1. Every year around Christmas time, we hear the great Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.
2. "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isa.7:14).
3. Another beautiful prophecy is found in Isa.9:6,7 – familiar to many people through Handel’s Messiah.
4. But even though Isa.9:6 and 7 are familiar to many, the rest of the chapter is not.
5. The material covered in Isaiah chapters 7-12 contains prophecies that Isaiah made during the reign of Ahaz, the king of Judah. Isaiah began to prophecy at the death of King Uzziah, who reigned for 52 years and was a good king (cf. Isa.6:1).
6. The next king of Judah, after King Uzziah, was Jotham, his son, who also was a good king. The next king was Ahaz, the grandson of Uzziah and the son of Jotham.
7. Ahaz was not a good king (cf. II Kings 16:1-4).
8. It was during his reign that Isaiah made these prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. It was a very dark period in the nation’s history (cf. Isa.8:19-22).
9. But in the midst of this darkness, the prophet Isaiah had a message of hope (cf. 9:2). God was going to send the Light to scatter the darkness (cf. John 1:1-14; 3:19-21).

I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL (9:1,2).

1. Whether you are reading the O.T. or the N.T., it is obvious that Jesus was sent to be a Light to the Jews (Isa.9:1; John 1:11).
2. But He also is "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9; cf. 4:42).
3. As we study the book of Acts, we see that the original churches were comprised mostly of Jews, but as the Gospel was proclaimed around the world, more and more Gentiles were being saved (cf. Acts 13:46; 28:28).
4. Zebulun and Naphtali (9:1) were located in the northern part of Israel, the area that was first plunged into gloom and anguish when they were judged by God and taken away captive by the Assyrians.
5. They were the first to be "lightly afflicted" (9:1), i.e. the first to be depopulated.
6. "Galilee of the (Gentile) nations" was our Lord’s boyhood home and an area where He ministered (9:1). It was called "Galilee of the nations" because it was under Gentile domination.
7. Nazareth, our Lord’s hometown, was in Zebulun. "The way of the sea" (9:1) describes a major international highway running through this region.
8. "The people that walked in darkness" (9:2) would be the first to see "a great light" (cf. Matt.4:12-17).
9. Those "that dwell in the land of the shadow of death (misery, ignorance, poverty, etc.), upon them the light shined" (9:2; cf. John 8:12).
10. They were in the darkness of paganism and religious tradition. Darkness had spread all over the land of Palestine, and men were groping in the darkness.
11. God allowed the prophet Isaiah to look down through the corridors of time and see the coming Messiah, the Light of the world, the Alpha and Omega, the Prince of Peace, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
12. As we study the great Messianic prophecies of Isaiah (this applies to the other prophets also), we need to remember that they often saw both the first and second coming together (two mountain peaks with a valley in between them).

II. JESUS CHRIST IS THE DELIVERER OF ISRAEL (9:3-5).

1. The people of Israel were "religious" but most of them had no real joy (like most religious people today, cf. 9:3a).
2. The word "joy" is used 28 times by the prophet Isaiah, this is the first time.
3. The prophet uses two similes here: that their joy will be like that which is experienced after gathering in the harvest, and the joy of dividing the spoil of battle after the victory (9:3). This has reference to the second coming of Christ.
4. The apostle Paul quotes Isa.59:20 and writes: ‘There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Rom.11:26). If one takes the Bible seriously, and by that I mean literally, it is difficult to understand how people can say that God is finished with the Jews.
5. When the Messiah returns, Israel’s yoke of burden will be broken (9:4). The "staff of his shoulder" and "the rod of his oppressor" refer to the sticks used to beat the ox as he toiled – all these tools of oppression shall be broken (9:4).
6. Isaiah alludes to the victory God gave the Israelites over the Midianites "as in the day of Midian" (9:4b; 10:26). At that time, Gideon and a few valiant warriors defeated the armies of the Midianites (Judges 7:8-22).
7. God saved them "in the day of Midian" not by their military power but by His power; and not by human might so that they could not boast of their own strength (cf. Judges 7:2).
8. That is the way God works (cf. II Cor.12:10). King Ahaz, an unsaved man, did not understand this basic Biblical principle (cf. II Chron.28:21).
9. During the coming great tribulation, Israel will once again be in dire straits, far worse than they were during the Assyrian invasion, even far worse than they were during WWII (cf. 9:5).
10. Our Lord said that we can expect "wars and rumors of wars" until He returns. Than He will establish peace on earth (as "The Prince of Peace" – 9:6).
11. Than all the weapons will be destroyed (9:5b; cf. 2:4; 11:6,7; Ps.46:9; Ezek.39:9).

