he Great Light Shines For Those Who Walk In Darkness To See
A Sermon By Elise Beatrice - Friday 21 November 2025 


Holy Father, I come before You, trusting that You will take over. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus, for You and Your Holy Spirit. You are the well of inspiration, the well of knowledge, of riches, divine riches, Lord. 
You are the Beauty, You are the Life, You are God, and that Name resounds forever. Oh, Lord, we love You, and we thank You. 
May Your will Be done. And please help me. Deliver us from any intrusion, let Your light shine, my Lord, so that everything You are saying to me, I will express it in the way pleasing to You, so that everyone who hears it will be blessed just as You intend, Lord. 
Thank You so much for hearing my prayer, for those who hear this and pay attention and take action to do as You say. Please, my Father who is in Heaven, hear my prayer, in the Name of Your Son Jesus. Amen. 

Isaiah 9:1-7,
“9 Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.
2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. 3 You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice. They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder. 4 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. 5 The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire. 6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called: 
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” 


What a great thing the Lord has done for us all. 
The Lord is speaking here through Isaiah, the prophet, announcing to us the Great News to come. 

The Ancient Lands of Zebulun and Naphtali were located in Galilee, in the Northern part of the Kingdom of Israel. According to the Holy Bible, the people of the lands of Zebulum and Naphtali had turned away from God, lived in darkness, and practised any kind of sin, including idolatry. So, because of their rebellion against the Lord God, the land was referred to as ‘Galilee of the Gentiles,’ also because of its mixed population, due to the Assyrians conquering the land many years before. So, if a place is mixed with different kinds of population, all coming together, not in good, but practising sin, the place becomes a gentile place; a place that has no God. 

So the Lord God spoke through Isaiah, as we see here in verse 1. 

That means God is planning here to bring His Glory, to bless even those who have lived in sin. Something will happen for them to truly come to understand that they have turned away from God; something great will happen to them, and the truth will be reminded to them, in order for them to understand their position and to choose God and to truly return to God, and the Glory of God will fill that place.  

Verse 2,  
“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.”
Yes, this Light that God is speaking here, ‘A light will shine’; this is the Lord, the Light, Jesus, who comes to shine in the darkness. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

So, has this come true? Yes. It has come true. 
We see here in Matthew 4:23,
“And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” 

So, we are reading here Isaiah 9, and from that time, we have to go forward in time, to the time of Christ, to see the fulfilment of that prophecy.
And now in Matthew 4:15, 
15 “In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.” 
17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” 

So, the Lord Jesus spent a lot of time in Galilee during His ministry, preaching the Gospel to them as the Great Light shining in the darkness, fulfilling the Prophecy in Isaiah 9.  However, that Great Light, who is the Lord Jesus, did not come just for the lands of Zebulum and Naphtali, but He came for all people in the world, because, while the Great Light came to shine in the darkness for all to see, He also shone in Galilee of the Gentiles, the new name for the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. 

So now, what does this all mean?  

Isaiah 9:3, 
“You will enlarge the nation of Israel...”

This is not the work that Isaiah will be the one to do. God, the Father, is speaking here to His Son, Jesus. So when He says, “You will enlarge the nation of Israel...”, He is speaking to His Son, Jesus. He is ordaining His Son, Jesus, because He has given all authority in Heaven and on the Earth to His Son Jesus. He is saying to His Son, “You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice.”
Yes, ‘enlarge’; this ‘enlarge’ does not mean that physically the city will expand and grow in riches and physical wealth. You will enlarge because, now, when this Great Light has come to shine in the darkness, Israel, which is representing the people of the Holy One of Israel, and all those who will listen to the Gospel and accept it, will become now great in number. So, instead of just being a population of the physical Israelites, the spiritual Israelites, who are all those who listen to the Lord Jesus Christ and do the will of His Father, they will expand and become larger all over the Earth. In Fact, the Lord Jesus is the Blessing that God, the Father, promised through Abraham to be the blessing for all people in the world. So when He comes now to shine that line in the darkness, not just the people of Zebulum and Naphatali are seeing that Light, but this Gospel will be preached all over the Earth, and that will be thanks to our Lord Jesus, to the Great Light who came to shine in the darkness. And He did not just shine that Light in Israel, He shone it all over the Earth. 

Yes, He came to shine the Light. So how do we receive that light? How do we actually remain in that light? 

“From then on, Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

So, when people have seen the Great Light shining in the darkness, they don’t just say, “Oh, yes, that is a beautiful light, wow!” But they have to seek the Light, to depart from the darkness and to reach out to that Light, and to remain in that Light, beginning by repenting of their sins, turning from their ways, so that they can be blessed by the Lord’s ways and the Lord’s divine riches. So this is what God is promising that will happen in the future. Indeed, it did happen in the future. Because the Lord Jesus preached the Gospel all over the Earth through His Apostles and disciples, servants, in the past and today. It is because of the Lord Jesus that the Gospel of Salvation is preached all over the Earth. And now, today, many people all over the Earth have seen that Light and they have received that Light and they live in that Light, the Lord Jesus, and that is because of what the Father God Almighty promised through Isaiah, His Son, Jesus, for us all, the Great Light, who will come. 

