Illumination | Week 1

Introducing With God: In Darkness and Hope

The more quality time you spend with someone, the more deeply invested you become in that relationship, including caring about the things that matter to them. This is exactly what we find when we read the Old Testament prophets. After the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel split into northern and southern kingdoms.  As each became increasingly established in the land, both progressively resumed the ancient human enterprise of seeking to live life without God. 

The people God called to be his own lived for their own good, instead of life with God for their neighbor’s good. From the most lowly to the most powerful, God’s people were enmeshed in two chief sins: idolatry and injustice. In order to justify themselves, they cultivated a circle of “prophets” who claimed to speak the very words of God, but really just told the people what they wanted to hear. 

However, the true prophets of Yahweh—those who had been called by God and spent time in his presence—developed hearts that broke for the very things that broke Yahweh’s heart. They couldn’t help but speak the true words of Yahweh, whether they pronounced the looming darkness of exile or the distant hope that God would gather his people again. 

The prophets possess a deep identification with the pathos of God and a deep identification with the predicament of man. Each prophet we study will give us a glimpse into the very heart of God: his anguish at abandonment, his ire at injustice, his compassionate commitment, his loyal love, his readiness to receive repentance, and his desire to deal with sin and dwell with his people—ruling them forever in a remade world.

Discipline of Self-Examination and Confession

Confession and self-examination are practices of telling the truth before God. In self-examination, we ask the Holy Spirit to search us and reveal where we have wandered from life with God in thought, desire, speech, and action. In confession, we respond by naming our sins plainly, without excuse, blame-shifting, or self-protection. 

This discipline fits the prophets because the true prophets used by God do not merely expose sin; they call his people to return. Again and again, they uncover idolatry, injustice, pride, false worship, and spiritual numbness, so that people might come back to life with God. 

Over these weeks, this practice will help us bring hidden things into the light; confess sins of commission and omission, personal and corporate sins, and even the “respectable” sins we often excuse. It will also help us remember that confession is not about despair or self-focus, but about restored fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. Because of him, confession leads to mercy, repentance leads to renewal, and those who walk in the light do not find condemnation, but grace.

Prayer

Holy Father, search me and know me. Bring into the light what I have hidden, ignored, minimized, or excused. Show me the wrong I have done and the good I have left undone. Reveal the roots beneath my sins—my pride, fear, self-protection, unbelief, and love of comfort—and teach me to confess them plainly before you. Lord Jesus, thank you that you receive sinners and that mercy is greater than my sin. Holy Spirit, keep me tender, honest, and quick to repent. Use your word to wake me, humble me, heal me, and lead me more deeply into life with God. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Read | Isaiah 9:1–6

Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
a light has dawned
on those living in the land of darkness.
You have enlarged the nation
and increased its joy.
The people have rejoiced before you
as they rejoice at harvest time
and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.
For you have shattered their oppressive yoke
and the rod on their shoulders,
the staff of their oppressor,
just as you did on the day of Midian.
For every trampling boot of battle
and the bloodied garments of war
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.

As you examine your heart today, what area of your life is currently hidden in “deep darkness”?

Which of the names of the Messiah (Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace) do you need God to illuminate as you confess your absolute need for him today?

Read this blog by Taylor Fair - Pastor of Students and Families (Brookside Campus).

Focus

Read this devotional made available from the Story of Scripture team at Dallas Theological Seminary.

A Shoot from the Stump 
by Kraig McNutt - based on Isaiah 9, 11, 53

“A shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” —Isaiah 11:1

God’s chosen people are in a crisis of ominous proportions. Assyria had already overrun Zebulun and Naphtali, deported entire families, and scorched whole villages. The final fall of the northern kingdom was less than a decade away.

Who could blame any reader, especially the original ones, for concluding that everything was hopeless? But Isaiah sees something. In this darkness he sees a shoot — coming up from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). A stump is what's left after a tree is cut down. The royal line of David, hewn off at the base. And yet — a shoot.

What is this shoot? Isaiah wants the reader to see that it is a king. What kind of king? "For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us…and he will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace," (Isaiah 9:6).

It would be easy just to read on. You know the story, right? But stop and look at those names. Mighty God. Eternal Father. Isaiah is saying the future King, who will come from a stump, is God himself, come down to be with his people. Amazing.

Following Isaiah to chapter 53, the shoot appears again. "He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2). Same shoot. Same Messiah. But here the shoot brings the kingdom. Surely by conquest, right? Isaiah says no. The kingdom comes by being pierced. Wounded. Suffering. How is that a recipe for success, much less conquest?
Isaiah’s answer is mind-blowing. "We are healed by his wounds,” (Isaiah 53:5). He wants us to see that Israel doesn’t simply need a victor over Assyria, she needs a victor over something much more ominous; the brokenness humanity experienced back in Eden. Like Israel, we too need the same thing.

God yearns to be with his people forever but before that can happen, we must be restored and made whole again, by his wounds.

That is what every prophet to come will say. Out of the darkness, a shoot. The question is whether we want the kingdom — or the King.

Pray

Pray that the Holy Spirit shines his light on your hidden sins and reveals the truth of his word.

Going Deeper

If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.