06.19 No burden for the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, 06.19 you have broken as on the day of Midian. 06.21 For every boot of the trampling warrior and battle tumulet, 06.22 and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 06.23 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, 06.25 and the government shall be upon his shoulders, 06.26 and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this wonderful passage that we have tonight to look at. Lord, we just thank you that you have not left us in darkness. That is, as we've just read, that there would be a light that would shine forth and bring this joy to the hearts of your people. And I just pray, Holy Spirit, that you would be here tonight to give us the understanding that we need and that you would just open our eyes so that we would see what you're doing in this passage, that as you reveal the majesty of God in this passage and in this in this prophecy that came so long ago, and we thank you that we stand in a time where we get to look back and we get to see the fulfillment of what you're talking about right here. So we ask, Father, that you would come, that you would give us that enlightenment that we need, and that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart would be approving in your sight. We give you the glory and the honor, in Jesus' name, amen. So there's a video series put out by Frontline Missions called Dispatches from the Front, and we watch it with our kids. They're excellent. They follow these missionaries into different parts of the world, and you get to see what's going on as you're following these guys. And there's a certain village in Libya, in Africa, West Africa, that has just, Captivated me from the first time we saw it and I was watching it again and this pastor named Dennis Was going into this village and he's telling the story of how he got in there now just a little bit of background on Libya's this is a war ravaged place of gloom and darkness It is not a good place. They lived through 14 years of civil war and just left the country in disarray. And as Dennis is driving the team out into the bush away from the city into this village, he starts explaining that, you know, there's militant Islam everywhere, but there is a heavy present of satanic worship. There's these patches of forest as they're driving in that they call the devil's forest. because they're dedicated to Satan and you go out there and all sorts of stuff happens. Well, this particular village that he was going to was founded by a witch. And in there, they had a altar where up until, the video came out 2010, they have been in there for about two years. So sometime in the 2000s, they had an altar where they were still practicing human sacrifice. There was a temple to Satan himself, And there was just no hope for these people. It was darkness and gloom, and there was no hope. And Dennis, when he came back from the States after a seminary training, he began planting churches. And he really wanted to go here. But everybody kept telling him, you can't go to this village. You just can't do it. They're going to kill you. You just can't. And well, Dennis himself had a different perspective. And he wasn't focused on the world and what the world had to offer. His focus, his perspective was on God and God alone and his promises. And he wanted to reach these people. And so sure enough, he goes into the village And as it comes out, there was a man there who left the village, who heard the gospel, who got saved, who was living there, his only person, got him headway into this village, and he brought the gospel in, and it has been radically changed. The light of the gospel has come into this heavily satanic, village in the middle of West Africa, and the people now have hope. You know, everything is changing for them. And as I was listening to this story, I started thinking, you know what, that's pretty much what Isaiah is doing. Isaiah, in this passage right here, is gonna begin to challenge our perspective. He's gonna ask us, where does our hope lie? Where do we look? You know, are we going to focus on the world and our circumstances? Or are we going to look at the promise of God? And he's going to begin to remind these people of what we have in God and why our perspective needs to be there. So if we look at verse one. It says, but there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the later times, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. And so what's happening is Isaiah is a long book. And for the first 30 or so chapters, he is talking about judgment that's coming. He's talking about just these people are in covenant violation and God is going to pass judgment for the breach of the covenant. The south, the northern tribes have already been taken by Assyria. I mean, they are in the process of going, Assyria is sacking them and they're being carried off. They are a war ravaged land to the north. the people the kings that he's ministering to are starting to look to their own means to get them out of this this uh predicament that they're in they feel that god has left them they don't know what's going on they have nowhere to turn it is just doom and gloom and uh so isaiah as he is moving through these oracles of judgment he he pops in these little snippets of hope to remind the people you need to remember what we're looking for. It says that God has brought the people into contempt. You know, this is one Hebrew word that is very strong, but it carries the nuance of the person doing it. And what he's saying here is that God has found you guilty. He has taken you to court. He has found you guilty. He has passed sentence, and he's carrying out the verdict right now. Look to the north. They're being carried away. God is not gonna wink at sin. But it's juxtaposed to another word that