What does Tribe teach about isaiah 9?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on Isaiah 9 starts with a challenge to read the passage the way it was actually written, not the way Christmas cards have flattened it. Brian Hunter has walked the congregation through this text multiple times, each time asking them to hold three questions at once for every verse: has this already been fulfilled, is it being fulfilled right now, or does it still point to something coming? That framework, he argues, is the most honest way to read prophetic writing, and Isaiah 9 rewards all three lenses.
Brian draws the congregation's attention to the shape of the passage itself. Verses one through five are full of battle language, liberation, the breaking of an oppressor's rod, a harvest after long darkness. Anyone reading those lines, including Jewish readers today, would expect the champion who shows up to be a warrior. The regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, dismissed territories in Jesus' day, are exactly where Jesus came from, and the Pharisees in John 7:52 apparently missed Isaiah 9:1 entirely while interrogating the very person it described. The irony, Brian points out, is built into the text. Then verse six lands like a record scratch: the champion arrives as a child. The gap between what the world expects a liberator to look like and what actually showed up is not a disappointment in the text. It is the point.
The teaching also pushes back on reading the governmental language in verse six as purely symbolic. Brian has argued that the government resting on Jesus's shoulders is not only a spiritual metaphor but points to a literal future reign on earth. He frames the light-and-darkness imagery the same way, past, present, and future at once. On the question of spiritual blindness specifically, Brian says, "For anyone that has not surrendered their life to Jesus, the most compassionate thing I can tell you is that you are blind, and you don't even know it." That is not meant as condemnation. The remedy is the same passage: "Right in the midst of your greatest, deepest darkness, God the Father, out of his great love, says that is right where I want to put my light."
Taught from Isaiah 9:1-7 · John 7:52 · Philippians 4:19
The passage taught · Isaiah 9:1-7
1 But there shall be no more gloom for her who 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 he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder.
4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- December 14, 2025 Born Champion A Jackson Hole pastor explores Isaiah 9 at Christmas, asking what it means that God answered the world's cry for a champion by sending a baby.
- December 23, 2024 A Government That Will Never End Brian Hunter walks through Isaiah 9 verse by verse, asking whether each prophecy is past, present, or still coming, and why it matters this Christmas.
- December 22, 2024 Fuel for the Fire Brian Hunter walks through Isaiah 9:1-7 verse by verse, asking whether each line points to something already fulfilled, unfolding now, or still coming when Jesus returns.