: Be a chat.
03:27: Be optimistic.
03:27: Because it could be worse.
03:27: There is a town in Alaska.
03:27: It used to be known as Barrow, Alaska.
03:36: Now it's called Utqiagvik, which I probably butcher how to say that.
03:36: But it's the northernmost city in the United States.
03:42: It's 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and they are currently experiencing what is called Polar Night.
03:48: Lovely, I know.
03:48: Polar Night.
03:48: And there is no sunrise from November 18th to January 23rd.
03:58: That is 67 days of darkness.
03:58: Puts our, you know, stuff in a little bit of perspective.
04:09: But as you would imagine, suicide rates, especially in Alaska, they skyrocket during the winter, and especially during this time of complete and utter darkness.
04:14: If we're honest, most of us probably don't like the dark.
04:21: Some people do.
04:21: But most of us, we prefer to be in the light.
04:28: There's something eerie, not quite comfortable with darkness.
04:28: It's kind of the feeling you get, for example, when you come up from the basement, and there's still that little child part of you that wonders if something is following you or chasing you, and you get those irrational feelings.
04:47: Or if you've ever been on a cave tour, and oftentimes in these cave tours, they like to shut off all the lights, and they say, try to see your hand in front of you, and you can't see it.
04:52: And it's just that sense of like, whew, I'm in darkness, and I can't even see my own hand.
04:56: It's a little eerie.
04:56: It's a little scary.
05:02: There's something eerie and not quite comfortable with darkness.
05:02: It's not comforting.
05:10: It's cold.
05:10: It's lonely.
05:10: It's scary.
05:10: It's uncertain.
05:10: And if we're honest, there's a lot of dark moments in life.
05:18: At times when life feels cold, scary, might feel hopeless, might feel empty.
05:18: You might describe it as polar night.
05:28: Or maybe, as St.
05:28: John of the Cross used to say, the dark night of the soul.
05:36: We have dark seasons in life.
05:36: I've gone through one in the past seven years in many ways.
05:36: We all have a story.
05:43: We all have a time when we feel hopeless, or life just comes at us, and it's unrelenting, or we feel lonely.
05:49: And for some of us, that especially occurs during this holiday season, when that sense of loneliness just gets louder and louder.
05:55: That during such a great time of joy and light where we celebrate the Advent, it can also be a great time of darkness.
06:10: darkness.
06:10: So today we're going to look at an account, and I'm going to do things a little bit differently than I normally do, but we're going to look at an account of great darkness where there was no dawn in sight, and there was no hope for about a thousand years.
06:20: So if you will, before we get into the text, I'd just like to pray.
06:29: Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to come and to be with you and to be with your people.
06:38: And as we look into your word that you've provided for us, help us to pull out the truth and to pull out what it is you want us to live.
06:46: In your son's name we pray.
06:56: Amen.
06:56: So what we're going to do is we're going to read the text, and then, like I said, just something a little bit different.
07:02: We're going to get into some historical context, because I think it's really important to pull out the meaning of the text.
07:06: So if you want the words to be on the screen, but this is, we're going to be hunkering down most of today in Isaiah, and we're going to start at the end of chapter 8, 21, and go through 9 verses through verse 7.
07:17: So Isaiah 8, verse 21, says that they will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry.
07:30: And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their god and turn their faces upward.
07:42: And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish.
07:48: And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
07:48: But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.
07:56: In the former time, the time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.
08:03: But in the later time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
08:08: The people who walked in darkness have seen great light.
08:08: And those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them light has shown.
08:13: You have multiplied the nation.
08:13: You have increased its joy.
08:21: They rejoice before you as the joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
08:29: 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.
08:35: For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle, tumult, and every great garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
08:43: For to us, a child is born.
08:43: To us, a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
08:57: Of the increase of his governance and of peace, there will be no end.
09:03: On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness.
09:09: From this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
09:15: So this might be, especially that last part, a very familiar Christmas passage.
