Darkest Hour

It is a dangerous thing to live in ignorance of history.  The last several generations have lived with World World 2 as a chapter in a history text book.  We tend to take for granted that Hitler’s intentions all along were nefarious, the British saved their army at Dunkirk, the United States was galvanized by Pearl Harbor, the D-Day invasion was a resounding overall operational success, and “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” pushed the Japanese to surrender.

However, to have lived during that time was to know uncertainty, trepidation, and outright terror.  In the European theater of operations, the German war machine, under the command of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, was a terrifying machine of destruction.  It rolled like a tidal wave over Western Europe in a matter of days and weeks, leaving the forlorn country of Great Britain in fear for its very survival as a nation.

Looking back on this time now, again, through the lens of clinical text books, we view men like Winston Churchill as titans of courage who faced down the wrath of Germany and were willing to fight to the bitter end, ultimately ensuring the freedom of the world from the cruel and satanic oppression of Nazism.  Yet, these men were just that, men.  They were flawed and frail creatures of limited sight and imperfect vision.  They knew not what the future would bring, and that lack of certainty at times brought them to their knees in desperation.

“Darkest Hour” is a film that endeavors to capture a period of about a month, in May and June of 1940, just after the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.  Winston Churchill had just become the Prime Minister of Great Britain.  He was immediately faced with the difficult proposition of what to do to ensure the safety of his nation.  With opposition from within his own party, the almost certain annihilation of the entire 300,000 soliders of the British Expeditionary Force that was trapped between the advancing German Panzer divisions and the English Channel, and his own inner demons that threatened to unhinge him, Churchill entered into a dark night of the soul such as most of us have never endured.

While taking some historical liberties, as movies are wont to do, this film does a wonderful job of capturing the inner turmoil of this man who history has come to know as one of the great leaders of the Second World War.  It reminds us that in spite of uncertainty, there are certain inalienable and unchanging principles of conduct that are always applicable and eternally relevant to the human condition.  Courage, tenacity, loyalty, integrity, and honesty are a few of the terms that come to my mind in attempting to describe the character qualities that ultimately prevailed in this great conflict.  We would do well to remember such lessons from history as we face our own darknesses.

Prominently displayed is Churchill’s outstanding ability as an orator.  It warms my heart to see represented so well the incalculable power of ideas, communicated through the medium of language.  Churchill had the capacity to take individual words, string them together into stirring sentences, and craft those sentences into speeches of unparalleled motivational effect.  “Darkest Hour” ends with a small portion of Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons, delivered on June 4, 1940.  Here is an excerpt from the actual speech, part of which made it into this film, to give you an idea of the power of Churchill’s oratory:

“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.  We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

The final words of “Darkest Hour” are powerful and have left an impression in my mind.  It is a quote by Edward R. Murrow, the famous American journalist, who in 1954 was describing Churchill’s actions during the war.  In the film, the quote is given to Viscount Halifax, one of Churchill’s most powerful opponents from within his own political party who wanted to sue for terms of peace with Hitler.  After Churchill delivered the rousing speech mentioned above, and with virtually the entire House of Commons standing in ovation, one of Halifax’s confidantes turns to him and says, “What just happened?”.  Halifax, in the words of Murrow, responds: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”  May we all strive to recognize the tremendous power, both for good and for evil, that has been granted to us via language.  May we all take exceeding care that our words are utilized for the same purpose as the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth almost 400 years ago.  That of the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.

Born To Die

In the Summer of 1939 Sam Stern received his diploma.  This was a rabbinical degree, or Smicha, and Sam, a Jew, had his sights set on entering the ministry as a rabbi.  But then, in September, Adolf Hitler’s German war machine rumbled into Poland, launching the second world war.  All of Europe was engulfed in flames, and six years later, when the war ended, Sam was in a concentration camp.  He had survived the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.  However, all of his family members were dead.  Sam’s faith in God had been shattered by the realities of a world gone mad.

