The Thread Of Hope

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Why did we call it woven? Well, it's not a side note. It's not a oops, maybe. It's not a peripheral issue in the Bible. What we find out when we read the Scriptures is God has chosen to weave Himself into this world, into our lives, into relationships with us, and He wants us woven together in community. And even when we ruptured the tapestry he was creating, as Kellen so well, man, good job, Kellen, last week, right? Kellen, one of our interns here, was able to give a great message on Genesis 3, and even there we see woven right into that story. is a scarlet thread, as some people have put it, that runs through every different story in the Bible. And even when some of those stories seem to be about like, what is going on with this or that individual, characters in the Bible that are truly characters. you still see God's scarlet thread of redemption that ties it all together. The Bible is not just an assortment of weird stories or ancient stories or any of that stuff. It is all woven together into the story of redemption. And that's what we're celebrating during what we call Advent, as we anticipate both the first appearance of Jesus at Bethlehem and Maranatha, Come, Lord Jesus, anytime, His second appearing. But we're going to be in Isaiah chapter 9 today. But I want to start with this quote from Peter Stankey, who was a-- is, I guess, he's still alive. I don't think he's died. He was a counselor. He's done a lot of other things. He's a Christian pastor. And he said, Hope begins in its absence. And you might go like, what? Yeah, it's odd, but it's true. It's where there is no hope. That's where hope starts. It's when you feel like you're holding on to that last little thread and it's about to snap. It's when you finally hit bottom, as many people find out throughout life, and you start to look up. Isaiah says it this way in our text, we'll get to it, When the people dwelling in the land of deep darkness. Deep darkness. That's when the light shines. Hope breaks in where there is only despair, because we have a God who breaks into history again and again. Today we're going to be exploring this passage of Isaiah 9 that you might know from the Messiah, For unto us a child is born. Do you know that? Unto us a son is given. I used to be a tenor. I think now I'm a bass. But you might know that passage. It sounds so wonderful, but guess what? The context is really dark. Really dark. The time that Isaiah was writing these words is called the Syro-Ephraimitic War. Whoo, big words, right? Syro-Ephraimitic, that is Syria. where Damascus is, was in cahoots with Ephraim, which is the northern part of Israel. Ephraim split off from Judah in the south after Solomon dies, and it now is going against its own kin in Judah and Benjamin, an alliance with the Syrians in Damascus saying, Hey, if you don't get on the board with us, we're going to pummel you and destroy you out of Khorshak, because we want to form an alliance between the three of us against us, Syria, and Babylon, and Egypt, et cetera. So little Judah, and I mean little Judah, Ephraim was the big boy of the two, little Judah is left in a position of what do we do? How do we handle this? And sadly, the king that was on the throne, too, is the man named Ahaz. And Ahaz is not Ahab, but not much better than Ahab in the Bible. And Ahaz, not much faith. Things are bleak. That's when Isaiah speaks these words. Okay, so we'll be in Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 through 7. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan. Now Zebulun and Naphtali is up by Galilee, it's the part of That was taken over by the Assyrians pretty quick. This was the area that never was held on to that well. And here, that's where hope's going to break out, which is really fascinating. Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness on them, his light shone. The prophetic future is always put in past tense. I know that sounds odd, but it's like, it's so sure. I'm going to tell you like it already has happened. You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest as they were glad when they divide the spoil for the yoke of his burden. and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor. Sadly, Ephraim and Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, all these people, they were all in cahoots against Judah in one form or another. You have broken as on the day of Midian. Okay, Midian, the Midianites under Gideon. How does he do it? a whole 300 guys with pots and torches, not even anything else. The Midianites defeated themselves in that battle. Read it ...