09:23: For unto us, a child is born.
09:23: We've heard that one.
09:23: It's often read during Christmas Eve services and things like that.
09:29: But as I said, I think it's important for us to look at the historical context to really illuminate this passage.
09:33: So what we're going to do is, I'm going to have you enter into my classroom a little bit.
09:40: As Pastor Dylan was mentioning, I am in education again.
09:40: I started off in education, went to pastoral, and now I'm back in education.
09:45: And I used to teach history.
09:51: So we're going to have a little history lesson.
09:51: So if you did not like history class, I'm sorry, we're going to be spending quite a bit of time going over some history of Israel and Judah.
10:01: So we're going to go all the way back to 1053 BC.
10:01: And this is recorded in 1 Samuel 8, when Israel had been ruled by judges for a very long time.
10:12: And this is where we see Samson and Deborah and the list goes on.
10:19: You can read the book of Judges to learn more about that.
10:19: And Israel sees all of these countries, all of these nations being ruled by kings.
10:26: And so they go to Samuel, who was a prophet and a judge and a leader at the time, and they ask for a king.
10:31: And this upsets Samuel because he feels rejected by Israel.
10:37: But so he goes to God and he reminds them, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me.
10:44: So Samuel goes back to the leaders and he explains to them, he says, I want you to understand something that a king will take your sons.
10:53: He will battle for his glory.
10:53: He's going to tax you.
10:53: He's going to take and he's going to take.
11:00: And if you've watched Hamilton, it's just like he's going to take, he's going to take, he's going to take.
11:05: That's what kings do.
11:05: They take what they want for their glory.
11:11: And you're going to cry out to the Lord and he's not going to answer you.
11:11: This is what Samuel's telling the leaders of Israel.
11:15: And they're like, yeah, let's do that.
11:15: That sounds good.
11:15: We want a king.
11:20: And so God gives them a king and his name is Saul.
11:20: And of course, we're going over this for some of you that grew up in the church or have done Sunday school.
11:26: It's going to be very familiar to you.
11:26: You're going to recognize the name Saul.
11:31: Saul was appointed king and he was okay at first.
11:31: Started off, he had zeal for the Lord.
11:39: He fought for the Lord.
11:39: He honored the Lord.
11:39: And then pretty quickly that he turned, as we know.
11:44: And he started doing it for his own glory and he ended up kind of crazy and mad and bipolar.
11:50: So God intervenes and he anoints David to be the next king.
11:50: And he makes a covenant commitment.
11:58: He says, through this, through your blood, through David's line, there's going to be a king.
12:04: And also you're going to be king.
12:04: Basically when Saul is gone, you're going to be king as well.
12:11: So he appointed some king.
12:11: And David was very faithful.
12:11: He was favorable.
12:11: As we know, he was often described as a man after God's own heart.
12:18: And so God establishes his kingdom, a promised kingdom, a future kingdom, a line through David, as described in 2 Samuel 7.
12:25: This is the Davidic covenant.
12:34: Well, David served a long time, very faithful, man after God's own heart.
12:34: Yes, he had his shortcomings, but he was after God.
12:41: He wanted to honor God.
12:41: He has a son named Solomon, as you're probably familiar with.
12:47: It's the Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes.
12:47: He writes all these wisdom.
12:47: Very strong, wise man, rebuilds the temple.
12:55: But he also has a lot of pagan wives.
12:55: And these pagan wives greatly influence him.
13:03: He had over a thousand wives.
13:03: He had lots and lots of wives.
13:03: And as you can imagine, they were pagan worshipers.
13:09: And that greatly influenced him.
13:09: And he also wasn't a very great dad.
13:13: And so when he died, the kingdom who took over was greatly disputed.
13:13: And Israel was basically divided into two.
13:24: You had a northern kingdom and you had a southern kingdom because the two brothers could not get along.
13:29: So they divided.
