Guidance from God: A Prophetic Light
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Guidance from God: A Prophetic Light
Guidance from God: A Prophetic Light
Intro:
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
Today, I want to preach on the topic of [Guide us God], the subject of my message is, [A Prophetic Light].
The summer edition of 2015 in the PSI CHI JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH detailed the findings of a survey of people’s fears, also called phobias.
One of the phobias is called nyctophobia. Who in here has that or knows someone who has had nyctophobia?
Maybe, I should words we all understand— who in here has been afraid, is afraid, or know someone how is afraid of the dark?
Isn’t that much easier than saying, nyctophobia? Those researchers could learn a lot from us!
Their survey concluded that 54% listed being afraid of the dark as one of their top five fears, and 10% listed it as their main fear.
There are many reasons people are afraid of the dark. Some have been victims of crimes that took place after dark. Others feel uneasy not being able to see.
I remember as a child, there was a TV show on Nickelodeon called, Are You Afraid of the Dark. Turns out I was. I actually had intense fear of the dark.
I remember telling my mom and she took me to our pastor at the altar. He told me, next time you get scared, you just tell the devil he is a big ole meanie and that Jesus is there with you. Turns out, that worked for me.
Who has ever been afraid of the dark?
There is another phobia called heliophobia, which is the fear of sunlight. I could only find one study that determined how many people have that, their findings was 2.3% of people struggle with the fear of light.
Whether it is in Scripture, literature, history, or everyday life, darkness always seems to be negative. It is often a metaphor for something that is false or bad.
People will say, we are living in dark times. There is a period in history called the dark ages. It just seems that bad things tend to happen in the dark.
On the other hand, light has a positive mean. It often denotes truth and hope.
There are not scary shows called, Are You Afraid of the Light.
No one has ever been cautioned, don’t go down that light alley.
We have yet to live through the Light Ages.
In Scripture, the difference between light and dark is often used by God to make a point.
What was the first thing God did at creation?
He said, let there be LIGHT.
The prophet Isaiah makes a distinction between light and darkness.
2 The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined.
And we read in our text that the prophetic words of God are like a LIGHT that shines in the darkness until the Day daws and the Morning Star shines.
We’ve spent time looking at the prophecies of Isaiah. If ever there was a dark time in the history of God’s people, it was right then.
Much of Isaiah’s prophecies centered on impending judgment. He proclaimed judgment against the enemies of God:
§ The Assyrians
§ The Philistines
§ The Moabites
§ The Egyptians
§ The Babylonians
This would have excited the people, but if Jerusalem thought they could avoid the judgment, Isaiah promised God’s judgment on them:
§ they were spiritually lazy
§ they trusted in foreign alliances more than God
§ they forgot all that God did for them.
They had consistently turned their backs on God and the prophet promised that judgment was soon to come.
Truly they lived in dark times. But, if prophecy serves as a light that shines in the darkness, God had a promise for His people. I want to look at that this morning.
We too live in dark times, but there is a prophetic word awaiting us, it is the promise that the prophetic will shine light into the darkness.
So let’s look at, [The Promise of Light], [The Power of Light], and [The Person of Light].
Let’s begin
1. The Promise of Light
1. The Promise of Light
1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
By this point in Isaiah’s book, he has shifted gears from impending judgment to upcoming hope. He wanted them to know that yes, God will deal with your sins, but all is not lost.
He tells them to ARISE, SHINE!
Literally, he is telling them GET UP, STAND ON YOUR FEET, your light has come.
When I read this, I envisioned a group of people waiting for an important official to enter a room. I have watched many state of the union addresses, it does not matter which party is in power, before the president enters the room, people on the center aisle are sitting, some looking tired, others relaxed.
But the moment the president walks, they get up, smiling, looking much happier than they were before the important person entered the room.
These words of the prophet were a promise, they did not have to live defeated, cast down, discouraged, or distracted. Instead, they needed to get up for their LIGHT has come.
He specifically connects the light of god with the glory of the Lord. The word glory in the Bible literally means:
weightiness,
something that is substantial
honor
splendor
power
wealth
authority
magnificence
fame
dignity
riches
excellency
Though Isaiah does not specifically state this, he is announcing the arrival of royalty.
He is announcing, GET UP, the King is coming!
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle.
This connection would not have gone unnoticed to the original audience. Isaiah announced the coming King of Glory. And when the King of Glory walks in the room, there is no reason to live defeated or discouraged, for He is there to help!
The King is the light who have come. And Isaiah promises, it might seem dark right now, but GET UP AND SHINE because the glory of the Lord, the King has come to shine on you.
If Isaiah promised His light to shine upon them, we too can hold onto this promise light. But with the promise of light comes...
2. The Power of Light
2. The Power of Light
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.
Remember, in this culture, the concept of light and dark had deep meanings. Darkness was always seen as negative and threatening to people.
When darkness covered an are, people would escape there and the wicked would go to work in the darkness.
16 In the dark they break into houses Which they marked for themselves in the daytime; They do not know the light.
When Isaiah prophesied the coming darkness that would cover the earth, this was discouraging for the original audience.
For them, they would have immediately thought of the Babylonian Empire, who epitomized evil and darkness. They were ruthless and heartless in how they dealt with their enemies.
