Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 9:1

"But there shall be no gloom to her that 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 hath he made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations." — Isaiah 9:1 (ASV)

Read the fine translation of the Revised Version: But there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish. What a marvelous light from the midst of a dreadful darkness! It is an astounding change, such as only God with us could work.

Many of you know nothing about the miseries described in those verses, but there are some who have traversed that terrible wilderness; and I am going to speak to them. I know where you are: you are being driven as captives into the land of despair, and for the last few months you have been tramping along a painful road, "hardly bestead and hungry." You are surely hard-pressed, and your soul finds no food of comfort, but is ready to faint and die. You fret yourself: your heart is wearing away with care, and grief, and hopelessness. In the bitterness of your soul, you are ready to curse the day of your birth.

The captive Israelites cursed their king who had led them into their defeat and bondage; in the fury of their agony, they even cursed God and longed to die. It may be that your heart is in such a ferment of grief that you do not know what you think, but are like a man at his wit's end. For such as you there shines this star of the first magnitude. Jesus has appeared to save, and he is God and man in one person: man, that he may feel our woes; God, that he may help us out of them.

No minister can save you, no priest can save you—you know this very well; but here is one who is able to save to the uttermost, for he is God as well as man. The great God is good at a dead lift; when everything else has failed, the lever of omnipotence can lift a world of sin. Jesus is almighty to save! That which in itself is an impossibility is possible with God. Sin which nothing else can remove is blotted out by the blood of Immanuel. Immanuel, our Saviour, is God with us; and God with us means difficulty removed, and a perfect work accomplished.