The kind of peace Jesus came to bring

Advent 2025, Week 2: Isaiah 9, Part 1

Today we go back in time nearly 2700 years and Israel is at war.  There is no peace. 

Isaiah 9, verse 1 gives us the context: “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.”

Like I said, when this passage was written, Israel was at war.  You can hear the talk of war in the passage when he uses the words “gloom” and “distress.”  But I’m not talking about all of Israel. 

The nation of Israel had long before been split in two by civil war.  The northern nation retained the name Israel, while the southern nation was called Judah.  The prophet Isaiah ministered in Judah, in Judah’s capital city Jerusalem, serving as royal prophet for a number of Judah’s kings, with righteous King Hezekiah perhaps the greatest. 

But in the north things were very dark, as the Assyrian empire was growing and Judah’s sister country to the north, Israel, was declining.  During Isaiah’s lifetime, the Assyrians defeated Israel.  Zebulun, Naphtali, and Galilee refer to northern Israel.  These are areas the Assyrians had already invaded and captured. 

Isaiah would have been safe, as he lived in Judah to the south.

Still the threat of war, of occupation, of a powerful enemy at their borders was ever present.  When verse 1 says, “there will be no more gloom,” it means that there was gloom.  Gloom was their real situation.  There were dark storm clouds of war, of invasion, of exile, of death, for the people Isaiah ministered among in the south. 

Yet, Isaiah’s prophecy says that a time is coming in the future when God will honor Israel.

Which brings us to verse 2, a famous Christmas passage, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”  In this dark time of war, a light of peace would shine.  What peace?

While this passage had application to its original audience in Isaiah’s day, some 700 years before Jesus was born, the earliest Christians believed that this passage found its greatest fulfillment in in Jesus.  In Matthew 4, verse 15, Matthew quotes Isaiah 9:2. Look at Matthew 4, verse 14, right before the quote, and Matthew says that Jesus’ ministry began in Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, and thus Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. 

Jesus taught the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven was in their midst.  Jesus also did the deeds of the good news of the Kingdom, welcoming everyone, healing the sick, releasing people from oppression, confronting hypocrisy, and preaching, as Matthew says in verse 17, the message of repentance, which is turning to God, restoring relationship with God, and following God’s ways. 

Why? Because, Jesus says, the Kingdom of God is near.  Jesus himself was the light of the Kingdom of God, and the people could see that, hear it, feel it. They could experience it. Sometimes in their own bodies, as they were healed, freed from oppression, and as they ate food he miraculously provided.  They were experiencing the light of peace in their lives. 

In the Old Testament Hebrew the word for peace is shalom.  It is not just peace between warring parties.  It is wholeness.  Shalom peace is when things are whole. Jesus came to bring that kind of peace in people, between people, and between people and God.

Matthew was there.  He not only saw shalom peace, he felt it. We learn how in the next post.

Photo by Candice Seplow on Unsplash