Eventually, in the aftermath of World War 2, Sam made his way to America and began to work as an assistant rabbi at a Synagogue in Rhode Island.  But, he had tremendous conflict in his heart.  He could not understand how God could have allowed the massive devastation of the Holocaust.  Frankly, he no longer believed in Judaism, he had lost faith in mankind, and was not sure what he believed about God.

One day, a few years later, Sam met a Christian missionary who gave him a copy of the New Testament in Yiddish.  This missionary also connected Sam with a Jewish Christian.  They met together for a while and discussed life and religion.  Eventually, this man told Sam about a poem called “The Sufferer.”  Here is part of it…

            For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

            And like a root out of parched ground;

            He has no stately form or majesty

            That we should look upon Him,

            Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

            He was despised and forsake of men,

            A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

            And like one from whom men hide their face

            He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

            Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

            And our sorrows He carried;

            Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

            Smitten of God, and afflicted.

            But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

            He was crushed for our iniquities;

            The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

            And by His scourging we are healed.

            All of us like sheep have gone astray,

            Each of us has turned to his own way;

            But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all

            To fall on Him.

           

Some of you may recognize this poem.  It is a portion of the 53^rd chapter of the book of Isaiah.  Sam, however, did not recognize it as coming from the Hebrew Scriptures.  His Christian friend asked him who he thought the subject of the poem was, who suffered for our sins, and by whose scourging, or stripes, we were healed.  Sam responded that the poem was probably referring to Jesus.  Imagine Sam’s shock when he was informed that the poem was actually just Isaiah 53:2-12, out of his own beloved Scriptures.  His friend had copied it onto a piece of paper, and read it to him.  Sam went to his Hebrew Bible, and sure enough, there it was. 

Indeed, Sam was correct about the referrant of Isaiah’s prophecy.  We know without question that the servant is Jesus.  In Acts 8 Philip, one of the seven deacons of the early church, encountered an Ethiopian eunuch traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.  This man was reading from the scroll of Isaiah, specifically verses 7 and 8 of chapter 53.  He asked Philip who Isaiah was referring to.  Philip’s response was to preach Jesus to this man, resulting in his conversion.

Sam placed his faith and trust in Christ soon after his experience with Isaiah 53.  It may surprise you that a Jewish Rabbi, trained in the precepts of Judaism, would be so unknowledgable with a passage out of his own Bible.  But, there is a very good reason why Sam was not familiar enough with Isaiah 53 to recognize it when it was read to him.  Every year the Rabbis in Jewish Synagogues adhere to a Bible reading schedule for each Sabbath that has been in place since the middle ages.  But, something curious happens in the middle of August each year.  The reading schedule stops one week at Isaiah 52:12 and picks up the next week at Isaiah 54:1.  If you ask a Rabbi why this is, he will probably answer that it is simply because they cannot read every passage of the Bible in their weekly readings.

However, I think there is a deeper reason.  I think that the real reason is because it is impossible to read Isaiah 53 and not come away with an image of Jesus in your mind, assuming you know even a little bit of what happened to Him in 32 AD.  The Old Testament has hundreds of Messianic prophecies and allusions.  Four of them are the servant songs of Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and this one in chapters 52 and 53.  That final prophecy, extending from Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12 is, I think, the greatest of them all.  It is the Everest of Old Testament Messianic prophecy.  It is the climax, or the peak of the grandeur that God has revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures about Christ.  And, in fact, no passage of Scripture has been more instrumental than Isaiah 53 in bringing Jews to faith in Jesus.  Sam Stern is only one of many Jews who, when confronted with the explicit description of Jesus in Isaiah, were forced to confront their own preconceived notions that had been given to them by an orthodox Jewish rabbinical system that vehemently denies that Jesus was and is their Messiah.