“You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice.” 
Yes, because when people are enlarged by knowing and receiving the Lord and His truth, and they are now great in number, and they’re all seeing the wonders of the Lord, and they’re no longer practising sin because they have embraced the Light, they’re rejoicing before the Lord. In fact, we worship God. We are rejoicing in front of Christ all the time, those who live in the Light, in the Lord. 

“They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder. For you will break the yoke of slavery and lift their heavy burden from their shoulders.” 

This yoke of slavery, God promised to do that, was one of the missions of the Lord Jesus on Earth. And He did that; He did that when He came and died on the Cross. Even before He died on the Cross, He was preaching the Gospel. The Gospel that He preached is to break the yoke of slavery. 

The Gospel is the cure, is the knife, is the sword; The WORD of God is the SWORD to break the yoke of slavery. 

We don’t carry a yoke of slavery by doing good. The yoke of slavery is not slavery to good; this is slavery to sin. In fact, these people were living in sin. And these lands of Zebulum and Naphtali are also placed there to symbolise all other places that have rebelled against God, are living in sin, and after hearing the Gospel, they have turned back to God. Before they turned back to God, God had come and preached the Gospel to break the yoke of slavery. This is slavery to sin, slavery to satan. That is the yoke that people carry, even today, that is so heavy and pressing them down. If Christ Jesus did not come to die on the Cross, we would still be carrying the yoke, all people would still be carrying the yoke of slavery to sin, to satan, that is so heavy that it presses them down. 
The Lord Jesus said,
“Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 
This rest is rest from sin; it is rest from the practice of sin. 
“Take my Yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I’m gentle and humble at heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 
So, when you see those who are living in sin, in idolatry and disobedience to God, they are carrying a yoke of slavery to sin and to satan, which is so heavy, so heavy, that they cannot lift. However, the yoke that we carry by obeying God is easy.  The Lord Jesus said, “For my Yoke is easy and my Burden is light.” So the Lord’s Yoke is easy. Even when we carry the Lord’s Yoke, we are carrying our crosses and following Him. That means we no longer practice sin, yet we’re carrying the Lord’s Yoke, but it is the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light to carry, compared to the yoke of slavery to sin and to satan, the yoke of slavery to the darkness and to sinful nature. 

Those who suffer for their sins are not carrying the Lord’s yoke but the devil’s yoke. 

That is the heaviest thing on this earth people can carry. And only One can lift that up; the Lord Jesus, which is why He had to come to shine the LIGHT so that those who live in darkness will see that light and come out of darkness in order for Him to remove that yoke of slavery to sin, to satan, to the darkness from them, if they listen and do exactly what the Lord pleaded in Matthew 4:17,
“Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” 

So “You will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.”
Yes. Humans who are in darkness are carrying a heavy burden they cannot even see; that is the burden of their own sins, pressing them down, it’s invisible; they cannot see, but they see it reflecting in their wrong behaviour, their immoral behaviour, rebellion and disobedience to God. And this is even when people are among God’s people and believing in the Lord Jesus, but they are not doing what the Lord Jesus says; they are not turning from their wicked ways. Yet, they believe. Then, they’re still carrying that yoke of slavery to sin, to the darkness, to satan.  

Father God said,
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayers made in this place” (2 Chronicles 7:14-15).

What people do often is that they seek God’s face, but they don’t turn from their wicked ways. But we see here in Matthew 4:15, the Light has come, but first He must preach the Gospel, He must use that Sword of the Spirit, His own Words to show that it is the Word of God that sets them free from slavery to sin, slavery to sinful nature, and to satan. 

“You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.”
Yes, the Lord Jesus will break the oppressor’s rod just as He did when He destroyed the army of Midian. 
God the Father is telling us here that it was His Son, Jesus, destroying that army of Median, even though He was using Gideon, as in Judges 7:19-15 

Yes. Physically, we see that Gideon did it. But who was behind Gideon? Who was giving Gideon the strength? Who was directing Gideon? Who was coaching Gideon? Our Lord Jesus. Just as with every good thing that we're doing today, when we are listening to the Lord, when we are fighting our battles in our room with evil spirits themselves and satan, and all that, who is coaching us, who is teaching us, who is guiding us, who is giving us victory? Our Lord Jesus. He is the Light who came and paid our ransom on the Cross. 

So now, Verse 5 says, 
"The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire." 

