Christmas Eve
Isa
9:2-7
12/24/22
No one
chooses to start a war in the expectation that it will be a failure. War is too costly, and the loss of a war is
too detrimental to leaders and nations to start a war you expect to lose. When Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine
on Feb. 24 of this year, her leader Vladimir Putin certainly did not expect the
situation to look like it does today. He
did not expect the results that now exist.
In truth,
nobody did. Putin and Russia had spent
billions of dollars upgrading the equipment of the Russian army and increasing
the level of its training. Western
observers believed that an invasion would result in an easy Russian victory in about
a week. Russia expected the invasion to last three to five days.
But wars are
unpredictable, and the other side gets a say in the outcome. Ukraine has put up a brave and skilled defense
which has required great sacrifice. The U.S. and NATO countries have provided
massive military aid to Ukraine. Russian plans and tactics have been poor, and
the general combat readiness of the Russian military has been revealed as very lacking.
The results
are not what Putin expected. Russia has
suffered major defeats on the battlefield and much of that new military
hardware in the Russian army is now burnt out scrap metal. Russia has been forced into a largely
defensive position, trying to hold on to the parts of Ukraine it still
controls. There is the real possibility that as the war goes on, Ukraine may
even be able to retake the Crimean peninsula that Russia had occupied in
2014. In response to the Russian invasion,
Sweden and Finland have taken the previously unimaginable step of applying for
membership in NATO. None of this is what
Putin intended or expected.
Our text
this evening comes from Isaiah’s prophecy in the eighth century B.C. He wrote in the midst of a time of war – war
that brought unexpected outcomes. It was apparent that Assyria – modern day
northern Iraq – was the rising power in the Near East that was a threat to her
neighbors. In response, Syria and the
northern kingdom of Israel wanted the southern kingdom of Judah to enter into a
military alliance against the Assyrians. Judah refused, so around 735 B.C.
Syria and Israel attacked Judah.
Judah
appeared to have no chance. Isaiah told
king Ahaz to trust in Yahweh, for he would defend Judah. The prophet warned the king, “If you are not firm in faith, you
will not be firm at all.” But Ahaz did
not believe in Yahweh, and so he made his own plans. He asked the king of Assyria to help him.
The war of Syria and Israel against
Judah did not produce the results anyone expected. Syria and Israel were both defeated by
Assyria. In 722 B.C. the Assyrians took
Israel into exile. Yet in the previous chapter Isaiah warned that because Judah
had refused Yahweh’s help, now Assyria would invade them as well. He said, “therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up
against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of
Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go
over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching
even to the neck.” The Assyrians overran the country and lay siege to
Jerusalem.
This
is the situation that Isaiah addresses in our text. Yet rather than darkness and sorrow, the
prophet speaks of light and joy. Our
text begins by saying, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a
great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light
shined. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they
rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when
they divide the spoil.”
These
are words that include not just Judah, but also the northern kingdom of Israel,
for the verse before our text explicitly refers to the northern lands of Israel
who were the first to receive the blow of Assyria’s attack. There Isaiah writes, “But there will be no gloom for her
who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land
of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has
made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the
nations.”
God promised
joy like that of the harvest time or when the spoil is divided. Why was there going to be joy? It was because
the oppressor would be removed and war itself would be ended. Isaiah states, “For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his
shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of
Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every
garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.”
And how was this going to happen? It was going to happen through the work of God’s Messiah – a Messiah described in a very surprising way. Isaiah declares, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”
Isaiah
had already spoken about a child. In chapter seven he had rebuked King Ahaz for
refusing to trust in Yahweh. He said, “Therefore
the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” God said that before this child was old
enough to know right and wrong, the threat of Syria and Israel would be gone.
Isaiah’s words referred to a child born in the normal fashion. But the ultimate
fulfillment – the child mentioned in our text – would be someone far more than
a human being.
God acted in
a mighty way to deliver Judah. The
Assyrians lay siege to Jerusalem. They
mocked Yahweh. The Assyrian king
Sennacherib sent a letter to Hezekiah insulting the king for trusting in
Yahweh. In response, the angel of the
Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a night. The Assyrians were forced to withdraw.
God provided
deliverance to Judah during Isaiah’s day.
Yet this action by God pointed forward to something even greater that he
would do through Israel’s Messiah. It
pointed to his saving action that would rescue us from the sin that has invaded
our world through the Fall. Tempted by
Satan, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They
brought sin into the world – sin that has ruled every person born since. We are conceived and born as sinners. We are people who sin against God in thought,
word, and deed. Left to ourselves we can
only expect to receive God’s judgment and damnation.
Yet Isaiah
says in our text, “For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” We learn that this
child to be born will be called “Mighty God.”
Isaiah had already said the virgin would conceive and bear a
son, and call his name Immanuel – which means “God with us.”
We are celebrating that birth tonight. Jesus Christ was born to the virgin
Mary. Joseph, who descended from King
David, took him to be his own son and so included him in the line of David.
That is why Jesus can be the fulfillment of what Isaiah says in our text: “Of the increase of his government and of peace there
will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it
and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth
and forevermore.”
But Joseph was not
Jesus’ father. Instead, Jesus had been
conceived through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Gabriel had told Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be
born will be called holy--the Son of God.” It was a real baby whom Mary placed in the
manger – a real human being. But Jesus
was not just a man, he was also the Son of God. He was true God and true man at
the same time.
Jesus Christ was conceived and born in
this world to be what Isaiah describes in our text: the Prince of peace. In order for there to be peace with God, our
sin had to be judged and punished. Christ
took our place as he was judged and condemned for our sin when he died on the
cross. But death and judgment was not the final word from God. Instead,
he raised Jesus from the dead on the third day and exalted him as he ascended
into heaven.
Jesus Christ is Immanuel – he is God with
us. He is the child born who is Mighty
God and the Prince of peace. Matthew
tells us that when Jesus began his ministry he lived in Capernaum – in Galilee,
in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali – in order to fulfill the words
Isaiah chapter 9. Jesus was the great
light seen by the people dwelling in
darkness, and the light dawning in the region and shadow of death.
He is that
light for us as well. His forgiving and
saving ministry continue in our midst through his Means of Grace. The risen
Lord comes to us through his Word, and through his true body and blood in the Sacrament
of the Altar to give us forgiveness and life.
Because of Jesus we know that we are forgiven, and death has been
defeated.
And we also
know that the risen and ascended Lord will come again in glory. The Son of God
entered into this world in the incarnation to win forgiveness for us. He did this when he came as a helpless baby
in a manger. Yet as we see in the war
between Russia and Ukraine, he has not brought final and complete peace to this
world.
This he will
do on the Last Day. Jesus Christ will return in might and power. He will raise the dead and pronounce the
final judgment which will be vindication for us who trusted in him. He will renew creation – the very good
creation in which we will live with him forever. All sin and evil will be destroyed.
And so Isaiah’s words in our text will find their final and complete,
fulfillment: “Of the increase of his
government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and
over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with
righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”
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