December 14, 2018: Day 13 – Isaiah 9

I feel as if this is all that I need to post.  If you have an extra 2+ hours then go ahead and sit back and listen to the complete Handel’s Messiah.  And you thought it was just the Hallelujah Chorus, no there is a complete work.  But it does take a couple hours to get through it all.  

There is a bit of a dichotomy in this chapter between the beginning section and the ending section.  We have the very popular: “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness- on them light has shined.”  This is what we read every Christmas Eve when we light the Christ candle.  Christ is the light who came into the world.  If you listen at minute 40 on  the above recording you will hear verses 6 and following which is the very encouraging and uplifting “Unto us a child is born, a son is given.”  It is very uplifting because it gives us hope and promise.

But then things change dramatically in vs.8ff.  The people do not turn to the Lord.  As a result they will be conquered and things get really, really bad.  Isn’t that interesting how in the chapter that has one of the most iconic Advent/Christmas verses we find later in that chapter one of the most foreboding gloom and doom Scriptures that you can find.  I guess it is that way, though.  We have the promise and the gift but if we do not believe it or open it, it will be useless for us.