Light at the Wound: Where God Begins the Work of Peace
- SAMC Office Administrator
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Isaiah 9 & Luke 1:76–79
Isaiah tells us where God begins when God decides to heal the world.
Not in palaces.
Not in the safe center.
Not among the elevated.
Isaiah names Zebulun and Naphtali—the borderlands, the first regions crushed by empire, the places conquered before anyone else had time to respond.
These were not symbolic locations.
These were frontline casualty zones.
Traumatized land. Forgotten people. Communities flattened by Assyrian force.
And Isaiah says something audacious:
“In the latter time, God has made glorious the Way of the sea.”
In other words:
Restoration begins where devastation began.
God does not start the work of healing where life is easiest.
God begins where the wound is deepest.
Light does not float above history—it enters it at its most broken edge.
Light Is Not Optimism—It Is Invasion
Isaiah’s famous words are not sentimental:
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.”
This does not mean the darkness disappeared. It means the future broke into the darkness.
The light Isaiah announces is not a soft glow—it is a counter-force.
A new presence that enters the same ravaged landscape and refuses to let history be sealed by violence.
Empires invade with armies.God invades with light.
Darkness is not denied.
Darkness is interrupted.
Peace Comes Through Justice and Alignment—Not Control
Isaiah is exact about how this light reshapes the world:
“The kingdom will be upheld with Justice and Alignment.”
Peace does not emerge from power alone.
Peace does not grow from fear.
Peace is not enforced through domination.
Peace comes when:
Justice (mishpat) puts what is broken back into right relationship
Alignment (tsedeq) orders life toward what is genuinely good
This means peace is not merely personal calm—it is communal reordering. It reshapes economics, restores dignity, breaks cycles of oppression, and realigns the way people live together.
This is why Isaiah dares to call the coming ruler the Prince of Thriving Peace.
Not fragile peace.
Not shallow peace.
Living, expanding, irrepressible peace.
Zechariah’s Song: Light That Prepares the Way
Centuries later, Zechariah stands inside that same prophetic stream and sings over his newborn son:
Then he reaches for Isaiah’s language:
“Because of the tender mercy of our God,the Sunrise from on high will visit us—to shine on those in darkness,living in the shadow of death,and to guide our feet into the paths of peace.”
Notice what Zechariah does not say.
He does not say the darkness is gone.
He does not say the shadow of death has vanished.
He says the Sunrise is coming into it.
This is not escape theology.
This is incarnation theology.
The light does not remove us from history.
The light guides our feet inside it.
The Way Is Prepared in the Dark
Zechariah’s son is not sent to rule.He is sent to prepare the Way.
Preparation happens:
Before peace is visible
Before justice is complete
Before the world feels safe
This is where Advent lives—not in resolution, but in readiness.
Not in triumph, but in trust.
Not in escape, but in formation.
The work of God begins before everything is fixed—right in the shadow of death.
What This Means for Us
If Isaiah is right, and if Zechariah is telling the truth, then God is still working the same way:
Light begins where empire broke people.
Peace grows through justice and alignment, not fear.
The Way is prepared while the world is still dark.
This means:
Your wounded places are not disqualifying.
Your shadowed seasons are not ignored.
Your unfinished healing is not abandoned.
God begins where you thought hope ended.
And the Sunrise that Zechariah sings about does not wait for perfect conditions. It visits—right now—to guide unsteady feet into the paths of Thriving Peace.
This is not the end of the story.
This is how God always begins it.
Grace and peace,
John
A scripture rendering from SAMC:
Isaiah 9:1–8
But there will not always be darkness
for the one who is in distress.
In an earlier time
He treated lightly the land of
Struggle-by-the-Sea [Zebulun]
and the land of Wrestling [Naphtali]—
but in the latter time
He has made glorious
the Way (derek) of the sea,
beyond the River,
the district of the nations.
The people who walk in darkness
have seen a great light.
Those who dwell in the land of deep shadow—
light has shone upon them.
You have multiplied the nation,
You have made its joy great.
They rejoice before You
as with joy at the harvest,
as they exult when dividing spoil.
For the yoke of his burden,
the staff upon his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
You have shattered!
as on the day of Crushing [Midian].
For every boot of the trampling warrior
in the roar of battle,
and every garment rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child has been born to us,
a son has been given to us.
Authority rests upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called:
Wonder-Planner,
Mighty-God,
Father-of-the-Eternity,
Prince of Thriving-Peace (shalom).
Of the increase of his authority
and of Thriving-Peace (shalom)
there will be no end,
upon the throne of Beloved [David]
and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with Justice (mishpat)
and with Alignment (tsedeq),
from now and unto the Eternity.
The zeal of YHWH of the Multitudes
will do this.
The Lord has sent a word into Heal-Grabber [Jacob],
and it has fallen upon Wrestles-with-God [Israel].
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