13:29: The northern part was called Israel.
13:33: The southern kingdom was called Judah.
13:33: The northern kingdom was ruled by tyrants, murderers, adulterers.
13:40: Most of them turned away from God.
13:40: All of them turned away from God.
13:40: None of them walked with God.
13:45: There was one maybe, but in general, it was not good.
13:45: They did not follow God.
13:52: The southern kingdom was similar, but there was a lot more decent and good kings.
13:52: I think there was about 20 kings and I think about eight-ish of them were good kings.
13:58: So not quite 50%, but better than zero of the northern kingdom.
14:05: But eventually they turn away from God.
14:05: And so what God does is he sends prophets and he sends messengers to warn his people to turn them back to God and to remind them of the promises that he has made to them.
14:17: And he reminds them that I'm going to deliver on my promises.
14:24: Please come along.
14:24: Please get in line.
14:24: Come back to me to encourage them and to comfort them.
14:31: That's why he sent a whole bunch of prophets.
14:31: But especially in the northern kingdom, these warnings were ignored.
14:37: And so they continued in their ways.
14:37: And in about 740 to about 732 BC, we see the Assyrian kingdom.
14:50: They come and they start raiding and attacking the northern kingdom.
14:50: And this is where we see the book of Isaiah.
14:57: So this is the context of Isaiah.
14:57: We'll circle back to the little bit.
14:57: So this passage we're looking at was written at about 734 BC.
15:01: And at about 722, the northern kingdom was completely conquered.
15:14: And Israel had their final exile.
15:14: They had been taken into exile.
15:14: But that was like the final northern kingdom basically gone.
15:23: And what happened was that the Assyrians had a desire to resettle this area.
15:30: And so they resettled it with a whole bunch of non-Jews.
15:30: And this area was called Samaria.
15:30: So as we think about the New Testament, this is where Samaria comes in.
15:37: It's an intermixing.
15:37: For those who did remain in this, the Jews who did remain in this area, which wasn't many, they intermarried.
15:44: And it just got all kind of messy.
15:50: And so the northern kingdom was essentially gone by 722 BC.
15:50: The southern kingdom fared a little bit better, but not by much.
15:58: They lasted about 100 years, 120 years longer.
15:58: But after the Assyrians, the Babylonians came.
16:06: And they attacked.
16:06: And there was three exiles where they came in and they basically took the Jews and took them back to Babylon.
16:15: And that occurred in 605 through basically 586.
16:15: And 586 was the final destruction of Jerusalem, where they basically just took over that southern kingdom.
16:29: The temple was destroyed.
16:29: They went into exile for about 70 years.
16:29: And that's where we see books like Ezekiel, Daniel, and Jeremiah.
16:35: Eventually, when they came back, they were a little bit more zealous.
16:42: They wanted to reestablish the temple.
16:42: So they did rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
16:42: They rebuilt the temple.
16:48: But for the most part, they continued in their pagan ways.
16:48: They continued to not follow God.
16:53: By this time, basically, the damage was done.
16:53: And the last we hear of God sending a messenger, sending a prophet to his people was at about 400-ish, 430-something BC.
17:02: And so for 400 years, God was silent.
17:15: He did not send a messenger.
17:15: Well, the Jews were made under Babylonian control.
17:23: Until Alexander the Great comes along, who was Greek.
17:23: And the Greeks had this philosophy called Hellenization, where they basically wanted to assimilate the people they conquered and made them Greek, basically, to follow the Hellenized way, where they'd follow the Greek gods.
17:35: They would speak their languages.
17:42: They would adhere to Greek philosophy.
17:42: And so as you can imagine, this greatly influenced the Jews that were there.
17:51: And they occupied Israel for about 170 years.
17:59: And so eventually, they did adopt the Greek language, which is why the New Testament is written in Greek.
18:03: And they adopted the way they're thinking.
18:03: And so the Jews are basically assimilated to the Hellenized way, to the Greek way of doing things.
