Robert Lewis Stevenson, best known for his adventure story
Treasure Island, was in poor health during much of his childhood and youth. One night his nurse found him with his nose pressed against the frosty pane of his bedroom window. "Child, come away from there. You'll catch your death of cold," she fussed.
But young Robert wouldn't budge. He sat, mesmerized, as he watched an old lamplighter slowly working his way through the black night, lighting each street lamp along his route. Pointing, Robert exclaimed, "See; look there; there's a man poking holes in the darkness."
There were no street lamps, cobblestone streets, or frosty windows in Isaiah's day, yet ancient Israel had its own kind of lamplighters who poked holes in the darkness. Isaiah sang:
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(
Isa. 52:7-8, NIV)
Isaiah wasn't writing about messengers or "lamp-lighters" in general. He was referring specifically to an incident that happened during King David's time as it was recorded in
chapter 18 of 2 Samuel. Hundreds of years later Isaiah's retelling of this event so captured the imagination of the apostle Paul that he wrote about it in
chapter 10 of Romans.
Israel was at war, civil war. As King David waited for news from the battlefield, a watchman went up on the roof to look for a sign of the army's situation. Far off in the mountains he saw a man running alone, and he quickly alerted the king. David said, "If he is alone, he is bringing good news." As the runner came closer, the watchman could see another man running alone off in the distance. Once again he called a report down to the others at the gate, and David said, "This one also is bringing good news."
When the watchman could see the runners more clearly he recognized the first one, and said "he runs like Ahimaaz." "He is a good man," said King David, "and he is bringing good news."
When Ahimaaz arrived he greeted the king, saying "All is well, praise the Lord your God who has given you victory over your enemies."
In those days, news was carried by runners. As the runners approached a city or town they could be seen off in the distance crossing the mountains. They would disappear from view as they ran down into the valleys, and reappear again as they climbed to the mountaintops. When Isaiah sang, "How beautiful upon the mountains ..." he was referring to the runner's approach. In the 2 Samuel story, the watchman knew Ahimaaz by the runner's gait; David knew him by his goodness. Ahimaaz lived up to his reputation and punched a hole in David's darkness with his words, "All is well."