1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death [a]
a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:1-2
For the next time period of Devotion for Today I am expositing Isaiah 9 in this devotion series called, "Prophecies of Christmas." I hope that it will be informative as well as inspirational and encouraging to you as you find solace throughout these very busy Christmas holidays.
There are variations of an old humorous illustration several preachers have told down through the years
The one I remember is told like this:
Little Johnnie desperately wanted a bright red wagon for Christmas.
His friends were writing letters to Santa Claus, but Johnnie decided to go one better.
"Dear Jesus," he wrote. "If I get a red wagon for Christmas, I won't fight with my brother Hank for a year." Then Johnnie thought, Oh, no, Hank is such a brat, I could never, ever keep that promise. So Johnnie threw away the letter and started again.
"Dear Jesus, if I get a red wagon for Christmas, I will eat all my vegetables for a year." Then Johnnie thought, Oh, no, that means spinach, broccoli and asparagus. Yuck! I could never ever keep that promise.
Suddenly Johnnie had an idea. He went downstairs to the living room. From the mantel above the fireplace, he grabbed the family's statue of the Virgin Mary. Taking the statue to the kitchen he wrapped it in newspapers and stuffed it into a grocery bag. He took the bag upstairs to his room, opened the closet and placed the package in the farthest, darkest corner.
He then closed the closet door, took a new sheet of paper and wrote, "Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again..."
Blackmailing Jesus. As humorous as the story may be, there may be more truth in this than we might suppose. It's a struggle many Christians have, including myself. There is a feeling that we are in a Quid-Pro-Quo" relationship with God: that is, if God will do something for us, we might do something for Him.
So we pray and make bargains with God, or we will serve Him with some type of condition upon it- whether we voice it to ourselves is immaterial. Let's just say we teach a Sunday School class for a whole year-even though we really didn't want to do it. But during the course of the year, things begin to go terribly wrong in our lives. We lose our job, we experience marital difficulty, or have an incessant array of repair bills to our homes or automobiles. Our hearts begin to grow heavy and disappointed with God in the process. We begin to think: "God, I don't understand? I'm serving You the best way that I know how, and still You don't seem to want to bless me? So I will tell You what? Either You start blessing me and give me some relief, or I am going to stop doing what I'm doing for You, God! And if this pattern keeps up, I'm going to stop going to church altogether!"
Few Christians would admit this but I have seen this pattern borne out in many. Its akin to "blackmailing God." If God won't give me what I want, I won't serve Him anymore!" We suppose God is no longer worthy to be our God when He won't bless us the way we think we should be blessed. But God is not a friend whom we turn our backs on whenever He doesn't treat us the way we think we should be treated. What we don't understand about God is that we were in enmity against God before we were ever aware of His presence in our lives. The fact is, we're the ones who have turned our backs on God and mistreated Him, not the other way around.
Isaiah discusses this tendency of human nature in the first two verses of Isaiah 9. It is called walking in darkness. We walk in darkness when we don't understand the nature of God and His character of love and desire to reach out to us. But we prefer to walk in darkness- coloring God's motives with the same color of our own bitterness and our own dark outlook of our surroundings. We impute these same characteristics upon God, and prefer to see Him the way we see ourselves. Instead, God wants us to see a great light- the light that first causes us to see ourselves the way we truly are, and a Light that will lead us out of that darkness so that we will no longer live in gloom and distress. The Light which leads us out of that darkness is Jesus Christ. As the Wise men followed a star from the east to find the source of the true Light, we orient our attitudes and our lives by following the Light emerging from the darkness of our souls.
Its easy to give into self-pity and even anger toward God for the manner in which we perceive He is treating us. But we make it worse on ourselves when we do. In reality we find that its in the darkness that we stub our toes and trip over things that we have placed there ourselves. God desires to lead us out of this, not to make it more difficult for us. If you see a glimmer of Light right now, won't you follow it?
Prayer: Dear Lord, forgive me please for the anger and bitterness I have had while trying to trust You. The frustration I feel right now is nothing more than the frustration I have for myself, not toward You. Help me to find a way out of the darkness instead of blaming You for the darkness I have created for myself because of my sins. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Have a Blessed Day!
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