Pastor Marvin Arnpriester

“I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” Isaiah 42:6b-7

So often we think of prison as a place of punishment for those who have done wrong in society.

Might it be something different? Might the author be describing people caught in the throes of despair over a situation that has paralyzed them into a prison of darkness from which they see no way out? Hope seems to evade them; the past has imprisoned them into a sense of helplessness, and they no longer have strength for desperation.

Grief has a way of sucking one into a prison of pain, a deep sense of loss and direction. It can cloud one’s life with a veil of darkness. Of course, there are other prisons of darkness we can add to this list.

I am convinced the author of Isaiah is calling us, people of faith, the church to be about finding ways to help people escape their prison of darkness.

May we continue to grow in sensitivity, listening skills, and awareness of others so we might be beacons of light and hope.