What’s the Solution for Gloom and Doom?

3rd Sunday after Epiphany, 1/22/23 Isaiah 8:19-9:4 What’s the Solution for Gloom and Doom? It wasn’t the best of times. It was the worst of times. For the previous fifty years the people of the southern kingdom of Judah had enjoyed peace and prosperity under godly King Azariah. The threats to their borders and their economy were minimal. Business and agriculture flourished. But those days were over. On the throne of Judah now sat King Ahaz and he was the most ungodly and wicked king Judah had endured up to that point in its history. Judah’s northern border was threatened by an alliance between the northern kingdom of Israel and the country immediately to its north, Aram, modern Syria. If those two countries invaded Judah—and that seemed immanent—Judah’s chances of defending itself, let alone winning such a war, were slim to none. What’s more, Israel and Aram did whatever they could to ruin Judah’s economy. You would think that God’s people, under such duress, would flee to the Lord for help. You would think the people of Judah would proclaim national days of fasting and prayer to the Lord, who had bound himself to this nation with a covenant. But that didn’t happen. In fact, God told his prophet Isaiah that he was sending him to a people who would not listen to what the Lord had to say. They would harden their hearts. They would close their eyes and ears. They would refuse to come to the Lord. Indeed, it was the worst of times. How about today? Are these the best of times? Not by a long shot. Are they the worst? I don’t think so. I can think of worse and I’m sure you can, too. But we certainly have our problems. Inflation like we haven’t seen in years. Unusually high interest rates. Hits on investments. Supply chain issues continue. Layoffs at huge tech corporations but shortages of available workers in other areas. Rising costs for fuel, electricity, and natural gas. A deadly virus that won’t go away. A crisis at our southern border. And as we look beyond our borders there are reasons for us to feel uneasy at best and alarmed at worst. Eleven months of war in Ukraine and who knows what Russia will do next? Our suspicions about China prove to be true more often than false. And no one can predict with accuracy what North Korea will do. These are not the best of times. No one is whistling or humming happy tunes. So, back to Judah. What was the response of King Ahaz to the pressures inside Judah and outside of it? Well, concerning the threat from Israel and Aram, the Lord sent Isaiah to speak to Ahaz. Do you recall that event? It’s in chapter 7, right before these words of our text. Isaiah went to Ahaz and told him that the Lord would not allow Israel and Aram to attack. In order to make Ahaz realize that the Lord was in control of all things, he told Ahaz to ask the Lord for a sign that he would do exactly as he promised. And how did Ahaz respond? “I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test” (Is. 7:12). And then came Isaiah’s well-known response. The Lord would give him a sign anyway. A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call him Immanuel (Is. 7:14). Amazing! But the gloom and doom persisted. Ahaz would not turn to the Lord. Instead, he turned to mediums and spiritists to give him guidance in these trying times. And he urged the people of Judah to do the same. Consider how ridiculous that solution was! He urged his people to consult those who had given their souls to Satan, the Father of Lies, to learn the truth so that they might save their lives. He urged the people to turn to the one who wanted to murder them eternally in order to preserve their lives temporally. That makes no sense at all! But that’s what the people did. That was their solution to the gloom and doom they were facing. Here’s what the Lord had to say about that, “You…consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter.” Literally, the Hebrew states, “who chirp and tweet.” Their advice is like the senseless sounds that birds make. In listening to mediums and spiritists, the gloom and doom they were experiencing didn’t dissipate one bit; it only became deeper and darker. Who would have blamed the Lord if his response had been, “Fine! Have it your way! I’m through with you!”? Instead, this was his response, “Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” He made it painfully clear. Do not seek enlightenment from those who live in the black hole of Satan’s kingdom. Do not depend on Assyria to come to your rescue. Do not think that you can make your way in this life apart from me. Instead, look to my word. “Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning.” In other words, listen to what I have told you in my word. Follow my laws and decrees. Pay attention to the repeated warnings in my word. I am faithful to every word and promise I have made. Come out of your self-imposed doom and gloom and into the light of my word and life with me. That light is not focused on temporal security and prosperity. It’s focused on something much more important and eternally significant. That light is not concerned with rescue from an earthly kingdom but rescue from the gloom and doom of Satan’s kingdom. Here’s what the Lord promised, “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” We heard in this morning’s Gospel how Jesus applied these words directly to his ministry. He had come to shine spiritual light into hearts that were dark with sin and unbelief. He had come, not to rescue his people from Roman oppression, but to redeem them from Satan’s kingdom to his kingdom. The most important person in all of history was born in an unlikely place, in Bethlehem, a small town inhabited by lowlife shepherds. He was born in a stable, not a pristine maternity ward. He was laid in a manger, not a safe and soft bassinette. How unlikely! And he carried out his ministry in an unlikely area of Israel. The likely place to do his work would have been in Jerusalem among pure Jews who were concerned with all things Jewish. Instead, he carried on his ministry way up north in Israel, in an area that always suffered the brunt of the invasions by northern nations. These nations deported the Jews living there and settled Gentiles there who worshipped all sorts of false gods. From a purely human standpoint, it made no sense for Jesus to begin his ministry there. But that’s what God did. He took a Savior born in an unlikely place and had him do his work in an unlikely place. And the result? No more gloom and doom. And that’s what our God still does. He does not choose the proud, the mighty, the successful, the influential to increase the ranks of his kingdom, No, he calls out to the weary and oppressed, he invites the poor and lowly, he puts his arm around the down and out, he welcomes society’s outcasts. He calls out to one and all, but the vast majority ignore him. He wants all to be saved, but only those who repent and trust in him receive his salvation. And to those who come to him with hearts that are full of sorrow over sin, this is what he does, “You have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.” He doesn’t always shatter the power of enemy nations, but he does lift a far worse burden, the burden of sin and guilt, the oppression of death and hell. And then he fills us with his peace and joy. “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.” The Lord is speaking about the peace and joy that we celebrate at Christmas and Easter. It’s the peace of knowing we have a Savior from sin who makes our peace with God. It’s the peace of being assured by his death and resurrection that he has established that peace for us forever and nothing can destroy it. It’s the peace and joy of knowing that nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God. It’s the peace and joy of knowing that, even though our sinful world disappoints and distresses us every day of our lives, we have light and life in the Lord. So, what’s the solution to gloom and doom? Don’t look for it to shine out of Washington or Columbus. Don’t look for it in world peace, economic stability, or medical solutions to everything that ails us. It’s not in healthy investment accounts or easy living. The solution to gloom and doom is none other than Jesus, the Light of the World, the Life of the World. That’s a light and life you enjoy now, no matter how gloomy your outward circumstance is. That life and light is yours eternally. Enjoy it! Praise Jesus for it! Amen.