In light of all this, I think it is entirely appropriate and fitting that, as we approach Christmas next week, we take some time to linger over the glorious truth revealed in this precious text.  You see, although it is fitting and proper that we focus upon the birth of Christ during the Christmas holiday, it is also entirely appropriate to fix our gaze upon the breadth of His messianic ministry, including His atoning sacrifice upon a Roman cross.  If our understanding of Jesus is limited to His time as a human baby, then we do not even know enough to experience genuine Christian salvation, let alone to begin to appreciate the Lord Jesus’s amazing sacrifice for us.  That being said, the servant song of Isaiah 53 is a long passage.  To plumb its depths would be the work of multiple sermons.  So, I would like to focus on only a small portion of the entire prophecy.  Specifically, I want to dig into the last three verses of Isaiah 52 as well as the first verse of chapter 53.  This section serves as a sort of prologue to the servant song in the rest of chapter 53.  In these verses we see Christ’s stunning exaltation, His horrific disfigurement, and His work of purification.  These three elements are followed by Isaiah’s admission of the inexplicability of the message he is conveying.

The prophet begins in verse 13: Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.  Notice the repeated emphasis here.  Isaiah uses four distinct words in Hebrew to explain just how magnificent would be the servant’s glorification.  He says that the servant will prosper, He will be high, He will be lifted up, and He will be greatly exalted.  Now, as you might imagine these four words have similar meanings in Hebrew.  They are essentially synonyms.  There is some variation and nuance among them, to be sure, yet there is a harmony of meaning as well. 

Prosper has the idea of both success in one’s endeavors as well as an increase of understanding and comprehension.  High is literally to be elevated physically, on a platform or a mountain perhaps.  Lifted up has a slightly different emphasis, in that it is to be lifted up by another or carried.  And, greatly exalted, in contrast to high, is to be elevated in one’s own nature.

The question we should ask is why.  Why does Isaiah pile up all these synonyms one after another?  I think his purpose is to emphasize the greatness of God’s Servant.  Isaiah wants us to be very clear that this Servant will be elevated to the highest position possible, His status will exceed the rank of all others, and His glory will outshine the world itself.

And now things begin to get very strange indeed.  The transcendent exaltation of the Servant in verse 13 is only matched by His stunning humiliation in verse 14: Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.  To get at the meaning behind this verse we need to dig into a little bit of Israel’s historical interaction with God.  Two passages will help us here.  In Deuteronomy 7:7, Moses wrote to his countrymen: “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.”  The Hebrew nation did not start out as a strong and vibrant people.  They were the least of all families of the earth.  God deliberately chose the weakest among the tribes of man to set His favor upon.

It gets even more graphic in Ezekiel 16.  In verses 4 to 6, in addressing the Jews, God says: “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.  No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you.  Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.  When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’  Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’”

Do you see the horrific picture God is painting?  He describes Israel as essentially an ancient abortion.  In those days, there were no medical procedures to surgically murder a child in the womb of its mother.  So, if a baby was unwanted, the mother would come to term and deliver.  Then, the parents would take the newborn out into the woods, a field, or anywhere else that was remote and away from civilization.  They would leave the little one there to die.  That is exactly the picture God is giving of Israel when He chose them.  They were like a newborn.  Their umbilical cord was not cut.  They had not been washed with water to cleanse their skin or rubbed with salt as an antiseptic.  They were not even given any clothes.  They were unwanted, unloved, and abandoned in a field, squirming in the blood of their birth.

Now then, look again at the first line of Isaiah 52:14.  God says, of His Servant, that people would be astonished at Him just as they had been of Israel.  Actually, I think the New English Translation of the Bible is much better here: just as many were horrified by the sight of you.  That carries the force of meaning implied in this verse.  But, in the case of the Servant, what is it they would be horrified by?  They would be appalled at His appearance.  The Servant’s looks would be marred, or disfigured more than any other man.  Just how bad would His appearance be distorted?  We can tell by the force of the people’s reaction.  One commentary says it this way: “The Servant’s sufferings brought such a disfigurement that those who saw said not only, ‘Is this he?’ but ‘Is this human?’”

