The text read from Isaiah today delivers an inspiring promise of hope to a dispirited people. This poem was probably composed at the beginning of a series of disastrous political and military moves that took Judah from one precarious position to another. About 733 B.C. the northern tribes were invaded and any remnant of a northern kingdom was destroyed. With a sense of horror and foreboding, the southern kingdom of Judah watched as borders were breached and identities consumed. It is in response to this first true invasion that Isaiah composed these words of future hope and deliverance. It is against the "darkness" of this experience that Isaiah foresees "a great light."

Note that the voice of this poem is in the past tense, as though these events have already taken place. As a prophet, I…