Reading: Isaiah 9:1-2 (NRSV)
Song: Hope of the Ages (lyrics here)
Reflection
For this week, we will be looking each day at a person or group that plays a key part in the Christmas story. Today we consider the Old Testament prophets who foresaw the coming Messiah.
There are few things I enjoy more during the Advent season than a lessons and carols service, especially one that takes its time telling the full Christmas story from the whole scope of scripture. To hear the prophetic words (starting, really, with Genesis 3:15) echo through Israel’s history as they foretell the coming of the Messiah, then to hear those promises fulfilled with the incarnation, is uniquely powerful.
There is something we often fail to take into account when we hear those Old Testament prophecies, though. We usually listen to them while seated in a beautifully decorated sanctuary, with calming candlelight and the familiar trappings of the season to put us in a meditative and reflective mood. What we forget is that the prophecies we hear were not written in peaceful situations or soothing environments. The words of Isaiah, for example, are written to a nation that had turned its back on Yahweh, and while there are words of great comfort there are also warnings of dire judgment. Micah may have foreseen that the Messiah would be born in the city of Bethlehem, but he also saw destruction coming for the city of Jerusalem. Malachi (whose name, interestingly, means “messenger”) predicted the messenger who would precede the Messiah, but like the one he envisioned Malachi, too, had to deliver a warning that God’s people had wandered from the Lord’s ways.
The prophets saw the coming of God’s salvation, but the circumstances in which they ministered were often oppressive and disheartening. We have the hindsight provided by the Christmas story, but for the prophets the promises were taken on pure faith and trust in God’s plan to deliver and restore, even when the evidence before their eyes spoke otherwise. That’s what prophecy does: it stares into the darkness of human experience and dares to declare that God is working out his purposes even then. And the Christmas story shows that those purposes are greater and more glorious than we can even imagine.
As we seek to enter fully into the Advent journey, may we take heart in knowing that the prophets spoke of hope even when hope seemed completely out of reach. As they held on to the promises of God, may we do the same in these difficult times.
The vision once clouded has now to our hearts appeared
Once shrouded in myst’ry, redemption has been made clear
Our Messiah now has come
Word made Flesh, the saving One
Do you struggle to hold on to hope in the midst of trying circumstances? Spend time with the promises of the Old Testament prophets: consider the times in which they were written, and find the trustworthiness of God reflected in them. Here are some additional prophecies to sit with prayerfully: