Isaiah 9 -- A Message of Hope For Them And For Us

What a message of HOPE!  Judah needed to hear it.  And we need to hear it as well.  "Suddenly there will be no more gloom for the land that suffered ... Before those people lived in darkness, but now they have seen a great light ... God, You have caused the nation to grow and made the people happy ... You have taken away their heavy load."  It will take God to fix Judah and it will take God to fix America.

Isaiah is given a vision of the birth of Jesus, then he is told of the future we haven't even encountered -- Christ's return and His rule over the earth.  "The Lord All-Powerful will do this because of His strong love for His people.

God also told Isaiah to use the northern kingdom as an object lesson for Judah.  God would punish Judah, too, but for David's sake a remnant would be saved from which Christ would come... Amazingly, in His pronouncements regarding Israel, God even says, "The Lord will not show mercy to the orphans and widows."  Why??  "All the people are separated from God and are very evil; they all speak lies."

Father, we've seen how You carried out Your judgment on the northern kingdom, and we've seen Your faithfulness in protecting the remnant from which Christ came.  Even now, as we await Christ's return, help us to be a remnant grafted onto the tree of those You love and call Your own.  Let us be a light to the world today, not from our own actions, but by sharing the light Your Son brought into this world.


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Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford