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A lot of the time when we read the Bible, we fail to understand what was happening in the lives of the people as we read. We often focus on the difficulties of our day and miss that there were difficult days back then as well. When Isaiah announces the birth of Jesus in chapter nine, the Land of Judah was devastated, the people were being taken from their land, and things were pretty gloomy. We look around sometimes and think, “can things get any worse?” When we carry that mindset into reading God’s Word, we take the chance of missing out in understanding the need of hope that existed in the world before Jesus was born. We stand nearly 2,000 years after the life and death of Jesus and we struggle with hope as well. I cannot imagine how gloomy it would be without knowing from the past that Jesus has already defeated the grave and purchased us with His blood. God did some amazing things and faith in Him was still a needed component to following Him, “but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Eph 2:4-5) The arrival of Jesus is the reason for our hope, but that is because we know that has happened. These Israelites needed hope and Jesus was that hope. In Isaiah 9:2, Isaiah uses the “prophetic present” tense by saying, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Have seen is the “prophetic present” tense because a future event was said with such certainty that it was communicated in past tense. These people were getting a promise that a great light would change their darkness. This promise is like a believer’s hope in the second coming of Jesus. They had the promise from God. Today, we have the promise from God, and the victory won for us on the cross by Jesus. The promised light would change everything. Knowing the promised light has come should change everything for us. This Christmas season do not hide the light of Jesus Christ inside you…let it shine for the world to see. We have the hope that the world needs