For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders. You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian. Isaiah 9:4 (NLT)
One joy of prophecy is that it often has a double-fulfillment, as many of you know. As the nation of Israel interacted with Isaiah’s words, they were no doubt thinking of their current situation and were looking for a literal breaking of their yoke of slavery and a lifting of their heavy burden (See Isaiah 7-8). They had real problems and needed their mighty God to deliver them.
So do we.
And while we all have issues and needs where we really need God to step in and deliver us, I’d like to point to our more ultimate needs that this “child…born to us, (this) son…given to us” meets.
You know where I am going with this.
We don’t have King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah bearing down on us. But we are in the laser-focused sights of sin, death and the devil. And it is from these things that we are delivered by our faith in this “child…born to us, (this) son…given to us.”
I hope we can remember and reflect on that in fresh ways this Christmas. Our Mighty God has delivered us from the things that really matter when eternity is taken into consideration.
So, perhaps it might be helpful to re-read the verses with these double-fulfillment realities in mind. If you were to do that, here is what you would get –
For you will break the yoke of their slavery (to sin) and lift the heavy burden (of guilty and the fear of death). You will break the oppressor’s (Satan, or the devil) rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.
And because we are on the other side of the Incarnation, the “you wills” of this passage are changed to “you haves” for those who trust in Christ.
Emmanuel Faith, may the (perhaps) well-known realities of what Christmas means for your spiritual life become real to you in some new ways this day!
Scott Smith
Care Pastor