This is a prophecy that Christ would come into the world in order to bring about a fall for Israel; and too, He would be a sign for the entire nation. He will be hated, despised, and rejected!
He will be a stone that many in Israel will stumble over (Isa. 8:14), and a snare and a trap for the people of Jerusalem. The population will even fall and "be snared and caught" by Him (v. 15). I have recently been teaching the book of John where there is a war going on between the leadership, the people, and Jesus, over who He is, and what He had come to do.
Even though Christ would be a Light He will still be rejected by the people. He was the "glory of the Lord" who would rise over Israel (60:1-3), though [spiritual] darkness "covered the earth" (v. 2). Unger sees this at the first coming of Christ but also projects it into the far future, the time of the tribulation. He writes:
"He will be Zion's splendor after her long, dark night of apostasy and punishment, … and the acme of wickedness of the Tribulation period. So terrible will be that moral and spiritual 'darkness' (Rev. 9:20-21), characterized by the rise of Antichrist and his wicked followers."
Unger adds:
"By the article in the Hebrew, "the darkness," and by the parallelism, "gross darkness" completely covering 'the earth' (not just Palestine) but the 'peoples' (focusing upon Israel but engulfing all the nations of the globe)."
In Luke 2:34 the word "appointed" is "keimai" meaning "to lay down, to be destined." As a Present Tense it can read: "He will be continually destined for the fall of many in Israel." The people will stumble over the Lord. In my Luke commentary I wrote: "Christ had come to divide people. While many would receive Him, many more would reject Him, and their hearts would reveal their lack of trust in God."
See also: Isa. 8:14-15; 49:6; 51:4; 60:1-3. -- Dr. Mal Couch (3/11)
