Articles
The Light-Bringer
The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them (Isaiah 9:2 NASB).
Gloom. Darkness. This well describes the spiritual condition of those who lived in the tribal territories of Zebulun and Naphtali.
Why so dark? Sin. After their stubborn refusal to repent, what else could God do but let them go into Assyrian captivity?
Even so, God had a plan! Who could have imagined that a great Light would someday flood their dark land?
Only a few pages into the New Testament, Matthew 4:12-25 cites Isaiah’s glorious prophecy of Jesus’ Galilean ministry of preaching and healing. He is the “great light” of whom Isaiah spoke, the Light which dispelled the gloom of that land which had once so deservedly felt God’s contempt.
But of course, Jesus’ light could not be confined to Galilee. “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12).
Where there was gloom, Glory! Where there was darkness, Light!
Both then and now.
Father, we praise You for bringing us out of darkness into Your marvelous Light. Use us to be Light-bringers in our own dark world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
-Reprinted and adapted from the daily devotional guide Power for Today