just jumps right out at you. It says, he has made glorious. It's the same thing, that there's honor. So even though these people are facing severe judgment and punishment for what they have done, He is not going to leave them high and dry. It's the same thing that happened in the garden. You know, when Adam and Eve fell, he didn't leave them in the dark. He provided a way and said a Messiah would come. Here again, he made promises to Adam's descendant or Abraham's descendants that he would do something great through them. And he's bringing and he's carrying on these themes. He's saying, yes, you are going to be punished and sin has to be taken care of. But it's not the end of the story. There's gonna be a time when everything will be restored. He's gonna make this time glorious. And it's very interesting that he says, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. Because right here is the only time that Galilee is actually referred to as the Gentiles. And as this poem unfolds, we're going to see that the king is for the whole world and not just for them. But the light is going to shine on everybody who's there. And just as the judgment is coming from the north, from Zebulun and Nephtyli, see, they were the northernmost villages. They were the northernmost tribes. So as Assyria was coming down, they would have been the first ones to be taken in judgment. Well, he's saying that just as they were the first, they're gonna be the first ones to see this glory, to see this honor and have this restored to them. It's just like the way God works. He passes judgment up there, but he also brings the hope from the same location. Now this is, you know, this kind of sets the stage for his whole poem. And what he's going to do is, as Isaiah is going to start telling them, you need to focus, you know, you need to check your perspective. He's going to start unpacking the reasons for joy. And as he's talking about the works of God and options of assurance and all these things in this poem, One kind of sets the stage. Verse two, where he says, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shown. Walking is this active verb. He's saying that the hope is not gonna be immediate. You're gonna have to go through this, but he's calling these people to begin to walk in a different way. that they are living out their life, even in the midst of these dark times. Back in chapter 8, 11 to the end, he starts calling this remnant of the faithful. He starts telling them, look, this is coming, but you need to live a different way. Even though there is nothing but doom and gloom, and there is nothing but oppression, you need to look somewhere else. You need to have your perspective different. You can't look at these human situations don't look to your own means, you need to look to what God is doing. So he begins to call them to look at this perspective. And even though the canopy of God's favor is gonna be removed from them, they are called to live like this. And the whole situation, why they're being judged, goes back even to Deuteronomy 28 with the blessings and the cursings. They have done this, but this light is gonna shine. The light is contrasted with the darkness, so the light as it comes, just like in that village, just like in everything, the light comes, it shines, it casts away the darkness, and there's redemptive transformation. He says, you have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy. They rejoice before you. They rejoice before you is, boy, this is talking about the victory of grace. It's not by human means, it's gonna be by grace alone, that when grace has victory, it's gonna grow and it's gonna spread. But the rejoice before you has to do with being in the presence of the Lord. It's, he says, with the joy at harvest and they're glad when they divide the spoil. It's reminding them because through this poem, he has overtones of what happened at the Exodus event and at Midian, which he's gonna point out. So he is using certain phrases, certain words that the faithful, they're gonna hear these things and they're gonna remember, oh yeah, I remember the times of harvest when we would go to the temple, the tabernacle. We would be, our sins would be forgiven. We would, we would corporately worship. We would be in the presence of the Lord. You know, we would be free. We would have this time to rejoice. Same thing with dividing the spoil. But these, these guys were not, these guys were not like pillagers and plunderers. They didn't go out and just raid villages. It's referring to the time when God redeemed them from Israel as he, as he drove them into the promised land, as he, as he, uh, drove out the enemies. These people were getting to take all of their stuff and they were receiving the benefits of divine gifts that they did not earn. It was all by God's grace that they were getting these things. He says, for the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. It's going back, the day of Midian goes back to Judges where God delivered them with Gideon up in the same land, up in Naphtali and Zebulun. And he's saying, remember these times. Remember the past times. As bad as it looks right now, you need to look back and remember the goodness of God, what he has done in the past. He delivered you with a strong hand. He brought you out of Egypt, out of bondage. He established you as a nation. You went through this time of the judges. He drove out the inhabitants of the land. You got your land. He delivered you when you were being oppressed. Remember these things. Because just as how right now, just as right now you are facing some severe punishment, don't forget what God has done. Look at those promises, how they have been fulfilled. Because he's gonna give us more promises that he will continue to fulfill. So he's beginning to paint this picture of victory that they