It happened like this already in the past: the physical prophecy. But spiritual prophecy: it will also happen like this in the future. He will Come Again to cleanse the earth from evil.
God is speaking like this through Isaiah, prophesying the future. 

This passage in Isaiah 9 is giving us hope, the hope of the Messiah, giving us hope that the great Light will come for those who are in the darkness to see. He came when He was born and later died on the Cross for us all. He is also giving us hope that the oppressed will be avenged by Him on the Day of the Lord when the Lord Jesus Comes Again.
So, two great news on this: The First Coming and also about the Second Coming. And God is saying, at the time God is speaking through Isaiah, He is reassuring us and saying, "This will happen." Why? 
All the things that God has said will happen because, 'A child is born to us, a Son is given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His Government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and Justice from the throne of His ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies will make that happen.' 

This promise of the Messiah, the hope in the Messiah, this promise of the Messiah who will come and shine the light in the darkness and the promise of the Lord avenging the oppressed will happen because God gives us a child. So when Christ is born on Earth, that is the promise of God, the Father, being fulfilled. So this time is the time when the Lord sent His Son. When we're celebrating Christmas, we are celebrating the Birth of our Lord Jesus. He sent His Son to fulfil that promise, the Promise of Hope. So the Light was born, that great Light was born in Bethlehem.  
Thirty years later, He would begin His Ministry, but first He had to be born. His Birth was that confirmation of what God the Father said in Isaiah 9.
God can promise us things, and we believe by faith until we see the prophecy come true. So Christ's Birth on earth is the fulfilment of God, the Father's prophecy, of the Messiah, the Great Light coming to shine in the darkness. That Light began to shine in the darkness from when He was born.  

He came for the whole world, but the Lands of Naphtali and Zebulun happened to be the ones that God had prophesied about, which are representing everyone who is in wickedness and living in disobedience to God; they have that Light who came to shine for them as well, so that they can then listen and seek to live in the Light. And all those who listen and repent of their sins as Christ pleaded and seek to remain in His love, and living in His love, are blessed by the Great Light, as they continuously rejoice before Him, even in their sufferings, because they are faithful and devoted to Christ, and they live for Him. 

Coming back to Isaiah 5,  "The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire."

What happens at the end of every war when the hero has won the final battle? What is the fate of his enemies who are all defeated, dead in the pool of their own blood?
The victorious collect all their boots, clothes, and other gear, which now are only useful for fire, and burn them, symbolising there is no more war. The burning of the warrior’s boots and their clothes, stained by blood, symbolises the permanent end of warfare. This happened physically when the Lord Jesus used Gideon and His other servants to defeat some of His enemies in the past. And this will happen again in the future on ‘The Day of the Lord’ when the One who is called the Beginning and the End, Lord Jesus, will Come Again to end the spiritual war permanently, and this will happen because a Child, a SON, is given to us by God, the Father.

The Birth of the Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, is the confirmation that Christ is on His way to come again. He came for the first time, and died on the Cross for us, and this shows He is on His way to come again, just as He said.
So, this will happen because a Child is given to us. So we celebrate our Lord in December, just as we should every day.

We celebrate the Birth of our Lord Jesus. His Birth means a lot. 
He is that Hope. The Lord Jesus is our Hope. No one has to be in the darkness when the Light came to shine so that they also can see. So, let us come together in love and harmony to our Lord, to live as His children, to live as those who know this to be true, because we indeed know this to be true. For even I, speaking here, know this to be true, for the Spirit of the Lord is within me; just as the Spirit of the Lord is within those who listen to Him. The Lord has come to shine so that all people will see. 

May you welcome the Lord who is the Light and let Him break your yoke of slavery now.  

So I really pray that you will let the Lord bless you with the love and the joy and the peace and the unity; He came for you as well.  
He is that Greatest Blessing given to us by Father God through Abraham. 
May the Lord Jesus' peace be with you. 

Oh Lord Jesus, thank You so much for this sermon. Thank You for Your grace and Your love and Your peace, Lord. Thank You for Your joy, and Your light, and Your salvation.  
You are the Light, You are the joy, You are our Hope. You are the Messiah, You are our Saviour, the Saviour of the world, and I pray that people will let You save them. That they will welcome this great Hope and know that You are that Hope, the Hope of the future. 
The best life we will ever have is in You, the best place we will ever be in belongs to You. Thank You for Your Salvation. Thank You for helping us as we work hard to maintain that Salvation, looking forward to seeing You, for You will come and You will avenge the oppressed, those whom You declare innocent.   
You will wipe out from the earth every wickedness, every evil. Oh Lord, we thank You for being born. 
Thank You, Holy Father, for Your Son, Jesus, for our Everlasting Father,  for our Mighty God, our Prince of Peace, our Wonderful Counsellor.  
Thank You so much, Father God Almighty. Oh, thank You for hearing my prayer, in the Name of Your Son, Jesus. Amen.