Hope in God
This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Juda and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains: it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Isaiah 2:1-2
The first Sunday in Advent we listened to a message from Isaiah 2. The exact reading included verses 1-5 in the chapter. Isaiah the prophet was called by God to urge the nation of Judah to return to Him in particularly troubling times and to trust in His promise of a coming Messiah.
Isaiah opens his book in chapter one with visions of judgement for Judah and Jerusalem. It is essentially God’s judgement for failing to remain faithful to Him. At the time of Isaiah’s story, the people of Judah really didn’t have a lot of reasons to be hopeful. Assyria was taking over the nation. Their dream of a united powerful kingdom lost, beaten down by warring and oppression.
Then we see Isaiah’s vision in chapter two. One that is very different from chapter one in that it urges the nation to see with a hopeful imagination that God is in control and while times seem dark, there will be deliverance into an existence where peace, love, and joy rule and indeed this is God’s hope for the world.
Often Advent is messaged as a time to prepare our hearts for the Christ child of Christmas morning. But in contemplating the words of Isaiah regarding the coming of the Messiah, might we also prepare our hearts for the time of Christ’s return? We know that Christ has indeed come into the world and His arrival ushered in the Kingdom of God – yet the world is still a hot mess. So much violence, social injustice, politics and wars dividing nations and families. All types of conflict confront our world. We all can relate to times when we engaged in conflict intent on being on the winning side.
It seems to me that this is a behavior we develop within ourselves. We’re not created to be in conflict. When we chose to pursue the mountain where God lives (verse 2,) we allow God to enable within the human spirit the tools necessary to carry out God’s instruction instead of focusing on the weapons that drive conflict between God’s people.
So, as we prepare our hearts for His coming, start with admitting that we too often have allowed our own pursuits for comfort, power, and safety get in the way of being messengers of God’s promise. May we instead lean into living the message of hope each day while we hold on to God’s vision of the second coming.
Father God, while we continue to hope in Your vision of the world streaming to Your house, help us to live daily at being the connection between scripture and living out the ways of justice and restoration for Your people. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.