18:14: And one of the things that the Greeks definitely emphasized was external beauty, which is why you have these grand buildings, these grand statues.
18:21: They focus philosophically on external things.
18:30: And this was one of the things that the Jews started to adopt.
18:30: And their worship then became more external than internal.
18:35: And so what this did is this kind of created this war of cultures.
18:35: And this started roughly being kind of the beginning of the more liberal party and a more conservative party within the Jewish religion of the foundations of the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
18:52: Not officially yet, but this is kind of the framework.
18:59: This is kind of the roots where we start seeing this cultural war of those who want to focus on, hey, we're Jews.
19:05: This is what we have to believe.
19:05: We've got to follow the law.
19:11: And those who are a little bit more loosey-goosey wanted to follow more of the Greek ways.
19:11: It's a cultural war.
19:16: And then the Syrians come.
19:16: And the Syrians treated the Jews very harshly.
19:16: They did not like the Jews at all.
19:25: And one of the things that the Syrians did, though, is they didn't really want to have to do anything with the Jews.
19:31: So they appointed, allowed them essentially to have a priest as their leader.
19:35: So the high priest was essentially their political leader.
19:35: And so now the Jewish way became more political.
19:41: So we're seeing factions and how they interpret the law being more liberal, more conservative, and following the law.
19:49: Now we're seeing it being more political, politicized, and external.
19:53: The Jews become more political, less spiritual.
20:03: Corruption creeps in during this time.
20:03: And we start seeing the more liberal party, which eventually becomes the Sadducees.
20:10: What they do is they eventually pay off the Syrian king.
20:10: And they're like, hey, if you're going to anoint a high priest, how about we pay you and you get to tell us which high priest gets to be in?
20:22: It better be one in our party.
20:22: So they're seeing this political corruption as well.
20:25: And it ends up being really, really messy.
20:25: And there becomes a lot more conflict amongst themselves.
20:32: And this eventually leads to the Syrian king being very, very annoyed because now he has to intervene.
20:40: The Jews can't get along and they keep fighting.
20:40: So he intervenes.
20:40: And he's really annoyed about it.
20:46: So what he does is he starts to persecute them.
20:46: And he starts to take away all of the Jewish distinctions.
20:51: What he did was he canceled the observance of the Sabbath.
20:59: He canceled all of the feasts.
20:59: He destroyed all the scriptures.
20:59: They were manipulated and destroyed, most of them.
21:07: He forced them to eat pork and to sacrifice to idols.
21:07: He built an altar in the temple and sacrificed to Zeus.
21:14: It's all happened.
21:14: Can you imagine that you think it gets worse, you think it's going to get better, but it keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
21:23: We're now to the point where someone, a pagan, is worshiping in your temple to a different god.
21:26: Can it get any worse?
21:35: So this eventually leads to an old priest who has a faction of people.
21:35: He takes with them.
21:35: They flee to the mountains and thousands of them follow.
21:42: And this is the father to Judas Maccabees, who might be a familiar name.
21:50: Maccabees is also known as the hammer, which I think is pretty cool.
21:56: And he led a revolt with his brother.
21:56: And eventually they took Jerusalem back on December 25th of 16, sorry, 165 BC.
22:02: And they cleansed the temple.
22:02: They worship again.
22:02: And this is, for Jews, this is the basis of Hanukkah, amongst other parts of the story.
22:10: But that's part of the Jewish history.
22:18: This eventually leads to more fighting, more division, the highly political priests.
22:18: We do get a firm establishment of the Sadducees and the Pharisees during this time.
22:25: But they do experience freedom for the first time for about 70 years, where they don't have any oppressors.
22:32: They don't have any leader or conquering country come until the Romans come.
22:37: And the Romans were ruthless.
22:37: And this is about 47 BC.
22:47: And they're cruel.
22:47: And what happens is Caesar Augustus anoints a guy named Antipater to rule.
