From Isaiah 9:2 & 4, part of the scriptures for this coming Sunday:

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined.

For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.”

As we move from the day when the sun shines the least for us to longer and brighter days, our hearts do quicken a bit. We look forward to the promise of those warm days coming when the sun shines full again. We know the seasonal darkness is temporary, but it’s harder to hope for the coming of days when the spiritual darkness that seems so prevalent in our world, the wars, the hatred, the selfishness and factionalness will ebb.

The words of Isaiah, written so long ago, can still speak to us. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;”

How do we live into that hope? Perhaps one answer comes in the other verse: “For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.”

“The day of Midian” refers to the time when an army of 300 Israelites, armed mostly with torches, defeated a Midian army “as thick as locusts.”

We don’t need a lot of people, just the people God chooses. We don’t need much else, just the light God gave us. With that and, of course, God’s leading, we can confront the darkness and, like the One we follow, the darkness will not overcome us.

Let’s see what God can do.

AMEN.

~Russ Smith