When we consider again the mention of “Light” in the beginning of this passage (Isaiah 9:2-7)…
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light”
we are reminded that ‘Light,’ throughout the book of Isaiah as well as all of Scripture is a metaphor for God’s blessings, presence, and revelation (Is. 9:2, 30:26, 42:6, 16, 60:1-3), unto His people.
Isaiah 30:26
Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.
Isaiah 42:6
6 “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
Isaiah 42:16
16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.
Isaiah 60:1-3
60 Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
3 The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.
So, again, what is being promised here in Isaiah 9:2 is reversing travail and oppression due to the very presence of God.
We must not miss the idea of this Light because when the utter fulfillment of this promise comes to pass and when this child arrives what we read of His Light,
“9 And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone about them, and they were sore afraid.”
And John’s Gospel can speak this way of the Lord Christ … And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
And our Lord Christ will even speak of Himself as being the “Light of the world.”
We capture something of this idea of the promised coming Light when we sing during this season our songs,
O Little down of Bethlehem
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light,
The hopes and fears of all the years,
Are met in thee tonight.
O Come All Ye Faithful
True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal,
Lo, he shuns not the Virgin’s womb;
Son of the Father, begotten, not created;
And again,
Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
And darkness breathe a newer light,
Where endless faith shall shine serene,
And twilight never intervene.
Not only is Light in our Christmas Carols but it is played with as a metaphor for Christ by our poets;
HAIL holy light, ofspring of Heav’n first-born,
Or of th’ Eternal Coeternal beam
May I express thee unblam’d? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
Or hear’st thou rather pure Ethereal stream,
Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun,
Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
John Milton
