Note from Celeste:
Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Advent Bible Study books.
Getting Ready for Christmas is part of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series, available in paperback and ebook.
The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:
- Scripture passage (World English Bible)
- Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
- Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.
Like an Advent calendar, Getting Ready for Christmas begins on December 1 and ends December 25. However, these 25 devotionals focusing on the Messiah can be used any time of year.
Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the dinner table.
Order Getting Ready for Christmas today to prepare your family for this year’s Christmas season!
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Kindle book of Getting Ready for Christmas.
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Paperback of Getting Ready for Christmas.
And here’s the link to its puzzle companion book: Getting Ready for Christmas Word Search Puzzles for Advent.
It’s a large-print puzzle book with over 1,200 hidden words taken straight from the same 25 Scripture readings. (30 puzzles in all.)
If you’re not in the U.S., you can still order the books from your country’s amazon platform. Simply search for “Getting Ready for Christmas” by Celesta Letchworth.
Thank you for your consideration! And thank you for faithfully following Tom’s SOAR blog!
AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 12:2-6
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM
OBSERVE:
It is important to remember that Isaiah is prophesying in a time of peril and uncertainty.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel has fallen in 722 B.C. at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. The Southern Kingdom of Judah, where Jerusalem is ruled by a descendant of David, is still intact but it is under constant threat from the Assyrians and other surrounding nations.
Moreover, Isaiah and the other prophets are frequently critics of their own culture, which has become morally lax and religiously faddish. Isaiah perceives a drift among his people away from their God.
So, the context of this particular passage is embedded among passages that warn of God’s judgment that will be carried out by the Assyrians whom the Lord calls:
. . . the rod of my anger—
the club in their hands is my fury!
Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him (Isaiah 10:5-6) . . .
But in our current passage, Isaiah has received an oracle that is part of a longer message of hope and promise to God’s people. The message is that despite their rebellion and its consequences, the Lord will save a remnant.
The phrase on that day is repeated several times preceding our current Scripture, and usually refers in Isaiah to a day of judgment or of redemption that is to come.
Here, that day is a word of hope. Isaiah describes a time when the people of God will testify that they have no other source of salvation but God:
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
The message is clear — the people of God need not be afraid because God is with them.
Isaiah uses a metaphor that certainly would have spoken to a people living in a dry land that was subject to drought:
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Salvation is compared to deep waters that give life and refreshment.
The appropriate response to this salvation is prayer and worship:
And you will say in that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
The community of faith is called upon not only to receive the gift of salvation, but to bear witness to that gift. This is a Biblical pattern — the recipient of salvation in turn shares that salvation with others.
A notable example is Psalm 51:12-13:
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
And it is notable, especially in Isaiah’s prophecies, that this gift of salvation is almost invariably available not only to Israel, but to all the nations (i.e., the Gentiles).
Though the Lord has revealed himself to Israel, Israel is called upon to be God’s ambassadors to the world concerning the salvation offered by God.
APPLY:
Like Isaiah, we also live in times of peril. Jihadists in the Middle-East slay Moslems, Christians, Jews and others, and proclaim a “caliphate.” Acts of terror make free citizens everywhere uneasy. Refugees stream away from their homes in the Middle-East, seeking sanctuary for their families from violence.
And this in the same geographical region to which Isaiah addresses many of his oracles! The places he mentions are still in the news today — Jerusalem, Damascus, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia. And some are the same regions under different names.
Here’s the point — our source of salvation today is the same as it was 2700 years ago. In this season of Advent, we are always reminded that:
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
RESPOND:
Years ago, following a horrible mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, the New York Daily News featured this headline: “God won’t fix this.” The headline was a provocative reaction to the political candidates who were offering their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the shooting and their families.
The editors seemed to be making the point that simply offering cliches wasn’t enough to stop the bloodshed. They were suggesting that human beings need to take responsibility for safety and security.
But what is misleading about the headline is the implication that God is somehow detached from our human problems, or is unable to do anything.
I believe that God has endowed human beings with free will. This freedom creates the possibility of complex, intricate interactions between human beings. Some of those interactions are negative, and some are even lethal. And innocent people are often hurt as a consequence of the bad will of others.
However, God has also promised that his ultimate will is our well-being — in a word, salvation. That is the theme of Advent — that despite edicts from far away despots that make refugees out of expectant mothers; and despite the ruthlessness of rulers whose political insecurity leads them to kill whole villages of children; despite all the San Bernardino massacres, or terror in Paris — despite all of this, God is our salvation, and God will fix all of this on that day.
Our Lord, sometimes I’m tempted to be very fearful in these uncertain times. And then your Word reassures me that you will bring good out of evil, and that you are my source of salvation. Thank you for that assurance, and the sense of peace that you provide. Amen.
PHOTOS:
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SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 