The Shadow of Darkness

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9:1-7

The Messianic nature of Isaiah 9, if it isn’t clear enough standing alone, is bolstered by Zechariah’s prophecy found in Luke chapter one. The text there tells us that Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, prophesied under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:67). And the last line of that prophecy is directly from Isaiah 9.

Zechariah sees Jesus as the fulfillment of what Isaiah said when he wrote, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” (Isaiah 9:2). Zechariah changes it slightly. It reads, “To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.”

That is a good reading of what the Isaiah text means by darkness. It is the darkness of death. It is what the Psalmist meant by saying he “walked through the valley of the shadow of death.” Death, while it is the inevitable end for us all, still cast a large, looming shadow of darkness over our lives. Christ’s coming is the dawning of light in the darkness of death.

This calls us to face the darkness of death, not with doom and despair, but with expectant faith.