are not gonna earn. the walking in darkness, the light coming, the multiplication of the nation, rejoicing before you, and then he gets to the best part. He says, the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. He's saying there is liberation that's found in what God is gonna do. And he continually says, you have done this, you have done this, and you did this. It is not gonna be by the means of man. It's all by what God has done for them. It's gonna be a supernatural redemption, just like what happened in the past. And then he says, for every boot of the trampling warrior and battle tumulet and every garment rolled in blood will be burned for fuel for the fire. And this is signifying that the war is over. that there is no more. When kings would conquer, they would go out and they would gather up the army's war utensils that they just conquered and they would burn them. And it was a sign that victory, that this king has won, that he has overcome. And they would go around through whatever land that they occupied and they would do this. And it was sending a message to people that this king has conquered, that he has won, that we are liberated. And so they're going out they're going out and they're doing this, but it's not them going out to fight the war, it's them going out to proclaim that the war has already been won. And one commentator likened this to evangelism. We're going out and the war is over. So looking on the past, now the first section, this is a long section for tonight, I know that, but these first three verses begin to make this step towards where he's going. The explanation of joy is threefold, and it's unpacked in all these verses. In verse 4, 5, and 6, what we saw in verse 4 is liberation. And in verse 5, we see that these liberated people, they go and they freely enter into the fruits of victory. They didn't earn it. The victory that they have, now they get to go before the Lord. Now they get to have the harvest, just like those times. Now they will increase the spoil. They're receiving these fruits of victory that they didn't win. And Isaiah is calling them. What he's doing is breaking this poem and saying, these are the works of God, this is what he's going to do. He's going to bring this light, he's gonna bring redemption, he's gonna fix this, he's not gonna leave you in the dark. And then he's gonna turn, and now he's gonna start talking about how God is gonna do this. So the question, again, where's our perspective set? See, when he prophesied among four kings, and each king, he was asking them, what are you gonna do? Where are you gonna go? Where are you looking for your hope? And every king continued to look at their own works, at their own means. They looked to their riches. They looked to their military strategy. They were showing off. And every time they looked to their works, you know, they were conquered, they were overtaken by another land. So what happened to the South? So he's asking them again, where are you looking for your hope? Are you gonna trust in human glory rather than God? So he turns to this and he says, let me tell you what God is gonna do. And he says, for to us a child is born and a child is given. And this there's there's no other way to put it. This is this is looking at the incarnation. He begins to talk about a child who is born. There's going to be someone is going to come who's born of parents, but he is given just like John 3 16 for God. So love the world that he gave his only begotten son. You know, it's not just that he's born, he is given with a purpose and a mission. He is saying, you know, there is assurance in what's going to happen because of who this child is. He says the government will be on his shoulders. You know, he is gonna come, he is gonna rule, he is gonna reign. We don't have to worry about these oppressive human governments anymore because it is gonna be him by his might. His name shall be called. And then he gets into this wonderful thing, but I want to take a minute that this child is not, this is not the first time that Isaiah has spoken about this child. We probably all know Isaiah 7, 14, the Virgin will conceive and bear a child and we will call him Emmanuel. You know, the name Emmanuel is not just a name, it's a theological truth. It means God is with us. You know, it's more than just a name. It's more than a title. It is this assurance, this comfort. And so he is picking back up on this. You remember that child that I said was Emmanuel, God with us. This child, we look at these names, wonderful counselor. It could be translated as supernatural counselor. You know, there's a train of thought with the way that these words are stacked. that if there's gonna be a king, he's got to run, he's got to rule this kingdom with something other than human ingenuity if it's ever gonna last. Because we can stand today and we can look at kingdoms of the world and we can see how they have continually failed. You know, but this one, this coming king is gonna be a wonderful counselor. He's gonna offer counsel. He's gonna rule this way. But he's called mighty God. It could actually be, it's translated in some other places, God the warrior. You know, this God is a warrior. He is a king. He's a conqueror. He's gonna come and he's gonna do something. So he's gonna conquer and he's gonna start his kingdom and he's gonna rule it wonderfully by his counsel. But look at this. It says he's everlasting father. You know, they didn't call King's father at that time. You know, there's something different about this person and the people would start scratching their head thinking, wait a second, you know, okay, you know, Solomon, he was smart. You know, we could say he was a wonderful counselor. You know, he was gifted in that way. But now, well, why are we calling this child mighty God or God the warrior? Why