Now, before we go on, we need to stop and consider just how ridiculous this is.  We need to take off our evangelical, Christianized, Americanized glasses for a minute.  We who have perhaps been raised on stories of Christ along with our mother’s milk.  We who might take the truth of the gospel for granted.  Look at what the prophet is saying here.  It does not make any sense whatsoever.  First, he writes that God’s servant will be exalted.  He will be glorified to such an extreme level that Isaiah needed to say it four separate ways, with four different Hebrew synonyms.  But then, with his next breath, Isaiah turns around and says that this same Servant will be so horribly and brutally mutilated that He will not even look human anymore. 

In what obscure and bizarre universe does this sound plausible?  Is it any wonder that the first century Jews were completely confused and off base with their expectations of the Messiah?  I think sometimes we like to pile on the Jews, talking about how ignorant they were.  But honestly, would we be any different, short of supernatural revelation, with the ridiculous insanity of a Messianic prophecy like this one?

And, to top it off, Isaiah then writes, with the first line of verse 15: Thus He will sprinkle many nations.  The Israelites were quite familiar with this phrase.  Their Levitical sacrifical system under the Mosaic Law included copious amounts of blood.  The blood of sacrificed animals splashed as their throats were cut, the life blood of the animal overflowed the surface of the altar, poured down, and collected at the base.  The priests dipped branches of hyssop in the blood and sprinkled objects with it to consecrate them.  In many ways, ancient Judaism was a religion of blood.

The most prominent example of this was on the singular Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur in Hebrew, that occurred once each year.  On this special day, the high priest would take the blood of a sacrificial goat, dip his hyssop branch in it, and the enter the holy of holies inside the tent of meeting of the Tabernacle or Temple.  He would take the hyssop and use it to sprinkle the mercy seat, the cover that sat on top of the Ark of the Covenant and upon which the presence of God Himself rested in the midst of the people.  It was this blood, the blood of an innocent, spotless sacrifice that consecrated the mercy seat and provided atonement for the sins of the people.  Were it not for this sprinkling of blood, the holiness of God would engulf the people and destroy them because of their wicked natures and actions.

So, the Jews who read Isaiah knew exactly what he was talking about when he wrote that through these means the Servant would sprinkle the people.  In some incomprehensible way, the Servant’s exaltation and His humiliation together would provide an atonement, or a propitiation, for sins.  Furthermore, it was not only the Jews who could expect to be covered under this blood.  The Servant would sprinkle “many nations” with His blood. 

Again, I realize we who live after the advent of Christ in the 1^st century can see, with the benefit of hindsight, exactly what this means and how it played itself out.  We know that God’s Servant was God Himself, in the flesh, born as a Jewish man named Jesus in the first century.  We know that this man, Jesus, lived a sinless life and was perfect in every way that none of us is capable of.  We know that He went willingly to a horrific death on a Roman cross to pay the penalty for all of us.  We know that God, in His infinite holiness, demands such a payment of death as recompense for our terrible slandering of His character, that we produce just by merely existing in our sinfulness.  We know that placing our faith and trust in Christ, accepting the free gift of salvation, reconciles us to our Creator and guarantees us eternal life spent in His presence, basking in the warmth of His love and being eternally awestruck by the magnificence of His splendor.  Those of us who are Christians know all of this, and perhaps sometimes we take it for granted.  However, do not overlook how difficult it would have been for the Jews to make heads or tails out of this prophecy.  And, do not overlook how perplexing the message of the gospel continues to be, to the mind of sinful man.