22:47: And he is the father of the father of the king.
22:55: And he's the father of Herod.
22:55: So when we know our Christmas story and Christmas account, this is King Herod.
23:00: But King Herod was not a king.
23:00: He was appointed a king by an oppressor.
23:07: Caesar Augustus appointed him to be king.
23:07: After a thousand years, they have a king.
23:07: But it is a king that has been appointed by an oppressor.
23:22: It's easy to overlook a thousand years.
23:30: This is a long time.
23:30: It's easy to look back and be like, oh, okay, this all happened over the course of...
23:34: This would be like equivalent to us looking back to the dark ages.
23:34: That's a thousand years years of unrelenting pain and unrelenting suffering.
23:48: And now you're being ruled, quote unquote, by a king who is named by your oppressor.
23:55: And God was silent for 400 years.
23:55: No prophets or messengers.
23:55: And for 400 years, for perspective sake, that would be like God being silent between now and the time of the pilgrims.
24:07: 400 years.
24:07: 400 years.
24:07: That's a long time.
24:07: This is a story of darkness.
24:07: This is a story of desperation, of despair, of generation after generation after generation of experiencing extreme darkness and extreme oppression.
24:29: And these are God's chosen people.
24:37: How can that be?
24:37: Did God abandon them?
24:37: I'm sure it felt like that.
24:47: But God did not abandon them.
24:47: He did not reject his people.
24:47: He did not give up.
24:54: Again, this is why he's sending all these messengers like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel who's saying, hey, repent, come back to me.
24:59: Follow God's law.
24:59: Follow his ways.
24:59: Follow his plan.
24:59: Because it's way better.
25:09: Because look what's happening.
25:09: And if you don't, bad things are just going to continue to happen.
25:14: God used prophets to share his plan and to promise deliverance.
25:14: And that's what's happening in Isaiah.
25:25: Like I said, the book of Isaiah was written during the time of the Assyrian control in the northern kingdom.
25:30: And actually, to provide context to the specific verse, chapter in Isaiah 8, this is during the Assyrian aggression.
25:39: And they've been coming in and fighting battles for about eight years or so, six years or so.
25:46: And what Isaiah is doing, he's warning Israel of a defeat.
25:46: And he actually basically says, in about one year and nine months, the Assyrians are going to come and take you.
25:58: And by the way, that actually did happen in 732 BC.
26:04: So as we look back on this passage, I do want to bring up just kind of the first point.
26:11: Is that we need to turn to God in the darkness.
26:17: We need to turn to God in the darkness.
26:22: I'm going to pull out the passage again in Isaiah 8, 21 through 22.
26:28: And he's speaking to those who didn't follow God.
26:31: I didn't put 19, I could have put the whole chapter in here.
26:33: I don't have time for one sermon to preach on a whole different chapter.
26:37: But it's interesting, and I encourage you to go read it on your own.
26:40: But what he's doing, he's speaking to those who didn't follow God.
26:47: And in fact, they were consulting mediums and spirits instead of following the law.
26:50: And Isaiah is saying, failure to heed God's word and failure to heed God's wisdom, it provides no spiritual light.
26:58: And then he enters here in verse 21.
27:02: He says, for those who are following and listening to this bad advice of the world and following the spirits, they will pass through the land greatly distressed and hungry.
27:11: And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and speak contemptuously against their king and their God.
27:17: And they will turn their faces upward.
27:19: And they will look to the earth.
27:21: But behold, distress and darkness.
27:24: The gloom of anguish.
27:26: And they'll be thrust into thick darkness.
27:29: This is what happens when we fail to heed God's word.
27:37: This is what happens when we fail to heed God's wisdom.
27:43: When we turn to the wisdom of the world as they're doing, when they're going and seeking, trying to figure out what's happening next, what they should do, and they seek out these mediums, and they seek out these spirits, and they try to gain all this wisdom from external things.