are we calling this child everlasting father? You see, he's pointing to something. Now we get to, we know it's the incarnation, but he also says he's the prince of peace. And peace is more than just, you know, peace. There's a lot to peace. He is going through this. He is talking about how there is gonna be this return to Eden, that God is gonna rule perfectly When he comes, when he is born, he's gonna be given. All these are theological truths that we really need to dig into them. But it points to the gospel. says hit the increase of his government and peace there will be no in 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 David was promised an eternal kingdom. He was promised an heir that would come and rule from his throne and no Kings had that you know no king sat on their Solomon got to sit on his king but but he failed and when Solomon was no longer king that the nation split and then we we read through their house good king bad king this never happened but there had to be someone to come and and rule wonderfully. He had to somebody had to come and take this and we know that as as as we stand here, you know, Isaiah is standing in the same way. He is writing in the present tense. He is is like Isaiah was thrust forward and he's looking back through history and he's saying this will happen and you can be assured of it. It is a done deal. And we get to look back and we get to see not only because Matthew identifies this child for us as Jesus, but we can look back and we can see what he is saying. You know, Jesus is the one who came and conquered sin and death on the cross, the true oppressors, the true taskmaster. He overthrew Satan. When Jesus came, he inaugurated his kingdom on the cross. It says, from this time and forevermore, You know, that was when he started it. He will rule this kingdom with righteousness and justice. He's not going to wink at sin. He's going to take care of it. He punishes those who he loves. So just as these people are being punished for their covenant violation, you know, he is going to restore them because he has made promises to them. And as Isaiah is telling them, look at all these promises. Now look to the future and you can see that he will do this. He is good to hold true to his word. So it points forward to the cross. He's gonna rule with righteousness and justice. And we're called to have this perspective. You see, everything that he is talking about through this poem points to what God is gonna do. It never points to what man is gonna do. And if we have any questions on that, He ends off saying, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. See, a lot of people think that we can get into the kingdom of God by our own works. We think that it's because of our intelligence, our schooling, our money, what we do. We think that we can earn a good favor with God, that we can just be nice people. But this passage just destroys that. We don't enter into the kingdom from our works. Our works will never get us there. Everything that this passage points to is the grace of God. That by his grace, he has sent his son to accomplish a mission. And that is what he came to do. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. All the activity from beginning to end is all on God's side. So I wanna go back to that village in Africa. Pastor Dennis, you know, he went in to this hopeless tribe, you know, they're sacrificing humans, they're worshiping Satan. And when he brought this in, and when he brought the gospel in, here's what kind of transformation has taken place. These instruments of war being thrown into the fire, the altar of human sacrifice has been broken. As you walk into this, it's been destroyed. They left it there for a reminder of where they were at. That satanic temple has been converted to their church. There's a big cross on it. These people are raising up people. They're training up men and women so they could reach the other tribes in these nations. The people have hope, they have a future. And in just three years, they have grown from having seven churches to 62. You know, God's gospel has come in there and it's destroyed the darkness, it's ran. And everything that they're doing, you know, is just a testimony to his grace. So the prophet is not calling us to live in some fantasy world as if sin didn't exist. What he's trying to do is tell us, look at everything that God has done for us, focus on that, and then look to the future of what he is gonna do. Jesus promised he will come back. He hasn't left us into the dark. He came and he beat sin and death on the cross for us so we could enter his kingdom. It's the eyes of faith that are focused on God and His promise and not the sinful world. The world will always lead to sin and judgment, and God will always lead to rest for your soul. Let's pray. Lord, I know we just barely got to scratch the surface of this wonderful poem, Lord, and I just pray that some of it would be benefit to us and it would encourage us to go and look deeper at this, that we would see your glorious truth through this, and that you would just remind us, Lord, that we are not saved by your works, that we are saved by your grace alone, that we get to enter into your victory. that we come to your presence because we have been forgiven by what you've done for us. Lord, we thank you so much for sending your son. We thank you for dying on a cross for us, and we thank you for accepting us for who we are. I just pray that this little bit of going through this would be beneficial to us. And Lord, I just pray for Dylan, who's getting ready to come up right now and preach your word to us. I just pray that you would embolden him, that you give him the confidence and the courage to come up and just proclaim your word to us, Lord. Let us hear your truths again. We just thank you so much in Jesus' name, amen.