III. JESUS CHRIST IS THE HOPE OF ISRAEL (9:6,7).

1. The apostle Paul, imprisoned in Rome, said to the Jewish leaders, "For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain" (Acts 28:20).
2. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Hope of Israel. And Luke tells us in Acts 28:23,24 that many came to Paul’s lodging; "to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not."
3. As Paul expounded the prophets, he told his listeners that Jesus was the Christ, the Jewish Messiah, and he expounded Isa.9:6,7.
4. "A child is born" signifies His perfect humanity. "A son is given" signifies His absolute deity.
5. "And the government shall be upon His shoulder" (9:6) is a figure of speech derived from the ceremonial robe worn by a king as a symbol of his authority and rule.
6. The following names are more descriptions than titles. They are descriptive designations of His person and work. "Wonderful" is a noun, not an adjective.
7. "Counsellor" refers to His wisdom in government – He is "greater than Solomon" (cf. Isa.28:29).
8. The cults do not deny that this prophecy is about the Lord Jesus Christ, yet they still deny His deity. But He is "The mighty God," "Emmanuel" – "God with us"(7:14; 8:8,10; cf. Rom.9:5; I John 5:20).
9. "The everlasting Father" confuses some people, because that is the name of the first member of the Godhead. But what this means is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, including time. "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3).
10. He is the everlasting Father in the sense that He is the "Father of Eternity." He confers eternal life on all those who believe in Him.
11. The Lord Jesus Christ is "The Prince of Peace" (9:6; cf. Luke 2:14; Eph.2:14). There are 31 references to "peace" in Isaiah, this is the first.
12. There are several features of our Lord’s rule during the millennial kingdom that Isaiah brings out:

• Our Lord’s rule will be world-wide with no limit – "there shall be no end."
• Our Lord will sit upon "the throne of David." There is no valid reason for not taking this literally (cf. Luke 1:31,32).
• Our Lord’s kingdom will be characterized by justice.
• Our Lord’s rule will be "for ever." The millennial kingdom will lead into our Lord’s eternal rule (cf. Rev.22:1; I Cor.15:24-28).
• Our Lord’s rule will be sure and certain. "The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this."

CONCLUSION:

1. Eddie Rickenbacker led a very interesting life. He was a pilot and the most celebrated U.S. fighter pilot in WWI. Before WWI, he developed an interest in cars and was one of our country’s top three racing drivers.
2. He entered the army in 1917 as a driver for General John J. Pershing’s staff and drove a car for Colonel Billy Mitchell.
3. With Colonel Mitchell’s help, Eddie Rickenbacker became a fighter pilot and went on to accumulate 26 air victories and numerous decorations, including the Medal of Honor.
4. During WWII, he served as a special representative of the US Secretary of War and while on an inspection trip in 1942, he was stranded on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for 23 days.
5. I said all this, to get to my point. After surviving that ordeal, Rickenbacker wrote a book called Seven Came Through. In it, he described how he and his companions prepared themselves to abandon their plane as it was going down. They threw everything out that was movable.
6. He wrote: "Staring at the face of death! If you ever think that material things are worth anything, have that experience, and you will find out how useless they are, no matter how you may have cherished them."
7. I was thinking about this recently. Most people, even many Christians live their lives with very little thought that our Lord is coming back.
8. One Sunday, we passed the entrance to the Green Acres Mall on the way home from church – scores of cars were streaming into the mall parking lots. But how many were in church that morning?
9. We need to throw anything out that is hindering us from serving God. The Lord is coming back. We need to ask ourselves – are we ready?