Advent 2025, Week 2: Isaiah 9, Part 3
This second week of Advent 2025, we’re studying Isaiah 9. In the previous two posts here and here, we’ve learned that the prophecy sees a light breaking into the darkness of war-torn northern Israel. A new hope of peace has dawned. No surprise, then, how the prophecy continues in verse 3,
“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.”
Four times the words joy or rejoice are used in this one sentence! Of course there is rejoicing when the light of peace dispels the darkness. But there’s more reason for the rejoicing.
Look at verses 4-5, “For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.”
The rejoicing amplifies because those under oppression are set free. Originally, this prophecy was about the people in Northern Israel who were under the oppression from Assyria. As such, this was a very historical prophecy of national freedom. The prophecy also reveals God’s heart.
God’s light of peace includes freeing people who are suffering under oppression of all kinds. People who are experiencing suffering are feeling the opposite of peace. It could be food insecurity, housing insecurity, financial insecurity, abuse, addiction, incarceration. Sometimes they bring it on themselves. Yet God cares for all, whether they brought it on themselves or not.
We do well to share God’s light of peace when we seek to overturn suffering of all kinds. Just as Jesus did, we give ourselves sacrificially, living simply, generously, to lift people who are suffering.
Consider the words of the great Christmas carol, “O Holy Night”:
“Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease.”
The eradication of oppression sometimes requires destroying the structures of oppression, structures that can be perpetrated by other Christians. In our American Civil Rights era, for example, overturning oppression required a massive, organized movement, including marches, protests, meetings, publicity, politics, legal cases, including lawsuits that went the whole way to the Supreme Court.
Where do you see suffering in your community? It might be hidden. Oppression often lives in the shadows, especially in affluent communities. My own community is gorgeous, with its heritage of farming, Amish tourism, and yet we have one of the highest unhoused populations in our county. While we have had tent communities from time to time, most of our unhoused persons live in cars, hotels, or with family/friends. Numerous churches, nonprofits, and government orgs work together to support unhoused people, providing for their immediate needs, helping them get work, do financial planning, and traditional housing.
Recently a group of people at nearby Forest Hills Mennonite Church partnered with Chestnut Housing to purpose a property which will be converted to below market rate housing. It will likely be a 3+ year process that will involve lots of fundraising, sweat equity, and result in about 15 units of joyful hope.
There’s also legal work that has been done, such as townships changing zoning laws to allow people to build secondary dwellings on their properties, for the purpose of providing affordable low-income house.
These are just a few examples of how in Jesus’ name, oppression will cease.
Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash
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