27:59: They're turning to the wisdom of the world instead of listening to God, listening to his messenger.
28:06: They failed to believe that God would keep his promise that he has made.
28:14: Instead, they're focused on their circumstances.
28:16: They're focused on the looming attacks.
28:19: They're focusing on what's going around them.
28:21: And they're being distracted by what God has already promised.
28:24: And they failed to trust that he would come through.
28:27: And this leads to distress.
28:29: This leads to bitterness.
28:30: This leads to hardships.
28:32: And this leads to hardness towards God.
28:35: To the fact that they kind of turn against God because they're like, why would we trust him?
28:41: He has abandoned us.
28:45: They've been, in that last line, thrust into thick darkness.
28:50: But, Isaiah 9.1 says, but, it starts with that conjunction, but, there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.
29:08: In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, that's speaking of the northern kingdom.
29:14: But in the latter time, he has made the glorious, the way of the sea and the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
29:20: This is a prophetic telling of Jesus' ministry in the north, in Galilee.
29:28: That there's a great light that has come, and it is coming.
29:34: So, hang on to hope.
29:36: In the midst of all this darkness, hang on.
29:39: This is an echo of what, like I said in Isaiah 8, what Isaiah is speaking of, when he warns Israel, the northern kingdom, of, look, you're going to be attacked, and the sea are going to come, and they're going to conquer you, and they're going to take you, and basically a year and nine months, essentially.
29:57: But, for Judah, the southern kingdom, there's still time.
30:01: There's hope.
30:02: Don't worry.
30:03: In fact, he reminds them twice.
30:06: He uses the word Emmanuel twice, that God is with you.
30:09: Don't worry.
30:10: Your enemies are going to fall.
30:11: They're going to fail.
30:13: Don't worry.
30:14: Do not give up hope.
30:17: Northern kingdom, they're in trouble.
30:19: Judah, you still have hope.
30:22: You are promised.
30:23: You are, God is holding on to you.
30:25: He is protecting you.
30:26: God's promise stands firm.
30:31: So stop being afraid of this Assyrian attack.
30:33: Don't worry about it.
30:35: Fear God.
30:36: Wait.
30:36: Trust.
30:37: Do not give up, for he is holy, and he is a sanctuary, and he is a safety net.
30:43: That's what he's telling Judah.
30:46: Don't worry.
30:48: I am with you.
30:52: In chapter 8, he also tells them that those who believe and obey the Lord are going to be blessed, and those who look to him instead of the world and the circumstances and being distracted by glory or their failures, they're going to be blessed.
31:08: But instead, those who turn away and focus on the world and focus on their circumstances and focus on the darkness around them, that's what they're going to find.
31:18: They're going to find darkness.
31:19: They're going to find distress, and they're going to find the gloom of anguish.
31:25: I think it's really easy for us to look back at biblical characters or biblical stories and biblical accounts, especially Israel, and throw them under the bus and say, how in the world could they follow these mediums?
31:37: How in the world could they listen to spirits?
31:38: How in the world could they do that and turn their back on God?
31:43: But if we're honest, when we need comfort in life, when we need hope, when we need clarity on the future, where do we turn?
31:55: Where do we turn?
31:57: I think oftentimes we look at, we go to our social support groups, whether it's our friends or family, and we're looking for that positive pick-me-up.
32:05: We're not necessarily looking for them to truly give us an honest answer.
32:07: We're just looking for something positive that we can hold on to to make ourselves feel better.
32:11: We might lean upon modern therapy practices, such as mindfulness or self-care, or just got to be grateful and gratitude, and those are good things.
32:25: We might turn to community, to a crowd of people, party, whatever it is, social media, to make ourselves look bigger and feel better.
32:35: We might turn to comforts and to things such as food or sports or work or working out.
32:43: Or maybe we even turn to the news or information to have some sort of peace and understanding of the future so that we feel better and feel more comforted and feel more secure.
32:56: We often look to others.
