Anticipation lifts the heart. Desire is created to be fulfilled - perhaps not all at once, more likely in slow stages. Isaiah uttered his prophetic words about the renewal of the natural Creation into a wilderness of spiritual barrenness and thirst. For him, and for many other Old Testament seers, the vacuum of dry indifference into which he spoke was not yet a place of fulfillment. Yet the promise of God through this human mouthpiece (and the word "promise" always holds a kind of certainty) was verdant with hope, a kind of greenness and glory. A softening of hard-heartedness, a lively expectation, would herald the coming of Messiah. And once again, in this season of Advent, the same promise for the same Anointed One is coming closer. .Luci Shaw
About This Quote
In the Bible, there is a story of a man named Isaiah who has a dream that mentions a "wilderness" that God would renew. This is interesting because today we would say that this wilderness would include anything that needed renewal, like your car or computer. A lot of things go wrong with these things, but they are still able to function even though they may not be completely perfect anymore. However, it was more than just the things in the wilderness that were renewed. The wilderness itself was also renewed.
It was no longer barren and dry, it was filled with green trees and plants. And the people in this new wilderness were different as well. They had hope and expectation for something new to come.
It's easy to feel like this is something that we can't accomplish on our own or that we need help to accomplish it, but Isaiah knew that it is possible to be hopeful and expect something new to come even if you can't see it yet. The book of Isaiah talks about many different things throughout the book, mostly about its main character (who was called by God to write it) and his experience with King Ahaz (who was the king at the time). However, there are also some verses about God's word coming true throughout history; for example, saying that the Israelites would be brought back home from exile after they left Egypt (which happened in around 1400 BC), and that Jesus would die for people's sins (which happened around 33 AD). The reason why I chose this quote is because I think it shows how God's word has come true in many different areas of life throughout history. It's easy for us to focus on all sorts of other stuff during Advent season so I thought through my whole Advent season blog I might as well include some quotes from this book as well.
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