Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, December 20, 2012 Read – Isaiah 9:1-7 & Isaiah 11:1-9 We have now moved fully into the season of Advent. We have also come to the end of the Old Testament story we have been following over the past months. Of course the story didn’t end with Ezra and Nehemiah, some 400 years or so before the birth of Jesus. It would be important for us to hear that story at some time, perhaps at a later date, but we would have to move outside of the Bible to hear that story. In the last few days before the celebration of Christmas we are going to listen to three Old Testament prophets who longed for the coming of the Messiah. As we listen to their words, may our hearts be filled with longing for the coming of Jesus anew in our hearts this Christmas! Today we listen to the prophet Isaiah. The whole book of Isaiah is a powerful view forward to the coming day when God’s reign will come to full expression. To be sure there are words of judgment in the book of Isaiah, but there are also powerful words of hope. In our two reading for today we hear Isaiah at his best. First is the hope of light coming to the darkness of this world. Isaiah knew that darkness – so do we even though we live after the coming of the light of Jesus. The birth of any child brings hope – and so that is the image that Isaiah uses to long for the birth of one who would bring God’s rule into reality. As we hear his words we hear the story of the birth of Jesus – the child given to us – the Son of God. In an even bolder way, Isaiah envisions the coming of one who will undo all of the harm and chaos caused by the fall of humanity in the story of Adam and Eve. Can you imagine a day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together, when a child can play with a poisonous serpent and not be harmed? What Isaiah longs for is nothing short of a new creation! Isaiah knows that the author of that new creation will be a shoot from the stump of Jesse – a descendant of David. This vision of Isaiah is a clear expression of the longing for the Messiah. We believe that the Messiah Isaiah longed for came in Jesus – yet the longing for the full restoration of God’s creation awaits us still. And so we share Isaiah’s hope and Isaiah’s longing.