33:01: We often look to the wisdom of the world as our guides.
33:05: When in reality, what we need to do is keep looking up.
33:14: I think it's interesting.
33:16: The sunflower is a really interesting plant.
33:19: It's one that we symbolize summertime and brightness and fullness, and it loves light.
33:26: It loves the sun.
33:28: But what's interesting is that young flowers are what we call heliotropes.
33:33: And for some of my gardening friends, you probably already know all this.
33:37: But the word helio comes from the Greek word meaning sun.
33:40: And what God designed these sunflowers to do is that when they are young, they turn towards the sun.
33:48: And they follow the sun to receive maximum light.
33:53: So in the morning, they're facing east.
33:58: When the sun comes up, they can receive all that sun.
34:01: And what happens is that the eastern side of the plant grows faster, which causes it to turn west as the sun goes along.
34:11: And then in a later part of the day, the western stem grows stronger, which pushes it back so that in the morning it faces the light.
34:23: I think this is a beautiful illustration of how we are invited to live life.
34:27: We are invited to be a heliotrope.
34:30: But oftentimes, we get pulled into darkness.
34:38: We get pulled into temptation, or we get pulled into a sense of inadequacy.
34:44: We get pulled into resentment or to doubt.
34:46: And we run to those places to seek comfort.
34:50: We run to those places to seek hope or to find clarity, to somehow maybe seek a distraction or to make ourselves feel better, maybe to numb ourselves or to fill some sort of need.
35:00: But instead, what we ought to do is to train our minds and hearts to turn to him, much like the sunflower.
35:10: We are to train our hearts and our minds to turn towards the light.
35:17: To fight to live in vital union with him.
35:22: To have faith that his ways are better.
35:24: To not give up that he is with you.
35:26: That in him, there is no darkness.
35:28: To not give in to the temptation of the world and to listen to the promises that it makes.
35:32: To realize that that is false.
35:34: But really, what we ought to do is to turn our eyes, turn our hearts, to turn our minds towards the promises that God has made us, made to us.
35:44: Because he is a great light.
35:48: Psalm 16 says that he is the fullness of joy and pleasures forever.
35:53: We are to wait and to trust and to hold unto the promises of God.
35:57: To turn to him.
35:59: Because God delivers on his promises.
36:03: The second point is after darkness, light.
36:11: We are going to continue on in Isaiah, starting in verse 2.
36:15: It says, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
36:22: Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone.
36:26: You have multiplied the nation.
36:28: You have increased its joy.
36:30: They rejoice before you as with the joy at the harvest.
36:33: And they are glad when they divide the spoil.
36:35: For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder and the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
36:41: For every boot of the trampling wire in battle to molt and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel to fire.
36:49: For unto us a child is born and to us a son is given and the government shall be on his shoulders.
36:56: And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
37:02: Of the increase of his government and the peace, sir, it will be no end.
37:06: 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.
37:17: What an astonishing contrast.
37:22: Think about who he is writing this to.
37:24: Yes, it's written for us, but it's also written for the Jews, for the people that are dealing with oppression, that are dealing with murders, that are dealing with a country, come and taking them and removing them from their country.
37:35: And he's saying, do not give up hope.
37:38: Do not give up.
37:42: Because you who walk in such darkness, into thick darkness, have seen a great light.
37:50: This is a promise.
37:52: And as we think about the Advent season, this is what it's all about.
37:59: That there is no more oppression, there is no more darkness for those who are in distress.
38:03: That the shadow of death, the suffering and anguish will be gone for them and for us.
38:09: Because he has come, it is gone for us as well.
38:13: He's saying to the readers at the time that this promise, it's going to happen, there is going to be a great light.
38:25: Like I said, we are very familiar with this Christological passage, the Christmas, especially verses 6 through 9, that talks about unto us a child is born, wonderful counselor, mighty God, prince of peace.
38:36: God will provide deliver for his people.