Whenever they conquered a nation they would:
destroy their temple to show that the Babylonians gods were stronger
take the teenage males and move them to Babylon, strip them of their manhood and make them adopt Babylonian culture
eventually they would remove anyone who could benefit their empire and leave the weak and elderly in the ransacked city
That eventually happened to Jerusalem. It was such a dark time in the people’s history, that the prophet Jeremiah wept as the city was destroyed and the people carted off into captivity.
Darkness would soon cover the nations, but Isaiah offered HOPE.
THE GLORY OF THE LORD RISES AND APPEARS OVER YOU!
What point is Isaiah making?
Though darkness would come, darkness is ALWAYS under God’s control.
8 He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning And makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth; The Lord is His name.
Light will ALWAYS extinguish the dark. So the moment the glory of God comes into the room, darkness has not place and cannot stay any longer.
What a promise. Darkness cannot overpower the light. Just went Satan, the prince of darkness, thinks that he has succeeded in obtaining full control, just a little bit of light will extinguish the darkness.
So Isaiah promises light will come. He shows the power God’s light possess. But who will bring the light?
3. The Person of Light
3. The Person of Light
19 “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, And your God your glory.
20 Your sun shall no longer go down, Nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the Lord will be your everlasting light, And the days of your mourning shall be ended.
21 Also your people shall all be righteous; They shall inherit the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified.
Notice Isaiah’s progression:
First, the light will come and the glory will fall
Second, when the glory comes, the light will overtake the darkness that THOUGHT it overtook the world
Third, there will come a day when you will not need the sun to shine by day.
you will not need the moon to give light.
How could this ever happen?
Isaiah promised of a day when the LORD will be the everlasting light and GOD will shine His glory!
When that happens, the sun will never set, the moon will never go down, the days of mourning over darkness will cease, and the people of God will live righteously and dwell with God forever!
Back to my question, how could this happen? How could we really live in a day when darkness will cease to exist.
No doubt those in the Old Testament asked the same question. And for a long time, it seemed that Isaiah’s promise went unfulfilled.
For not long a century or so after Isaiah prophesied, darkness did seem to sweep Jerusalem as the Babylonians took them into captivity.
Eventually the Babylonians were overthrown, but the Persians took control. They did allow the people to return to Jerusalem, but they came home to a desolate and dark city.
It seemed that their best days were behind them. They did rebuild the city, but it was a shadow of its former glory.
For centuries life seemed to grow darker and darker. But God never forgot His promise to send the person of light to remove the darkness.
Has this happened?
Partly. God generally deals with spiritual then physical. For too long the people lived in spiritual darkness. Until God sent the Person who would bring light.
Over 700 years after Isaiah prophesied about the person of light, John writes something spectacular:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
All the way at the beginning of creation was the Word and He brought light to this world. God’s plan was that the Eternal Word would become flesh and dwell with us.
Who was the Word?
He is the same One who is the Light! He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, and given the name that is above every other name— the name of Jesus.
Seven centuries after Isaiah prophesied that the light would come, He did. And I love what happened when He was eight days old in the Temple.
An elderly prophet received a promise from God that he would not die until he saw the promised one come. Listen to what he said about Jesus:
29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation
31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
He confirmed that Jesus was the person who would bring salvation and LIGHT to the Gentiles and to the GLORY to Israel.
Jesus confirmed later:
12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Did we hear that!? Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic word. We do not have to walk in spiritual darkness any longer because WE HAVE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!
What a wonderful feeling to know that the darkness that attempted to consume us is overthrown by the light of God!
Close:
ARISE AND SHINE FOR YOUR LIGHT HAS COME!
It is no question that our day mirrors Isaiah’s time. It seems that darkness covers the earth. We see:
division
senseless violence
wars
rumors of wars
confusion
inflation
perversion
immorality
indifference toward God
And we might wonder, can it get much darker? The answer is likely yes. But here is the challenge we face as Christians. As we watch darkness cover the earth, we cannot lose HOPE for we have the LIGHT OF THE WORLD!
We know what Jesus can do when He steps in the room. We do not need spiritual nyctophobia, we do not need to be spiritually afraid of the dark.
For darkness can NEVER overwhelm or over take the light. And we have the light of God in our lives because one day when we were walking in darkness of sin but Jesus shined His light around us and showed us a better way.
Who is glad today that you are walking in the light?
But what about the rest of Isaiah’s promise? We still have the sun and we still have the moon and he prophesied that there would come a day when we would not need those anymore?
Remember I mentioned that God deals with the spiritual THEN the physical. He has made a way out of spiritual darkness.
Sadly, many in this world will ignore His invitation. Many of them have spiritual heliophobia, they are blinded by their need of Him and seem to want to avoid the light.
But one day soon, the Dawn will arise and the morning star will appear!
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
When the trumpet of the arch angel sounds, those who served God and have passed away will rise to meet the Lord in the air. Almost simultaneously we will join them!
Then this work will plummet into deeper darkness than ever in church history. But it will not last more than seven years. For after the tribulation like a bright light coming from heaven will be Jesus and all the armies of heaven riding on white horses.
We will come to this earth, Jesus will deal with Satan, He will establish His earthly reign for a 1000 years. Then through a series of events He will cast Satan away for eternity.
THEN, the Holy City, new Jerusalem will come down as a bride adorned for her husband. And when that happens,
22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
God’s promise will come to pass. The King of Glory will reign and He will cause His light to shine for He is the everlasting light!
What a wonderful future for us! And if this is our future reality, we do not need to live in fear of the darkness that seems to abound in this present.
For we know the light of the world!
— TIE IN WAITING ON GOD’S GLORY NOW