Zebulun and Naphtali were the first to fall. When Assyria swept down from the north, these territories at the edge of everything were the first Israelite land conquered and the first to know exile and contempt. Isaiah names them at the start of the chapter because what happens next is the point. 1"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 ground that suffered first is the ground that sees glory first. Centuries later a carpenter from Nazareth will begin his ministry in this region, and Matthew will notice (Matthew 4:12-16).
2"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." This darkness was invasion, hunger, and exile, suffering, much of it brought on by generations who chose their own way. Into that specific darkness, light shines on the very people who had walked in it longest.
Three times Isaiah gives a reason for joy, each introduced by "for." For the yoke has been broken, 4"as on the day of Midian," the phrase for Gideon's improbable victory. For every soldier's boot and bloodstained garment will be burned as fuel, war itself consumed. And then the third reason, a child born and a son given.
God's answer to everything that has terrorized his people arrives as an infant. A child, helpless in every ordinary sense, and yet 6"the government shall be upon his shoulder," as though a kingdom's weight could rest safely on shoulders that small.
Then the name, four titles stacked. "Wonderful Counselor": the word for wonderful is used elsewhere of God's own acts, the exodus among them. "Mighty God": the same Hebrew phrase appears again in the next chapters of Isaiah for God himself (Isaiah 10:21), which leaves no room for a softer reading. "Everlasting Father": a king who rules with a father's constant care, whose reign belongs to eternity. "Prince of Peace": the last title, toward which the burned boots in the verse before were pointing, peace as wholeness restored.
7"Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David." No human king on David's throne could honestly carry that sentence. Every dynasty ends, and every kingdom, however just, eventually falls. Only one child, born into the region that was first to fall, could grow up to rule a kingdom that never ends.
The last line puts the weight where it belongs: 7"The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this." The promise rests on God's own determination to see it through, whatever the human characters do along the way.
Ask what part of your life sits in the region that suffered first and longest. This passage says that is where the light comes on. It comes as a person, small at first, carrying more than anyone could see, and the rest of the Bible spends its pages showing what he grew up to do.
Prayer
Father, thank you for a child born into the very darkness that had suffered first and longest. We have carried yokes we could not break ourselves, and you broke them with a child. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, rule over us with the government you have taken up on your own shoulder. Let your zeal accomplish what our faithfulness never could. In Jesus' name, amen.