The Immanuel Prophecy: A Sign of Hope for the Nations

I enjoy good signage. 

This one especially caught my attention.  
Free espresso and a free puppy.

  

Signs communicate. 

They tell us what to expect. 

They give pertinent information. 

Read the Sign.  When Isaiah delivered the Immanuel prophecy he drove a massive sign into the landscape of redemptive history, a marker that would anchor humanity's hope into this coming child (7:14).1     

The sign reads, God will visit His people for salvation.
The sign reads, this child will fulfill ancient covenants.  
The sign reads, God's glory will fill the earth.
The sign reads, this child will bring hope to all nations.     

  

Signs are all around. 
Some more prominent, some more pertinent.
But no sign has been more revolutionary than the one Isaiah staked.  
God would become flesh.  

Don't miss this.  Our eternal hope passed through a birth canal.  

And while Isaiah introduces this incredibly earthy event, he intentionally injects the prophecy with a distinct international flare.  This child would be for all peoples: 

• A Sign of Hope for the Nations: A Light will Shine in Galilee (9:1-2)   
• A Sign of Hope for the Nations: Unto Us A Child is Born (9:3-7)

A Light will Shine in Galilee 

Up until 734, literally nothing had happened. 

Certainly the prophet Isaiah railed against the throne but nothing changed.

Seemingly the nation of Judah had skirted divine wrath.

Oh, the difference a year can make. 

By 735 BC Assyrian forces had begun their march southward into the northern most Israeli territory.  Using this foreign powerhouse, God was positioning Himself to utterly level His people.  And while Isaiah has much to say concerning the divine purpose of Assyria, the point of Isaiah 9:1-2 is not to create dread but hope.

Read Isaiah 9:1-2.

Zebulun and Naphtali, the two northern most territories of Israel.

These two lands were part of one region, the region of Galilee. 

Galilee would be geographically unique on two fronts:
As the first Jewish region cursed with Assyrian occupation, 
Galilee was the first to drink divine wrath,

As the first Jewish region blessed by divine revelation, 
Galilee was the first to hear of divine deliverance.

According to Isaiah, Galilee was glorious in this distinction.

To her and her alone would the divine light first be revealed.

Make the connection with me.  Note Isaiah 9:1-2 along with Matthew 4:12-17.  The divine light of revelation was made known to the region of Galilee by both Jesus’ presence and His message.

Galilee was the first to receive divine revelation from the Immanuel child.

Galilee was the first to hear, 'repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'. 

Isaiah nailed it.  Prophesying some 500 years prior to Jesus’ preaching in Galilee, Isaiah was spot on geographically.  But there's more.  As if the prophecy weren’t amazing enough, note the wording of 9:1.  Of special interest is exactly to whom this geographical blessing is associated, Galilee of the Gentiles.

Galilee of the Gentiles.  Intensified by the Assyrian conquest, Galilee had become an odd mix of foreign peoples and practices.2  By Isaiah’s estimation Galilee had become defined by Gentile occupation.  

Interestingly Immanuel would visit Galilee precisely because she was defined by this Gentile occupation.  For Isaiah the glory of Galilee was that God would actually visit the Gentiles.3 

The greatest shock of Isaiah 9:1-2 isn’t the prophetic word dealing with geographical boundaries but the prophetic word dealing with national boundaries.  The Immanuel child would somehow and in someway be associated with the Gentiles.  

Read the Sign.  Whatever else Immanuel would become, for Isaiah this child would be for the nations.  

Amid the scandal of Isaiah's contemporaries, amid their whorish bent toward spiritual infidelity - God would not abandon His eternal purpose.  And while we understanding God did redeem the nations through Immanuel, let us not grow cold by presuming He would.  

May God grant us grace to slow down and savor the promise of Immanuel.  Grace to see the neon sign pointing to the Father's love.  Grace to sense that in God's eternal plan this child offers hope to all peoples and nations. 

May we read and rejoice - for unto us was born in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.       

Blessings.  

 1.  Ahaz’s rejection of God’s divine rule and authority led to Isaiah clearly spells out that God would ‘be with’ Judah for judgment (7:1-8:10, note Maher-shalal-hashbaz).  Yet as quickly as Isaiah declares destruction upon David’s house, he delivers an undeniable message of hope.  God would uniquely visit His people for salvation, through the Immanuel child God would ‘be with’ His people for restoration. Indeed, for Isaiah the hope of the nations rested solely upon the future of this Immanuel child (9:1-12:6). 

2.  Well before the Assyrian conquest, the northern boarder region of Galilee was inundated with outside influence.  They’d become a virtual melting pot of foreign ideologies, customs, and religious practices – a state that only intensified following the Assyrian takeover. 

Per Assyrian military policy, portions of the indigenous people group would be deported into various regions of kingdom while their fallen homeland would then receive other indigenous peoples that had been conquered by Assyria. 

Effectually, the shuffling of indigenous people groups from one region to the next would serve to break them of their national spirit thus making revolt less probable.

3.  Note the ESV footnote for 'Galilee of the nations', it eludes to the Gentile focus.