38:42: He will fulfill the promises to Abraham and David, which is what he did through Christ.
38:47: This is Jesus.
38:57: Him who was, to them who was in such thick darkness, he is light.
39:05: There's many, many verses, but I want to point out a few in John.
39:08: John 1.5 says, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has overcome it.
39:14: And in verse 8.12, it says, again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world.
39:21: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have a light of life.
39:26: Think about the people who have heard this, who are currently under control of Rome, and they're hearing, you're not going to walk in such darkness.
39:34: I am that light.
39:35: I am the one who is promised.
39:39: In chapter 12.46, it says, I have come into the world as a light so that whoever believes in me will not remain in darkness.
39:51: Jesus has come so that we may not remain in darkness.
39:56: This promise and fulfillment is one of great joy, which is what we see in this passage in Isaiah.
40:03: He talks about the joy at the harvest, and I can't help but think of the first fruits of growing up on a farm.
40:09: We always had like fresh tomatoes, and the first thing we would do with the first fresh tomatoes is we would have these excellent BLTs, or think about the fresh corn that comes in the fall, the first time we have that, and how wonderful and amazing that tastes.
40:24: It's going to be that joy at the harvest.
40:27: It's going to be like when you divide the spoils of a plunder, which we don't really do because we're not in the military, but I always think of my kids at Halloween time when they go get their candy, and I get to enjoy the plunder of that.
40:38: It's wonderful.
40:40: All the Reese's peanut butter cups I want.
40:42: It's a great joyous time.
40:46: He has taken the yoke of the burden, and he has removed it.
40:50: This is the joy of the promise of the light.
40:57: As we begin Advent, and we start thinking about the reasons that Jesus came to die, we must think about that Jesus came to fulfill the promise and to deliver his people and to deliver us from darkness so that we may not walk in it.
41:17: That there will be no more sin or evil or separation from God and spiritual blindness.
41:25: that the death and the chaos and the ignorance will be gone through him.
41:37: Another thing to consider as we look at the reasons Jesus came to die is that he came as such great light.
41:45: In 1 John 1.5, it says, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
41:59: That in him that God is light.
42:03: He is holy.
42:04: He is true.
42:05: He is righteous.
42:06: How comforting to know that God is with us.
42:09: He is light.
42:10: In the midst of the darkness, he is coming again.
42:13: He has come and he is coming again.
42:17: He is our coming king.
42:19: The promises we have of Jesus' first advent is true and we can hold out on hope of the truth of his second coming as well.
42:31: After the Protestant Reformation, reformers utilized the phrase and if you've taken Latin, you probably know how I've murdered this, but they used the phrase post tenebras lux, which means in Latin, after darkness, light.
42:49: And this was their motto to remind, as a reminder of the truth and the spiritual enlightenment that emerged from a great time of darkness.
43:02: It signified hope and renewal and the triumph of truth over darkness.
43:07: as we reflect upon the history and the context of what Israel endured for thousands of years of oppression, anguish, and thick darkness and missed that darkness, God kept calling to them to turn to him because he promised, he delivers on his promises.
43:30: so amidst the darkness, we must turn to God.
43:39: This Advent, as we reflect on why Jesus came to die, we need to remember the message of hope that in the darkest moments of our lives is a promise of a coming light, a great joy that he came and that he is coming again.
43:55: Be a heliotrope.
43:57: Turn to God in the light.
44:00: Amen.
44:01: Let's pray while the worship team comes.
44:09: Lord, we thank you for the Advent season as we look to you, a great light that has dawned in the midst of darkness.
44:17: And as we reflect upon our own lives and many ways that we turn to worldly wisdom to find joy and to find light and to find truth, let us be reminded that you are the light that has come in the midst of the darkness and that we must turn to you.
44:39: Lord, remind us that after darkness you were always there and that we may turn our hearts and our minds and our souls towards you to receive that great light.
44:55: In your son's name we pray.
44:56: Amen.