In fact, I think Isaiah alluded to the difficulty of his message with what he wrote next: Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him.  Picture a king, sitting upon his throne.  Perhaps it is King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2, sitting in pomp and circumstance.  He is steaming with anger, because none of his so-called wise men, enchanters, and astrologers can tell him what his dream was, nor what it meant.  In walks a young Hebrew boy.  This upstart lad proceeds to unfold with exacting precision and clarity the very images in the king’s mind, that no one else had been privy to.  As Daniel speaks, I can imagine Nebuchadnezzar’s jaw slowly dropping in amazement, along with probably his entire court.  And then, perhaps, when he realizes his mouth is hanging open, he snaps it shut in surprise.  I think that is the image here.

But notice why Isaiah says that the kings will react in this way: for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.  Unlike Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar, people will not come to an understanding through the words of men.  The only way they will perceive the truth of the Servant is via things not even explained to them.  The explanation of humans, no matter how educated and sophisticated they are, will be incapable of providing illumination to the mind such that comprehension dawns.  In other words, Isaiah writes, his message about the Servant is so inexplicable that it cannot be understood.

I think that is exactly why the prophet wrote the first verse of chapter 53.  I think it serves as a hinge between the prologue of the Servant, here at the end of chapter 52, and the more detailed description of Him in the next chapter.  Verse 1 reads: Who has believed our message?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  The implied answer?  No one has believed the message.  To no one has the arm of the LORD been revealed.

God is so serious about helping us to see how confusing the message of the gospel is that He made it a central theme of the entire gospel of John.  In John 12:37, after Jesus had done countless incredible miracles right in the midst of the people, we find that: though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.  Lest we think this was an accident, and the people’s unbelief took God by surprise, look at the very next thing John wrote.  He quoted this same verse, Isaiah 53:1.  John 12:38 makes it clear: This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, who has believed our report?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”  Paul echoes his fellow Apostle John in Romans 10:16 by quoting Isaiah 53:1 yet again.

This response of hardhearted disbelief was not new to the prophet Isaiah.  In fact, it is by design.  Right from the beginning, God had revealed to him what the outcome of his ministry would be.  In Isaiah 6:9-10 God revealed the future to His prophet: “Go, and tell this people: Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.  Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.”

The Lord is so serious about making sure we understand this point that these verses are quoted in every gospel (Mt. 13:14-15, Mk. 4:12, Lk. 8:10, Jn. 12:40) as well as Acts (28:26-27) and Romans (11:8).  All of these verses point to the inability, short of grace, for Israel to believe in Christ.  But, this is not a condition exclusive to Jews.  We Gentiles share this racial inability to believe.

This is exactly why Paul described the gospel as utter folly when he wrote to the Corinthians.  1^st Corinthians 1:18-19 tells us: the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”  Again in verse 27: but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.  Why does He do this?  1^st Corinthians 1:29-30 gives us our answer: so that no man may boast before God.  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.

Now then, I have been hammering on this for several minutes now.  What is my point?  Am I trying to drive you to depression the week before Christmas?  No, not at all.  What I seek, and what I think Isaiah hoped for, was that through understanding the truth, that only God can open the eyes of the blind and make them see, we will enter into Christmas week by worshiping our Savior in gratitude not only for what He has done for us. 

But also, I believe we ought to be humbled as we realize that we do not deserve to be saved and we did not believe in Christ because of our own intelligence.  In fact, left to our own devices, we would reject Christ every single time, just like the Jews did.  I am convinced that, once we come to truly understand this, then we will burst with joy inexpressible for the wondrous revelation of Christ that God opened our minds to when He removed the scales of spiritual blindness from our eyes. 

I think if we embrace this doctrine then we will overflow with thankfulness, as David did in Psalm 138:1-3, a powerful prayer of thanksgiving: I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You before the gods.  I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.  On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul. 

The natural result of such appreciation should be amazement and wonder, as Paul expressed in Romans 11:33-36, one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  For who has known the mind of the LORD, or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever.  Amen.

Will you be thankful and worship the Lord for His priceless gift of salvation this Christmas?  If you have never known the riches of God’s grace and mercy, will you turn now to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and repentance?